Quotes about time
page 60

“Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one.”

William Goldman book Adventures in the Screen Trade

Source: Adventures in the Screen Trade

Education, Personality

“Please remove your watch,' he said. 'In my domain time isn't a factor.”

Hanif Kureishi book The Buddha of Suburbia

Source: The Buddha of Suburbia

“It doesn't really matter what chords I play, what words I say or time of day it is, as it's only a Northern Song.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

“In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination

and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

World, Dreams, Angels, Imagination

“… this beginning motion, this first time when a sail truly filled and the boat took life and knifed across the lake under perfect control, this was so beautiful it stopped my breath…”

Gary Paulsen (1939) American writer and musher

Source: Caught by the Sea

Life, Beauty, Perfection

“The full cosmos consists of the physical stuffconsciousness. Take away consciousness and it's only dust; add consciousness and you get things, ideas, and time.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Source: Anathem

Idea

“Lover? I don't know. I don't know if she loves me. I don't know if I love her. All I can say is, she's the one I think about. All the time. She's the voice I want to hear. She's the face I hope to see.”

Sophie Kinsella book I've Got Your Number

Source: I've Got Your Number

Love, Hope, Lovers, Thinking

“Any time I’m not shooting my mouth off to a clichéd, two-bit creature of the night like you, it’s because I’m up to something.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

Source: Many Bloody Returns

Night

“Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.”

Lewis Hyde (1945) American writer

Source: Alcohol and Poetry: John Berryman and the Booze Talking

“Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself”

Baz Luhrmann (1962) Australian film director, screenwriter and producer

Jealousy

“I could have fixed almost everything else, but death defeated me every time.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Death

“.

There are times when I doubt everything. When I regret everything you've taken from me, everything I've given you, and the waste of all the time I've spent on us.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it’s now or never.”

Alan Bennett (1934) English actor, author

Chance

“and I try
to draw the line
but it ends up running down the middle of me
most of the time.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Source: Ani DiFranco: Verses

Drawing

“There is a strange moment in time, after something horrible happens, when you know it's true, but you haven't told anyone yet.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

“And over all those sleepy weeks, the dream always ended the same way, with the dragon coming for the princess saying the same words every time….
"Face it, Tally-wa, you're Special.”

Scott Westerfeld book Pretties

Source: Pretties

Dreams, Way, Princess

“My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Between Planets

Source: Between Planets

“Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Boy, Baby

“The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Death

“Anyone who's really interested in anything spends time alone.”

Curtis Sittenfeld book Prep

Source: Prep

“Before and after… I heard a thousand times that a boy, or a man, can't make you happy, that you have to be happy on your own before you can be happy with another person. All I can say is, I wish it were true.”

Curtis Sittenfeld book Prep

Source: Prep

Boy, Personality, Happiness

“You can’t buy time, Nick. Ever. It’s the only thing in life you can’t get most of, and it’s the one thing that will mercilessly tear you up when it’s gone. It takes no pity on no soul and no heart.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Life, Soul, Tear, Heart

“No hard feelings about that time in the Crucible when you mixed my salts and I was nearly blind for a day. No. No, really, drink up!”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Feeling, Drink

“That time we separated was my idea. I thought, well, I'm fifty years old and there might be someone else out there. People waste their happiness - that's what makes me sad. Everyone's so scared to be happy.”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

People, Sadness, Idea, Happiness

“At times she had thought that this was the only kind of connection you could have with people—intense, inexplicable and ultimately incomplete.”

Mary Gaitskill (1954) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

Source: Bad Behavior

People

“When we rejoice in beautiful scenery, great art, and great music, it is but the flexing of instincts acquired in another place and another time.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Beauty, Art, Music

“I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Learning

“Being productive. Ugh. It's such a human concept. It implies you have limited time (LOL) and have to work hard to make something happen (double LOL).”

Rick Riordan book The Dark Prophecy

Source: The Dark Prophecy

“Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Life, People

“If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a percent of the contents of the greatest libraries of our time. The trick is to know which books to read.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

Books, Reading

“There is a fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration; there are daily small deaths.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

Death, Sleep

“… When I look back on my life's greatest traumas… I see that each one has something in common. No matter how life-shattering they felt at the time, there was an end to them.”

Anna Maxted (1969) British writer

Source: Getting Over It

Life

“Come, hunt with me, the invitation whispers in my heart. Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.
Wolves have no kings.”

Robin Hobb book Royal Assassin

Variant: Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.

Wolves have no kings
Source: Royal Assassin

Life, Pain, Heart

“I have to.
I've been fighting it all night. I'm going to lose. My battle is as futile as a woman feeling the first pangs of labor and deciding it's an inconvenient time to give birth. Nature wins out. It always does.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Feeling, Birth, Nature, Fight

“He finally understood that God's presence was everywhere, at all times, and was experienced by everyone at one time or another.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

God

“The Universe is making music all the time.”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

Music, Universe

“Worship from the heart in times of adversity implies an attitude of humble acceptance on our part of God's right to do as He pleases in our lives.”

Jerry Bridges (1929–2016) American writer

Source: Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts

God, Heart, Parting

“Your whole life you are really writing one book, which is an attempt to grasp the consciousness of your time and place– a single book written from different stages of your ability.”

Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer

Life, Books

“What if I travel so far away in my dreams that I can't get back in time to wake up?”

Ruth Ozeki book A Tale for the Time Being

Source: A Tale for the Time Being

Dreams, Travel

“A person's true nature is revealed at times of the greatest adversity.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Nature, Personality

“And of course I'm in the press all the time. So many books have been written about me; Into thin air, up in the air, Gone with the wind”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Books

“You don't need a time machine if you know how to remember.”

Rodman Philbrick book Freak the Mighty

Source: Freak the Mighty

“Join us next time for Days of the Undead when Rachel learns her long lost brother is really a crown prince from outer space.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Every Which Way But Dead

Learning

“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Fools, Intelligence

“There are only so many times that you can utter ‘It does not hurt’ before it begins to hurt even more than the hurt. You become enlightened of the feeling of feeling hurt, which is worse, I am certain, than the existent hurt.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

Feeling, Hurt

“It must be, I thought, one of the race's most persistent and comforting hallucinations to trust that "it can't happen here" -- that one's own time and place is beyond cataclysm.”

John Wyndham book The Day of the Triffids

Source: The Day of the Triffids

“… at times, the greatest courage of all is to live.”

David Clement-Davies book The Sight

Source: The Sight

Courage

“I smile. I smile all the time, but you're just not around to see it these days".”

Sarra Manning (1950) British writer

Source: Kiss and Make Up

Smile

“Sometimes life has a cruel sense of humor, giving you the thing you always wanted at the worst time possible.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Heartbreaking, Life, Sense

“Sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut.”

Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

“Faith. Closely followed—in view of the overall shortage of time—by patience.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: Hitch-22: A Memoir

Faith, Patience

“You wanted us all back together again!" Bonnie shouted at Caroline, and pulled the scandalized girl into the dance. Meredith, her dignity forgotten, joined them too.
And for a long time in the clearing there was only rejoicing.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Reunion

Girl, Dance

“as imperfect human beings, any of us, all of us, are subject at some time or another to make mistakes!”

Brenda Jackson (1953) American writer

Source: Perfect Timing

“There'll be times when the only refuge is books. Then you'll read as if you meant it, as if your life depended on it.”

Ken Bruen (1951) Irish writer

Source: The Killing Of The Tinkers

Life, Books, Reading, Dependency

“The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action I can recall in our association. I was alone.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Source: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Selfishness

“In a time of social fragmentation, vulgarity becomes a way of life. To be shocking becomes more important - and often more profitable - than to be civil or creative or truly original.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Life, Way

“I understood now. This voice, the one that had been trying to get my attention all this time, calling out to me, begging me to hear it -- it wan't Will's. It was mine.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“I'm holding back, delaying the information. I'm lingering in the prior moment because it was a time when other outcomes were still possible.”

Ian McEwan book Enduring Love

Source: Enduring Love

“Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain —
To thy high requiem become a sod.”

John Keats Ode to a Nightingale

Stanza 6
Poems (1820), Ode to a Nightingale
Source: Complete Poems and Selected Letters

Love, Death, Pain, Art

“Is he a good boy? (Cherise)
No, Mom, he’s Satan incarnate. In fact, once it’s over, we’re going to get liquored up and tattooed, then find some cheap hos and have a good time with his trust fund. (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Boy, Moms, Tattoo

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

For Team, People, Thinking

“Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Last Temptation of Christ

Source: The Last Temptation of Christ

Death, World, Fear, Dependency

“We’d met at a carefree time, a moment full of promise, in its place now were the harsh lessons of the real world.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

World

“We cannot go backward. We cannot erase time and events. But we can go forward, hand in hand, hope in our hearts and love lighting our way.”

Sharon Shinn (1957) American science fiction writer

Source: Jenna Starborn

Love, Hope, Way, Light

“Six hundred and forty fish later, the only thing I know is everything you love will die. The first time you meet someone special, you can count on them one day being dead and in the ground.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Love, Fish, Dead

“Why does it have to be so hard? Why can't it be a happily-ever-after ride-into-the-sunset feeling all the time?”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Feeling

“Socrates told us, "the unexamined life is not worth living." I think he's calling for curiosity, more than knowledge. In every human society at all times and at all levels, the curious are at the leading edge.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Life, Knowledge, Thinking

“It’s the spirit here that counts. The time may be long, the vehicle may be strange or unexpected. But if the dream is held close to the heart, and imagination is applied to what there is close at hand, everything is still possible.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Dreams, Imagination, Heart

“Dave couldn't remember the last time a grownup had apologized to him.”

Andrew Clements book No Talking

Source: No Talking

“There comes a time when you look into the mirror and you realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. And then you accept it. Or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking in mirrors.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

“A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince

Way, Change

“But the words are easy and soothing, promising tomorrow will be more hopeful than this awful piece o time we call today.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Hope

“If everyone in the world sat quietly at the same time, closed their eyes and concentrated as hard as they could on peace and goodwill, all the killing and cruelty in the world would continue. And probably increase.”

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

World, Peace

“You might also see that some of my playlists are simply two songs on repeat fifteen times, like I’m a psycho getting pumped up to murder the president.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

“Women? Women are like… thunderstorms. They're beautiful to look at, and sometimes they're nice to listen to-but most of the time they're just plain inconvenient.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Women, Beauty

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Summer

“The first thing which I can record concerning myself is, that I was born. These are wonderful words. This life, to which neither time nor eternity can bring diminution - this everlasting living soul, began. My mind loses itself in these depths.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Life, Soul

“Time moves in it special way in the middle of the night.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

Way, Night

“If she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

Source: A&P: Lust in the Aisles

“And all the time she felt the reflection of his hopelessness in her. She couldn't quite, quite love in hoplessness. And he, being hopeless, couldn't ever love at all.”

D.H. Lawrence book Women in Love

Source: Women in Love

Love

“It never seemed fair that just when you're old enough to do anything you want, you can't. You have to start working, so there's no time. And if there is time, you're not working, so there's no money.”

Terri Farley (1950) American writer

Source: Seven Tears Into the Sea

Money

“time wasted is not always a waste of time.”

Terri Blackstock (1957) American writer

Source: Seaside

“There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.”

Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist

“We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Fear, Family

“These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraphs and kerosene and coal stoves -- they're good to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Long Winter

Source: The Long Winter

Change, Dependency

“Okay. I've got a good one." Simon stroked Isabelle's hair feeling her lashes flutter against his neck as she closed her eyes. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Feeling

“What must that be like? To be admired before you’ve even said a word, to be desired two or three hundred times a day by people who have absolutely no idea what you’re like?”

David Nicholls book Starter for Ten

Source: Starter for Ten

People, Idea

“‎No people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time.”

Salman Rushdie book Midnight's Children

Source: Midnight's Children

People

“Old pain doesn't completely die. Time may soothe it, stoke over it until it looks like it has healed, but it never dies properly. It stays with you, it lives in the cracks of your soul, waiting for moments when you feel true pain”

Dorothy Koomson (1971) British writer

Source: Goodnight, Beautiful

Pain, Feeling, Soul, Waiting

“Maybe my mother's right. Maybe there is more to Bryce Loski than I know.
Maybe it's time to meet him in the proper light.”

Wendelin Van Draanen Flipped

Source: Flipped

Light

“Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.”

Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) American poet

Source: The Complete Poems 1927-1979

Tear, Singing, Drawing, Housing

“But let us not put our sights too high. We do not have to be saviours of the world! We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time. (163)”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Source: Becoming Human

World, Hope, Change, Heart

“My timing is off. But I had to get it out. Some things you have to tell, no matter how stupid they may sound. Some things you can't save for later. There might not be a later.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Source: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Stupidity

“I worry about the men of your time, Grace. They all seem to be great fools. (Julian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover

Source: Fantasy Lover

Men, Fools

“It seems to me further, that it is very odd that fate should leave so careful a trail, and spend so little time preparing the one that must follow it.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

Fate

“Healthy striving is about striving for internal goals, and wanting to be our best selves. Perfectionism is not motivated internally. Perfectionism is about what people will think. And you do not see effective leaders in corporations sitting on an email for three hours to make sure it’s worded just perfectly. You don’t. They have work to get done.. You don’t see elite athletes letting themselves be discouraged by a bad workout or a single bad performance. It happens all the time. They’re accustomed to winning, they’re accustomed to losing. Once perfectionism becomes the goal, they’re out of the sport.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Washington Post, October 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/exhaustion-is-not-a-status-symbol/2012/10/02/19d27aa8-0cba-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story_2.html <br class="br">Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

People, Motivation, Thinking, Sport

“I'd been in hairier situations than this one. Actually, it's sort of depressing, thinking how many times I'd been in them. But if experience had taught me anything, it was this: No matter how screwed up things are, they can get a whole lot worse.”

Jim Butcher book Blood Rites

Source: Blood Rites

Thinking