Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Quotes
In time history must become a fairy tale—it will become again what it was in the beginning.
—Novalis, c. 1798If both what is before and what is after are in this same “now,” things which happened ten thousand years ago would be simultaneous with what has happened today, and nothing would be before or after anything else.
—Aristotle, c. 330 BCI’ve been on a calendar, but never on time.
—Marilyn Monroe, 1962I look for the end of the future, but it never ceases to arrive.
—Zhuangzi, c. 325 BCA watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.
—Jane Austen, 1814Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.
—Cormac McCarthy, 1992Time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters, but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.
—Edith Wharton, 1905Time is a veil interposed between God and ourselves, as our eyelid is between our eye and the light.
—François-René de Chateaubriand, c. 1820Our allotted time is the passing of a shadow.
—Book of Wisdom, c. 100 BCThe past is always tense and the future, perfect.
—Zadie Smith, 2000Do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit.
—Ptahhotep, c. 2350 BCThis is Year Zero.
—Pol Pot, 1975