“To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.”
Very often attributed to Addison, this is apparently a paraphrase of a statement by Hugh Blair, published in Blair's Sermons (1815), Vol. 1, p. 219, where he mentions "men of pleasure and the men of business", and that "To the former every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement".
Misattributed
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Joseph Addison 226
politician, writer and playwright 1672–1719Related quotes
“Every moment spent in unhappiness is a moment of happiness lost.”
Source: The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story Of Life For All Ages
“Every moment lost is worth the life of a thousand men.”
Said to Braxton Bragg at Chickamauga, September 18-20, 1863. As quoted in May I Quote You, General Forrest? by Randall Bedwell.
1860s
“Every moment you steal from the present is a moment you've lost forever. There is only now.”
Variant: every moment you steal from the present is a moment you have lost for ever. There's only now.
Source: The Passion
John Rivers in The Genius and the Goddess (1955)
Context: You can't worship a spirit in spirit, unless you do it now. Wallowing in the past may be good literature. As wisdom, it's hopeless. Time Regained is Paradise Lost, and Time Lost is Paradise Regained. Let the dead bury their dead. If you want to live at every moment as it presents itself, you've got to die to every other moment.
"Recollections of Degas by Berthe Morisot" (p. 84)
posthumous quotes, Degas Dance Drawing' (1935)
“The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.”
That we ought not to be angry with Mankind, Chap. xxviii.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)