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Quotes about time

261 quotes from 169 people

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Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter⁠—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further … And one fine morning —
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter IXIn context
- Hope
Don’t you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you’re not taking advantage of it?
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961The Sun Also Rises (1926), Book I, Chapter 2In context
- Life & Death
A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired, but then time is your misfortune
William Faulkner1897–1962The Sound and the Fury (1929), June Second, 1910 (2 of 4)In context
- Luck
There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it.
H. G. Wells1866–1946The Time Machine (1895), Chapter IIn context
- Science
“People come⁠—they stay for a while, they flourish, they build⁠—and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I’ve been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be.”
Kenneth Grahame1859–1932The Wind in the Willows (1908), Chapter IVIn context
- Animals
- History
Yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
Kahlil Gibran1883–1931The Prophet (1923), On TimeIn context
On the face of this aged queen of our cathedrals, by the side of a wrinkle, one always finds a scar. Tempus edax, homo edacior; which I should be glad to translate thus: time is blind, man is stupid.
Victor Hugo1802–1885The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Book Third, Chapter IIn context
- History
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Macbeth (c. 1606), Act I, Scene III, spoken by BanquoIn context
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:
Who covers faults, at last shame derides.
William Shakespeare1564–1616King Lear (c. 1606), Act I, Scene I, spoken by CordeliaIn context
- Truth & Lies
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And, ere a man hath power to say, ‘Behold!’
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
William Shakespeare1564–1616A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595), Act I, Scene I, spoken by LysanderIn context
- Love
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
William Shakespeare1564–1616A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595), Act II, Scene I, spoken by PuckIn context
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
William Shakespeare1564–1616A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595), Act V, Scene I, spoken by TheseusIn context
What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Tempest (c. 1611), Act I, Scene II, spoken by ProsperoIn context
What’s past is prologue
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Tempest (c. 1611), Act II, Scene I, spoken by AntonioIn context
- History
O time, thou must untangle this, not I,
It is too hard a knot for me t’untie!
William Shakespeare1564–1616Twelfth Night (c. 1601), Act II, Scene II, spoken by ViolaIn context