Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
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
The flesh endures the storms of the present alone, the mind those of the past and future as well.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The art of life is to live in the present moment, and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God Himself.
—Emmet Fox (1886–1951) Irish-American New Thought Leader
You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection.
—Eckhart Tolle (b.1948) German Spiritual Writer, Public Speaker, Spiritual Teacher
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
—Abbie Hoffman (1936–89) American Political Activist, Anarchist
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
Seize from every moment its unique novelty, and do not prepare your joys.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
The future is made of the same stuff as the present.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Work accomplished means little. It is in the past. What we all want is the glorious and living present.
—Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
And now, Lord, what wait I for?
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
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
You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.
—Harriet Martineau (1802–76) English Sociologist, Economist, Essayist, Philosopher
I always say to myself, what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
One today is worth two tomorrows; what I am to be, I am now becoming.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
It’s not that “today is the first day of the rest of my life,” but that now is all there is of my life.
—Hugh Prather (b.1938) American Christian Author, Minister, Counselor
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
You do well to have visions of a better life than of every day, but it is the life of every day from which the elements of a better life must come.
—Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) Belgian Poet, Playwright, Essayist
It is now and in this world that we must live.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
I always remember that I have everything I need to enjoy my here and now, unless I am letting my consciousness be dominated by demands and expectations based on the dead past or the imagined future.
—Ken Keyes Jr. (1921–95) American Personal Growth Author
We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
‘Twere too absurd to slight for the hereafter, the day’s delight.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much: if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, and—which is more—you’ll be a man, my son.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
The time is always right to do what’s right.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow’s joy is possible only if today’s makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
We never care for the present moment. We are so foolish that we wander in times that are not ours, and never think of the only time that belongs to us; we are so frivolous that we dream of the days that are not, and thoughtlessly pass over the only one that exists. We never live, but hope to live; and since we are always preparing to be happy it is inevitable that we shall never be so.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian