Time

Stay a little that we may make an end the sooner.
~ William Henry ("W.H.") Davenport Adams, The Secret of Success; or, How to Get on in the World (1879). Chapter I. Time and Its Uses

The commodity of which every man has the least, and, generally speaking, wastes the most, is Time.
~ William Henry ("W.H.") Davenport Adams, The Secret of Success; or, How to Get on in the World (1879). Chapter I. Time and Its Uses

He was out of time's dominion, so far as the living may be.
~ William Allingham, from Irish Songs and Poems (1887). The Abbot of Inisfalen

Now every sound at length is hush'd away.
These few are sacred moments. One more Day
Drops in the shadowy gulf of bygone things.
~ William Allingham, from Fifty Modern Poems (1865). XVI. After Sunset

Time is one of my most valuable assets.
~ Bill Anderson, quoted in Criswell Freeman The Book of Country Music Wisdom (1994).

Let night come, ring out the hour,
The days go by, I remain.
~ Guillaume Apollinaire (Wilhelm-Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky), Alcools (1912). Le Pont Mirabeau (The Mirabeau Bridge)

Time passes by like lightning. Before you know it you're struck down.
~ Billie Joe Armstrong

For each of us that this day awakes
A miracle takes place.
For once again we walk our earth
And own all upon its face.
~ William E. Bailey, Rhythms of Life (1969). Warrior's Song

Every age projects its own image of man into its art.
~ William E. Barrett, Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958).

Time, the dark whale, spouts blithely from his spiracle
A jet of memory that makes glad the sun.
~ William Rose Benét, Sonnets to My Father. III

Money doesn't mean anything because the value of it can be reduced instantly and it's gone. Possessions don't mean anything because they can be stolen. But time--there's nothing else of such value that I can see and there's never enough of it.
~ Bill Bixby, interview with Yvonne-Wyatt Rees, The Incredible Success of Bill Bixby (c. 1980).

Time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
~ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). Book I, Chapter XVIII: Of Corporations

Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

Like a fiend in a cloud,
With howling woe,
After night I do crowd,
And with night will go.
~ William Blake, from Poetical Sketches (1783). Mad Song

The Sun does arise,
And make happy the skies.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). The Ecchoing Green

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies,
With the dying sun.
~ Francis William Bourdillon, Among the Flowers (1878). Light

[W]e come to beginnings only at the end.
~ William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes (1980). Chapter 6: Making a Beginning

I sigh not over vanished years,
But watch the years that hasten by.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832 edition). The Lapse of Time

In sadness then I ponder how quickly fleets the hour
Of human strength and action, man's courage and his power.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Thirty Poems (1864). Waiting by the Gate. Stanza 4

Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,
A rose-red city half as old as Time!
~ John William Burgon, Petra (Newdigate Prize Poem, 1845)

Over the years I begin to doubt if my time will ever come. It will come, or it will not come. There is no use trying to force it.
~ William S. Burroughs, from Early Routines (1981). Extracts From Lee's Journals And Letters

Time: a landing field! Death needs time like a junkie needs junk.
~ William S. Burroughs, Ah! Pook is Here

All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from The Works of William E. Channing, D.D. (1841). Emancipation

[T]he evening is the time to review, not only our blessings, but our actions.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), in The Christian Disciple and Theological Review (1819). Daily Prayer

It is said by country-people, that one hour's sleep before midnight is worth more than two are worth after midnight, and I believe this to be a fact; but it is useless to go to bed early and even to rise early, if the time is not well employed after rising.
~ William Cobbett, Advice to Young Men: And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life (1829). Letter I: To A Youth

I should rejoice indeed that the old year is over and gone, if I had not every reason to expect a new one similar to it. Even the new year is already old in my account.
~ William Cowper, in The Life of William Cowper (1833). Chapter IX

So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book IV. The Winter Evening

Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.
~ William Cowper, in The Works Of William Cowper: His life, letters, and poems (1848). Letter to the Rev. John Johnson (29 September 1793)

What think you, Sir, of killing time.
~ William Cowper, in The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper, Esq., Volume I (1803). On a Spaniel Called Beau. II. Beau's Reply

To enjoy time, we should be independent of it.
~ William Danby, Ideas and Realities, or Thoughts on Various Subjects (1827).

Awake, awake! the morn will never rise
Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.
~ Sir William Davenant, Aubade (Morning Song)

How rich and great the times are now!
~ William Henry (W.H.) Davies, from New Poems (1907). A Great Time

Time is one of the great hobgoblins of our day. There is really no time except the single, fleeting moment that slips by us like water, and to talk about losing time, or saving time, is often a very dubious argument.
~ (William) Robertson Davies, Reading and Writing: The Tanner Lectures On Human Values, at Yale University (20-21 February 1991). I. Reading

You can not define being exactly on time.
~ W. Edwards Deming

Punctuality strengthens confidence and secures respect.
~ William Scott Downey, Proverbs, by Rev. William Scott Downey (1851 edition).

Time, to the nation as to the individual, is nothing absolute; its duration depends on the rate of thought and feeling.
~ John William Draper, History of the Intellectual Development of Europe

Thy sun posts westward, passed is thy morn,
And twice it is not given thee to be born.
~ William Drummond (of Hawthornden), from Flowers of Zion; or Spiritual Poems (1623). No Trust In Time

Who well lives, long lives; for this age of ours
Should not be numbered by years, daies, and hours.
~ Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes (1578). Second Week, Fourth Day. Book ii

We are all born within frontiers of space and time and, struggle as we will, we never escape from our boxes.
~ William James "Will" Durant, in The Greatest Minds And Ideas Of All Time (2002). Chapter Six. Twelve Vital Dates in World History

We could do almost anything if time would slow up, but it runs on, and we melt away trying to keep up with it.
~ William James "Will" Durant

Time makes no pauses in his march.
~ William Maxwell Evarts, Centennial Oration at Independence Hall. Philadelphia PA (4 July 1876).

Clocks slay time ... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.
~ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (October 1929).

[T]ime is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people.
~ William Faulkner, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 12 (Spring 1956). The Art of Fiction No. 12

Yesterday won't be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.
~ William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust (1948).

We all find time to do what we really want to do.
~ William Feather

The time is here, and is rapidly approaching.
~ William Field (British Member of Parliament)

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.
~ W.C. Fields

Your time is a valuable resource.
~ Bill Gates

I am not an early riser. The self-respect which other men enjoy in rising early I feel due to me for waking up at all.
~ William Alexander Gerhardie, Resurrection (1934).

Time moves in one direction, memory in another.
~ William Gibson

The noiseless foot of Time steals swiftly by,
And ere we dream of Manhood, Age is nigh.
~ William Gifford, from The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis (1802). Satire IX

[B]elieve me when I tell you that the thrift of time will repay you in after life with an usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and that the waste of it will make you dwindle, alike in intellectual and in moral stature, beneath your darkest reckonings.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Inaugural Address, as Rector, On 'The Work of Universities'. University of Edinburgh. Glasgow, Scotland (16 April 1860).

No wave on the great ocean of Time, when once it has floated past us, can be recalled. All we can do is to watch the new form and motion of the next, and launch upon it to try in the manner our best judgment may suggest, our strength and skill.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, in the Edinburgh Review (April 1852). On Farini's Stato Romano

There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.
~ William Glasser, M.D.

Eighteen is a good time for suffering. One has all the necessary strength, and no defenses.
~ Sir William Golding, from The Pyramid (1967).

Time ne'er forgot His journey, though his steps we numb'red not.
~ William Habington, Castara, Part II (1634). To my Noblest Friend, I.C. Esquire

Time! where didst thou those years inter
Which I have seene decease?
~ William Habington, Castara, 3rd edn. (1640). Recogitabo tibi omnes annos meos

I hate to see that evening sun go down.
~ W.C. (William Christopher) Handy, St. Louis Blues (1914 song).

The more mature we get, the more we realize that time is only relative; how we live means more than how long we live. Haply also we do not live by years, but by days.
~ William Thomson Hanzsche, Today (January 1942)

In these modern times ten years count for as much as one hundred years did formerly.
~ William Rainey Harper, Speech at Decennial Celebration, University of Chicago (18 June 1901).

You have to be there at the right time and you've got to be equipped.
~ William H. Hastie, quoted in William Hastie: Grace Under Pressure (1984).

I must be thrifty of my little time.
~ William Havard, Regulus, a Tragedy (1744). Act V, scene iii

He knows so much, so little I,
And we must part to-morrow.
~ William Hamilton Hayne, from Sylvan Lyrics and Other Verses (1893). Love Songs, And Other Verses: Time and I

Better late than never.
~ William Hazlitt, from Political Essays, with Sketches of Public Characters (1819). On the Courier and Times Newspapers (written 21 January 1814)

How the years slide on!
~ William Hazlitt, in The Life of William Hazlitt (1922). Chapter Thirteen: The Life of Napoleon

So perishable is genius, so swift is time, so fluctuating is knowledge, and so far is it from being true that men perpetually accumulate the means of improvement and refinement. On the contrary, living knowledge is the tomb of the dead, and while light and worthless materials float on the surface, the solid and sterling as often sink to the bottom, and are swallowed up for ever in weeds and quicksands!
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, or Original Essays on Men and Manners, 2nd series (1824). On Coffee-House Politicians

Surely, nothing is more simple than Time. His march is straightforward; but we should have leisure allowed us to look back upon the distance we have come, and not be counting his steps every moment.
~ William Hazlitt, On a Sun-Dial (1827).

Time, like distance, spreads a haze and a glory round all things.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Plain Speaker, Volume I (1826). Essay XV. On Egotism

Time, the most independent of all things.
~ William Hazlitt, On a Sun-Dial (1827).

What a fine lesson is conveyed to the mind -- to take no note of time but by its benefits, to watch only for the smiles and neglect the frowns of fate, to compose our lives of bright and gentle moments, turning always to the sunny side of things, and letting the rest slip for our imaginations, unheeded or forgotten! How different from the common art of self-tormenting!
~ William Hazlitt, On a Sun-Dial (1827).

The sun,
Closing his benediction,
Sinks, and the darkening air
Thrills with a sense of triumphing night--
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, from A Book of Verses (1888). Life and Death (Echoes). XXXIV: Margaritæ Sorori. I.M. (1876)

And before you know me gone
Eternity and I are one.
~ William Dean Howells, from Stops of Various Qvills (1895). Time

We are creatures of the moment; we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these.
~ William Dean Howells A Hazard of New Fortunes, Volume II (1890). VI

[Y]ou'll find, as you grow older, that you weren't born such a very great while ago after all. The time shortens up.
~ William Dean Howells, A Woman's Reason (1882).

[I]t is time itself, with all its changes, which has given that which may be regarded as true existence, and which may justly be said to be independent even of time.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, in Letters of William Von Humboldt to a Female Friend, Vol. I (1849 translation). Letter XXXVI. 13 November 1824

Time is the most important thing in human life -- for what is joy after its departure? -- and the most consolatory -- for pain, when time has fled, is no more.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, in Letters of William Von Humboldt to a Female Friend, Vol. I (1849 translation). Letter XXXVIII. Berlin. 31 January 1825

[B]elieve that time is going to help you to what you want.
~ William Morris (W.M.) Hunt, from Talks about Art (1878).

Learn to use ten minutes intelligently. It will pay you huge dividends.
~ William A. Irwin

Time itself comes in drops.
~ William James, A Pluralistic Universe (1909). VI. Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism

We have no sense for empty time.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 1. Chapter XV: The Perception of Time

We live forwards ... but we understand backwards.
~ William James (quoting a danish writer), from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907). Lecture VI. Pragmatism's Conception of Truth

Time, this short, this uncertain, this all-important time, upon every instant of which eternity depends, will not allow of our trifling away any of its moments. Resolve therefore to redeem it. Gather up its fragments, that nothing be lost.
~ William Jay, Morning Exercises for the Closet: For Every Day in the Year (1828). Jan. 1

I'd start a revolution but I don't have time
I don't know why I'm still a nice guy.
~ Billy Joel, in Glass Houses (1980 album). Close To The Borderline

If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time.
~ Billy Joel, Lecture at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (20 April 1996).

It seems such a waste of time
If that's what it's all about
If that's movin' up then I'm movin' out.
~ Billy Joel, in The Stranger (1977 album). Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

Say goodbye to the
Oldies but goodies
'Cause the good ole days weren't
Always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.
~ Billy Joel, in An Innocent Man (1983 album). Keeping The Faith

They say that these are not the best of times
But they're the only times I've ever known
And I believe there is a time for meditation
In cathedrals of our own.
~ Billy Joel, in Turnstiles (May 1976 album). Summer, Highland Falls

Living and dying is not the big issue. The big issue is what you're going to do with your time while you're here.
~ Bill T. Jones, (1987)

I consider time as a treasure decreasing every night; and that which every day diminishes soon perishes for ever.
~ Sir William Jones, The Moallakat; Or, Seven Arabian Poems Which Were Suspended On The Temple At Mecca (1782). Poem of Tarafa

Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven,
Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven.
~ Sir William Jones, in Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Correspondence, of Sir William Jones (1804).

Once, after finishing a picture, I thought I would stop for awhile, take a trip, do things -- the next time I thought of this, I found five years had gone by.
~ Willem de Kooning

Ask what Time is, it is nothing else but something of eternal duration become finite, measurable and transitory.
~ William Law, An Appeal To all that Doubt, or Disbelieve the Truths of the Gospel (1740).

And while the great and wise decay,
And all their trophies pass away,
Some sudden thought, some careless rhyme,
Still floats above the wrecks of Time.
~ William Edward Hartpole (E.H.) Lecky, from Poems (1891). On an Old Song

Time hath two blessings for mankind: the first
Is earthly joy;
He gives the second even to the most accurst,--
Rest from annoy.
~ William James Linton, Claribel and Other Poems (1865). Time's Gifts

Better 'tis to work
Than to dream and dream,
And the hours will fly the faster
Mid the busy stream.
~ William Edensor Littlewood, A Garland from the Parables (1857). XXV

High up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is one hundred miles high and one hundred miles wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by.
~ Hendrik Willem van Loon, The Story of Mankind (1921).

It is a familiar truth that punctuality is the life of the universe.
~ William Mathews, Getting on in the World: Or, Hints on Success in Life (1872). Chapter XII: Business Habits

Time, because it is so fleeting, time, because it is beyond recall, is the most precious of human goods and to squander it is the most delicate form of dissipation in which man can indulge.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from Cosmopolitans: Very Short Stories (1936). The Bum

To the lover waiting for his love, no sound is sadder than the tardy striking of the hours.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949).

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up (1938).

You waste a lot of time going down blind alleys if you have no one to lead you.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge (1944).

It is not that we must pump time full of life again with our own activity. That is the way the world is doing it; and rather than find life in time, the world discovers that time becomes scarce, disappears and ends in remorse.
~ William T. McConnell, The Gift of Time (1983).

There are no tragedies, just facts not recognized in time.
~ William D. Montapert

Time softly there
Laughs through the abyss of radiance with the gods.
~ William Vaughn Moody, The Fire-Bringer. Act I

I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.
~ Willie Nelson

Life goes on. Each time the clock ticks, you have a chance to start out -- or to start anew.
~ William I. Nichols, in Guideposts (13 December 2008). What Are Your "Words to Live By," Mr. Nichols?

A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human. First Sequel: Mixed Opinions and Maxims (March 1879).

My time has not yet come either; some are born posthumously.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Ecce Homo (1888).

Threescore summers, when they're gone,
Will appear as short as one.
~ William Oldys, in The Scarborough Miscellany (1732). The Fly. An Anacreontick. (aka, On a Fly Drinking out of his Cup of Ale)

Let each hour of the day have its alloted duty, and cultivate that power of concentration which grows with its exercise.
~ William Osler, Address at the University of Toronto (1 October 1903). The Master-word in Medicine

O Time! whose verdicts mock our own,
The only righteous judge art thou!
~ Thomas William Parsons, from Poems (1854). On a Bust of Dante

To larger sight the rim of shadow is the line of light.
~ Thomas William Parsons, Inscription for a sundial at Milton, Massachusetts

A man like a Watch, is to be valued for its Goings.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Respect

There is nothing of which we are apt to be so lavish as of Time, and about which we ought to be more solicitous; since without it we can do nothing in this World. Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). The Preface

If I were running the world I would have it rain only between 2 and 5 a.m. Anyone who was out then ought to get wet.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps

I am a child of the morning. I love the dawn and the sunrise. ... I am on a mountain top before dawn; the darkness gives way; the greyness strengthens, and finally my whole mind and soul are filled with the increasing light.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, Sunrise (c. 1912).

Although watching television can be a great way to unwind after a hectic day, laugh out loud, or even learn something new, it is, generally, the biggest time vampire in modern society.
~ William Nathaniel ("Bill") Phillips, in Muscle Media magazine (March 2000).

Time is a wasting asset, and most of us realize that too late to avoid spending a lot of it unwisely.
~ William H. Rehnquist, Marymount University Commencement Address, Arlington VA (12 May 2002)

The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still. Like when they say, 'As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end'.
~ Jean Rhys (née Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams), Voyage in the Dark (1934).

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
~ Will Rogers, Daily Telegrams (28 April 1930).

I never yet talked to the man who wanted to save time who could tell me what he was going to do with the time he saved.
~ Will Rogers

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.
~ Will Rogers

Make time for doughnuts.
~ William Rosenberg

Twilight, a timid fawn, went glimmering by,
And Night, the dark-blue hunter, followed fast.
~ George William (A.E.) Russell, Refuge

In the end, today is forever, yesterday is still today, and tomorrow is already today.
~ William Saroyan, I Used to Believe I Had Forever, Now I'm Not So Sure (1968).

Ah! the clock is always slow;
It is later than you think;
Sadly later than you think;
Far, far later than you think.
~ Robert William Service, It Is Later Than You Think (1921).

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot, and
Thereby hangs a tale.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act II, scene vii

And yet, to times in hope, my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 60

[A]s merry as the day is long.
~ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing. Act II, scene i

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act II, scene ii

But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act I, scene v

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool;
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I

Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Come what come may,
Time and the hour run through the roughest day.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene iii

Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age?
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act I, scene ii

Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act V, scene ii

Fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It

For ever and a day.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act IV, scene i

Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part I. Act I, scene i

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II. Act V, scene v

It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I

Let every man be master of his time
Till seven at night.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act III, scene i

Let's mock the midnight bell.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act III, scene xiii

Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore,
So do our minutes, hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 60

Men are as the time is.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear. Act V, scene iii

O! call back yesterday, bid time return.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II

Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton, Time.
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act III, scene i

Past and to come seem best; things present worst.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act I, scene iii

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene iii

The end crowns all,
And that old common arbitrator, Time,
Will one day end it.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time
Steals ere we can effect them.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well. Act V, scene iii

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act V, scene i

The night is long that never finds the day.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act IV, scene iii

The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Act III, scene ii

The spirit of the time shall teach me speed.
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act IV, scene ii

The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act I, scene v

There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello

This night methinks is but the daylight sick.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act V, scene i

[T]ime comes stealing on by night and day.
~ William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors. Act IV, scene ii

Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act III, scene iii

Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act III, scene i

[T]ime must friend or end.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act I, scene ii

Time's glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.
~ William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece

Time's office is to ... waste huge stones with little water-drops.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III

Time's thievish progress to eternity.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 77

'Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene iv

'Tis now the very witching time of night.
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act III, scene ii

'Tis the breathing time of day with me.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act V, scene ii

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act V, scene v

We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act I, scene iii

We have heard the chimes at midnight.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act III, scene ii

You come most carefully upon your hour.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act I, scene i

The swift years slip and slide adown the steep;
The slow years pass; neither will come again.
~ William Sharp (as Fiona MacLeod), from The Washer of the Ford: And other Legendary Moralities (1896). Ula and Urla

What is Eternity
But the sea coming,
The sea going
For evermore.
~ William Sharp (as Fiona MacLeod), From the Hills of Dream: Mountain Songs and Island Runes (1896). Love Songs of Ian Mor. At the Last

Amusement and Diversion are good well meaning words; but Pastime is what never should be used but in a bad sense: it is vile to say such a thing is agreeable, because it helps to pass the time away.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Of Men and Manners

Play something -- anything -- but play --
'Tis but to pass the time away.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. I (1764). III. Levities; or, Pieces of Humour. To a friend

Hail, gentle Dawn! mild blushing goddess, hail!
~ William Somervile, The Chase, Book II (1735).

Too late I stayed, forgive the crime,
Unheeded flew the hours;
How noiseless falls the foot of time
That only treads on flowers.
~ William Robert (W.R.) Spencer, from Poems (1811). To the Lady Anne Hamilton

Exactly at midnight
yesterday sighs away.
~ William Stafford, in The Way It Is (1998). Climbing Along The River

Well, it was yesterday. And the sun came,
Why
It came.
~ William Stafford, in The Way It Is (1998). Are You Mr. William Stafford?

Ah me! how quick the days are flitting!
I mind me of a time that's gone,
When here I'd sit, as now I'm sitting,
In this same place -- but not alone.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, in Punch (17 February 1849). The Ballad of Bouillabaisse

There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
~ Bill Watterson, from The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury (1990).

Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (20 March 1994).

I saw old Time, destroyer of mankind;
Calm, stern, and cold he sate, and often shook
And turn'd his glass, nor ever car'd to look
How many of life's sands were still behind.
~ William Henry Whitworth, Time and Death

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Maurine and Other Poems (1888). The Year

Why sit ye idly dreaming all the day,
While the golden, precious hours flit away?
See you not the day is waning, waning fast?
That the morn's already vanished in the past?
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Drops of Water (1872). Arise

Time is of the essence; time for understanding, time for conviction, and time for creation. And time is not just of the present and of the past but also of the future.
~ Philip Will, Jr., in Theology Today (July 1962). Building For Time and Eternity

Everyone appreciates the long light evenings. Everyone laments their shrinkage as the days grow shorter, and nearly everyone has given utterance to a regret that the clear bright light of early mornings, during Spring and Summer months, is so seldom seen or used.
~ William Willett, The Waste of Daylight (July 1907 pamphlet).

I ... venture to propose that at 2 a.m. on each of four Sunday mornings in April, standard time shall advance 20 minutes; and on each of four Sundays in September, shall recede 20 minutes, or in other words that for eight Sundays of 24 hours each, we shall substitute four, each 20 minutes less than 24 hours, and four each 20 minutes more than 24 hours. ... This is the whole cost of the scheme. We lose nothing, and gain substantially.
~ William Willett, The Waste of Daylight (July 1907 pamphlet).

[I]f some of the hours of wasted sunlight could be withdrawn from the beginning and added to the end of the day, how many advantages would be gained by all, and in particular by those who spend in the open air, when light permits them to do so, whatever time they have at their command after the duties of the day have been discharged.
~ William Willett, The Waste of Daylight (July 1907 pamphlet).

While daylight surrounds us, cheerfulness reigns, anxieties press less heavily, and courage is bred for the struggle of life.
~ William Willett, The Waste of Daylight (July 1907 pamphlet).

In the laughing times we know we are lucky
In the quiet times we know that we are blessed
And we will not be alone.
~ Dar Williams, in The Honesty Room (1993 album). Arrival

Meek Twilight! soften the declining day,
And bring the hour my pensive spirit loves;
When, o'er the mountain flow descends the ray
That gives to silence the deserted groves.
~ Helen Maria Williams, from Poems (1786), Volume I. Sonnet to Twilight

Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?
~ Robin Williams

One grain of time's inestimable sand is worth a golden mountain; let us not lose it.
~ Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for the Cause of Conscience (1644).

I didn't go to the moon, I went much further -- for time is the longest distance between two places.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, The Glass Menagerie (1944). Scene Seven

I don't ask for your pity, but just for your understanding -- not even that -- no. Just for your recognition of me in you, and the enemy, time, in us all.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). Act III

It goes tick-tick, it's quieter than your heartbeat, but it's slow dynamite, a gradual explosion, blasting the world we lived in to burnt-out pieces. ... Time -- who could beat it, who could defeat it ever?
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). Act III

It haunts me, the passage of time. I think time is a merciless thing.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, in The New York Post (30 April 1958).

No day is finished but discontinued awhile.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, from Androgyne, Mon Amour (1977). Tangier: The Speechless Summer

There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Camino Real (1953).

[T]ime is short and it doesn't return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, in The New York Times (30 November 1947). A Streetcar Named Success

Time goes by so fast. Nothin' can outrun it. Death commences too early -- almost before you're half acquainted with life -- you meet the other.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).

Time just outran me, Big Daddy, got there first.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).

Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, The Rose Tattoo (1951). The Timeless World of a Play

It is summer, winter, any time--
no time at all--but delight
~ William Carlos Williams, from Collected Poems, 1921-1931 (1934). Birds and Flowers

Night is a room
darkened for lovers ...
~ William Carlos Williams, from Sour Grapes (1921). Complaint

Time is a storm in which we are all lost. Only inside the convolutions of the storm itself shall we find our directions.
~ William Carlos Williams, from Selected Essays (1954). Preface

God exists in eternity. The only point where eternity meets time is in the present. 'The present is the only time there is.'
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

The clock of time, measuring the hours of life's parting day, pours a still, melancholy voice along the fading landscape of years.
~ Robert Eldridge Aris (R.A.) Willmott, Pleasures, Objects, And Advantages Of Literature (1851). IV. Classical Studies: Their Associations and Interests

It's later than it's ever been.
~ Clerow "Flip" Wilson

No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future.
~ Ian E. Wilson

Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.
~ Tom Wilson, Ziggy

The golden time of Long Ago.
~ William Winter, from The Poems of William Winter (1909). Elegy for Bromley

When will the dead world cease to dream,
When will the morning break?
~ William Winter, from Wanderers: The Poems of William Winter (1888). The Night Watch

The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.
~ William Wordsworth, from Poems in Two Volumes (1807). Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman goads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.
~ William Butler Yeats, The Countess Cathleen (1892).

This morning gives us promise of a glorious day.
~ William Wordsworth, from Poems in Two Volumes, Volume I (1807). Poems Composed During A Tour, Chiefly on Foot. 5. Resolution and Independence

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Tower (1928). Sailing to Byzantium

Speak, speak, for underneath the cover there
The sand is running from the upper glass,
And when the last grain's through, I shall be lost.
~ William Butler Yeats, The Hour-Glass (1912 version).

The clouds were brightening with the dawn.
~ William Butler Yeats, Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916). The Hour Before Dawn

Time can but make it easier to be wise
Though now it seems impossible, and so
All that you need is patience.
~ William Butler Yeats, from In The Seven Woods (1904). The Folly Of Being Comforted

[W]here do you spend most of your time in your mind, in your imagination: in the present, in the past, or in the future?
~ William P. Young, The Shack (2007).

Only time resolves conflicts, but time needs help.
~ William Zartman, Ripe for Resolution: Conflict and Intervention in Africa (1989 edition).