“I am always late on principle, my principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.”

—  Oscar Wilde

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I am always late on principle, my principle being that punctuality is the thief of time." by Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde 812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

Oscar Wilde photo

“Punctuality is the thief of time”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Variant: Punctuality is the thief of time.

Abdul Sattar Edhi photo

“I always say, be human and preach humanity. I started my humanitarian service by strictly observing four principles: truth, simplicity, hard-work and punctuality, and I repeat, be human, preach humanity and adopt humanity.”

Abdul Sattar Edhi (1928–2016) Pakistani philanthropist, social activist, ascetic and humanitarian

as quoted in his Urdu language message, published in the report of National Annual Conference-2004 and Award Ceremony on the International Day of Human Rights, page-14 ( December 9, 2004 at Islamabad –Pakistan http://www.ihro.org.pk/downloads/4th%20Annual%20conference%20report.pdf/) organized by International Human Rights Observer http://www.ihro.org.pk/ Retrieved July 23, 2016

Dmitry Medvedev photo

“Somebody should be extremely punctual, while somebody else is exhausting all the limits for being late.”

Dmitry Medvedev (1965) Russian Prime Minister and former president

telegraph.co.uk http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/9731278/Dmitry-Medvedev-muses-on-aliens-and-Vladimir-Putins-lateness.html

Everett Dirksen photo

“I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.”

Everett Dirksen (1896–1969) United States Army officer

As quoted in Caught Between the Dog and the Fireplug, or, How to Survive Public Service (2001) by Kenneth H. Ashworth, p. 11

Edmund Burke photo
Viktor Yanukovych photo

“My principles which I always follow are that no authority, no power is worth a drop of blood.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: "Yanukovych: 'I Was Wrong' To Ask Russian Troops Into Crimea" in NPR https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/02/298385578/yanukovych-i-was-wrong-to-ask-russian-troops-into-crimea (2 April 2014)

John Hancock photo

“Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny.”

John Hancock (1737–1793) American Patriot and statesman during the American Revolution (1737–1793)

Boston Massacre Oration (1774)
Context: I have always, from my earliest youth, rejoiced in the felicity of my fellow-men; and have ever considered it as the indispensable able duty of every member of society to promote, as far as in him lies, the prosperity of every individual, but more especially of the community to which he belongs; and also, as a faithful subject of the State, to use his utmost endeavors to detect, and having detected, strenuously to oppose every traitorous plot which its enemies may devise for its destruction. Security to the persons and properties of the governed is so obviously the design and end of civil government, that to attempt a logical proof of it would be like burning tapers at noonday, to assist the sun in enlightening the world; and it cannot be either virtuous or honorable to attempt to support a government of which this is not the great and principal basis; and it is to the last degree vicious and infamous to attempt to support a government which manifestly tends to render the persons and properties of the governed insecure. Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny.

Mark Twain photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Lately I have come to believe that the principle difference between Heaven and Hell is the company you keep there….”

Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Variant: The principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there.

John S. Bell photo

“I am a Quantum Engineer, but on Sundays I Have Principles.”

John S. Bell (1928–1990) Northern Irish physicist

Opening sentence of his "underground colloquium" in March 1983, as quoted by Nicolas Gisin in an edition by [J. S. Bell, Reinhold A. Bertlmann, Anton Zeilinger, Quantum [un]speakables: from Bell to quantum information, Springer, 2002, 3540427562, 199]

Related topics