Time doesn’t stop for anything or anyone.. There are even those who say that it is the best unit of measurement, not in vain in space distances are measured with time values (light years).
We all would have liked to be able to stop time sometime in life, to enjoy more of a day of rest, of our loved ones or simply a moment of those who only live once.
Phrases about time (and reflections)
Although we cannot stop time, what we can do is read and reflect with philosophers and thinkers on how they have learned to live with the passing of this and the passing of time.
In the text you’ll read below you will find the 80 best famous phrases about the passage of time. We hope that they will help you to have a broader vision of how we should deal with it.
1. Time at the time and patience at the distance. (Author unknown)
Being patient everything comes in its time, patience is a great virtue.
2. A man who dares to waste an hour of his time has not discovered the value of life. (Charles Darwin)
Our time is limited and we must not lose a single minute.
If you love life, do not waste time, for time is what life is made of. (Bruce Lee)
The time available to our life is a resource that we must know how to manage.
4. The time you’ve spent with your rose is what makes it important. (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
Giving time to something makes it important in our life, because it is a time that will not recover.
5. Time is an illusion. (Albert Einstein)
Our perception of time is limited to our senses and our ability to perceive it.
6. It’s never too late to be who you want to be. There’s no time limit. (Eric Roth)
As long as you have time, you can still do what you wanted to do.
7. If you spend too much time thinking about something, you’ll never make it. (Bruce Lee)
Acting is also important because at some point you have to take action.
8. What we can do is decide what to do with the time we’ve been given. (J. R. R. Tolkien)
Our ability to decide how to manage our time does not provide control of our lives.
9. Books have a unique way of stopping time at a particular moment. (Dave Eggers)
When we immerse ourselves in reading we lose the perception of the passing of time.
10. All great achievements take time. (Maya Angelou)
Great deeds often require a great deal of time and effort to be accomplished.
11. There are times when I want to be able to turn back the clock and make all the sadness go away, but I feel that if I did, all the happiness would also go away. (Nicholas Sparks)
The good and bad things in life often alternate and if we go backwards we lose both.
12. Time is a boss who gives everyone the same opportunities. Every human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. (Denis Waitley)
Time is the same for all living beings, and what we do with it is what differentiates us.
13. Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you can’t get more time. (Jim Rohn)
Time is a gift and it’s finite, once we’ve exhausted it we won’t be able to get it back.
14. What you see as valuable is not time but a point that stands out in time: the now. That’s valuable. (Ekhart Tolle)
The most valuable moment of time in our lives is now, because that is where we really have the capacity to act.
15. My favorite things in life don’t cost money. It is very clear that the most valuable resource we all have is time. (Steve Jobs)
Steve Jobs, before he left, left us great phrases like this.
16. People won’t have time for you if you’re always angry or complaining. (Stephen Hawking)
Time is too valuable to be wasted on toxic attitudes… let’s learn to be happier!
17. Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia. (Charles M. Schulz)
When a new day begins for you, it has already begun for many other people.
18. Most people spend more time and energy around problems than trying to solve them. (Henry Ford)
Turning problems around is often a hobby that does not lead us to really tackle them.
19. Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. (George Orwell)
With our actions we control our lives, and our time management dictates where it will take us.
20. Time changes everything, except something about us that is always surprised by change. (Thomas Hardy)
Our ability to surprise ourselves is something we carry with us throughout our lives.
21. It’s about being here now, which is what’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very deceptive thing. (George Harrison)
Living in the now is something we don’t usually do because of the problems or worries that life brings, but it’s the only thing we can do to try to solve them.
22. Patience and time do more than strength or passion. (Jean de La Fontaine)
With time and patience you get everything in life, it’s something we can call dedication.
23. You can delay, but time will not. (Benjamin Franklin)
Time will not stand still in front of anyone and may lead you to miss unique opportunities in life.
24. If you find some way or a way to live second by second, then you will live forever (Lauren Oliver)
As long as we live the moment we can really say that we are living life to the fullest, because we enjoy every second.
25. There is enough time, but not enough. (Charles W. Chesnutt)
Every second of our life is as valuable as the previous one, and the same as the next.
26. The only bad thing about immortality is that it tends to last forever… (Herb Caen)
Immortality is a dream that many people share, but if it were to happen we would also be aware that it can be lonely.
27. The past always looks better than it was. It’s more than nice, since he’s not here. (Finley Peter Dunne)
An internal mechanism of the brain called declinism makes us tend to remember always more the good moments of the past than those that were not so good.
Old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Francis Bacon)
The passing of time can help us to improve as individuals.
29. Work is hard, distractions are abundant and time is short. (Adam Hochschild)
Time passes quickly, and when we’re busy it seems to accelerate.
30. Time was God’s first creation. (Walter Lang)
With the beginning of time, creation begins.
31. We must use time as a tool, not as a sofa. (John F. Kennedy)
Let’s take advantage of time and not waste it for laziness.
32. One today is worth two mornings. (Benjamin Franklin)
Let’s not put off until tomorrow what we can do today.
33. If you could kill time without hurting eternity… (Henry David Thoreau)
Existence is not possible without a time base, with time everything begins and ends.
34. There’s more to life than simply increasing its speed. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Knowing how to stop to reflect makes us more aware of the present and how to live it.
35. Punctuality is the virtue of the bored. (Evelyn Waugh)
The unpunctual is usually so because of the excess of projects it carries, and the punctual because of the absence of them. But it is also a question of respect and knowing how to organize time.
36. I must rule the clock, it will not rule itself. (Golda Meir)
Golda Meir tells us about our ability to manage time and the control we must exercise over it.
37. When time is wasted, eternity begins. (Helen Hunt Jackson)
The end of days begins when we run out of time.
38. Time is the currency of your life. Be careful not to let other people pay for you. (Carl Sandburg)
Let’s not waste our time on people who aren’t worth it, because we’ll never get it back.
39. We must use time creatively. (Martin Luther King Jr)
What we build in life is limited by our time.
40. Do you know that old age can come with grace, strength and fascination? (Walt Whitman)
Over the years we can really find ourselves and grow as people.
41. Until you value your time, you can’t do anything with it. (M. Scott Peck)
The first thing we must tackle in order not to waste our time is to be aware of its limitation.
42. The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we have is now. (Bill Cosby)
The only thing we can be sure of in life is the moment we are living in this instant, because the past is past and the future is uncertain.
43. Stop acting like life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is gone. The future is not guaranteed. (Wayne Dyer)
We tend to think that our time is inexhaustible and that leads us not to take advantage of every instant.
44. People who can’t find time for recreation are forced sooner or later to find time for illness. (John Wanamaker)
The end comes to all of us and when it comes we can’t do anything… Let’s live now!
45. Real old age is not wanting to do new things. (Tresiot Elliot)
With the advent of old age our longings for youth die.
46. The value and respect of time determine success or failure. (Malcolm X)
Giving time the value it deserves makes us more efficient in its use.
47. There is no advantage in rushing through life. (Masashi Kishimoto)
Wanting to live too fast makes us unaware of the small and wonderful things we may encounter.
48. Enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to be dead. (Hans Christian Andersen)
Our life is unique and we must squeeze it to the max.
49. Time, which sees everything, gives each his place. (Sophocles)
As time goes by, our decisions take us to the place where we should be.
50. Men talk about killing time, while time in silence kills them. (Dion Boucicault)
Wasting time is something we should never do, let’s learn to make better use of it.
51. Five minutes is enough to dream a lifetime. (Mario Benedetti)
The good moments are scarce and are those that we remember most with the passing of the years.
52. Old age and the passing of time teach all things. (Sophocles)
Maturity allows us to grow individually and realize ourselves.
53. There’s a time for everything, even when there’s nowhere to go. (Tennessee Williams)
Boredom is something we learn as children, and it teaches us how to manage our time.
54. Everything happens to everyone. Sooner or later, there’s plenty of time. (George Bernard Shaw)
In the end everything comes good and bad, because time passes inexorably.
55. Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t expect anything outside yourself to make you happy in the future. Think about how precious is the time you have to spend, whether at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. (Earl Nightingale)
Our ability to be happy is linked to our ability to live in the present.
56. Healing is a matter of time, but sometimes it is also a matter of opportunity. (Hippocrates)
Time heals our wounds, as long as we really want to heal them and allow ourselves to do so.
57. Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. (Bil Keane)
Bill Keane explains why we use the present term, no doubt something to remember.
58. Take the time to be nice and say ‘thank you’. (Zig Ziglar)
Giving thanks to our fellow human beings improves your passing through time and that of others.
There are no secrets that time does not reveal. (Jean Racine)
Time makes that which was not evident to us we can, with perspective, see.
60. It’s scary enough to know how fast time passes. (James Wan)
With the passing of time we realize that we have a limited amount of it and that terrifies us, but it also makes us more consistent with its use.
61. We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time. (Vince Lombardi)
Games and sports practices also often have a time limit, which can lead to victory or defeat depending on their use.
62. Health is what makes you feel that now is the best time of the year. (Franklin Pierce Adams)
Our state of health allows us to take full advantage of our time or not, we lived longer as long as there is health!
63. Silence is as deep as eternity, shallow speech as time. (Thomas Carlyle)
Silence will accompany us from the moment of our death, let us say today what we cannot say tomorrow because there will be no turning back.
64. There will come a time when the world will be silent and the only sound there will be will be that of your heart. (Sarah Dessen)
Our opinion is the most important for ourselves, learning to listen to ourselves is very important not to let ourselves be carried away by others.
65. It is said that time heals all wounds. I don’t agree with that. The wounds remain. With the passage of time, the mind covers them with scars and the pain diminishes, but never disappears. (Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy)
That which once marked us will never be forgotten, but with the passage of time we will learn to live with it.
66. Yesterday was gone. Tomorrow hasn’t come yet. We only have today. Let’s get started. (Mother Teresa)
Mother Teresa of Calcutta leaves us this phrase to encourage us to live in the present, to live in the now.
67. They say that time heals all wounds, but that means that the source of pain is finite. (Cassandra Clare)
When the time comes, what worries us ceases to be important and allows us to move forward in our lives.
68. Unfortunately, the clock keeps ticking, the hours keep passing. The past is growing. The future withdraws. Possibilities decrease, repentance piles up. (Haruki Murakami)
Let’s live in the now so that we won’t regret tomorrow what we don’t do today.
69. All we have left is now. We can learn from the past but we can’t relive it. We can hope for the future but we don’t know if there is one. (George Harrison)
Another great phrase of why the present moment is the most precious in our lives. All The Beatles members live or have lived exciting lives because they knew they had to and wanted to live them.
70. Do not waste time with anger, regrets, worries and resentments. Life is too short to be unhappy. (Roy T. Bennett)
Toxic feelings should have no place in our lives, being happy and making others happy will get us where we want to be.
71. Top 15 things money can’t buy: time, happiness, inner peace, integrity, love, character, manners, health, respect, morals, trust, patience, class, common sense and dignity. (Roy T. Bennett)
Time, feelings and values are not bought with money, we have to earn them by growing as people.
72. Sometimes, I feel that if you observe things, if you sit still and observe the world in front of you, I would swear that time stops for a second, only for a second. (Lauren Oliver)
When we are at peace with ourselves we may lose the perception of time and almost notice for a second that it stops.
73. A day you spend with someone you love can change everything. (Mitch Alborn)
Love is something with which we never waste our time, so how better to spend time than with the person we love?
74. Being with you and being without you is the only way I can measure time. (Jorge Luis Borges)
For a person in love, time spent without a loved one is lost time.
75. My past is all I failed at. (Fernando Pessoa)
If we fail in the past does not mean that we should fail in the present because it is a new opportunity.
76. Muddy water clears up best when left alone. (Alan W. Watts)
Alan Watts tells us with his words that time puts everything in its place, all reason.
77. The more you focus on time, whether past or future, the more you miss the now, which is the most valuable thing there is. (unknown author)
Fantasizing with a better past or longing for an unreal future makes us not focus on our present which is where we really live.
78. There will be time, there will be time. (T. S. Elliot)
Everything arrives at its time, we should not rush things because it can lead us not to reach our goals.
79. The future came and went in the discouraging way in which futures pass. (Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman)
The future arrives and passes because time never stops, let’s live the present because in the future will be already past.
80. People assume that time is a strict progression of cause and effect. But in reality, from a non-linear and non-subjective point of view, time is a great vacillating ball that comes and goes. (Steven Moffat)
Our perception of the course of time depends on how we want to approach it, because our perspective of the passage of time and how we should manage it can be very personal.