Now is the time to get drunk! To stop being the martyred slaves of time, to get absolutely drunk—on wine, poetry, or on virtue, as you please.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Life is always walking up to us and saying, “Come on in, the living’s fine,” and what do we do? Back off and take its picture.
—Russell Baker (1925–2019) American Journalist, Humorist, Television Host
How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed.
—John Tillotson
When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.
—Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) Belgian Poet, Playwright, Essayist
Every second is of infinite value.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
We do not do what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.
—Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879–1958) American Novelist
Later never exists.
—Unknown
though love be a day and life be nothing, it shall not stop kissing.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Lost time is never found again.
—Common Proverb
One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
All the windows of my heart I open to the day.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Death twitches my ear. “Live,” he says, “I am coming.”
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Life is short, God’s way of encouraging a bit of focus.
—Robert Brault
There are but three events in a man’s life: birth, life, and death. He is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
No man is quick enough to enjoy life to the full.
—Spanish Proverb
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
—Stephen Vincent Benet (1898–1943) American Poet
Every day of our lives we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.
—Chinese Proverb
Present your family and friends with their eulogies now – they won’t be able to hear how much you love them and appreciate them from inside the coffin.
—Anonymous
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet