One thing that no human hand can affect or alter is time. It flows regardless of occurring events, with no regard to our concerns. Even if it’s not something we possess physically, it’s one of the most precious gifts we can give to our friends and loved ones. As is reflected below on this list of time quotes.
When thinking of the best quotes of all time, it’s easy for your mind to head its way to wise sayings by Mahatma Gandhi, Socrates, and other people who made their mark in history. But we believe that the most important lines can come from unexpected places, and it’s what they say that matters.
Time is a fundamental part of our existence, and how and where we use it impacts the lives of other people, even if they’re not in our close circle. We hope this list of inspiring quotes on time can help you come to a deeper understanding of how time connects relationships of all sorts.
Whether you need motivational quotes about time to give you that extra kick to start acting now or some words to help you understand and appreciate the finite number of minutes in the day, this list will help you do just that. Or maybe you just need some encouragement to stop and enjoy the present moment in life? While it’s good to keep sources of motivation at hand, taking time for yourself is also important.
So take a deep dive into this vast plane of time quotes and unleash your inner Murph from Interstellar! Vote for your favorite sayings, and don’t forget to share them with your friends and family.
This post may include affiliate links.
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is to say ‘I don’t want to.’” — Lao Tzu
“Time, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people.” — Michelle Obama
"If time travel is possible, where are the tourist from the future?" - Stephen Hawkings
“Time expands, then contracts, all in tune with the stirrings of the heart.” — Haruki Murakami
“I wish I could turn back the clock and find you sooner so I can love you longer.” — Unknown
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” — Andy Warhol
“Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” — Roy T. Bennett
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” — Chinese Proverb
“Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.” — Art Buchwald
“A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” — Charles Darwin
"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” — George Orwell
“It’s always about timing. If it’s too soon, no one understands. If it’s too late, everyone’s forgotten.” — Anna Wintour
“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” — Nelson Mandela
"Time is ever swiftly fleeting; Unimproved by scores of men; Opportunities are passing; That we'll never have again." - Henry Reed Conant
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” — Harvey MacKay
"There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s who we spend it on.” — Leo Christopher
“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” — Charles Buxton
"There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” — “Calvin and Hobbes” by Bill Watterson
“No measure of time with you will be long enough. But let’s start with forever.” — Stephenie Meyer
“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.” — Sarah Dessen
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.” — Jorge Luis Borges
“It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.” — Vincent Van Gogh
“With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have.” — Mitch Albom
“Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” — Jim Rohn
“As time goes by, you seem to weed out the things that were making your life hard.” — Tom Petty
“It’s a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up.” — J.K. Rowling
“The present time has one advantage over every other — it is our own.” — Charles Caleb Colton
"Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity." - Hippocrates
"Time is the one thing we all have in common, but it is also the one thing that we all use differently." - Catherine Pulsifer
"No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters." - George Eliot
"A birthday wish for you to enjoy the time you've been given. Cherish every year that comes your way." - Danielle Duckery
"Everything that you want to be good at requires time, patience, and lots of repetition and practice." - Rohen Phoenix
"There are moments and days when I want to freeze time, and there are days I wish away." - Sarah Williams
"Everything takes time. Everything that hurts passes with time where each person heals on their own schedule." - Byron Pulsifer
"Time is a precious commodity. If you have not been enlightened to this actuality in your youth, you most certainly will in old age." - Adam Jacobs
"When you feed your soul by spending time on things you love, that you are excited about, your enthusiasm becomes contagious." - Rita Davenport
"Time is an equal opportunity employer, but how we treat time is not equal." - John C. Maxwell
"Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom." - Max Lucado
"Cherish time. Your most valuable resource. You can never make up the time you lose. The most important choices you'll ever make are how you use your time." - David Kekich
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” — C.S. Lewis
"An inch of time is an inch of gold, but you can’t buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.” — Chinese Proverb
"There’s never enough time to do it right, but there’s always enough time to do it over.” — Jack Bergman
“Time and tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of 30.” — Robert Frost
“The few hours I spend with you are worth the thousand hours I spend without you.” — Unknown
“It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” ― Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
“Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. 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
“How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” — Dr. Seuss
“Time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals the details for itself.” — Khaled Hosseini
“Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.” — Anthony Doerr
“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
“We shouldn't waste time on things that might happen someday, or maybe even never.” — Colleen Hoover
“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
“Every day is a bank account, and time is our currency. No one is rich, no one is poor, we've got 24 hours each.” — Christopher Rice
"Time is a gift that most of us take for granted. We get so caught up in the busyness of our daily lives that we rarely stop and take a serious look at how we're spending this gift." - Cheryl Richardson
"The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream." - Kahlil Gibran
"It can be tough even finding the time to tackle a new venture, let alone the energy that you need to make it happen. But you have more time and energy than you think you have." - Matthew Oleniuk
"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." - Carl Sandburg
"There is no time like the present to start making changes, but I have found that the best time is to start by going about your day differently as soon as you wake up." - Kevin Kerr
"The thing about Time is that its so abundant for everybody, everyone has exactly twenty four hours in a day to prove ourselves, to achieve all we have for that day, we have the chance to make a difference every single day." - James Clear
"Every minute of your time is either spent helping or hurting your chance for the victory you are seeking in your life. Each minute can be an investment." - Lisa Kardos
"Balance your time expenditures so you can spend time with the people that you love." - Steve Brunkhorst
"Hands of time move us forward, never back. Only memories frozen in mind, can we re-enact." - Robert M. Hensel
"Time can't be bought in a store, and it's one of the most sought-after commodities of modern life." - Rachel Jonat
"Time cannot be packaged and ribboned and left under trees for Christmas morning. Time can't be given. But it can be shared." - Cecelia Ahern
"If we make a careful study of the lives of the world's great men and women, we shall find that their distinction was achieved by making the most of their spare minutes." - Nixon Waterman
"The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it." - W. Somerset Maugham
"I can use my time much better working on tomorrow's problem than by fretting about yesterday's." - Admiral King
“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.” — Thomas Jefferson
"The difference between those who are high achievers and those who aren't is in the ways they utilize their time to get things done." - Eric Lofholm