Quotes about time
page 65

“You don't call Acheron 'babe.' (Valerius)
You don't call Acheron 'babe' because… well, that's just sick. But I call him 'babe' all the time. (Tabitha)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

“Time does not change us it just unfolds us”

Max Frisch (1911–1991) Swiss playwright and novelist

Sketchbook 1946-1949

Change

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving…”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Source: The World As I See It
Context: How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving....

Life, Men, Dead

“My negotiation skills are are on par with George Bush's reading ability. And just like Dubya, every time I've tried to put forth an effort, I am reminded that my only true strength lies in drinking.”

Chelsea Handler book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

Source: Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

Drink, Effort, Reading

“All great achievements require time.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“There's a time and place for everything, and I believe it’s called 'fan fiction'.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Past, Future, Weather, Night

“And how are you?", said Winnie-the-Pooh. (…)
"Not very how", he said. "I don't seem to have felt at all how for a long time.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)
Source: Winnie the Pooh

“There are no events but thoughts and the heart's hard turning, the heart's slow learning where to love and whom. The rest is merely gossip, and tales for other times.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

Source: Holy the Firm (1977)

Love, Learning, Heart

“This is our time. Until that time stops - for one of us, for both – it is our time. Now. Will you waste it, because you are afraid?”

Diana Gabaldon book Drums of Autumn

Source: Drums of Autumn

“And don't waste time worshipping Harmony. Doing goodthe worship.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Alloy of Law

“I, while the gods laugh, the world's vortex am;
Maelström of passions in that hidden sea
Whose waves of all-time lap the coasts of me;
And in small compass the dark waters cram.”

Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) English writer, artist, poet and illustrator

Source: Collected Poems

God, World, Water, Passion

“Oh, for Christ's sake,' I hear. 'Can we please just try to have a good time?' This is like ordering someone to find you attractive, and it doesn't work. I've tried it.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Christ

“People parted, years passed, they met again- and the meeting proved no reunion, offered no warm memories, only the acid knowledge that time had passed and things weren't as bright or attractive as they had been.”

Jacqueline Susann book Valley of the Dolls

Source: Valley of the Dolls

People, Knowledge, Memory, Parting

“Dear John, tell me everything. Write it all down, that way, we’ll be with each other all the time, even if we’re not with each other at all.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Way

“We each have a special something we can get only at a special time of our life. like a small flame. A careful, fortunate few cherish that flame, nurture it, hold it as a torch to light their way. But once that flame goes out, it’s gone forever.”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

Life, Way, Light

“You…you need to move on,” I managed. Yes, that was a sound reason. “You need to find someone else. You know I don’t—that I can’t. Well, you know. You’re wasting your time with me.”

He remained firm. “It’s my time to waste.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“But by this time I was acutely conscious of the gap between law and justice. I knew that the letter of the law was not as important as who held the power in any real-life situation.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

Life, Justice, Law

“I don’t think it was our time then. I guess it isn’t now, either.” John looks over at me, his gaze steady. “But one day maybe it will be.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Thinking

“Have you ever given someone a book you enjoyed enormously, with a feeling of envy because they were about to read it for the first time, an experience you could never have again?”

Jack Finney book Time and Again

Source: Time and Again

Books, Feeling, Reading, Envy

“The work of memory collapses time.”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Memory

“We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Sadness, Heart

“But usually, I watched Linda read. I couldn't believe she'd read so much in summer! Sometimes she laughed, reading her book, and one time she even cried. I didn't know how anyone could make such a big deal about books.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

Source: Beastly

Books, Reading, Summer

“she acquired the certainty of the expansion of time by depth of emotion, range and infinite multiplicity of experience.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

“But then I remembered something Grandmere had once assured me of: No one has ever died of embarrassment-never, not once in the whole history of time.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Forever Princess

History

“The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired.”

Robert Southey (1774–1843) British poet

Loss

“The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

Source: The Tale of Despereaux (2004)
Context: Despereaux looked down at the book, and something remarkable happened. The marks on the pages, the "squiggles" as Merlot referred to them, arranged themselves into shapes. The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time

“No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Love

“God leads us. God will do the right thing at the right time. And what a difference that makes.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear

God

“This is one thing they forget to mention in most child-rearing books, that at times you will just lose your mind. Period.”

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

Source: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Books, Forgetting

“Things break all the time.
Day breaks, waves break, voices break.
Promises break.
Hearts break.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Heart

“There's always time to read. Don't trust a writer who doesn't read. It's like eating food prepared by a cook who doesn't eat.”

Laura Lippman (1959) Detective fiction writer

Food, Reading, Cooking

“I realized that even if we went on talking till Judgment Day, I would still find the time all too short.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

“We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

Attributed in The National elementary principal https://books.google.com/books?id=T8YVAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Then+will+our+world+know+the+blessings+of+peace.%22&dq=%22Then+will+our+world+know+the+blessings+of+peace.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1iNCMvcHLAhUMcz4KHXvcCt84MhDoAQgfMAE (1948) - Volume 28 - Page 34; a similar statement has also become attributed to Jimi Hendrix: "When the power of love overcomes love of power the world will know peace." A similar quotation is found in My Heart Shall Give A Oneness-Feast (1993) by Sri Chinmoy: "My books, they all have only one message: the heart's Power Of Love must replace the mind's Love Of Power. If I have the Power Of Love, then I shall claim the whole World as my own … World Peace can be achieved when the Power Of Love replaces the Love Of Power." An even earlier statement of Chinmoy is found in Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970): "When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God." <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

love, Peaceful, Love, World

“As you get older the questions come down to two or three. How long have I got and what am I gonna do with the time I've got left?”

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

Question

“She learned to love him before he thought it was even possible, so he didn't have a chance to hide & mess it up & while it was a little scary at times, mainly he could not even imagine the world without her there.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Trusting Soul

Love, World, Imagination, Learning

“You were born at a pretty crappy time in history. And it looks like things are only gonna get worse from here on out.”

Ernest Cline book Ready Player One

Source: Ready Player One

History

“There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book A Study in Scarlet

Source: A Study in Scarlet

“Read not the Times, read the Eternities.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Reading

“… if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it—SOME.”

Eleanor H. Porter book Pollyanna

Source: Pollyanna

God

“The moon is whole all the time, but we can’t always see it. What we see is an almost moon or not-quite moon. The rest is hiding just out of view, but there’s only one moon, so we follow it in the sky. We plan our lives based on its rhythms and tides.”

Alice Sebold book The Almost Moon

Source: The Almost Moon

“I have crossed oceans of time to find you.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Relationship

“Things that happen before you are born still affect you and people who come before your time affect you as well.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

People

“perhaps because this time not fear but love made him read.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkdeath

Love, Fear, Reading

“Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”

Anna Lappé (1973) American writer

Money, World

“time past and time future
what might have been and what has been
point to one end, which is always present.”

T.S. Eliot book Four Quartets

Source: Four Quartets

Past, Future

“Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time." Page 212.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: I did not count the days or the weeks or the months. Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time.
Source: Life of Pi

“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

“You never know the last time you’ll see a place. A person.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Personality

“You cannot exalt God and yourself at the same time.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

God

“I've faked orgasms before, but this is the first time I've faked not having an orgasm.”

Sarah Kane book Crave

Source: Crave

“The more you love, the more you can love--and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.”

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

Love, Personality

“All of us, all of us, all of us trying to save our immortal souls, some ways seemingly more round about and mysterious than others. We are having a good time here. But hope all will be revealed soon.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Source: All of Us: The Collected Poems

Hope, Way, Soul

“I want to kiss you one more time before I die.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Kiss

“Any action, in the fullness of time, sinks to nothingness.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Housing

“Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.”

Glen Cook book Sweet Silver Blues

Source: Sweet Silver Blues

“Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.”

Jasper Fforde book The Eyre Affair

Source: The Eyre Affair

Fashion

“Rarely do we invest the time to open the book of another's life. When we do, we are usually surprised to find its cover so misleading and its reviews so flawed.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Life, Books

“The inside jokes weren't jokes anymore. They had become stories. Nobody brought up the bad names or the bad times. And nobody felt sad as long as we could postpone tomorrow with more nostalgia.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Sadness, Nostalgia

“I can let you in, Eva. I’m trying. But your first response when I screw up is to run away. You do it every time and I can’t stand feeling like any moment I’m going to do or say something wrong and you’re going to bolt.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Feeling

“Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

Source: Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques

People, Intelligence, Thinking, Solitude

“Normally I hate people who whine all the time, but in your case, it would be okay to complain. Be selfish, say what you want once in a while. It's okay to let yourself be sad." -Kyo talking to Tohru”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 1

Hate, People, Sadness, Selfishness

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Personality

“A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.”

Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) Polish science fiction author

“Would she understand that time had stopped while she was gone.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

Understanding

“Nights without beginning that had no end. Talking about a past as if it'd really happened. Telling themselves that this time next year, this time next year, things were going to be different.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Past, Night

“You could tell your soul mate by the light in their eyes, and since the time began, that has been how people have recognized their true love.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Love, People, Soul, Light

“Don't settle. Know what you want and reach for it. And if you don't know what you want, be patient.
The answers will
come to you in time, and you may find that your heart s desire has been right under your nose all the
while.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Heart

“I feel my fear moving away in rings through time for a million years.”

Breece D'J Pancake (1952–1979) American writer

Source: The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake

Fear, Feeling

“It made me wonder how many times we forgive just because we don't want to lose someone, even if they don't deserve our forgiveness.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Forgiveness

“Life is long. Just because you don't get your chance right when you want or expect it doesn't mean it won't come. Fate doesn't punch a time clock or consult a schedule.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

Life, Fate, Chance

“Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free. Over time, some have determined that the only way to live is to die. In death, a man or a woman is free of the weight of the past [and the future].”

Alan Lightman book Einstein's Dreams

Source: Einstein's Dreams

Death, Way, Past, Future

“Whiskey, like a beautiful woman, demands appreciation. You gaze first, then it's time to drink.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Beauty, Drink

“Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Source: 1975, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975), Ch. 7: Time
Context: Sometimes you're invited to a big ball and for months you think about how glamorous and exciting it's going to be. Then you fly to Europe and you go to the ball and when you think back on it a couple of months later what you remember is maybe the car ride to the ball, you can't remember the ball at all. Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life. I should have been dreaming for months about the car ride to the ball and getting dressed for the car ride, and buying my ticket to Europe so I could take the car ride. Then, who knows, maybe I could have remembered the ball.

Life, Thinking

“I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

World, Beauty, Thinking

“There in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death of time and a loneliness so profound the word itself had no meaning.”

Toni Morrison book Sula

Source: Sula

Death, Silence, Loneliness

“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.”

Johnny Cash (1932–2003) American singer-songwriter

Man in Black · First public performance (17 February 1971) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t51MHUENlAQ <br class="br">Song lyrics, Man in Black (1971) <br class="br">Source: The Essential Johnny Cash

“I was looking at the photographs and I started thinking that there was a time when these weren't memories.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thinking, Memory