Believe that each day that shines on you is your last.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
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
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
Give me insight into today and you may have the antique and future worlds.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The obscurest epoch is to-day.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present—which seldom happens to us.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
There’s no present. There’s only the immediate future and the recent past.
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-up Comedian
Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Live in the present. The past is gone; the future is unknown—but the present is real, and your opportunities are now. You must see these opportunities; they must be real for you. The catch is that they can’t seem real if your mind is buried in past failures, if you keep reliving old mistakes, old guilts, old tragedies. Fight your way above the many inevitable Traumatizations of your ego, escape damnation by the past, and look to the opportunities of the present. I don’t mean some vague moment in the present—next week or next month, perhaps. I mean today, this minute.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
Use your precious moments to live life fully every single second of every single day.
—Marcia Wieder
Today is yesterday’s pupil.
—Common Proverb
No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy the sunlight today, mix good cheer with friends today, enjoy it and bless God for it. Do not look back on happiness—or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not let yourself be cheated out of it.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them; and the evils bear patiently and sweetly; for only this day is ours; we are dead to yesterday, and not born tomorrow.
—Jeremy Taylor
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
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
He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
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
Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.
—Corita Kent (1918–86) American Artist, Graphic Artist, Educator
Labour not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth the present moment, throweth away all that he hath. As the arrow passeth through the heart, while the warrior knew not that it was coming; so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it.
—Akhenaten (1378BCE–1348BCE) Egyptian Monarch, Religious Leader
When we come into the present, we begin to feel the life around us again, but we also encounter whatever we have been avoiding. We must have the courage to face whatever is present—our pain, our desires, our grief, our loss, our secret hopes our love—everything that moves us most deeply.
—Jack Kornfield (b.1945) American Buddhist Teacher
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
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
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
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
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.
—Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) American Christian Science Religious Leader, Humanitarian, Writer
Each present joy or sorrow seems the chief.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
We cannot overstate our debt to the past, but the moment has the supreme claim.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. In the same manner present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges, and intent upon future advantages. Life, however short, is made shorter by waste of time.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
We convince by our presence.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success. Never again. There is a better way.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
The future is purchased by the present.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
Look well to this day, for it, and it alone is life.
—Unknown
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
Let any man examine his thoughts, and he will find them ever occupied with the past or the future. We scarcely think at all of the present; or if we do, it is only to borrow the light which it gives for regulating the future. The present is never our object; the past and the present we use as means; the future only is our end. Thus, we never live, we only hope to live.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
It is a mark of soulfulness to be present in the here and now. When we are present, we are not fabricating inner movies. We are seeing what is before us.
—John Bradshaw (1933–2016) American Motivational Speaker
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
Bad times, hard times-this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
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
He who governed the world before I was born shall take care of it likewise when I am dead. My part is to improve the present moment.
—John Wesley (1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian
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
Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist