Present

Live, laugh and love -- there'll come a time when you can't.
~ M.C. "Bill" Barlow, Sage Brush Philosophy magazine (c. 1906).

To understand an ancient question, bring it into present time.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Cat Inside (1986).

Whate'er her future or her past,
In this bright moment matters not.
~ William Allen Butler, from Poems (1871). Incognita of Raphael

Every passing hour shall be
Worth a golden age to me.
~ William Cliffton, in Poems, Chiefly Occasional (1800). To Fancy

Eternity was in that moment.
~ William Congreve, The Old Bachelor (1693).

So all our life is but one instant now.
~ William Congreve, In Imitation of Horace, Ode IX, Lib. I (1693).

Thinking about the future and thinking about the past is really only a way of ignoring the present.
~ Billy Corgan

The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now.
~ Bill Cosby, Time Flies (1987).

[N]ot to understand a treasure's worth
Till time has stol'n away the slighted good,
Is cause of half the poverty we feel,
And makes the world the wilderness it is.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book VI. The Winter Walk At Noon

With kindness bless the present hour.
~ William Cowper, in Poems, The Early Productions of William Cowper (1825). Written in a Quarrel

Our age has robbed millions of the simplicity of ignorance, and has so far failed to lift them to the simplicity of wisdom.
~ (William) Robertson Davies, from A Voice From the Attic (1960).

It does not happen all at once. There is no instant pudding.
~ W. Edwards Deming

[I]t is part of the nature of life to strive to fill each moment with a richness of value.
~ Wilhelm Dilthey, in Gesammelte Schriften, V (Collected Works, Volume V; 1924). The Spiritual World: Introduction To The Philosophy Of Life. First Half: Essays On The Foundation Of The Human Sciences

The present is the filling of a moment of time with reality; it is experience, in contrast to memory or ideas of the future occurring in wishes, expectations, hopes, fears and strivings.
~ Wilhelm Dilthey, in Gesammelte Schriften, VII (Collected Works, Volume VII; 1927). Establishing the Historical World in the Human Sciences

Men will not long distress themselves to save their souls when they know that save for the present hour they have no souls to save.
~ William (W.) MacNeile Dixon, from The Human Situation: The Gifford lectures delivered in the University of Glasgow, 1935-1937 (1937).

Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day.
~ William Crapo ("Billy") Durant, (1921)

It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time.
~ William James "Will" Durant, Broadcast on WGN Radio, Chicago IL (18 November 1945).

Again. Sadder than was. Again. Saddest of all. Again.
~ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (October 1929).

There is no such thing as was -- only is.
~ William Faulkner, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 12 (Spring 1956). The Art of Fiction No. 12

Some people are making such thorough plans for rainy days that they aren't enjoying today's sunshine.
~ William Feather

She walked on, comforted by the surf, by the one perpetual moment of beach-time, the now-and-always of it.
~ William Gibson, Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988).

The past is past, the future unformed. ... There is only the moment, and that is where he prefers to be.
~ William Gibson, All Tomorrow's Parties (1999).

We have no future because our present is too volatile. ... We have only risk management. The spinning of a given moment's scenarios. Pattern recognition.
~ William Gibson, Pattern Recognition (2003).

If you are not sustained by ancient traditions, neither are you hampered by any prejudices which in certain cases may prevail.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Speech at the Nonconformist School at Mill Hill (June 1879).

Zippy is living in the moment. He's at peace with himself because he's out of step with everyone; he doesn't know it, and he doesn't care. ... Zippy has no problem with the irrationality of the universe, whereas most of us are desperately trying to make order out of the universe, and our lives. Zippy accepts chaos as what it is, which is the real order of everything.
~ William Henry Jackson (Bill) Griffith, in The New York Times (11 July 1999).

My study of antiquities, has kept me in constant thought of the perpetual fluctuation of every thing. The whole art is, really, to live all the days of our life; and not, with anxious care, disturb the sweetest hour that life affords -- which is, the present!
~ Sir William Hamilton (KB), in The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton: With a Supplement of Interesting Letters, by Distinguished Characters, Volume II (1814). Supplement. Letters of Sir William Hamilton, K.B. XVI (Letter dated 27 January 1794)

What is past is past. Today we start anew, and what we do today will make our life for tomorrow.
~ William Thomson Hanzsche, Today (January 1942)

And the Present is life, and life is good to live.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, from A Book of Verses (1888). Life and Death (Echoes). XXXVII

I seek to dwell only on the present moment, and to keep myself free from all thoughts on the past and the future.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, in Letters of William Von Humboldt to a Female Friend, Vol. II (1849 translation). Letter XV. Ottmachau, June 22, 1830

We must wait for the future, and enjoy or bear the present.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, in Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1868).

If you marry the Spirit of your own generation you will be a widow in the next.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, Diary of a Dean (1949).

Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or to attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 1. Chapter XV: The Perception of Time

The knowledge of some other part of the stream, past or future, near or remote, is always mixed in with our knowledge of the present thing.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 1. Chapter XV: The Perception of Time

We have to live today by what truth we can get today, and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
~ William James, from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907). Lecture VI. Pragmatism's Conception of Truth

Hope for all -- despair for none!
~ William T. James, Rhymes Afloat And Afield (1861). A Song of To-day

Call me a joker, call me a fool
Right at this moment I'm totally cool.
~ Billy Joel, in Storm Front (1989 album). I Go To Extremes

I was dreamin' of tomorrow,
So I sacrificed today,
And it sure was a grand waste of time.
~ Billy Joel, in Cold Spring Harbor (1971 album). Got To Begin Again

Each day there should be fresh resolution, new strength, and renewed enthusiasm.
~ William George Jordan, The Majesty of Calmness (1900). VII: The Royal Road to Happiness

I will do each day, in every moment, the best I can by the light I have; I will ever seek more light, more perfect illumination of truth, and ever live as best I can in harmony with the truth as I see it.
~ William George Jordan, The Majesty of Calmness (1900). VI: Doing Our Best at All Times

Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.
~ Bil Keane, Family Circus

Winning is very tangible, it's very exciting, it's very pleasing, but it's momentary. If you can do things that last, that each generation can build upon, then that's when you're cooking.
~ Billie Jean King

We live only in the future and past, we cannot perceive now. Now occupies no space, a hypothetical gap between future and past.
~ William Landay, The Strangler (2007). Part One. Chapter 1

Be intent upon the perfection of the present day.
~ William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728). Chapter XXII

[T]he Present must live in the shade of the Past.
~ William Edward Hartpole (E.H.) Lecky, from Poems (1891). Past and Present

Each sunrise gives hope to your dreams and light to your plans.
~ William Ngwako Maphoto

I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence (1919). Chapter XXI

I have never, except by an effort of will, wished that the passing moment might linger so that I could get more enjoyment from it. ... The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it; the future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up (1938).

It was such a lovely day, I thought it was a pity to get up.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Our Betters (1923).

Ah! such are the days that shall be! But what are the deeds of to-day,
In the days of the years we dwell in, that wear our lives away?
~ William Morris, from Poems by the Way (1891). The Day is Coming

Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The future influences the present just as much as the past.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

When one has much to put into them, a day has a hundred pockets.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

No dreams, no visions, no delicious fantasies, no castles in the air, with which, as the old song so truly says, "hearts are broken, heads are turned".
~ William Osler, An address delivered to Yale students (20 April 1913). A Way of Life

Save the fleeting minute; do not stop by the way. Learn gracefully to dodge the bore.
~ William Osler, quoted in Sir William Osler, Bart: Brief Tributes to His Personality, Influence and Public Service Written by His Friends, Associates and Former Pupils. (1920)

The load of to-morrow, added to that of yesterday, carried to-day makes the strongest falter. Shut off the future as tightly as the past.
~ William Osler, An address delivered to Yale students (20 April 1913). A Way of Life

Throw away, in the first place, all ambition beyond that of doing the day's work well. The travellers on the road to success live in the present, heedless of taking thought for the morrow.
~ William Osler (address given at the closing exercises of the Army Medical School, Washington DC; 28 February 1894), in The Medical News (24 March 1894). The Army Surgeon

To die daily, after the manner of St. Paul, ensures the resurrection of a new man, who makes each day the epitome of life.
~ William Osler, An address delivered to Yale students (20 April 1913). A Way of Life

We have forgot what we have been,
And what we are we little know;
We fancy new events begin,
But all has happened long ago.
~ Thomas William Parsons, from Poems (1854). Stanzas. 1

We're just a blur, you and I
a flash of light fading before the eyes of millions
and somehow we still manage
to have a good day
now and then...
~ William Pauley III, from The.Living.Daylights. (2008). The Ruins

Always remember to bound thy thoughts to the present occasion.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part II. Of the Government of Thoughts

We look backward too much and we look forward too much. Thus we miss the passing moment. ... In our regrets and apprehensions, we miss the only eternity of which man can be absolutely sure, the eternal Present. For it is always NOW.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, from Essays on Things (1930). One Day at a Time.

The original Buddhist goal of nirvana (or "salvation," if one wishes to use a Western term) was the realization that life's meaning lay in the here-and-now and not in some remote realm or celestial state far beyond one's present existence.
~ Nancy Wilson Ross, Buddhism: A Way of Life and Thought (1980).

[W]e can call no time our own, but the present. How carefully should we shoot, who have but one arrow to direct at the mark!
~ William Secker, from The Nonsuch Professor in His Meridian Splendor, or the Singular Actions of Sanctified Christians (1660).

I dance attendance here.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act III, scene vii

If it were now to die,
'Twere now to be most happy.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene i

Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II. Act III, scene ii

Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act II, scene iii

'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind.
Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure;
Above the rest, be gone.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear. Act IV, scene i

Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment?
No man.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act II, scene iii

There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is, that people can commend it without envy.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Of Men and Manners

What if it does look likely to rain, it is fine now!
~ William Smith

Today be mine -- I leave the rest
To all the fools of sorrow.
~ William Smyth, from English Lyricks (1797). Song. The Soldier

Somewhere you'll rest, have faith, even
lose sometimes, accept the way your are, say
easily to the world: "Leave me alone, Hours.
I'm just living here. Let Now win."
~ William Stafford, from An Oregon Message (1987). Learning How to Lose

The truth is, every day brings a different possibility -- and a doubt about yesterday.
~ William Stafford, in Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford On Peace And War (2003). Two: Citizens Here on Earth

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
~ William Stafford, in The Way It Is (1998). You Reading This, Be Ready

Does not every day bring its own duty and task, and are these not enough to occupy one?
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes (1853-55). Chapter LXVIII

Forget the things which are behind, and reach towards the things which are before.
~ William Walters, Views of Life: Being Nine Lectures (1873). Lecture III. The Realities of Life

Today is a most unusual day, because we have never lived it before; we will never live it again; it is the only day we have.

Today can be a healthy unusual day for you -- and for others -- if you take time to give someone a smile ... to express a word of kindness ... to lend a helping hand to someone in need ... to write a note of gratitude ... to give a word of encouragement to someone who is temporarily overcome with problems ... to share a portion of your material possessions with others.
~ William Arthur Ward, It's A Most Unusual Day

Today's patience can transform yesterday's discouragements into tomorrow's discoveries. Today's purposes can turn yesterday's defeats into tomorrow's determination.
~ William Arthur Ward

I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (27 September 1986).

Live for today. Multitudes of people have failed to live for today. ... What they have had within their grasp today they have missed entirely, because only the future has intrigued them.
~ William Allen White

Each day holds something of an unknown glory.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). We Two

Joy in the life that was given,
Strive for perfection on earth.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Here and now

Upon the wreckage of thy yesterday
Design the structure of to-morrow. Lay
Strong corner stones of purpose, and prepare
Great blocks of wisdom, cut from past despair.
Shape mighty pillars of resolve, to set
Deep in the tear-wet mortar of regret.
Work on with patience. Though thy toil be slow,
Yet day by day the edifice shall grow.
Believe in God--in thine own self believe.
All that thou hast desired thou shalt achieve.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from New Thought Pastels (1906). The Structure

With every rising of the sun
Think of your life as just begun.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). You and To-day

Let's affirm our past and say goodbye to it and get to work on the present.
~ Paul Williams, Das Energi (1973).

Bring the morrow what it may,
I will live in bliss to-day.
~ Robert Folkestone Williams, from Rhymes and Rhapsodies (1833). Songs. Anacreontique

If I grasp the moment's meaning, all eternity is mine.
~ Theodore Chickering Williams, from Poems of Belief (1910). All in All

The reader knows himself as he was twenty years ago and he has also in mind a vision of what he would be, some day. Oh, some day! But the thing he never knows and never dares to know is what he is at the exact moment that he is.
~ William Carlos Williams, from Spring and All (1923).

The future is programmed in the present.
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

What we are left with then is the present, the only time where miracles happen. We place the past and the future as well into the hands of God. The biblical statement that "time shall be no more" means that we will one day live fully in the present, without obsessing about past or future.
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

Thou only livest -- Now and Here, --
In that one moment that thou hast.
~ Forceythe Willson, from The Old Sergeant and Other Poems (1866). A Valedictory

Pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find that you've collected nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.
~ (Robert) Meredith Willson, from The Music Man (1957 musical).

The eternal now, right?
~ Brian Wilson, in Cheetah magazine (October 1967). Surfing Saints

Modern man drives a mortgaged car over a bond-financed highway on credit-card gas.
~ Earl Wilson

Declare today a holiday -- imagine every day is a holiday. Do one little thing that stimulates this holiday mood each day, then watch your worries fade away.
~ Paul Wilson, The Little Book of Calm (1996).

Nobody got where they are today by living for tomorrow.
~ Tom Wilson, Ziggy

This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important, because I'm exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.
~ W. Heartsill Wilson, A New Day

One of those heavenly days that cannot die.
~ William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads, Vol. II (1800 edition). Nutting

With Thought and Love companions of our way,
Whate'er the senses take or may refuse,
The Mind's internal heaven shall shed her dews
Of inspiration on the humblest lay.
~ William Wordsworth, Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems (1835). Most Sweet it is

The day has been rich in adventure, and exploration, and the doing of great deeds. ... And it has been all too short.
~ Jacob William Wright, The Long Ago (1916). The Rain

Time drops in decay,
Like a candle burnt out,
And the mountains and woods
Have their day, have their day.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). The Moods