Time
258 quotes
Biography
"We live in a Time when: You grieve and no one comforts you. You rejoice and no one congratulates you. You cry and find no one to wipe away your tears. But make a mistake. And you’ll find everyone watching you."
"Ἀλλ' ἐκδιδάσκει πάνθ' ὁ γηράσκων χρόνος."
"It's hard to watch something you love get swallowed, but don't we do the same with our time every day?"
"All things must in equity again decline into that whence they have their origin for they must give satisfaction and atonement for injustice each in the order of time."
"Time went on, relentlessly, and one by one the proud works of man were lost."
"Time is not a reality [hupostasis], but a concept [noêma] or a measure [metron]…"
"That time either has no being at all, or is only scarcely and faintly, one might suspect from this: part of it has happened and is not, while the other part is going to be but is not yet, and it is out of these that the infinite, or any given, time is composed. But it would seem impossible for a thing composed of non-beings to have any share in being."
"Aristotle, Physics, as translated by Joe Sachs (Rutgers University Press: 2011), 217b30"
"Time is not composed of indivisible nows any more than any other magnitude is composed of indivisibles."
"Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything that can be counted, so that evidently there cannot be number; for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted."
"What, then, is time? If no one ask of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not."
"But if any excursive brain rove over the images of forepassed times, and wonder that Thou the God Almighty and All-creating and All-supporting, Maker of heaven and earth, didst for innumerable ages forbear from so great a work, before Thou Wouldest make it; let him awake and consider, that he wonders at false conceits. For whence could innumerable ages pass by, which Thou madest not, Thou the Author and Creator of all ages? or what times should there be, which were not made by Thee? or how should they pass by, if they never were? Seeing then Thou art the Creator of all times, if any time was before Thou madest heaven and earth, why say they that Thou didst forego working? For that very time didst Thou make, nor could times pass by, before Thou madest those times. But if before heaven and earth there was no time, why is it demanded, what Thou then didst? For there was no "then," when there was no time."
"With regard to authority, it is the greatest weakness to attribute infinite credit to particular authors, and to refuse his own prerogative to time, the author of all authors, and, therefore, of all authority. For truth is rightly named the daughter of time not of authority. It is not wonderful, therefore, if the bonds of antiquity, authority, and unanimity have so enchained the power of man, that he is unable (as if bewitched) to become familiar with things themselves."
"And he that will not apply New Remedies, must expect New Evils: for Time is the greatest Innovateur..."
"[T]he Quantity of motive Force cannot be known without Time... Time (...abstractedly) is the continuance of any Thing in its own Being. ...Time absolutely... is Quantity, as admitting... Equality, Inequality, and Proportion... [Y]ou may ask, whether Time was not before the World was created? And if Time does not flow in the Extramundane Space, where nothing is: A mere Vacuum? ..[S]ince there was Space before the World was created, and... there now is an Extramundane, infinite Space, (where God is present)... Time existed before the World began... Some Sun might have given Light long before; and at present this, or some other like it, may diffuse Light thro' Imaginary Spaces. Time therefore does not imply an actual Existence, but only the Capacity or Possibility of the Continuance of Existence; just as Space expresses the Capacity of a Magnitude contain'd in it. ...[D]oes not Time imply Motion? I answer no... any more than it does Rest. ...[W]hether Things move on, or stand still; whether we sleep or wake, Time flows perpetually with an equal Tenor."
"Time is... a Quantum in itself, tho' in Order to find the Quantity of it, we... call in Motion... as a Measure... and thus Time as measurable signifies Motion; for if all Things were to continue at Rest, it would be impossible to find out... how much Time has elaps'd... We perceive nothing, unless so far as we may be instigated by some Change affecting the Senses, or that our Souls are mov'd and excited by the internal Operation of the Mind. ...So that the Quantity of Time so far as we can observe; depends upon the Extension of Motion. ...It cannot be justly inferr'd... We do not perceive the Thing, therefore there is no such Thing, that is a false Illusion, a deceitful Dream, that wou'd cause us to join together two remote Instants of Time. But nevertheless this is very True... That is, for as much Motion as there was, so much Time seems to have been elapsed; nor, when we mention such a Quantity of Time, do we merely mean any Thing else, than the Performance of so much Motion, to the continued successive Extension of which we imagine the Permanency as Things is co-extended."
"I cannot exist entirely except when somehow I go beyond the stage of action. Otherwise I’m a soldier, a professional, a man of learning, not a “total human being.” The fragmentary state of humanity is basically the same as the choice of an object. When you limit your desires to possessing political power, for instance, you act and know what you have to do. … You insert your existence advantageously into time. Each of your moments becomes useful. With each moment, the possibility is given you to advance to some chosen goal, and your time becomes a march toward that goal—what’s normally called living. … Every action makes you a fragmentary existence. I hold on to my nature as an entirety only by refusing to act—or at least by denying the superiority of time, which is reserved for action."
"Once you realize you deserve a bright future, letting go of your dark past is the best choice you will ever make."
"Well, I can promise you tomorrow <br/> But I can't buy back yesterday"
"Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures."
"They say time is the fire in which we burn. Right now, Captain, my time is running out. Because we leave so many things unfinished in our lives. And, by the way, I know you will understand."
"Die Zukunft wird nicht gemeistert von denen, die am Vergangenen kleben."
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived. After all Number One, we're only mortal."
"Nothing we do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future."
"Time is not bought ready-made at the watchmaker's."