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Time: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight! Make me a child again, just for to-night!— ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN — Rock Me to
Sleep. Who well lives, long lives: for this age of ours Should not be numbered by years, daies, and hours.— DU BARTAS — Divine Weekes and Workes. Second Week. Fourth Day. Bk. II.
Think not thy time short in this world, since the world itself is not long. The created world is but a small parenthesis in eternity, and a short interposition, for a time, between such a state of duration as was before it and may be after it.— SIR THOMAS BROWNE — Christian Morals. Pt. III. XXIX.
Time, which strengthens Friendship, weakens Love.— DE LA BRUYÈRE — The Characters or Manners of the Present Age. Ch. IV.
Nae man can tether time or tide.— BURNS — Tam o' Shanter.
Some wee short hour ayont the twal.— BURNS — Death and Dr. Hornbook.
How slowly time creeps till my Phœbe returns! While amidst the soft zephyr's cool breezes I burn. Methinks if I knew whereabouts he would tread I could breathe on his wings and 'twould melt down the lead. Fly swifter, ye minutes, bring hither my dear, And rest so much longer for 't when she is here.— JOHN BYROM — A Pastoral.
O Time! the beautifier of the dead, Adorner of the ruin, comforter And only healer when the heart hath bled- Time! the corrector where our judgments err, The test of truth, love, -sole philosopher, For all besides are sophists, from thy thrift Which never loses though it doth defer- Time, the avenger! unto thee I lift My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto IV. St. 130.
Out upon Time! it will leave no more Of the things to come than the things before! Out upon Time! who forever will leave But enough of the past for the future to grieve.— BYRON — Siege of Corinth. St. 18.
Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? It doth; but actions are our epochs; mine Have made my days and nights imperishable, Endless, and all alike.— BYRON — Manfred. Act II. Sc. 1.
Time writes no wrinkle on thy azure brow- Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto IV. St. 182.
When Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto III. St. 22.
Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him In soul and aspect as in age, years steal Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb: And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto III. St. 8.
The more we live, more brief appear Our life's succeeding stages; A day to childhood seems a year, And years like passing ages.— CAMPBELL — A Thought Suggested by the
New Year. That great mystery of TIME, were there no other; the illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean tide, on which we and all the Universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not: this is forever very literally a miracle; a thing to strike us dumb, -for we have no word to speak about it.— CARLYLE — Heroes and Hero Worship.
Lecture I. Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.— EARL OF CHESTERFIELD — Letters to his
Son. Dec. 26, 1749. No! no arresting the vast wheel of time, That round and round still turns with onward might, Stern, dragging thousands to the dreaded night Of an unknown hereafter.— CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE — Sonnet.
The Course of Time. *** So often do the spirits Of great events stride on before the events, And in to-day already walks to-morrow.— COLERIDGE — The Death of Wallenstein. Act V. Sc. 1.
Touch us gently, Time! Let us glide adown thy stream Gently, as we sometimes glide Through a quiet dream!— BARRY CORNWALL — A Petition to Time.
His time's forever, everywhere his place.— ABRAHAM COWLEY — Friendship in Absence. St. 3.
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal Now does always last.— ABRAHAM COWLEY — Davideis. Bk. I. L. 361.
Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound.— COWPER — The Task. Bk. IV. L. 211.
See Time has touched me gently in his race, And left no odious furrows in my face.— CRABBE — Tales of the Hall. Bk. XVII. The Widow. St. 3.
Swift speedy Time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.— SAMUEL DANIEL — Delia.
But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day and the race a life.— BENJ. DISRAELI — Sybil. Bk. I. Ch. II.
Time, to the nation as to the individual, is nothing absolute; its duration depends on the rate of thought and feeling.— DRAPER — History of the Intellectual Development of Europe. Vol. I. Ch. I.
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.— EMERSON — Society and Solitude. Work
and Days. I count my time by times that I meet thee; These are my yesterdays, my morrows, noons, And nights, these are my old moons and my new moons. Slow fly the hours, fast the hours flee, If thou art far from or art near to me: If thou art far, the bird's tunes are no tunes; If thou art near, the wintry days are Junes.— R. W. GILDER — The New Day. Pt. IV.
Sonnet VI. Rich with the spoils of time.— GRAY — Elegy in a Country Churchyard. St. 13.
I made a posy while the day ran by; Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie My life within this band. But time did beckon to the flowers, and they By noon most cunningly did steal away, And wither'd in my hand.— HERBERT — The Temple. Life.
Old Time, in whose banks we deposit our notes, Is a miser who always wants guineas for groats; He keeps all his customers still in arrears By lending them minutes and charging them years.— O. W. HOLMES — Poems of the Class of
, 29. Our Banker. 1874. On me, on me Time and change can heap no more! The painful Past with blighting grief Hath left my heart a wither'd leaf: Time and change can do no more.— RICHARD HENGIST HORNE — Dirge.
How short our happy days appear! How long the sorrowful!— JEAN INGELOW — The Mariner's Cave. St. 38.
To the true teacher, time's hour-glass should still run gold-dust.— DOUGLAS JERROLD — Specimens of
Jerrold's Wit. Time. And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Prologue on Opening the Drury Lane Theatre. L. 6.
Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven, Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.— SIR WM. JONES — Ode in Imitation of
S. Alcxus. That old bald cheater, Time.— BEN JONSON — The Poetaster. Act I. Sc. 5.
Like wind flies Time 'tween birth and death; Therefore, as long as thou hast breath, Of care for two days hold thee free: The day that was and is to be.— OMAR KHAYYAM — Bodenstedt's trans.
A handful of red sand from the hot clime Of Arab deserts brought, Within this glass becomes the spy of Time, The minister of Thought.— LONGFELLOW — Sand of the Desert in an
Hour-Glass. Alas! it is not till Time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of human passion with, from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.— LONGFELLOW — Hyperion. Bk. IV. Ch. VIII.
Art is Long, and Time is fleeting.— LONGFELLOW — A Psalm of Life. St. 4.
Time has laid his hand Upon my heart, gently, not smiting it, But as a harper lays his open palm Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.— LONGFELLOW — The Golden Legend.
Time is the Life of the Soul.— LONGFELLOW — Hyperion. Bk. II.
C. Ch. VI. Time is a feathered thing, And, whilst I praise The sparkling of thy looks, and call them rays, Takes wing, Leaving behind him as he flies An unperceivèd dimness in thine eyes.— JASPER MAYNE — Time.
However we pass Time, he passes still, Passing away whatever the pastime, And, whether we use him well or ill, Some day he gives us the slip for the last time. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)-The Dead Pope. When time is flown, how it fled It is better neither to ask nor tell, Leave the dead moments to bury their dead. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)-The Wanderer. Bk. IV. Two out of the Crowd. St. 17. Time eftsoon will tumble All of us together like leaves in a gust, Humbled indeed down into the dust.— JOAQUIN MILLER — Fallen Leaves Down into the Dust. St. 5.
Day and night, Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost Shall hold their course, till fire purge all things new.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. XI. L. 898.
Time will run back and fetch the age of gold.— MILTON — Hymn on the Nativity. L. 135.
Time, still as he flies, adds increase to her truth, And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.— EDWARD MOORE — The Happy Marriage.
This day was yesterday to-morrow nam'd: To-morrow shall be yesterday proclaimed: To-morrow not yet come, not far away, What shall to-morrow then be call'd? To-day.— OWEN — To-Day and To-Morrow. Bk. III. L. 50.
These are the times that try men's souls.— THOMAS PAINE — The American Crisis. No. 1.
Let time that makes you homely, make you sage.— PARNELL — An Elegy to an Old Beauty. L. 35.
The present is our own; but while we speak, We cease from its possession, and resign The stage we tread on, to another race, As vain, and gay, and mortal as ourselves.— THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK — Time. L. 9.
Time is lord of thee: Thy wealth, thy glory, and thy name are his. THOMAS LOVE PEACOCk-Tite. L. 71. Time, the foe of man's dominion, Wheels around in ceaseless flight, Scattering from his hoary pinion Shades of everlasting night.— THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK — The Genius of the Thames. Pt. II. St. 42.
His golden locks Time hath to silver turned, O time too swift! Oswiftness never ceasing! His youth 'gainst Time and Age hath ever spurned, But spurned in vain! Youth waneth by increasing.— GEORGE PEELE — Sonnet. Polyhymnia.
Time conquers all, and we must time obey.— POPE — Winter. L. 88.
Years following years steal something ev'ry day. At last they steal us from ourselves away.— POPE — Imitations of Horace. Bk. II. Ep. 2. L. 72.
Expect, but fear not, Death: Death cannot kill, Till Time (that first must seal his patent) will. Would'st thou live long? keep Time in high esteem: Whom gone, if thou canst not recall, redeem.— QUARLES — Hieroglyphics of the Life of
Man. Ep. 6. He briskly and cheerfully asked him how a man should kill time.— RABELAIS — Works. Bk. IV.
и. Ch. LXIII. E'en such is time! which takes in trust Our youth, our joys, and all we have; And pays us naught but age and dust, Which, in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days. And from which grave, and earth, and dust, The Lord will raise me up, I trust.— SIR WALTER RALEIGH — Written in his
Bible. CAYLEY'S Life of Raleigh. Vol. II. Ch. IX. Hour after hour departs, Recklessly flying; The golden time of our hearts Is fast a-dying: O, how soon it will have faded! Joy droops, with forehead shaded; And Memory starts.— JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS — Hour
After Hour. To vanish in the chinks that Time has made.— SAM'L ROGERS — Italy. Pæstum. L.59.
Like a dart the present glances, Silent stands the past sublime. C.— SCHILLER — Proverbs of Confucius.
E. A. Bowring's trans. Threefold the stride of Time, from first to last! Loitering slow, the Future creepeth.— SCHILLER — Sentence of Confucius.
Time. Time flies on restless pinions-constant never. Be constant and thou chainest time forever.— SCHILLER — Epigram.
Time rolls his ceaseless course.— SCOTT — The Lady of the Lake. Canto III. St. 1.
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye, Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock: Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags."— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 21.
Beauty, wit, High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all To envious and calumniating time.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act III. St. 3. L. 171.
Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 146.
'Gainst the tooth of time And razure of oblivion.— Shakespeare — Measure for Measure. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 12.
How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown. Julius Cæsar. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 111. Let's take the instant by the forward top; For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees. The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time Steals ere we can effect them.— Shakespeare — All's Well That Ends Well. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 39.
Make use of time, let not advantage slip; Beauty within itself should not be wasted : Fair flowers that are not gather'd in their prime Rot and consume themselves in little time. Venus and Adonis. L. 129. Minutes, hours, days, months, and years, Pass'd over to the end they were created, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ah, what a life were this!— Shakespeare — Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 38.
O, call back yesterday, bid time return.— Shakespeare — Richard II. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 69.
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out Against the wreckful siege of battering days, When rocks impregnable are not so stout, Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays? O fearful meditation! where, alack, Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid? Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back? Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?— Shakespeare — Sonnet LXV.
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 385.
See the minutes how they run, How many make the hour full complete; How many hours bring about the day; How many days will finish up the year; How many years a mortal man may live.— Shakespeare — Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 25.
So many hours must I take my rest; So many hours must I contemplate. S.— Shakespeare — Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 5. Sc. 5. L. 32.
The end crowns all, And that old common arbitrator, Time, Will one day end it.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act IV. Sc. 5. L. 224.
The whirligig of time brings in his revenges.— Shakespeare — Twelfth Night. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 384.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty's brow.— Shakespeare — Sonnet LX.
Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 372.
Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes; Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act III. Sc. 3.
L, 145, Time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 165.
Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.— Shakespeare — Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 243.
Time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let Time try.— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 203.
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides; Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.— Shakespeare — King Lear. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 283.
Time's the king of men, He's both their parent, and he is their grave, And gives them what he will, not what they crave.— Shakespeare — Pericles. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 45.
Time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. I. Act V. Sc. 4. L. 82.
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 326.
We should hold day with the Antipodes, If you would walk in absence of the sun.— Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1.
What is 't o'clock? L. 127. Upon the stroke of four.— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 4.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time; despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse ever live young.— Shakespeare — Sonnet XIX.
The flood of time is rolling on; We stand upon its brink, whilst they are gone To glide in peace down death's mysterious stream, Have ye done well?— SHELLEY — Revolt of Islam. Canto XII. St. 27.
Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years, Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe Are brackish with the salt of human tears! Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow Claspest the limits of mortality! And sick of prey, yet howling on for more, thy wrecks on its inhospitable shore, Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm, Who shall put forth on thee, Unfathomable sea?— SHELLEY — Time.
For the next inn he spurs amain, In haste alights, and skuds away, But time and tide for no man stay.— W. C. SOMERVILLE — The Sweet-Scented Miser. L. 98.
Time wears all his locks before, Take thou hold upon his forehead; When he flies he turns no more, And behind his scalp is naked. Works adjourn'd have many stays, Long demurs breed new delays.— ROB'T SOUTHWELL — Loss in Delay.
Goe to my Love where she is carelesse layd Yet in her winter's bowere not well awake; Tell her the joyous time will not be staid Unlesse she doe him by the forelock take.— SPENSER — Amoretti. LXX.
Too late I stayed, -forgive the crime; Unheeded flew the hours, How noiseless falls the foot of time That only treads on flowers!— SPENSER — Lines to Lady A. Hamilton.
I see that time divided is never long, and that regularity abridges all things.— ABEL STEVENS — Life of Madame de Staël. Ch. XXXVIII.
Ever eating, never cloying, All-devouring, all-destroying, Never finding full repast, Till I eat the world at last.— SWIFT — On Time.
A wonderful stream is the River Time, As it runs through the realms of Tears, With a faultless rhythm, and a musical rhyme, And a broader sweep, and a surge sublime As it blends with the ocean of Years. S.— BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR — The Long Ago.
He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend: Eternity mourns that. "Tis an ill cure 'Tis an ill cure For life's worst ills to have no time to feel have no time to feel them.— SIR HENRY TAYLOR — Philip Van Artevelde. Act I. Sc. 5.
Come, Time, and teach me many years, I do not suffer in dream; For now so strange do these things seem, Mine eyes have leisure for their tears.— TENNYSON — In Memoriam. Pt. XIII.
Six hours in Sleep, in law's grave study six, Four spend in prayer, the rest on Nature fix. Translation of lines quoted by COKE. Time tries the troth in everything.— TUSSER — Five Hundred Points of Good
Husbandrie. The Author's Epistle. Ch. I. To wind the mighty secrets of the past, And turn the key of time.— HENRY KIRK WHITE — Time. L. 249.
Creed. In records that defy the tooth of time.— YOUNG — The Statesman's
Nought treads so silent as the foot of Time; our Hence we mistake our autumn for our prime. V. prime. C.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire L. 497.
Procrastination is the thief of time: Year after year it steals, till all are fled, moment leaves And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night I. L. 390.
The bell strikes one. We take no note of time But from its loss: to give it then a tongue Is wise in man.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night I. L. 55.
Time is eternity; Pregnant with all eternity can give; Pregnant with all that makes archangels smile. . Who murders Time, he crushes in the birth A power ethereal, only not adorn'd— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 107.
Time wasted is existence, used is life.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 149.
We push time from us, and we wish him back; * * * * * * Life we think long and short; death seek and shun.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 174.
We see time's furrows on another's brow, * * * * * * How few themselves in that just mirror see! Night V.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night V. L. 627.
While man is growing, life is in decrease, the tomb; And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb Our birth is nothing but our death begun.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night V. L. 717.
Opinionum enim commenta delet dies; naturæ judicia confirmat. Time destroys the groundless conceits of men; it confirms decisions founded on reality.— CICERO — De Natura Deorum. II. 2.
O tempora! O mores! O what times are these! what morals!— CICERO — Orationes In Catilinam. I. 2.
Damnosa quid non imminuit dies? What does not destructive time destroy?— HORACE — Carmina. III. 6. 45.
Eheu! fugaces labuntur anni. Alas! the fleeting years are passing away.— HORACE — Carmina. II. 14. 1.
Quidquid sub terrâ est, in apricum proferet ætas; Defodiet condetque nitentia. Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.— HORACE — Epistolæ. 1. 6. 24.
Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes. Each passing year robs us of some possession.— HORACE — Epistolæ. II. 2. 55.
Truditur dies die. One day is pressed on by another.— HORACE — Carmina. II. 18. 15.
Æquo stat fœdare tempus. Time stands with impartial law.— MANILIUS — Astronomica. III. 360.
Volat hora per orbem. The hours fly along in a circle.— MANILIUS — Astronomica. 1. 641.
Caducis Percussu crebro saxa cavantur aquis. Stones are hollowed out by the constant dropping of water.— OVID — Epistolæ Ex Ponto. II. 7. 39.
Labitur occulte, fallitque volubilis ætas, Ut celer admissis labitur amnis aquis. Time steals on and escapes us, like the swift river that glides on with rapid stream.— OVID — Amorum. I. 8. 49.
Temporis ars medicina fere est. Time is generally the best medicine.— OVID — Remedia Amoris. 131.
Tempus edax rerum. Time that devours all things.— OVID — Metamorphoses. XV. 234.
Le temps fuit, et nous traîne avec soi : Le moment où je parle est déjà loin de moi. Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.— BOILEAU — Epîtres. III. 47.
Que pour les malheureux l'heure lentement fuit! How slowly the hours pass to the unhappy.— SAURIN — Blanche et Guiscard. V. 5.
Qu'une nuit paraît longue à la douleur qui veille! How long the night seems to one kept awake by pain.— SAURIN — Blanche et Guiscard. V. 5.
Vingt siècles descendus dans l'éternelle nuit. Y sont sans mouvement, sans lumière et sans bruit. Twenty ages sunk in eternal night. They are without movement, without light, and without noise.— LEMOINE — Œuvres Poétiques. Saint
Louis. Die Zeit ist selbst ein Element. Time is itself an element.— GOETHE — Sprüche in Prosa. III.
Doch zittre vor der langsamen, Der stillen Macht der Zeit. Yet tremble at the slow, silent power of time.— SCHILLER — Wallenstein's Tod. I. 3. 32.
Ein stiller Geist ist Jahre lang geschäftig; Die Zeit nur macht die feine Gährung kräftig. Long is the calm brain active in creation; Time only strengthens the fine fermentation.— GOETHE — Faust. I. 6. 36.
So schaff ich am sausenden Webstuhl der Zeit. Thus at Time's humming loom I ply.— GOETHE — Faust. I. 1. 156.
Tag wird es auf die dickste Nacht, und, kommt Die Zeit, so reifen auch die spät'sten Früchte. Day follows on the murkiest night, and, when the time comes, the latest fruits will ripen.— SCHILLER — Die Jungfrau von Orleans.
III. 2. 60. O, wer weiss Was in der Zeiten Hintergrunde schlummert. Who knows what may be slumbering in the background of time !— SCHILLER — Don Carlos. I. 1. 44.
Was man von der Minute ausgeschlagen Gibt keine Ewigkeit zurück. Eternity gives nothing back of what one leaves out of the minutes.— SCHILLER — Resignation. St. 18.
Che'l perder tempo a chi più sa più spiace. The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.— DANTE — Purgatorio. III. 78.