Quotes about time
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“How long does it have to go on? This punishment? Haven't I done time enough, haven't I served my term? can't I apply for a-pardon?”

Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Source: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Maybe this was one of those times when being a hero didn’t involve looking particularly brave. It was just doing what you should.”

Lev Grossman The Magician King

Source: The Magician King

“When considering marriage one should ask oneself this question; 'will I be able to talk with this person into old age?' Everything else is transitory, the most time is spent in conversation.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Marriage, Age, Question, Personality

“I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

People, Music

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Back To Work

“Be of good courage all is before you, and time passed in the difficult is never lost… What is required of us is that we live the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

Courage, Learning

“I’d a million times rather live and risk and have it all end badly than stay in the box I’ve been in for the past two years.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Past, Box

“Whoever it is you fall in love with for the first time, not just love but be in love with, is the one who will always make you angry, the one you can't be logical about.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

Source: The Passion

Love

“Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world… enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and space.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: Speeches And Letters Of Abraham Lincoln, 1832 1865

World, Art, Communication, Dead

“We routinely leave our small children in day care among strangers. At the same time, in our guilt we evince paranoia about strangers and foster fear in children.”

Thomas Harris book Hannibal

Source: Hannibal

Children, Fear

“Love is being honest with yourself at all times
being honest with the other person at all times
telling, listening, respecting the truth
and never pretending
Love is the source of reality”

Susan Polis Schutz (1944) American poet

Love, Truth, Reality, Personality

“They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there - and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: the Original Scroll

Money, Thinking, Sleep, Weather

“Don't be in such a hurry to condemn a person because he doesn't do what you do, or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Quoted by Maya Angelou (quote reproduced in James L. Conyers, Andrew P. Smallwood, Malcolm X: A Historical Reader, Carolina Academic Press, 2008, p. 181 and Elaine Slivinski Lisandrelli, Maya Angelou: More than a poet, Enslow Publishers, 1996, p. 90)
Attributed

Thinking, Personality

“Poetry is a way of looking at the world for the first time.”

W.S. Merwin (1927–2019) American poet

World, Way

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Life, World, Smile, Hope

“This time it had been magic. And it didn't stop being magic just because you found out how it was done.”

Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men

Source: The Wee Free Men

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

Women, World, Thinking

“There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Life, Boy, Rage

“Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"”

Robert Browning Rabbi ben Ezra

Source: Dramatis Personae (1864), Rabbi Ben Ezra, Line 1.
Context: Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"

God, Youth

“Herodotus says, "Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects."”

Mark Twain book A Horse's Tale

Acknowledgements
Twain does not quote Herodotus here, he only sums up what he believes to have been Herodotus' approach to the writing of history. Nevertheless, this apocryphal statement is now often quoted as being the very words of Herodotus.
A Horse's Tale (1907)

“the way i see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up.”

Karen Hesse book Out of the Dust

Source: Out of the Dust

Money, Dreams, Hope, Way

“Don't." Clary raised a warning hand. "I'm not really in the mood right now."
"That's got to be the first time a girl's ever said that to me," Jace mused.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Girl, Mood

“When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Relationship

“But anyone with the time and the inclination can acquire technical proficiency. To achieve greatness, though, that requires artistry. That requires imagination and thoughtfulness…”

Christopher Paolini book Inheritance

Source: Inheritance

Imagination

“If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

God

“Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

People, Effort, Hurt

“Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

Source: The Tale of Despereaux

Love, Princess

“This is a photograph of me as I wish I looked all the time. Then I might have a chance of getting in Hollywood.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

Chance

“Subatomic particles do not exist but rather show 'tendencies to exist', and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show 'tendencies to occur'.”

Fritjof Capra book The Turning Point

Source: The Turning Point (1982), p. 82.
Source: The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism
Context: At the subatomic level, matter does not exist with certainty at definite places, but rather shows "tendencies to exist," and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show "tendencies to occur."

Way

“Punctuality is the thief of time”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Variant: Punctuality is the thief of time.

“I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have
thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape,
or time to act them in.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

Imagination, Revenge

“For you, a thousand times over.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

(2) - Hassan, Amir
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

“Sometimes I sits and thinks. Other times I sits and drinks, but mostly I just sits.”

Neal Cassady (1926–1968) American cultural figure of 1950s and 1960s

Source: First Third & Other Writings - Revised & Expanded Edition Together With A New Prologue

Drink, Thinking

“The thing is, I mean, there’s times when you look at the universe and you think, “What about me?” and you can just hear the universe replying, “Well, what about you?”

Terry Pratchett book Thief of Time

Source: Thief of Time

Thinking, Universe

“Maybe the only thing that hints at a sense of Time is rhythm; not the recurrent beats of the rhythm but the gap between two such beats, the gray gap between black beats: the Tender Interval.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

Source: Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle

Sense

“Well, I’m not kissing the mundane," said Jace. "I’d rather stay down here and rot."
"Forever?" said Simon. "Forever’s an awfully long time."
Jace raised his eyebrows. "I knew it," he said. "You want to kiss me, don’t you?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Kiss

“If you don't take it, I'm going to throw it away," Alex cheerfully retorted. "I don't want to know what time it is. I don't want to know what day it is or where I am. None of that matters.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

“to love means to realize there is a time to let the beloved one go”

Tony Parsons book Man and Boy

Source: Man and Boy

Love

“That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, 'Cant do is like Dont Care.' Neither of them have a home.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Home, Failure

“Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Variant: Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

Love, Cute, Heart Touching, Romantic

“In times like the present men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Second State of the Union address (1862)

Men

“What she felt was a lighthearted sort of compassion, almost like laughter. A swish of tender hilarity, getting the better of all her sores and hollows, for the time given.”

Alice Munro (1931) Canadian novelist

Laughter

“There's this man who lives in the sky, and he has ten things he doesn't want you to do, and you'll burn for a long time if you do them. But he loves you.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Love

“You know," Gabriel said, "there was a time I thought we could be friends, Will."

"There was a time I thought I was a ferret," Will said, "but that turned out to be the opium haze. Did you know it had that effect? Because I didn't.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“But in good time you'll see that sometimes what matters isn't what one gives but what one gives up.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

“Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.”

Orhan Pamuk book The Museum of Innocence

Source: The Museum of Innocence

“By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing.
And he vows his passion is,
Infinite, undying.
Lady make note of this --
One of you is lying.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Lying, Passion

“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is "timing"
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Way, Waiting, Patience

“When did you become a woman?"-Hatori
How dare you ask that after you have seen me naked so many times…"-Yuki
GASP! No it cant be! Yuki-kun, does that mean…" fan club girls
NO! He's my doctor…"Yuki”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 2

Girl

“At one and the same time, therefore, society is everything and society is nothing. Society is the most powerful concoction in the world and society has no existence whatsoever”

Virginia Woolf book Orlando: A Biography

Source: Orlando

World

“Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini's success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say "But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time."”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Time (17 May 1976); Reagan adviser Jude Wanniski has indicated http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/10-05-99.html that, in 1933, New Dealers as well as much of the world admired Mussolini’s success in avoiding the Great Depression <br class="br">1970s

Success, Training

“We're both thieves, Harvey Swick. I take time. You take lives. But in the end we're the same: both Thieves of Always.”

Clive Barker book The Thief of Always

Source: The Thief of Always

“In difficult times carry something beautiful in your heart.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

Beauty, Heart

“Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

“The world is the closed door. It is a barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.

Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but it is also their means of communication. … Every separation is a link.”

Simone Weil book Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

World, Way, Communication

“Nothing he said could change what I think of you. I've had my mind made up about you for a long time… and it's all good.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Thinking, Change

“When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100% of the time.”

Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)

Reality

“Jim said that bees won't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me.”

Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Bee

“You only have to have two loves in your life: for God, and for the person in front of you at any particular time.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Love, Life, God, Personality

“Wolves are not our brothers; they are not our subordinates, either. They are another nation, caught up just like us in the complex web of time and life.”

Henry Beston (1888–1968) American writer

Life

“You never know ahead of time what something's really going to be like.”

Katherine Paterson book Bridge to Terabithia

Source: Bridge to Terabithia

“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

“It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or time or fortune, but just yourself that kept things from you.”

Lillian Hellman (1905–1984) American dramatist and screenwriter

Sadness

“The three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space are: 1) Silence; 2) Books must be returned no later than the last date shown; and 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality.”

Terry Pratchett book Guards! Guards!

Source: Guards! Guards!

Books, Nature, Silence

“Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable.”

Ernest Cline book Ready Player One

Source: Ready Player One

Life

“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Funny, Cute, Back To Work

“I am not so gifted as at one time seemed likely.”

Virginia Woolf book The Waves

Source: The Waves

“What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure he that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and god-like reason to fust in us unused.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

God, Sleep

“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

Love, Truth

“Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Guy, Leadership

“I while yet a youth wrote in a quite large volume three books of magical things, which I calledin which whatever was then erroneous because of my curious youth, now, more cautious, I wish to retract by this recantation, for formerly I spent much time and goods on these vanities.”

Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) Magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, alchemist

Source: The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science

Books, Youth

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

"Of Power and Time"
Blue Pastures (1995)

People

“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Source: Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals/On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns

Way, Personality

“Overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)
Context: If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?