45 Wisest Quotes About Time

Do you take your time or seize it?

time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time
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Time is something we all have but is also something we all want more of. These wise quotes about time will bring you back to the present moment and help you seize the day!

You cannot take more time than you are allotted, and there is no way to know how much you have. So use your time for what you deem important, and you won’t be hurting for more. 

It is easy to get wrapped up in worry until you freeze, but time won’t freeze with you. It is okay to take a beat for yourself to recenter.

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Quotes About Time

RELATED: Why Slowing Down & Reflecting On Our Lives And Values Is So Vital Right Now

1. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” Marthe Troly-Curtin

Be deliberate about who you spend your time with.

2. “Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.” Dave Eggers

And because it’s printed, it will last forever.

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3. “Time is the longest distance between two places.” Tennessee Williams

Yesterday can be miles away.

4. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol

You can stay stagnant even while time continues. 

5. “Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying ‘I don’t want to.” Lao Tzu

quotes about time

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Create time for what you want.

6. “We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.” George Harrison

The only real time is right now.

7. “You may delay, but time will not.” Benjamin Franklin

Try to keep up.

8. “Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” Jean de la Bruyère

Do what you want, and you’ll feel like you have all the time in the world.

9. “Time is a game played beautifully by children.” Heraclitus

They can seize every moment and can’t wait for the next one.

10. “It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.” Edgar Allan Poe

The difference between memories and dreams is only what has been versus what could be.

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11. “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

That’s what makes the rose different from all of the other roses.

12. “Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” Stephen King

quotes about time

You can’t stop time.

13. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” William Penn

Use time better, and you won’t want it so much.

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14. “Don’t waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.” Paulo Coelho

Spend your time on things worth your while.

15. “The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience.” Leo Tolstoy

And they can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies.

16. “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Henry David Thoreau

Don’t kill time, live it.

17. “Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.” Jean-Paul Sartre

It’s the limbo of time.

18. “Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.” Ray Cummings

That would be far too overwhelming.

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19. “Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.” Tennessee Williams

Feelings and connections can span across vast spaces and times.

20. “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” M. Scott Peck

Do what you need and what you want, and you will never feel unfulfilled.

21. “Lost Time is never found again.” Benjamin Franklin

So seize every moment you can.

22. “Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.” Jane Austen

Time can only measure itself, it does not measure affection.

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23. “There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.” Coco Chanel

Don’t let boredom steal your time.

24. “Fantasy, if it’s really convincing, can’t become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.” Walt Disney

Imagination is ageless.

25. “Enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to be dead.” Hans Christian Anderson

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No matter how long your life is, it is a drop in the bucket of eternity.

RELATED: 10 Ways To Make Time For Yourself To Do What You Want Most In Life

26. “Clocks slay time...time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.” William Faulkner

Don’t just go through the motions, live.

27. “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” John Lubbock

We all need rest, it is okay to take time for it.

28. “Life is short. Focus on what really matters most. You have to change your priorities over time.” Roy T. Bennett

Evolve with time.

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29. “It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.” Vincent Van Gogh

Allow time for observation and contemplation.

30. “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” Charles Buxton

quotes about time

Time won’t just offer itself to you.

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31. “Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.” Miranda July

Time doesn’t wait for your consent, so you mustn’t wait for time’s consent.

32. “With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have.” Mitch Albom

Appreciate the little time you have.

33. “There’s no advantage to hurrying through life.” Masashi Kishimoto

Slow down, and enjoy what’s around you.

34. “Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.” Benjamin Disraeli

Neither are guaranteed.

35. “Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay very still.” David Foster Wallace

Even as you pause, time passes.

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36. “Time will explain.” Jane Austen

You are always learning as time goes on.

37. “You need to make time for your family no matter what happens in your life.” Matthew Quick

Prioritize your loved ones.

38. “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.” William Blake

Produce things that will outlast you.

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39. “Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life.” Norton Juster

You have the time you need, use it for what you need.

40. “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.” Alice Walker

quotes about time

Blink an eye and you’ll miss it.

41. “Everything changed the day she figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life.” Brian Andreas

Is today that day for you?

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42. “Where your attention goes, your time goes.” Idowu Koyenikan

Give your time and attention to what matters most.

43. “The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can’t save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.” Benjamin Hoff

If you spend it wisely, then you’ll always have enough.

44. “Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” — Henry Van Dyke

Time seems to freeze in moments of love.

45. “Time is an illusion.” — Albert Einstein

Don’t let it fool you into letting it control you.

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RELATED: How To Tackle Time Management For Millennials 

Colleen Fogarty is a writer who covers self-care, astrology, and relationship topics