Confusing Proverbs

It may only be me (which, as we all know, means 'Of course, it is not only me') but I really do think that there are these proverbs put in primarily to confuse people. It is almost like two people with diametrically opposite views started firing proverbs at each other. AND, instead of organizing it in two separate 'isms', people put it all together higgledy-piggledy and peddled the whole thing as wisdom. You see, I was always a great believer in 'Haste makes waste'. Which accounts for why, whenever a job came my way, I kept looking on at it, like Jerome K Jerome, admiring the complexity of it. I mean like, if I did not make haste, a lot of times the need for doing the job goes away so I avoid a lot of wasted effort. (A lot of THAT happens in corporate life, let me tell you, with urgent humongous jobs being thrust on unwary subordinates only to be forgotten before the end of the day.) And if it does not, why then I bloody well have to get down to doing it in a hurry but, hey, I did not make haste after all so it is all good, isn't it? And then someone comes and screams at me for 'leaving everything to the eleventh hour'. Unfair, I tell you, and untrue as well since my general procedure is to leave things for the thirteenth hour. But, apparently, this is a bad thing because...well, mostly, these things end up on the basis of 'because everyone says so'. I'd like to meet up with this 'everyone' which invariably seems not to include me. Makes me feel quite a pariah, let me tell you, to find myself outside of this 'everyone' who says things that run contrary to my own inclinations and mess up my life. It is like I am the only guy who has no vote on what rules get made. (Funny thing is everyone I met feels the same way, so exactly who is this 'everyone' which seems to include no one?) Anyway, between 'haste makes waste' and 'not leaving everything to the eleventh hour', life is thoroughly mucked up. Which am I to believe in? If I do things fast, I am making haste; if I delay, I am leaving everything for the last minute. There seems no way to win. Someone said that this is a very digital way of looking at things. To not be hasty does not mean that you need to delay things till the last hour, apparently. And he threw in a third proverb the mix - 'Slow and steady wins the race'. Ah! Well! As if I needed any further help in getting confused. Me, I think it is only the way you present what you are doing that matters. I mean, if you said 'A stitch in time saves nine' instead of 'Haste makes waste', there you are, being wise and virtuous. And never say 'Leaving things to the eleventh hour'. You are only 'taking things deep'.