The future is purchased by the present.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Devote each day to the object then in time, and every evening will find something done.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
We shall be better prepared for the future if we see how terrible, how doomed the present is.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
Do today’s duty, fight today’s temptation; do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Believe that each day that shines on you is your last.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.
—Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.
—Denis Waitley (b.1933) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
In the midst of hopes and cares, of apprehensions and of disquietude, regard every day that dawns upon you as if it was to be your last; then super-added hours, to the enjoyment of which you had not looked forward, will prove an acceptable boon.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry. Work while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow. One today is worth two tomorrows; never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
We were wise indeed, could we discern truly the signs of our own time; and by knowledge of its wants and advantages, wisely adjust our own position in it. Let us, instead of gazing idly into the obscure distance, look calmly around us, for a little, on the perplexed scene where we stand. Perhaps, on a more serious inspection, something of its perplexity will disappear, some of its distinctive characters and deeper tendencies more clearly reveal themselves; whereby our own relations to it, our own true aims and endeavors in it, may also become clearer.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The obscurest epoch is to-day.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
The second half of the twentieth century is a complete flop.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is.
—Donald Trump (b.1946) American Businessperson, Head of State
Today is yesterday’s pupil.
—Common Proverb
Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other—it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future are not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Try to be happy in this very present moment; and put not off being so to a time to come; as though that time should be of another make from this, which is already come, and is ours.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
If its colors were but fast colors, self-conceit would be a most comfortable quality.—But life is so humbling, mortifying, disappointing to vanity, that a great man’s idea of himself gets washed out of him by the time he is forty.
—Charles Buxton (1823–71) British Politician, Writer
Let us enjoy the fugitive hour. Man has no harbor, time has no shore, it rushes on and carries us with it.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
Today is a king in disguise.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
We convince by our presence.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Today is life—the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Look well to this day, for it, and it alone is life.
—Unknown
The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
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
Today must not borrow from tomorrow.
—German Proverb
There exists only the present instant… a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence.
—Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1327) German Christian Mystic
There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.
—Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Russian-born American Composer, Musician
We can live forever, a minute at a time.
—Unknown
The pleasure we derive from the representation of the present is due, not only to the beauty it can be clothed in, but also to its essential quality of being the present.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Trust no future, howe’er pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act,—act in the living Present! Heart within and God o’erhead.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the over-mastering present.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Every day is just one day.
—Anonymous
Everyman’s life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day.
—Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943) American Author, Critic, Actor
Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
We think very little of time present; we anticipate the future, as being too slow, and with a view to hasten it onward, we recall the past to stay it as too swiftly gone. We are so thoughtless, that we thus wander through the hours which are not here, regardless only of the moment that is actually our own.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Busy not yourself in looking forward to the events of tomorrow, but those of the days which Providence may assign you neglect not to turn to advantage.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Duty and today are ours, results and futurity belong to God.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
We live in the present, we dream of the future, but we learn eternal truths from the past.
—Soong Mei-ling (1898–2003) First Lady of the Republic of China
This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Now is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream. You don’t need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach