Quotes About Time

Whoever reflects on four things, it were better he had never been born: that which is above, that which is below, that which is before, and that which is after. —Talmud, Hagigah 2.1

Es muy importante entender que no se es Dios, dudar siempre de los propios actos, y considerar que no se han empleado bastante bien los años vividos. Es la única forma para intentar emplear mejor los que quedan.

We make lists because we don't want to die

Pero cuando Diotallevi y yo pensamos en construir un ars oblivionalis no pudimos descubrir las reglas del olvido. Es inútil: podemos ir en busca del tiempo perdido siguiendo exiguas huellas en el bosque, como Pulgarcito, pero somos incapaces de extraviar deliberadamente el tiempo reencontrado.

I shall not indulge in descriptions of persons because, as Boethius says, nothing is more fleeting than the external form, which withers and alters like the flowers of the field at the appearance of autumn; and what would be the point of saying today that the abbot Abo had a stern eye and pale cheeks, when by now he and those around him are dust and their bodies have the mortal grayness of dust?

Es posible que la realidad no sólo sobrepase a la ficción, sino que la preceda, o más bien se apresura con adelanto, a reparar los daños que la ficción reparará?

The state might say that it had taken a year to write the book, and the author might say it had taken thirty. Goethe said that every bon mot of his had cost a purse of gold. What

He forgot how he himself had been blind, a short time ago—after the fashion of all crusaders since the original ones, who set out to spread the gospel of Brotherhood by force of arms.

A family was supposed to be living there, but probably, like most rich people, they were away from home most of the time. Lanny had observed that the more money people had, the harder they found it to escape boredom.

and impatience sets traps for us, and prepares regrets that sometimes last all our lives.

You recall what I told you the first time you came to me. I couldn't go any faster than the people would let me. I had to wait, and let events change their minds.

I counted the days. I marked them off on the wall with a piece of coal.

People lived as they had always done; there was no break between past and present. All that had happened in the past had washed away; there was always only the present. It was as though, as a result of some disturbance in the heavens, the early morning light was always receding into the darkness, and men lived in a perpetual dawn

Neither my father nor grandfather could put dates to their stories. Not because they had forgotten or were confused; the past was simply the past.

Neither my father nor grandfather could put dates to their stories. Not because they had forgotten or were confused; the past was simply the past. I remember hearing from my grandfather that he had once shipped a boatful of slaves as a cargo of rubber. He couldn't tell me when he had done this. It was just there in his memory, floating around, without date or other association, as an unusual event in an uneventful life.

But at night, if you were on the river, it was another thing. You felt the land taking you back to something that was familiar, something you had known at some time but had forgotten or ignored, but which was always there. You felt the land taking you back to what was there a hundred years ago, to what had been there always.

to be among the ruins was to have your time-sense unsettled.

We exchanged greetings, and in the African way we could make that take time.

Nos alegramos cuando vemos al sol alzarse cada mañana y cuando se pone durante la tarde, sin comprender que con él se van también nuestras vidas.

In two centuries, the human labor to produce a kilogram of American wheat was reduced from 10 minutes to less than two seconds.

It had seemed a good idea at the time to order the furniture for her new home online from a chain retailer.

With the passage of time, people's memories always edited the past. A lot of details slipped from their grasp, while others that had seemed trivial at the time took on greater weight.

Why are you only coming home just after three? Do you want a drink? I'm wide awake now.' He could be so like a small child, she thought. Out of nowhere, all eagerness and curiosity.

An outside toilet occupied one corner, its door half-open. 'He's not been here long enough to accumulate much crap