The more haste, worse speed.

The saying states a paradox: the harder a person hurries, the slower the overall result can be. Hurry produces slips, false starts and forgotten steps, and each one has to be put right before the work or journey can go on. ‘Worse speed’ is the overall result, how soon the thing is actually done, and the lesson is that a steady pace may be the faster way to finish.

Unlike a warning about waste, its measure is time itself: it does not say that hurrying spoils the work, only that it fails to make the work finish sooner. It applies where hurry causes errors or backtracking, and not where a task is simple and familiar enough to be done quickly and well. Nor is it an argument for delay; a steady pace still has to start and keep moving.

Its present-day currency is not established, but someone might say it to a person rushing out of the door, hurrying through a set of instructions or fumbling a task because they are trying to go too fast. It can work as a calm warning before the hurry causes trouble, or as a wry comment once it has, for instance when a rushed departure means going back for something forgotten. Said to someone under real time pressure, it may sound unhelpful unless it comes with a practical way to slow down.