Time Quotes – 87 Sayings About Time Management, Present & Future

Looking for inspirational time quotes and sayings about hurry, lifetime, aging and the future? Then you've come to the right place! "I alone can not change anything anyway", "It's far too late, the planet can no longer be saved" - we all know these sayings! But on closer inspection, they are just excuses for simply doing nothing, taking the path of least resistance and letting life's time pass.

We need to understand the era we live in and how valuable every single second, every single moment can be for the future - and start using the time we have. For ourselves and for the good of the world.

In this article I would like to give you the best short sayings about time management, punctuality, time awareness, time wasting, hurry, rush and aging - yes, all the things that are related to time. Let's go!

My please: Keep in mind that many of the quotes about time have been translated into English from other languages. I cannot guarantee that it is the original quote in each case. Therefore, double check them before you share them. If you like and share any of the quotes in the internet, please link this elaborately created collection. Thank you for your support!

The best sayings about how we use, spend and waste our time

Having time is great! But using it is something wonderful! Whether you work more efficiently and productively, against one of the biggest environmental problems of our time or simply want to take some of the hustle and bustle out of your everyday life:

Here I present the best wisdom and sayings to help you value your time again. Let them inspire you to improve something in your life or in the world!

Time Quotes #1 - 10

1. "The times are very bad. Very well, you are there to make them better." (Thomas Carlyle)
2. "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it." (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
3. "We are living in dangerous times. Men control nature before they are even able to control themselves." (Albert Schweitzer)
4. "Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician." (Mark Twain)
5. "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." (Benjamin Franklin)
6. "Ordinary people merely think how they shall «spend» their time; a man of talent tries to «use» it." (Arthur Schopenhauer)
7. "Future: the time you talk about when you can't cope with a problem in the present." (Walter Hesselbach)
8. "Time is what we lack especially there, where we lack will." (Ernst Ferstl)
9. "In books lies the soul of the whole past time." (Thomas Carlyle)
10. "My punctuality expresses that your time is as valuable to me as my own." (Helga Schäferling)

Time Quotes #11 - 20

11. "It takes us many years to understand how precious moments can be." (Ernst Ferstl)
12. "The best proof of a good education is punctuality." (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing)
13. "Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it." (Leonardo da Vinci)
14. "One always has time enough, if one will apply it well." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
15. "Our lifetime is our only time." (Erich Fried)
16. "I suppose I have arrived at the pessimistic age of youth, but still there is hope, for I have that priceless quality of being curious about life and things which keeps up my enthusiasm." (Charlie Chaplin)
17. "Perseverance is rewarded sooner or later - but usually later." (Wilhelm Busch)
18. "You want to live without aging; and you actually age without living." (Alexander Mitscherlich)
19. "When the time comes in which one could, the time has passed in which one can." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
20. "Moons and years pass by and are gone forever, but a beautiful moment shimmers through life a ray of light." (Franz Grillparzer)

Tip: Time and patience are closely related. At Patience Quotes you will find a whole range of other inspiring sayings on the subject.

Time Quotes #21 - 30

21. "Managerial sickness: an epidemic caused by the clock hand and transmitted via the appointment calendar." (John Steinbeck)
22. "They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason." (Ernest Hemingway)
23. "Time is only for those who have made it to nothing. And with that, they've made it further than anyone else." (Giovanni Guareschi)
24. "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." (John Lennon)
25. "There is a time for work, and a time for love. That leaves no other time." (Coco Chanel)
26. "Who wants to read in the future, must scroll in the past." (André Malraux)
27. "Time is the doctor of all inevitable evils." (Menander)
28. "Punctuality is the art of guessing how late the other fellow is going to be." (Evelyn Waugh)
29. "We spend the time for action on preparation, but the opportunities offered by circumstance do not wait on our slowness and dissimulation." (Demosthenes)
30. "The two grand tyrants of the earth, time and chance." (Johann Gottfried von Herder)

Tip: I used to say that I didn't have time to read. Do you feel the same way? Then use this now Tips to read more books and also have a look at my Speed Reading Tips inside!

Time Quotes #31 - 40

31. "Man watches over everything that belongs to him with suspicion. Only the time he let be stolen, most of all by television." (Linus Pauling)
32. "At any given time, some great truths are in the air; they form the spiritual atmosphere of the century." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
33. "Time isn't passing any faster than it used to, but we're passing it faster." (George Orwell)
34. "The years teach much the days never know." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
35. "Future: the excuse of all those who do not want to do anything in the present." (Harold Pinter)
36. "If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of." (Bruce Lee)
37. "Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment." (Jean de La Bruyère)
38. "Patience, reason and time makes possible the impossibility." (Simon Dach)
39. "Being bored at the correct time is a sign of intelligence." (Clifton Fadiman)
40. "If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality." (Benjamin Franklin)

Time Quotes #41 - 50

41. "The future is a time when we know all the past. Until then, until the past is known only partially, we live in the present." (Gabriel Laub)
42. "The people of the old time are also the people of the new, but the people of yesterday are not the people of today." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
43. "You should never be so busy that you don't have time to think." (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
44. "The hourglasses remind us not only of the rapid flight of time, but simultaneously also of the dust into which we will once fall." (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
45. "Time is not money. But - for some people, money takes time, and for others, time takes money." (Ron Kritzfeld)
46. "If I could live my life again I’d make exactly the same mistakes. Just a little earlier, so I have more of them." (Marlene Dietrich)
47. "You have to wait for the future and enjoy or endure the present." (Wilhelm von Humboldt)
48. "Time is a great teacher. It's just too bad she kills her students." (Curt Goetz)
49. "The sum of our life is the sum of hours in which we have loved." (Wilhelm Busch)
50. "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." (Dante Alighieri)

Tip: Change is often difficult for us! Therefore, a question is obvious: how long does it take to break old habits and establish new ones? I'll answer them for you in the linked post!

Time Quotes #51 - 60

51. "Some people think a filled schedule is a fulfilled life." (Gerhard Uhlenbruck)
52. "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." (Alan Kay)
53. "Now are the good old days you'll be longing for in ten years time." (Peter Ustinov)
54. "Time we take is time that gives us something." (Ernst Ferstl)
55. "Nothing is as old as yesterday's success." (Freddy Quinn)
56. "Those who are ahead of their time often have to wait for it in uncomfortable quarters." (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
57. "Time is what the clock says." (Albert Einstein)
58. "If you want to understand the narrowness of your homeland, travel. If you want to measure the narrowness of your time, study history." (Kurt Tucholsky)
59. "Not to have participated in the actions and passions of his time is not to have lived." (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
60. "To me the world seems grotesque, absurd, ridiculous, painful." (Eugène Ionesco)

Time Quotes #61 - 60

61. "Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle - maybe there is none." (Franz Kafka)
62. "Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." (Victor Hugo)
63. "No man is so busy that he doesn't have time to tell all around how busy he is." (Robert Lembke)
64. "You lose most of your time trying to win time." (John Steinbeck)
65. "Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the world." (George Bernard Shaw)
66. "It is better to worry a little more about your health every day than to worry a lot about your illness later." (Sebastian Kneipp)
67. "It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to keep quiet." (Ernest Hemingway)
68. "Years teach us more than books." (Aristotle)
69. "In our time there is much talk of irony and humor, especially by people who have never been able to exercise them practically." (Søren Kierkegaard)
70. "I am always late on principle, my principle being that punctuality is the thief of time." (Oscar Wilde)

Tip: The amount of time spent on the laptop, TV, tablet and smartphone is increasing for most people - with fatal consequences. What it's all about and how you can Consciously reduce screen time you can find out in the linked blog post.

Time Quotes #71 - 80

71. "Time heals all wounds." (Voltaire)
72. A beautiful clock tells you the time, a beautiful woman lets you forget it." (Maurice Chevalier)
73. "Those who never have time do least." (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
74. "Time is just an empty space, to which events, thoughts and feelings give content." (Wilhelm von Humboldt)
75. "Punctuality is the politeness of kings." (Louis XVIII)
76. "We usually did most during the time we thought we weren't doing enough." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
77. "We only own the hour. And an hour, if it's happy, is a lot." (Theodor Fontane)
78. "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." (Albert Einstein)
79. "Time does not change us. It just unfolds us." (Max Frisch)
80. "It's never too late for those whose time has come." (Bertholt Brecht)

Time Quotes #81 - 87

81. "There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time." (Napoleon)
82. "Some age, others mature." (Sean Connery)
83. "The biggest enemy of quality is the hurry." (Henry Ford)
84. "Time management is nonsense. You can't manage time - only your behavior." (Michael Kastner)
85. "It is personalities, not principles, that move the age." (Oscar Wilde)
86. "The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity." (Victor Hugo)
87. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Can you think of any other time quotes and sayings about wasting time, time pressure, the present and the future? Then just write me your favorite sayings in the comments!

What is meant by time?

Time is the duration between two events or the sequence of moments. This sequence runs irreversibly into the future.

How can I save time?

Fortunately, time can be managed and consciously saved. For example, automate daily tasks, set priorities, create routines, reduce distraction through pointless multitasking and entertainment media, ensure order and structure and learn to make decisions.

But don't forget to turn some of the time you gain into me-time, i.e. relaxing, fun time for yourself.

Can I use my time more wisely?

Write down the things you have done over the course of an entire day. What is absolutely necessary and what is not? If you find that many of your activities are unnecessary, you can definitely use your time more wisely and effectively. Be aware of your goals and dreams and spend your time on the things that will help you achieve them.

You can buy yourself even more time by, for example, keeping things tidy and structured, keeping a calendar, setting priorities, and automating tasks.

Sayings and Quotes about Time - Use them as a source of inspiration!

Every second in our lives can be important - we just need to give the limited time we have the appropriate appreciation. We should use our time for things that make our world a little better every day. And not waste it on insignificant things. At the same time, however, it is also important to show the necessary relaxation in order to avoid time pressure, hurry and hectic.

I've put together three more book recommendations for you up here. The Book "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss I would like to especially recommend it to you if you want to become more productive and efficient and have more time left over for the good things in life. Here you get it*.

Do you have any questions or other interesting quotes about time? Then use these few seconds to write me a comment under this post! 🙂

Stay time conscious,

PS: In the Quotes blog you will find many more inspiring collections of sayings! For example, take a look directly at my Favorite Quotes About Environmental Protection And Sustainability. Have fun!