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
Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
—Annie Dillard (b.1945) Essayist, Novelist, Poet, Naturalist, Mystic
No man is quick enough to enjoy life to the full.
—Spanish Proverb
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.
—Larry McMurtry (b.1936) American Novelist, Screenwriter
You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
They say that time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
—Lama Surya Das (b.1950) American Buddhist Scholar, Teacher
Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves.
—George Madison Adams (1837–1920) American Politician, Military Leader
Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.
—Chinese Proverb
Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
We die daily. Happy those who daily come to life as well.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
Enjoy yourself–it’s later than you think.
—Chinese Proverb
Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies!
Life’s a short summer, man a flower;
He dies – alas! how soon he dies.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.
—Scottish Proverb
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
You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.
—Unknown
There are many To-morrows, my Love, my Love, –
There is only one To-day.
—Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) American Poet, Journalist
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
All the windows of my heart I open to the day.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
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
Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow.
—James Dean (1931–55) American Film Actor
I wish I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours.
—Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) Russian-born American Art Historian
We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.
—Japanese Proverb
Do not take life too seriously—you will never get out of it alive.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
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
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
A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he has lost no time.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
—Diane Ackerman (b.1948) American Poet, Essayist, Naturalist
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around for a while you just might miss it.
—Movie: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Most of us spend our lives as if we had another one in the bank.
—Unknown
though love be a day and life be nothing, it shall not stop kissing.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
The future has a way of arriving unannounced.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
We are always getting ready to live, but never living.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
—Jack London (1876–1916) American Novelist
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
Fields can lie fallow, but we can’t; we have less time.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet