It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
I wish I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours.
—Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) Russian-born American Art Historian
Lost time is like a run in a stocking. It always gets worse.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
Be strong!|We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;|We have hard work to do and loads to lift;|Shun not the struggle — face it; ’tis God’s gift.
—Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858–1901) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Writer
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) Hong-Kong-born American Sportsperson, Actor, Philosopher, Film Director, Screenwriter
What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal.
—John Howe (b.1957) Canadian Artist
Simplicity is the glory of expression.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.
—Jim Bishop (1907–87) American Journalist, Author
Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Logician, Mathematician, Historian, Social Critic
Time is the wisest of all counselors.
—Plutarch (45–120) Ancient Greek Historian, Biographer, Essayist
We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
It is nonsense to say there is not enough time to be fully informed … Time given to thought is the greatest timesaver of all.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them—every day begin the task anew.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.
—Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832) English Angelic Priest, Writer, Collector
Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour.
—Stephen Leacock
Do all the good you can,|By all the means you can,|In all the ways you can,|In all the places you can,|At all the times you can,|To all the people you can,|As long as ever you can.
—John Wesley (1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian
Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.
—Sam Levenson (1911–80) American Humorist, Writer, TV Personality, Journalist
The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible today.
—Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educator, Academic
Time turns the old days to derision, our loves into corpses or wives; and marriage and death and division make barren our lives.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English Poet, Novelist
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political leader, Inventor, Diplomat, Author
People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Scientist, Critic, Writer
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
—Jack London
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) British Naturalist, Scientist
A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician
Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have long postponed.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we’re in the present, but we aren’t. The present we know is only a movie of the past.
—Thomas Wolfe
We create our fate every day … most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist, Painter
Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Writer
The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
This loving person is a person who abhors waste — waste of time, waste of human potential. How much time we waste. As if we were going to live forever.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
No one can be right all of the time, but it helps to be right most of the time.
—Robert Half
Everything passes, everything perishes, everything palls.
—French Proverb
Time is money, especially when you are talking to a lawyer or buying a commercial.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.
—Lin Yutang (1895–1976) Chinese Writer, Inventor
Time has a wonderful way of weeding out the trivial.
—Richard Sapir American Novelist
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
People who postpone happiness are like children who try chasing rainbows in an effort to find the pot of gold at the rainbow’s end… Your life will never be fulfilled until you are happy here and now.
—Ken Keyes, Jr. (1921–95) American Motivational Speaker, Author, Lecturer
A sense of the value of time … is an essential preliminary to efficient work; it is the only method of avoiding hurry.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
—Hector Berlioz (1803–69) French Composer
What do you want to get done? In what order of importance? Over what period of time? What is the time available? What is the best strategy for application of time to projects for the most effective results?
—Ted Engstrom (1916–2006) American Christian Religious Leader
An Italian philosopher said that “time was his estate” an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labors of industry, and generally satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to lie in waste by negligence, to be overrun with noxious plants, or laid out for show rather than for use.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away.
—Ben Hecht
Showing up is 80 percent of life.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Actor, Film Director, Screenwriter, Comedian
Not a day passes over the earth but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows. Of these obscure heroes, philosophers, and martyrs the greater part will never be known till that hour when many that were great shall be small, and the small great.
—Charles Reade
The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
—Mike Murdock
Nothing is to come, and nothing past: But an eternal now, does always last.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet
We are involved in a life that passes understanding: our highest business is our daily life.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Artist
Have a time and place for everything, and do everything in its time and place, and you will not only accomplish more, but have far more leisure than those who are always hurrying, as if vainly attempting to overtake time that had been lost.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.
—Chinese Proverb
What comes first, the compass or the clock? Before one can truly manage time (the clock), it is important to know where you are going, what your priorities and goals are, in which direction you are headed (the compass). Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what’s urgent, learn to focus on what is really important.
—Unknown
He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life. The orderly arrangement of his time is a like a ray of life which darts itself through all his occupations. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incident, chaos will soon reign.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Timely service, like timely gifts, is doubled in value.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Christian Author, Poet, Minister
A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours.
—J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) English Novelist, Playwright, Socialist
Ah! the clock is always slow; it is later than you think.
—Robert W. Service (1874–1958) Scottish Poet, Author
It is no easy thing for a principle to become a man’s own unless each day he maintains it and works it out in his life.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Time is a great healer, but a poor beautician.
—Lucille S. Harper American Freelance Writer
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Indian Hindu Polymath
All my possessions for a moment of time.
—Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) British Monarch
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
It is better to do the most trifling thing in the world than to regard half an hour as trifle.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
I am ready any time. Do not keep me waiting.
—John Mason Brown (1900–69) American Columnist, Journalist, Author
One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Every minute of life carries with it its miraculous value, and its face of eternal youth.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
—Cary Grant (1904–86) British-born American Actor
Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Indian Hindu Polymath
No man goes before his time — unless the boss leaves early.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
Time! suspend your flight. Propitious hours, suspend your course! Let us savour the swift delights of the most beautiful of our days.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Writer, Poet, Politician, Memoirist
Time is the product of changing realities, beings, existences.
—Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) Russian Christian Philosopher, Religious Leader
You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of un-manufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist
Most of us spend our lives as if we had another one in the bank.
—Unknown
Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour, the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps more interesting because of them.
—Robert R. Updegraff
Time is an avid gambler who has no need to cheat to win every time.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
It is familiarity with life that makes time speed quickly. When every day is a step in the unknown, as for children, the days are long with gathering of experience.
—George Gissing (1857–1903) English Novelist
Time is money says the proverb, but turn it around and you get a precious truth. Money is time.
—George Gissing (1857–1903) English Novelist
Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
In order to be utterly happy, the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
—Frank Zappa (1940–93) American Composer, Musician
I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Time is the one thing we possess. Our success depends upon the use of our time, and its by-product, the odd moment.
—Arthur Brisbane (1864–1936) American Journalist, Editor
An earnest purpose finds time, or makes it. It seizes on spare moments, and turns fragments to golden account.
—William Ellery Channing
To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
But at my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near.
—Andrew Marvell (1621–78) English Poet
We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until to-morrow. Keep going day in and out. Concentrate on something useful. Having decided to achieve a task, achieve it at all costs.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist
If you are not happy here and now, you never will be.
—Taisen Deshimaru (1914–82) Japanese Buddhist Teacher
A bamboo tree grows six inches in the first nineteen years and twenty feet in its twentieth year. The best time to plant a bamboo tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
—Chinese Proverb
Time is a part of eternity, and of the same piece with it.
—Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86) German Jewish Philosopher, Theologians
They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.
—Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
City people try to buy time as a rule, when they can, whereas country people are prepared to kill time, although both try to cherish in their mind’s eye the notion of a better life ahead.
—Edward Hoagland (b.1932) American Essayist, Novelist
Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political leader, Inventor, Diplomat, Author
So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) Hong-Kong-born American Sportsperson, Actor, Philosopher, Film Director, Screenwriter
Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Just as you would not permit a fellow employee to steal a piece of office equipment, you shouldn’t let anyone walk away with the time of his fellow managers.
—Andrew Grove (1936–2016) Hungarian-born American Businessperson
We live in deeds, not years:| In thoughts, not breaths;| In feelings, not in figures on a dial.| We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives| Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The chief duty I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Anything that is wasted effort represents wasted time. The best management of our time thus becomes linked inseparably with the best utilization of our efforts.
—Ted Engstrom (1916–2006) American Christian Religious Leader
You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political leader, Inventor, Diplomat, Author
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) Hong-Kong-born American Sportsperson, Actor, Philosopher, Film Director, Screenwriter
What we love to do we find time to do.
—John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) American Catholic Clergyman, Educator, Essayist, Biographer
Time and tide wait for no man. A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; but in our day of electric wires and water-ballast we turn it around: Man waits not for time nor tide.
—Common Proverb
If time be of all things most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political leader, Inventor, Diplomat, Author
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Flow in the living moment.—We are always in a process of becoming and nothing is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you’ll be flexible to change with the ever changing. Open yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the total openness of the living moment. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) Hong-Kong-born American Sportsperson, Actor, Philosopher, Film Director, Screenwriter
Make the most of today. Translate your good intentions into actual deeds. Know that you can do what ought to be done. Improve your plans. Keep a definite goal of achievement constantly in view. Realize that work well and worthily done makes life truly worth living.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Lost time is never found again.
—Common Proverb
Time is lost when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian
Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
There is a time and place for everything.
—Common Proverb
The geometry of landscape and situation seems to create its own systems of time, the sense of a dynamic element which is cinematizing the events of the canvas, translating a posture or ceremony into dynamic terms. The greatest movie of the 20th century is the Mona Lisa, just as the greatest novel is Gray’s Anatomy.
—J. G. Ballard (1930–2009) English Novelist, Short Story Writer
Life is growth-a challenge of environment. If we cannot meet our everyday surroundings with equanimity and pleasure and grow each day in some useful direction, then this splendid balance of cosmic forces which we call life is on the road toward misfortune, misery and destruction. Therefore, health is the most precious of all things.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
—Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French Sculptor, Artist