Quotes about time
page 63

“Stop thinking of what you intend to do. Stop thinking of what you have just done. Then, stop thinking that you have stopped thinking of those things. Then you will find the Now, the time that stretches eternal, and is really the only time there is.”

Robin Hobb book Royal Assassin

Source: Royal Assassin

Thinking

“all the time something within her was crying for a decision.
She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Love, Life, Money, Decision

“That’s what they mean by the womb of time: the agony and the despair of spreading bones, the hard girdle in which lie the outraged entrails of events.”

William Faulkner book As I Lay Dying

Source: As I Lay Dying

Lie, Despair

“Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence—neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish—it is an imponderably valuable gift.”

Maya Angelou book Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Source: Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Speed

“That's the past for you. Not only does it come back at the most unexpected, and inconvenient, times but it's set in stone.”

Jeffery Deaver book Edge

Source: Edge

Past

“I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.”

Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) Japanese film maker

Hate

“I certainly supported a woman's right to choose, but to my mind the time to choose was before, not after the fact.”

Ann B. Ross American writer

Source: Miss Julia Throws a Wedding

Support

“The entire history of human desire takes about seventy minutes to tell. Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

History

“I never ran out of ammo, because each time I fired a round, a new round was teleported into the bottom of the clip. My bullet bill this month was going to be huge.”

Ernest Cline book Ready Player One

Source: Ready Player One

“And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

“For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

World, History, Reading, Parting

“I just want some space to myself every now and then. Every time I’m with you I have this sense that you want something from me.”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

Sense

“I was young and not gloomy and there were always strange and comic things that happened in the worst time…”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Source: A Moveable Feast

“Yeah, but if I don't start my nervous pacing now, I'll never have it all done in time.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.”

William Faulkner book As I Lay Dying

Variant: ... the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.
Source: As I Lay Dying

Dead

“Time comes to us softly, slowly. It sits beside us for a while. Then, long before we are ready, it moves on.”

Jacqueline Woodson (1963) American writer

Source: If You Come Softly

“Travel, trouble, music, art, a kiss, a frock, a rhyme --
I never said they feed my heart, but still they pass my time.”

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

Source: The Portable Dorothy Parker

Art, Music, Travel, Kiss

“The best of times is now.”

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

“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

Personality

“Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.”

Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance

Source: A Fine Balance

Madness

“She felt worthless and hollow. There was no hope of fixing this.
And when hope is gone, time is punishment.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Hope

“It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There's a punishment for it and it's usually crucifixion.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Courageous, Truth, Courage

“My hair had grown out long and shaggy—not in that sexy-young-rock-star kind of way but in that time-to-take-Rover-to-the-groomer kind of way.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

Way, Star

“I'd have to kill Dimitri for real this time and lose any chance I might have to bring back my prince. Damn. It's a good thing I work well under pressure.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Chance

“I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Love, Lie, Dreams

“If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess the highest Seats in Government, our Country will stand in Need of its experienced Patriots to prevent its Ruin.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

Letter to James Warren (24 October 1780) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2094

Men, Country

“First rule of bodyguard detail: know where your 'body' is at all times.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“When you looked up to the sky and cried 'Why?' sometimes the sky shrugged, yet other times it answered with warm assurance of linked hands.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

“time is the most valuable thing that we have, because it is the most irrevocable.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Variant: Time is the most precious gift in our possession, for it is the most irrevocable.
Source: As quoted in LIFE magazine (22 April 1957), p. 152; also in Letters and Papers from Prison (1967), p. 47.
Context: Time is the most precious gift in our possession, for it is the most irrevocable. This is what makes it so disturbing to look back upon the time which we have lost. Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering. Time lost is time not filled, time left empty.

“But… as bad as it was, I learned something about myself. That I could go through something like that and survive. I mean, I know it could have been worse--a lot worse-- but for me, it was all I could have handled at the time. And I learned from it.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Learning

“You have to be willing to spend time making things for no known reason.”

Lynda Barry (1956) Cartoonist

Source: Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book

“If I saw you everyday forever, I would remember this time.”

Thomas Harris book Hannibal

Source: Hannibal

“There will never be a good time, financially, to get married, unless you're Shaq or Ray Romano. But somehow people manage. If your man is using money as an excuse not to marry you, it's your relationship that's insecure, not his bank account.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Money, People

“Man wants to own his existence. But no one owns time.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

“Why should you feel honored for getting scraps of his time?”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Feeling

“He knew I'd seen everything in that alley, that I'd stood there and done nothing. He knew that I'd betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

“The mind picks some very bad times to take a walk doesn't it?”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

“When the time comes to leave, just walk away quietly and don't make any fuss.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Cut It Out (2004)
Source: Wall and Piece

“A man can see by starlight, if he takes the time.”

Michael Crichton book Next

Source: Next

“This is one of those times when explaining a feeling cannot measure up to actually having the feeling”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Source: Viola in Reel Life

Feeling

“The hands of Fate keep time on a heart-shaped watch."

- Harkat Mulds(The Trials of Death)”

Darren Shan book Trials of Death

Source: Trials of Death

Death, Fate, Heart

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their silence at times of crisis.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

Hell, Silence

“Time and tide wait for no man.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Waiting

“Wander a whole summer if you can… time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead of shortening, it will definitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Source: 1900s, Our National Parks (1901), chapter 1: The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West 
Context: Wander here a whole summer, if you can. Thousands of God's wild blessings will search you and soak you as if you were a sponge, and the big days will go by uncounted. If you are business-tangled, and so burdened by duty that only weeks can be got out of the heavy-laden year … give a month at least to this precious reserve. The time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead of shortening, it will indefinitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal. Nevermore will time seem short or long, and cares will never again fall heavily on you, but gently and kindly as gifts from heaven.

Life, Summer

“You know when you're sitting on a chair and you lean back so you're just on two legs and you lean too far so you almost fall over but at the last second you catch yourself? I feel like that all the time…”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Feeling

“This is a giant block of whatever is most difficult for you to carry & trust me on this, you'll carry it more times than you can count until you decide that's exactly what you want to do most & then it won't weigh a thing anymore”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

“When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

“For every wound, the ointment of time.”

Sharon Kay Penman book When Christ and His Saints Slept

Source: When Christ and His Saints Slept

“Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose
the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution,
but more usually
we must do battle where we are standing.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“And I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time.”

Jack Kerouac book Desolation Angels

Desolation Angels (1965)

Star

“No one is safe from nature's savagery, not even the innocent. Only beauty is consistent.
Gabrielle envisions a time when the Savage Garden will overtake civilizations and destroy it.”

Anne Rice book The Vampire Lestat

Source: The Vampire Lestat

Beauty, Nature

“And eternity is a long time. So if you have to spend it with someone I could see wanting to spend it with someone impossible… but interesting….”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Abandon

“Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war.”

Loren Eiseley (1907–1977) US philosopher (1907-1977)

Source: The Unexpected Universe

War, Shoe

“I have no time for babbling foolishness.”

“Don’t be so hasty,” said Victor. “There’s always time for babbling.”

Eoin Colfer book Airman

Source: Airman

“Each time I think there is no place lower to go, I find that there is at least one place that will mess you up worse than you were.”

Walter Dean Myers (1937–2014) American writer

Source: Lockdown

Thinking

“And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don't take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance again.”

Richard Russo Empire Falls

Source: Empire Falls

Life, Chance, Happiness

“When I replied that I loved her too in that way, I was the liar, not she, for I never lose the consciousness of time: to me the present is never here: it is always last year or next week.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

Love, Way

“Every time someone forgets, someone else disappears,' my brother wrote.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Incantation

Forgetting

“This is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty… what you will.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter One
Context: This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.

Love, God, Books, Beauty

“His conviction that everything happened for a reason, and would come to good, gave him laughing equanimity even in hard times.”

Laura Hillenbrand book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Source: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

“… in this ocean of hours I'm all the time drinking…”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Drink

“Calvin: Mom and Dad say I should make my life an example of the principles I believe in…But every time I do, they tell me to stop it.
p.140”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat

Life, Moms

“There is not a thing as the wrong place, or the wrong time. We are where we are at the only time we have. Perhaps it's where we're meant to be.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

Source: Riot

“From time to time, I do consider that I might be mad. Like any self-respecting lunatic, however, I am always quick to dismiss any doubts about my sanity.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

Madness

“Maybe by the time they were in their Silver Year, Master Rufus would communicate complicated theories of magic by the lifting of a single bushy eyebrow.”

Cassandra Clare book The Iron Trial

Source: The Iron Trial

Communication

“I know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but for some reason I don’t understand, I actually like you…most of the time. (Simone)
Well, you also love Jesse. Obviously your taste in men leaves a lot to be desired. (Xypher)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

Love, Men, Understanding

“For a long time that's all I could do, howl and scream and cry like the wild animal of the night that I'd become.”

Darren Shan book The Vampire's Assistant

Source: The Vampire's Assistant

Animals, Cry, Night

“Time was such an odd thing. One moment you could talk to someone, then suddenly, they were gone.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: Raven's Strike

“To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy; but at the same time, Elinor, one would not be without experience. Anyone who has never really loved has never really lived..”

Agatha Christie book Sad Cypress

Source: Sad Cypress

Love, Passion, Joy

“There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.”

Graham Greene book The Comedians

Source: The Comedians (1966)

“Be about ten times more magnanimous than you believe yourself capable of. Your life will be a hundred times better for it.”

Cheryl Strayed (1968) author, memoirist, blogger

Life

“To paraphrase Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys, "I wish I had known this some time ago.”

Roger Zelazny book Sign of the Unicorn

Source: Sign of the Unicorn

Guy

“A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.”

Robert Benchley (1889–1945) American comedian

"Your Boy and His Dog," Liberty magazine, (30 July 1932) <br class="br">Also published in Chips Off the Old Benchley http://books.google.com/books?id=1-gHw9bqQqAC&q=%22A+dog+teaches+a+boy+fidelity+perseverance+and+to+turn+around+three+times+before+lying+down%22&pg=PA94#v=onepage (1949)

Funny, Dogs, Boy, Lying