Time Quotes

"Work out your own salvation with diligence."

"Decisions exist only in the present. p. 125"

"Most of us go through life as failures, because we are waiting for the "time to be right" to start doing something worthwhile. The time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."

"I will not talk about people a thousand miles off, but come as near home as I can. As the time is short, I will leave out all the flattery, and retain all the criticism. Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives. p. 484"

"The big problem is that your mind keeps reminding you of things when you can't do anything about them. It has no sense of past or future. Ch. 1"

"Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it. Ch. 38, "Thinking about life" p. 402."

"Impatience is a form of emotional weakness. It means you cannot control your internal clock."

"The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There’s only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment."

"I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. All great enterprises are self-supporting. The poet, for instance, must sustain his body by his poetry, as a steam planing-mill feeds its boilers with the shavings it makes. You must get your living by loving. pp. 486–7"

"Concentration is a skill that must be practiced, much like a muscle."

"Understand: the time that remains to you is short. You must realize that every moment is a choice."

"The wise man carves his own path."

"And the cost of a thing it will be remembered as the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it. After December 6, 1845"

"Professional activities performed in a state of distraction are shallow."

"The apprentice must accept that time is the primary teacher. There are no shortcuts to deep knowledge."

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."

"Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion; as if the short spring days were an eternity. Pearls of Thought (1881) p. 175"

"To leave the distracted masses and join the focused few is a transformative experience."

"There are two types of time: Dead Time, when people are passive and waiting, and Alive Time, when people are learning and acting."

"The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart."

"The present hour is always wealthiest when it is poorer than the future ones, as that is the pleasantest site which affords the pleasantest prospect. Pearls of Thought (1881) p. 210"

"Depth is the new IQ."

"Every second you spend worrying about what others think is a second of your life you will never get back."

"Patience is the highest asceticism."

"And now, at half-past ten o'clock, I hear the cockerels crow in Hubbard's barns, and morning is already anticipated. It is the feathered, wakeful thought in us that anticipates the following day. July 11, 1851"

"Batch your shallow tasks into specific blocks so they don't bleed into your deep work."

"Strategic timing means knowing when to slow down and when to accelerate with overwhelming force."

"Radiate boundless love towards the entire world—above, below, and across—unhindered, without ill will, without enmity."

"Slow productivity is about doing fewer things, working at a natural pace, and obsessing over quality."

"In the long run, the time that you have wasted on the way to your goal is not wasted time at all. It is part of the process."

"Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel."

"Fixed-schedule productivity: fix the end time of your workday and then work backwards to finish everything."

"Master the art of timing. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually."