They do not break any engagement nor neglect any duty; but they systematically go about it too late, and usually too late by about the same fatal interval." Of Tours, the wealthy New Orleans ship-owner, it is said that he was as methodical and regular as a clock, and that his neighbors were in the habit of judging of the time of the day by his movements.
"How," asked a man of Sir Walter Raleigh, "do you accomplish so much and in so short a time ?" "When I have anything do, I go and do it," was the reply.

The man who always acts promptly, even if he makes occasional mistakes, will succeed when a procrastinator will fail--even if he have the better judgment.
When asked how he got through so much work, Lord Chesterfield replied: "Because I never put off till morrow what I can do to-day." Dewitt, pensionary of Holland, answered the same question: "Nothing is more easy; never do but one thing at a time, and never put off until to-morrow what can be done to-day." Walter Scott was a very punctual man.

This was the secret of his enormous achievements.

He made it a rule to answer all letters the day they were received.

He rose at five.