Quotes about time
page 56

“In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

“On the plus side, if he ever had to fight through a roomful of adolescent girls, he only needed to blink (his velvet brown eyes framed in embarassingly long lashes) a few times, and they would all faint.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Girl, Fight

“We mistook violence for passion, indolence for leisure, and thought recklessness was freedom.”

Toni Morrison book The Bluest Eye

Source: The Bluest Eye

Freedom, Passion

“Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

Love, Passion

“"Poor Finnick. Is this the first time in your life you haven't looked pretty?" I say.
"It must be. The sensation's completely new. How have you managed it all these years?"”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Katniss and Finnick, p. 316
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2009)

Life

“In a whisper he began begging for—and, as the sun set, received—the concession people always beg for: a little more time.”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Unspecified edition, p. 398.
Source: On Beauty (2005)

People, Sun

“Only the strongest are put through the fire,' Josiah said. 'And the forge creates things of great strength and beauty.'
'Then I shall be truly glorious by the time my tenure ends.”

Sharon Shinn book Archangel

Source: Archangel

Beauty

“I wrestled futilely, then relaxed as a vine wrapped three times around my throat and squeezed.
Right," I choked out, and shut my eyes. "I'll wait here, then.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Thin Air

Waiting

“I froze, shocked. (And don't try to claim that you did anything different the first time a government bureaucrat pulled a gun on you.)”

Brandon Sanderson Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Source: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

“We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future.”

John Dewey book Experience and Education

Source: Experience and Education

Future

“The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:
"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Beauty

“I want to be that person for him, I want to be the one who keeps him going during this difficult time.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Personality

“I've been on a calendar, but never on time.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

“Even If you're doing the same thing over & over, U need to discover something new, fantastic & unbelievable that went unnoticed the time before.”

Paulo Coelho book The Winner Stands Alone

Source: The Winner Stands Alone

“Ugly people kill people all the time. But when pretty people did, it got attention.”

Chelsea Cain (1972) American journalist and writer

Source: Kill You Twice

People

“Almost all the time, you tell yourself you're loving somebody when you're just using them.
This only looks like love.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Love

“For there is nothing quite so terror-inducing as the loss of sleep. It creates phantoms and doubts, causes one to questions one's own abilities and judgement, and, over time, dismantles, from within, the body.”

Charlie Huston Sleepless

Source: Sleepless

Question, Sleep, Loss

“I choose to love this time for once
with all my intelligence

-from "Splittings”

Adrienne Rich book The Dream of a Common Language

Source: The Dream of a Common Language

Love, Intelligence

“God, as a loving Father, will stretch our souls at times. The soul is like a violin string: it makes music only when it is stretched…. God will tutor us by trying us because He loves us, not because of indifference!”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Love, God, Music, Soul

“The truth is, of course, that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Truth

“He leaned against the door frame, ignoring the kick of adrenaline the sight of her produced. He wondered why, not for the first time. Isabelle used her beauty like she used her whip, but Clary didn't know she was beautiful at all. Maybe that was why.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Beauty

“Believing the lie that time will heal all wounds is just a nice way of saying that time deadens us.”

Jonathan Nolan (1976) British-American screenwriter, television producer, director and author

Source: Memento mori

Lie, Way

“It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.”

Robert Benchley (1889–1945) American comedian

Quoted in Robert Benchley (1955) by Nathaniel Benchley, ch. 1

“Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

World, Way

“All time is unreedemable.”

T.S. Eliot book Four Quartets

Source: Four Quartets

“Raven! What are you doing up so late? You have school tomorrow!"…"But I thought it was just the one time?”

Ellen Schreiber book Vampire Kisses

Source: Vampire Kisses

School

“The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

On being told that his film Stalker should be faster and more dynamic by officials at Goskino.
Sculpting in Time (1989)

“I wonder if what makes a family a family isn't doing everything right all the time but, instead, giving a second chance to the people you love who do things wrong.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Love, People, Family, Chance

“All is love… All is love. With love comes understanding. With understanding comes patience. And then time stops. And everything is now.”

Brian L. Weiss

Love, Understanding, Patience

“I want to be with God all the time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what i want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights, but also devote myself to God.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

God, Pleasure, World, Learning

“If nature has made you a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart. And though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) English-American childrens' playwright and author

Nature, Heart

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”

Harvey Mackay (1932) American businessman and journalist

“Give me a few minutes.”
“You have time.” He sat in the grass.
“Are you just going to sit there and watch me?”
“Yes. Watching pretty peasant girls is what we poor little rich boys do best.”
“Peasant?”
He shrugged. “You started the name calling.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: On the Edge

Girl, Boy, Grass

“Some people see things that are and ask, Why?
Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?
Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that.”

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

Cf. Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921), Pt. I : In the Beginning: I hear you say "Why?" Always "Why?" You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
Books, Brain Droppings (1997)
Variant: Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that shit.

People, Dreams

“I've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Flowers, Waiting

“The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Wedding, Love, Life

“I have tried many times to express my feelings, but at each attempt, I find myself tongue-tied.”

Kate Cary book Bloodline

Source: Bloodline

Feeling

“Thousand Moments:
I still remember the day the world took you back & there was never time to thank you for the thousand scattered moments you left behind to watch us while we slept.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

World

“This is the unforgiving light of the morning, time to drop the illusion.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Light

“Like most modern people, I don't believe in prophecy or magic and then spend half my time practicing it.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent

People

“Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

Learning

“I get accused all the time of having a big
mouth. But if you ask me, guys gossip way more than girls do.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Queen of Babble in the Big City

Way, Guy, Girl

“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Deep, Dreams

“Logical thinking keeps you from wasting time worrying, or hoping. It prevents disappointment. Imagination, on the other hand, only gets you hyped up over things that will never realistically happen.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Hope, Disappointment, Imagination, Thinking

“It is the good children, Madame, who make the most terrible revolutionaries. They say nothing, they do not hide under the table, they eat only one sweet at a time, but later on, they make Society pay dearly for it!”

Jean Paul Sartre Dirty Hands

Jessica, Act 3, sc. 1
Dirty Hands (1948)

Children

“No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.”

Hannah Arendt book Eichmann in Jerusalem

Epilogue.
Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963)

Appearance

“Keys," she repeated, and slowly stepped back. "What do you mean, keys?"

"Car keys. As in, give them up. Now." Shane had that look -- hard, and no bullshit. "We don't have time for your drama, Monica. Nobody does.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Cars

“On Elsewhere we fool ourselves into thinking we know what will be just because we know the amount of time we have left. We know this, but we never really know what will be. We never know what will happen…”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

Fools, Thinking

“I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it's over, it's over.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son

People, Law

“Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Source: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential

“He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.”

Francisco de Quevedo (1584–1645) Spanish writer

Past, Future

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer

Variant: Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Source: The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith

For Team, Deep, Success, Inspirational

“Hopeless implies that at one time there was hope. And that's another word I don't understand. Hope only exists for people who have choices. [Zarek]”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

People, Hope, Understanding

“With the whole Mark of Cain thing, does that mean if I accidentally kick you during the night, I get kicked in the shins seven times by an invisible force?”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Night

“I have a theory that every time you make an important choice, the part of you left behind continues the other life you could have had.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Life, Parting

“The first time I saw him again, it was another year, at my college graduation. And I just knew.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

“Time ticks by; we grow older. Before we know it, too much time has passed and we've missed the chance to have had people hurt us. To a younger me this sounded like luck; to an older me this sounded like a quiet tragedy.”

Douglas Coupland book Life After God

Source: Life After God (1994)

People, Chance, Hurt

“I think we're made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you're left with less of yourself.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Thinking

“Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”

Dylan Thomas Fern Hill

St. 6
Variant: I sang in my chains like the sea
Source: Fern Hill (1946)

Sea

“I want life. I want to read it and write it and feel it and live it. I want, for as much of the time as possible in this blink-of-an-eye existence we have, to feel all that can be felt.”

Matt Haig book Reasons to Stay Alive

Source: Reasons to Stay Alive

Life, Feeling, Reading

“What was our life like? I almost don't remember now. Though I remember, the space of time it occupied. And I remember it fondly.”

Richard Ford The Sportswriter

Source: The Sportswriter

Life

“Not everything's perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It's when you feel it all the time and can't do anything about it… that's when you get into trouble”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Feeling, Perfection

“Books are always obviously having conversations with other books, and some times they're amiable and sometimes not.”

China Miéville book The City & the City

Source: The City & the City

Books

“Maybe this was what Aunt Peg meant all along - returning was a weird thing. You can never visit the same place twice. Each time, it's a different story. By the very act of coming back, you wipe our what came before.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Last Little Blue Envelope

“Relationships are never static. They have to evolve over time as the individuals in them change.”

Sherryl Woods (1944) American writer

Source: Driftwood Cottage

Change

“Everything is perfect on the street again, the world is permeated with roses of happiness all the time, but none of us know it. The happiness consists in realizing that it is all a great strange dream.”

Jack Kerouac book Lonesome Traveler

Source: Lonesome Traveler

World, Dreams, Perfection, Happiness

“Well, we can ride together for a while longer. The highway south is farther along this way. I'll be glad of some cheerful company."

"First time anyone's said that about me," Halt replied.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Lost Stories

Way

“So that is the design process or the creative process. Start with a problem, forget the problem, the problem reveals itself or the solution reveals itself and then you reevaulate it. This is what you are doing all the time.”

Paul Rand (1914–1996) American graphic designer

Problem, Forgetting

“I knew it like destiny, and at the same time, I knew it as choice.”

Jeanette Winterson book Lighthousekeeping

Source: Lighthousekeeping

“There are parts of Texas where a fly lives ten thousand years and a man can't die soon enough. Time gets strange there from too much sky, too many miles from crack to crease in the flat surface of the land.”

Katherine Dunn book Geek Love

Source: Geek Love

Parting, Flying

“It's like time travel only, you know, slower…”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Travel

“Oh no, is it naked time?”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

“But they wanted you. Time is not something you give back. The very next moment may be answer to your prayer. To deny that is to deny the most important part of the future.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Future, Parting

“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

Faith, God, Faith, Way

“Today, however, we are having a hard time living because we are so bent on outwitting death.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Ethics of Ambiguity

Source: The Ethics of Ambiguity

Death

“Every time I think that it’s not worth it – that the people in it deserve the misery of their lives – I come across someone who makes me rethink that.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

People, Thinking

“Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Courageous, Courage

“You love her. (Shanus)
I barely know her. (Wulf)
Time has no meaning to the heart. (Shanus)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

Love, Heart

“Time. I would have gone somewhere to buy time.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“Last night I walked clear down to Times Square & just as I arrived I suddenly realized I was a ghost - it was my ghost walking on the sidewalk.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Night

“There were dreams once upon a time, dreams now all but forgotten. On sad days I dust them off and fondle them nostalgically, with a patronizing wonder at the naivete of the youth who dreamed them.”

Glen Cook book The White Rose

Source: The White Rose (1985), Chapter 2, “The Plain of Fear” (p. 456)
Context: An old, tired man. That is what I am. What became of the old fire, drive, ambition? There were dreams once upon a time, dreams now all but forgotten. On sad days I dust them off and fondle them nostalgically, with a patronizing wonder at the naivete of the youth who dreamed them.

Youth, Sadness, Dreams

“Sometimes something catastrophic can occur in a split second that changes a person's life forever; other times one minor incident can lead to another and then another and another, eventually setting off just as big a change in a body's life.”

Jeannette Walls book Half Broke Horses

Source: Half Broke Horses

Life, Change, Personality

“The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

“That was the only decision there was once upon a time: what to do with the night.”

Harry Crews (1935–2012) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

Source: A Feast of Snakes

Decision, Night

“Who has time to make up stories when the truth is so much more interesting?”

Cecily von Ziegesar book It Had to Be You

Source: It Had to Be You

Truth

“Many young men started down a false path to their true destiny. Time and fortune usually set them aright.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Men, Falseness

“I urge you all today, especially today in these times of terrorism and chaos to love yourselves without reservation and to love each other without restraint. Unless you're into leather; then by all means, use restraints.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Tours and CDs, The Notorious C.H.O. Tour

Love

“This won't stop her from getting elected," Shane said. "Stupider people get elected all the time. It's America. We love the sleazy. And the crazy." "I would like to think better of us," Claire said, "but yeah. You're right.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Bitter Blood

Love, People, Stupidity, Thinking

“You don't have time, Len. That is the most bitter and the most beautiful piece of advice I can offer. If you don't have what you want now, you don't have what you want.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

Beauty

“Once a month, some women act like men act all the time.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Women, Men

“Hell […] is the absence of God and the presence of Time.”

Glen Duncan book I, Lucifer

Source: I, Lucifer

God, Hell

“The last good time always comes, and when you see the darkness creeping toward you, you hold on to what was bright and good. You hold on for dear life.”

Stephen King book Joyland

Source: Joyland

Life

“All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.”

Michael Crichton book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

Life, People

“It must be a great disappointment to God if we are not dazzled at least ten times a day.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Blue Horses

God, Disappointment

“And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Change, Personality

“The camera will never compete with the brush and palette until such time as photography can be taken to Heaven or Hell.”

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker

Hell

“Every time I learn the truth about something, I’m disappointed”

Chuck Klosterman Eating the Dinosaur

Source: Eating the Dinosaur

Truth, Disappointment, Learning

“It took teams of LEP warlocks to slow down time for a few hours; the magic required to open a door to the tunnel was stupendous. It would be easier to shoot down the moon.
Opal tapped this into her notepad.
Reminder. Shoot down the moon? Viable?”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Time Paradox

“They played at hearts as other children might play at ball; only, as it was really their two hearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy to catch them, each time, without hurting them.”

Gaston Leroux book The Phantom of the Opera

Source: The Phantom of the Opera

Children, Heart, Hurt

“Sausage-Seller: You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it's only in troublous times that you line your pockets.”

Aristophanés The Knights

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Kn.+864 ὅπερ γὰρ οἱ τὰς ἐγχέλεις θηρώμενοι πέπονθας. ὅταν μὲν ἡ λίμνη καταστῇ, λαμβάνουσιν οὐδέν· ἐὰν δ᾽ ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω τὸν βόρβορον κυκῶσιν, αἱροῦσι· καὶ σὺ λαμβάνεις, ἢν τὴν πόλιν ταράττῃς. Knights, line 864-867 Dialog aimed at the politician Cleon, symbolizing demagogues for the author. Knights (424 BC) Source: The Knights

Way, Fish, Water

Quotes about time page 56

Quotes about time
page 56