Whether young or old, time is something we can’t get back. We watch our kids grow up before our eyes and experience years passing without pause. You don’t realize it’s happening until it’s too late, and that’s why these quotes about time are so important.
You might think the days pass slowly, and we twiddle our thumbs and watch the clock during life’s toughest moments. We don’t always consider time to be on our side, but there’s no way to stop the ticking or speed up the process. Whether you’re looking for patience, advice on time management, or a reminder that time is precious, these quotes about time cover it all.
Keep reading for 30 of the most notable quotes about time.
1. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” — Marthe Troly-Curtin
2. “Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.” — Rose Kennedy
3. “The future has a way of arriving unannounced.” — George F. Will
4. “Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.” — Art Buchwald
5. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” — Annie Dillard
6. “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” — Napoleon Hill
7. “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
8. “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” — Benjamin Franklin
9. “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” — Carl Sandburg
10. “Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.” — Rich Warren
11. “Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.” — Samuel Smiles
12. “Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.” — Thomas A. Edison
13. “I don’t have time is just saying it’s not a priority.” — Naval Ravikant
14. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” — Michael Altshuler
15. “Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” — Earl Nightingale
16. “Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.” — Jean de la Bruyere
17. “Time is a gift that most of us take for granted.” — Cheryl Richardson
18. “Is there anything we know more intimately than the fleetingness of time, the transience of each and every moment?” — Rebecca Goldstein
19. “Time is the cruelest teacher; first she gives the test, then teaches the lesson.” — Leonard Bernstein
20. “Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” — Dale Carnegie
21. “You don’t find the time to do things, you make the time to do things.” — Debbie Millman
22. “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
23. “There’s only one thing more precious than our time, and that’s who we spend it one.” — Leo Christopher
24. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs
25. “Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” — Denis Waitley
26. “Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.” — John. C. Maxwell
27. “Time can be an ally or an enemy. What it becomes depends entirely upon you, your goals, and your determination to use every available minute.” — Zig Ziglar
28. “With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have.” — Mitch Albom
29. “Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
30. “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” — Brian Tracy
You might think the days drag on or feel like life is in fast forward. Either way, time is never worth wasting. Share these quotes about time to remind friends and family to always spend it wisely.
