Quotes about timing

A collection of quotes on the topic of timing, time, doing, use.

Quotes about timing

José Baroja photo
José Baroja photo
José Baroja photo
José Baroja photo
José Baroja photo
Yuzuru Hanyu photo

“If I can't do it, I will work on it until I can. If I become able to do it, I will work on it until I can do it perfectly. If I become able to do it perfectly, I will work on it until I can do it perfectly any number of times.”

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

Annotation: It's unclear, whether this quote is from Hanyu himself or based on a commercial script, but it's commonly attributed to him.
Original: (ja) できなかったら、できるまでやる。できるようになったら、完璧にできるまでやる。完璧にできるようになったら、何度でも、完璧にできるまでやる。
Source: Attributed, Lines from a TV commercial for 味の素 アミノバイタル (AJINOMOTO amino VITAL), released on 1 October 2014, as quoted in フィギュアスケート14-15シーズン序盤号, published on 15 November 2014 by 日刊スポーツ新聞社 (Nikkan Sports News).

José Baroja photo

“I believe that academics do not flow naturally with this world, since, many times, the Academy, from those all-knowing egos, which are not lacking, turns the literary into a mere object lacking spirit.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Fuente: https://portal.ucm.cl/noticias/academico-la-ucm-presento-segunda-antologia-hijo-perra-otros-cuentos

José Baroja photo
Lil Peep photo
Lil Peep photo

“Runnin' away from you takes time and pain And I don't even want to So, I'm gettin' high all week without you Poppin' pills, thinkin' about you”

Lil Peep (1996–2017) American rapper

Song U Said, Album: Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1

Yuzuru Hanyu photo

“Looking back on each element, the absence of the audience this time meant that it was difficult to make that connection [with the crowd], but there are a lot of movements in the choreography that try to speak to the audience, so I think that’s also a key appeal for this program.”

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

Translation source: Yuzuru Hanyu – World Championships 2021 Post-SP Interview https://axelwithwings.com/2021/03/26/eng-translation-yuzuru-hanyu-world-championships-2021-post-sp-interview-210326/ by Axel with Wings, published 26 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021)
Annotation: Hanyu had to perform his short program Let me entertain you by Robbie Williams in front of empty rinks due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was asked, what he wanted to express with that piece of music in particular.
Other quotes, 2021
Original: (ja) 振り付け1つ1つに、今回はお客さんがいないのでなかなかコネクトすることは難しいですけれども、1つ1つにお客さんとつながるような振りが多くあるので、それもまたこのプログラムの魅力かなと思います。
Source: Part 1 of the interview after the men's short program at Worlds 2021, as quoted in an article https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2021/03/25/kiji/20210326s00079000182000c.html by Nippon Sports (Sponichi), published 26 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021)

Alan Rickman photo
Lil Peep photo
Tupac Shakur photo
Yuzuru Hanyu photo

“I try to find challenges after every competition and overcome them the next time.”

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

Featured quote from Hanyu in his athlete profile https://www.olympicchannel.com/de/athletes/detail/yuzuru-hanyu/ on the Olympic Channel, as of September 2020.
Other quotes

Yuzuru Hanyu photo

“There was a time when I was not sure, if I was a victim of the disaster or a skater, but I feel maybe I am neither of them. I haven't reached a definite answer, but as a skater, I feel so much support from so many people.”

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

Annotation: This quote originates from the same source as the one above.
Page: 46.
Blue Flame II
Original: (ja) 自分は被災者なのかスケーターなのか、ということにすごく迷っていた時期もあったんですけど、どっちでもないのかなという気がしました。明確な答えはまだ出てないですけど、スケーターとして本当にいろんな方に支えられてるなと感じています。

Marek Żukow-Karczewski photo

“The Tenczyn castle dates from the 14th century and it was built as a defensive edifice by Andrzej Toporczyk who after some time took the name of Tenczyński - after the name of the place. For many years the castle was a source of power of the family who played an important part in the politics of old Poland.”

Marek Żukow-Karczewski (1961) Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist

Tenczyn - a "Bastille"-type castle of the Tenczyński family, "Aura" 2, 1990-02, p. 19-21. http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-7ab5a4ef-bee9-490b-8838-4917699dfedc?q=d88195b-abee-4385-bd61-43f313e62483$6&qt=IN_PAGE

Tupac Shakur photo
Tom Hiddleston photo
Tom Hiddleston photo
Michael Jackson photo
Osamu Dazai photo
Louis Tomlinson photo

“One time, Niall sat on the floor for hours trying to find a way of putting his M&M's in alphabetical order.”

Louis Tomlinson (1991) English pop singer

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5834782.Louis_Tomlinson

Marek Żukow-Karczewski 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
Marek Żukow-Karczewski photo

“The Krzyżtopór castle which was built in the 17th century belongs to the most splendid Polish buildings of the defensive and palatial character. The castle was famous for its design which accounted for the principles of the division of time (4 towers, 12 large halls, 52 rooms and 365 windows).”

Marek Żukow-Karczewski (1961) Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist

Krzyżtopór - lordly fortress belonging to the Ossoliński family at Ujazd, "Aura" 7, 1989-07, p. 20-22. http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-10431a86-d55f-41c2-a32b-a56f6d26570e?q=fb98c219-0d8f-4b9e-88ea-9c0f94821cd5$5&qt=IN_PAGE

Richard Ramirez photo
Cornelius Keagon photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Michael Jackson photo

“Michael Jackson: There's a time for this, and this you should not do. You should not go out and say, 'Oh he's Jacko'. I'm not a "Jacko."”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

I'm "Jackson".
Televised Interview with Barbara Walters(1998)

Tom Hiddleston photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Jack London photo

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

Jack London (1876–1916) American author, journalist, and social activist

The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1.
Also included in Jack London’s Tales of Adventure, ed. Irving Shepard, Introduction, p. vii (1956)

Michael Jackson photo
Jack London photo

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

Jack London (1876–1916) American author, journalist, and social activist

Variant: "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." also mentioned as Jack London quote in Ian Fleming book You Only Live Twice (1964), Ch. 21 : Orbit
Source: San Francisco Bulletin in 1916. Also included as an introduction to a compilation of Jack London short stories in 1956.

Tupac Shakur photo
Golda Meir photo

“When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.”

Golda Meir (1898–1978) former prime minister of Israel

Press conference in London (1969), as quoted in A Land of Our Own : An Oral Autobiography (1973) edited by Marie Syrkin, p. 242
Variant: When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.

Freddie Mercury photo
Nikola Tesla photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Bob Marley photo

“The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

Variant: The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.

Vincent Van Gogh photo
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman photo

“This time the struggle is for our freedom, this time the struggle is for our independence! Joy bangla!”

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975) Bengali revolutionary, founder ("father") of Bangladesh

Quote, This time the struggle is for our freedom (1971)

Freddie Mercury photo
Frédéric Chopin photo

“Time is still the best critic, and patience the best teacher.”

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer

As quoted in Chopin : Pianist and Teacher as Seen by His Pupils.
Source: Chopin : Pianist and Teacher as Seen by His Pupils (1986) by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Roy Howat, Naomi Shohet, and Krysia Osostowicz, p. 23

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo
Harry Styles photo
Chris Evans (actor) photo
Amos Oz photo
Jack Kerouac photo

“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Sometimes credited to Jack Kerouac, from his book The Dharma Bums. It is not a quote by Kerouac. It first appeared as a very brief description of The Dharma Bums in Esquire's list of "The 80 Best Books Every Man Should Read" in 2010: http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g96/80-books/?slide=71. It was later copied by Kilburn Hall in his list of 30 "Books and Authors Every Man Should Read" which he first posted online in 2012: https://kilburnhall.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/the-books-and-authors-every-man-should-read/
Misattributed

Terry Pratchett photo

“Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.”

Source: Small Gods

Martha C. Nussbaum photo

“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

Freddie Mercury photo

“Led Zeppelin is the greatest. Robert Plant is one of the most original vocalists of our time. As a rock band they deserve the kind of success they're getting.”

Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) British singer, songwriter and record producer

As quoted in "Queen's Freddie Mercury Shopping For An Image In London" by Scott Cohen in Circus Magazine (April 1975).

Tyler Joseph photo
Keanu Reeves photo
Lionel Messi photo
J. Cole photo

“Fool me one time, shame on you. Fool me twice, can't put the blame on you. Fool me three times, fuck the peace sign. Load the chopper, let it rain on you.”

J. Cole (1985) American Song Writer, Rapper and former Pro Basketball Player, From Fayetteville, North Carolina

Source: Song No Role Modelz

Charles Manson photo
Nikola Tesla photo
Osamu Dazai photo
Corrie ten Boom photo
Yoko Ono photo

“Each time we don't say what we wanna say, we're dying.”

Yoko Ono (1933) Japanese artist, author, and peace activist
Selena Gomez photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Marie Curie photo

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

Marie Curie (1867–1934) French-Polish physicist and chemist

As quoted in Our Precarious Habitat (1973) by Melvin A. Benarde, p. v

Adolf Hitler photo

“While the Zionists try to make the rest of the World believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim. It doesn't even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organisation for their international world swindler, endowed with its own sovereign rights and removed from the intervention of other states: a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.
It is a sign of their rising confidence and sense of security that at a time when one section is still playing the German, French-man, or Englishman, the other with open effrontery comes out as the Jewish race.”

1920s, Zweites Buch (1928)
Source: Mein Kampf
Context: Jewry is a Folk with a racial core that is not wholly unitary. Nevertheless, as a Folk, it has special intrinsic characteristics which separate it from all other Folks living on the globe. Jewry is not a religious community, but the religious bond between Jews; rather is in reality the momentary governmental system of the Jewish Folk. The Jew has never had a territorially bounded State of his own in the manner of Aryan States. Nevertheless, his religious community is a real State, since it guarantees the preservation, the increase and the future of the Jewish Folk. But this is solely the task of the State. That the Jewish State is subject to no territorial limitation, as is the case with Aryan States, is connected with the character of the Jewish Folk, which is lacking in the productive forces for the construction and preservation of its own territorial State.

Tennessee Williams photo
Vladimir Nabokov photo
Jeff Buckley photo
Charles Bukowski photo

“You have to die a few times before you can really
live.”

Variant: You have to die a few times before you actually live.
Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Bob Marley photo
Marie Curie photo
Stephen Hawking photo
Lemmy Kilmister photo
Sylvia Plath photo
Hunter S. Thompson photo
Muhammad Ali photo
Meryl Streep photo

“I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me. I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate. I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty and cheap praise. I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance. I do not adjust either to popular gossiping. I hate conflict and comparisons. I believe in a world of opposites and that’s why I avoid people with rigid and inflexible personalities. In friendship I dislike the lack of loyalty and betrayal. I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement. Exaggerations bore me and I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals. And on top of everything I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.”

Meryl Streep (1949) American actress

Misattributed to Meryl Streep (and widely disseminated on the Internet as of August/September 2014), this quote is allegedly a translation of a text by the author José Micard Teixeira, the original of which begins (in Portuguese): "Já não tenho paciência para algumas coisas, não porque me tenha tornado arrogante..."
Misattributed

Alyson Hannigan photo

“I just don't feel the need to swallow all the time, I only do it because I have to, because, like, saliva's gross or something, but I don't see it that way. It's just spit, what's the big deal? I really don't care.”

Alyson Hannigan (1974) American actress

When asked why she doesn't swallow her saliva very often after being asked if she was sick and she said she wasn't.

Jordan Peterson photo
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky photo
Selena Gomez photo
Taylor Swift photo

“Every time you smile, I smile
And every time you shine, I'll shine for you.”

Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter

Jump Then Fall, Fearless: Platinum Edition (2009).
Song lyrics

John Lydon photo
Raphael photo

“Time is a vindictive bandit to steal the beauty of our former selves.”

Raphael (1483–1520) Italian painter and architect

Quote from: 1001 quotations to inspire you before you die; Quintessence Editions Ltd., 2016, ISBN 978-1-84403-895-4

Vangelis photo

“For every album I’ve ever made, I’ve written many times more music than has actually been released, and the way I choose which music appears is almost totally random, but one thing I have never done is to make music for the sake of commercialism”

Vangelis (1943) Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock, and orchestral music

1984
Context: On albums and commercialism: "For every album I’ve ever made, I’ve written many times more music than has actually been released, and the way I choose which music appears is almost totally random, but one thing I have never done is to make music for the sake of commercialism... I don’t think it’s possible to guarantee commercial success for an album anyway, because nobody really knows what is commercial and what isn’t. Even if I went out of my way to make an album that was more accessible to the public, that would not guarantee its commercial success".

“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really.”

The Sheltering Sky (1949)
Context: Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

Erich von Manstein photo

“He had utter disdain for the Nazis and had no time for their racial purity agenda.”

Erich von Manstein (1887–1973) German general

Nuremberg Trial transcripts