Quotes about moment

A collection of quotes on the topic of moment, life, time, timing.

Quotes about moment

José Baroja photo
Yuzuru Hanyu photo

“I don’t feel like I’ve hit my limit yet. Rather, it’s a question of how I overcome moments in which I may feel like this is my limit.”

Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)

Translation source: Yuzuru Hanyu – World Championships 2021 ‘Day After’ Interview https://axelwithwings.com/2021/03/30/eng-translation-yuzuru-hanyu-world-championships-2021-day-after-interview-210328/ by Axel with Wings, published 28 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021)
Other quotes, 2021
Original: (ja) なんか限界だなって感じはないです。ただ、この限界だなって思うかもしれない時期をどうやって乗り越えていくか。
Source: Part 1 of the final interview at Worlds 2021 in Stockholm, as quoted in an article https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2021/03/28/kiji/20210328s00079000616000c.html by Nippon Sports (Sponichi), published 28 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021)

Orson Welles photo
Robert Baden-Powell photo

“If you have ever seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.

Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.

I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn come to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. "Be Prepared" in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you do it.”

Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement
Charles Bukowski photo
Dr. Seuss photo

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Georges Duhamel in THE HEART'S DOMAIN (1919). As it was composed in French, the wording in English may vary in translation. Theodore Geisel / Dr. Seuss was born in 1904, and would have been about 15 years old at the time that it was published. The full text can be found at the link below: We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that trans-figuration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.
Misattributed

Sadhguru photo
Louis Zamperini photo

“One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.”

Louis Zamperini (1917–2014) Italian-American middle distance runner
Rick Riordan photo
Carl Sagan photo

“Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 8, Supplemental image at randi.org http://www.randi.org/images/122801-BlueDot.jpg

“Where are you? Here
What time is it? Now
What are you? This moment.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

Jesse Owens photo

“It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler… You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Lutz Long at that moment.”

Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete

On the congratulations given by German athlete Lutz Long, a competitor in the long jump, who in some accounts he credited with giving him some friendly advice that helped him to win against him; as quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html in ESPN SportsCentury (2005)
Context: It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Lutz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II.

Henry David Thoreau photo
Osama bin Laden photo
Ville Valo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Richard Bach photo

“Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Sophie Scholl photo

“I pity people who can't find laughter or at least some bit of amusement in the little doings of the day. I believe I could find something ridiculous even in the saddest moment, if necessary. It has nothing to do with being superficial. It's a matter of joy in life.”

Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member

As quoted in Christian Jazz Artists Newsletter (February/March 2005) http://www.songsofdavid.com/CJAFebMarch2005.htm; this source is disputed as it does not cite an original document for the quote.
Disputed

Zig Ziglar photo
Carl von Clausewitz photo
Joseph Murphy photo
Nikki Sixx photo

“Live in the moment. Moments make history.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Source: This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography, And Life Through The Distorted Lens Of Nikki Sixx

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“There’s a loneliness that only exists in one’s mind. The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is blink.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Variant: The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.

Tennessee Williams photo
Jim Carrey photo
Osamu Dazai photo
Dwayne Johnson photo
Shams-i Tabrizi photo

“He said The Sufi is the son of the moment.”

Shams-i Tabrizi (1185–1248) 1185-1248, spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi.

Me & Rumi (2004)

Michael Jackson photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

Thomas Merton photo
Cesare Pavese photo

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

This Business of Living (1935-1950)

Cesare Pavese photo

“We do not remember days, we remember moments. The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

This Business of Living (1935-1950)
Variant: The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.
Source: The Burning Brand: Diaries, 1935-1950

Paul Valéry photo

“to live means to lack something at every moment”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher
Arthur Miller photo

“Everything we are is at every moment alive in us.”

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States
George Strait photo

“Life is not breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.”

George Strait (1952) American country music singer, actor and music producer

Variant: Life is not the breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away.

Paramahansa Yogananda photo
Susan Sontag photo

“It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Georgia O'Keeffe photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Michel Foucault photo
Robert Burns photo
Emil M. Cioran photo

“There is no one whose death I have not longed for, at one moment or another.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

Hans Urs Von Balthasar photo
Ferdinand Foch photo
Elton John photo

“A dream will fly
The moment that you open up your eyes.
A dream is just a riddle,
Ghosts from every corner of your life.”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

Original Sin
Song lyrics, Songs from the West Coast (2001)

Alexandra Kollontai photo
Buckminster Fuller photo

“Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment.... Humanity is in ‘final exam’ as to whether or not it qualifies for continuance in Universe”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

From 1980s onwards, Critical Path (1981)

Andrew Biersack photo
Al Capone photo
Alexis Karpouzos photo
Jon Kabat-Zinn photo
Andrei Tarkovsky photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Aristotle photo

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Robert Baden-Powell photo
E.E. Cummings photo
Zadie Smith photo
Ram Dass photo
Eckhart Tolle photo

“Let me say it again:
the present moment is all you ever have.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Variant: Realize deeply that the present moment is all you will ever have.
Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

“There are no ordinary moments.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior (1980), p. 138 - Book two: The warrior's training - The mountain path
Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

Johnny Depp photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Stephen King photo

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Variant: The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Byron Katie photo
Anne Frank photo

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex

Gabriel García Márquez photo
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart photo
Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Living Buddha, Living Christ

Hazrat Inayat Khan photo
Walt Whitman photo

“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist
Rabindranath Tagore photo
John Cassian photo
Bill Skarsgård photo
John Cassian photo
Khalil Gibran photo
Suman Pokhrel photo
Martin Luther photo
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Jonathan Davis photo
Henri Bergson photo

“I cannot escape the objection that there is no state of mind, however simple, that does not change every moment.”

An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903), translated by T. E. Hulme. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912, p. 44

Brian Cox (physicist) photo

“As a fraction of the lifespan of the universe as measured from the beginning to the evaporation of the last black hole, life as we know it is only possible for one-thousandth of a billion billion billionth, billion billion billionth, billion billion billionth, of a percent (10^-84). And that's why, for me, the most astonishing wonder of the universe isn't a star or a planet or a galaxy. It isn't a thing at all. It's an instant in time. And that time is now. Humans have walked the earth for just the shortest fraction of that briefest of moments in deep time. But in our 200,000 years on this planet we've made remarkable progress. It was only 2,500 years ago that we believed that the sun was a god and measured its orbit with stone towers built on the top of a hill. Today the language of curiosity is not sun gods, but science. And we have observatories that are almost infinitely more sophisticated than those towers, that can gaze out deep into the universe. And perhaps even more remarkably through theoretical physics and mathematics we can calculate what the universe will look like in the distant future. And we can even make concrete predictions about its end. And I believe that it's only by continuing our exploration of the cosmos and the laws of nature that govern it that we can truly understand ourselves and our place in this universe of wonders.”

Brian Cox (physicist) (1968) English physicist and former musician

Conclusion in Wonders of the Universe - Destiny

Adolfo Bioy Casares photo

“Even the wolf has its moments of weakness, in which it sides with the lamb and thinks: I hope it runs away.”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999) Argentine novelist

"El mismo lobo tiene momentos de debilidad, en que se pone del lado del cordero y piensa: Ojalá que huya."
Guirnaldas con amores, 1959.

Eckhart Tolle photo
Marie Antoinette photo

“Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?”

Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) last Queen of France prior to the French Revolution

Responding to the priest who had accompanied her to the foot of the guillotine, who had whispered, "Courage, madame! Now is the time for courage." Quoted in Women of Beauty and Heroism (1859) by Frank B. Goodrich, p. 301.
Variant translations:
Courage! The moment when my ills are going to end is not the moment when courage is going to fail me.
To the juror, Abbé Girard, shortly before her death, quoted in Marie-Antoinette a la Conciergerie (du ler août au 16 octobre 1793) 2nd edition (1864) by M. Émile Campardon
Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me.
As quoted in Marie Antoinette (2008) by Jane Bingham, p. 39

Nicolás Gómez Dávila photo

“Whoever says that he "belongs to his time" is only saying that he agrees with the largest number of fools at that moment.”

Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) Colombian writer and philosopher

Sucesivos Escolios a un Texto Implícito (1992)

Babur photo

“On Monday the 9th of the first Jumada, we got out of the suburbs of Agra, on our journey (safar) for the Holy War, and dismounted in the open country, where we remained three or four days to collect our army and be its rallying-point…On this occasion I received a secret inspiration and heard an infallible voice say: 'Is not the time yet come unto those who believe, that their hearts should humbly submit to the admonition of Allah, and that truth which hath been revealed? Thereupon we set ourselves to extirpate the things of wickedness…
Above all, adequate thanks cannot be rendered for a benefit than which none is greater in the world and nothing is more blessed, in the world to come, to wit, victory over most powerful infidels and dominion over wealthiest heretics, these are the unbelievers, the wicked.'In the eyes of the judicious, no blessing can be greater than this…. Previous to the rising in Hindustan of the Sun of dominion and the emergence there of the light of the Shahansha's (i. e. Babur's) Khalifate the authority of that execrated pagan (Sanga) - at the Judgment Day he shall have no friend - was such that not one of all the exalted sovereigns of this wide realm, such as the Sultan of Delhi, the Sultan of Gujarat and the Sultan of Mandu, could cope with this evil-dispositioned one, without the help of other pagans…
Ten powerful chiefs, each the leader of a pagan host, uprose in rebellion, as smoke rises, and linked themselves, as though enchained, to that perverse one (Sanga); and this infidel decade who, unlike the blessed ten, uplifted misery-freighted standards which denounce unto them excruciating punishment, had many dependents, and troops, and wide-extended lands…. The protagonists of the royal forces fell, like divine destiny, on that one-eyed Dajjal who to understanding men, shewed the truth of the saying, When Fate arrives, the eye becomes blind, and setting before their eyes the scripture which saith, whosoever striveth to promote the true religion, striveth for the good of his own soul, they acted on the precept to which obedience is due, Fight against infidels and hypocrites…
The pagan right wing made repeated and desperate attack on the left wing of the army of Islam, falling furiously on the holy warriors, possessors of salvation, but each time was made to turn back or, smitten with the arrows of victory, was made to descend into Hell, the house of perdition: they shall be thrown to bum therein, and an unhappy dwelling shall it be. Then the trusty amongst the nobles, Mumin Ataka and Rustam Turkman betook themselves to the rear of the host of darkened pagans…
At the moment when the holy warriors were heedlessly flinging away their lives, they heard a secret voice say, Be not dismayed, neither be grieved, for, if ye believe, ye shall be exalted above the unbelievers, and from the infallible Informer heard the joyful words, Assistance is from Allah, and a speedy victory! And do thou bear glad tiding to true believers. Then they fought with such delight that the plaudits of the saints of the Holy Assembly reached them and the angels from near the Throne, fluttered round their heads like moths.”

Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor

Babur writing about the battle against the Rajput Confederacy led by Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar. In Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 547-572.

Jordan Peterson photo
Salvador Allende photo

“As for the bourgeois state, at the present moment, we are seeking to overcome it, to overthrow it.… Our objective is total, scientific, Marxist socialism.”

Salvador Allende (1908–1973) Chilean physician and politician

As quoted in Conversations With Allende (1970) by Regis Debray

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry photo

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”

Les pierres du chantier ne sont en vrac qu’en apparence, s’il est, perdu dans le chantier, un homme, serait-il seul, qui pense cathédrale.
Pilote de Guerre (1942) (translated into English as Flight to Arras)

Sun Tzu photo
Rajneesh photo

“No, explanation is not needed — only exclamation, a wondering heart, awakened, surprised, feeling the mystery of life each moment. Then, and only then, you know what truth is. And truth liberates.”

Rajneesh (1931–1990) Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement

Never Born, Never Died (2002)
Context: Tao mystics never talk about God, reincarnation, heaven, hell. No, they don't talk about these things. These are all creations of human mind: explanations for something which can never be explained, explanations for the mystery. In fact, all explanations are against God because explanation de-mystifies existence. Existence is a mystery, and one should accept it as a mystery and not pretend to have any explanation. No, explanation is not needed — only exclamation, a wondering heart, awakened, surprised, feeling the mystery of life each moment. Then, and only then, you know what truth is. And truth liberates.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

“Each bud flowers but once and each flower has but its minute of perfect beauty; so, in the garden of the soul each feeling has, as it were, its flowering instant, its one and only moment of expansive grace and radiant kingship.”

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) Swiss philosopher and poet

30 December 1850
Journal Intime (1882), Journal entries
Context: Each bud flowers but once and each flower has but its minute of perfect beauty; so, in the garden of the soul each feeling has, as it were, its flowering instant, its one and only moment of expansive grace and radiant kingship. Each star passes but once in the night through the meridian over our heads and shines there but an instant; so, in the heaven of the mind each thought touches its zenith but once, and in that moment all its brilliancy and all its greatness culminate. Artist, poet, or thinker, if you want to fix and immortalize your ideas or your feelings, seize them at this precise and fleeting moment, for it is their highest point. Before it, you have but vague outlines or dim presentiments of them. After it you will have only weakened reminiscence or powerless regret; that moment is the moment of your ideal.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar photo

“A million words cannot express what a glance can convey, and a million glances cannot express what a moment of silence can.”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader

Narada Bhakti Sutras (2001)
Context: A million words cannot express what a glance can convey, and a million glances cannot express what a moment of silence can. A moment of silence conveys so much more than any other expression. Still, love is beyond silence too. You can describe silence to some extent, but that which is beyond silence cannot be expressed. You give, you hug... but still something remains unexpressed.

Kobe Bryant photo