Last Updated on December 20, 2022
When you’re having the time of your life, the clock starts to tick as fast as a spindle. You just want to live in the moment and pause time – but the clock doesn’t wait for anyone, does it? Time flies and leaves us with nothing but faint memories.
Life in retrospective seems like a black and white film. How did we come this far this fast? It seems like just yesterday, our parents were dropping us off at school. Our biggest concern was how many candy bars we had in our lunch box or who had the best backpack in class. Life was simple.
Fast forward to date, we’re all so consumed in our routine that there’s little left to reminisce.
Hopefully, these quotes will give you something to reminisce about.
Best Time Flies Quotes
1. “Tempus Fugit – Latin for ‘Time flies’ originally said by Ovid.”
– Dan Brown, Author, from ‘The Lost Symbol’.
2. “You feel sadness for time passing. New York is a city that keeps reinventing itself, and I love it so much.”
– Greta Gerwig, Actor.
3. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
– Steve Jobs, Entrepreneur, from 2015 Stanford speech.
4. “During the past five years, I’ve learned that time flies faster than you think, and because you only live once you have to learn from your mistakes, live your dreams and be accountable.”
– Lindsay Lohan, Actor, in 2011 after ‘Mean Girls’ release.
5. “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”
– Bruce Lee, Actor.
6. “Everybody knows that once you passed it, you can’t go back.”
– Claire Cook.
7. “Make use of time, let not advantage slip.”
– William Shakespeare.
8. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”
– William Penn.
9. “We go back and forth between being a time’s master and its victim.”
– James Gleick.
10. “We have been conditioned to see the passing of time as an adversary.”
– Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
11. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
– William Shakespeare, ‘Richard II, part V’.
12. “Time, as he grows old, teaches many lessons.”
– Aeschylus.
13. “Time flies, but not memories.”
– Ika Natassa.
14. “One day, you’re 17 and you’re planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.”
– Brooke Davies, played by Sophia Bush, from ‘One Tree Hill’, 2012.
15. “Time moves slowly but passes quickly.”
– Alice Walker, from ‘The Color Purple’.
16. “The minutes rushed past, without compassion for my enthusiasm.”
– Nicola Lecca.
17. “When you’re engaged in what you love to do, it’s like driving in the fast lane. Time flies by and more roads open up to you, alternate routes you may not have even known existed.”
– T. Harv Eker.
18. “There is never enough time to enjoy what you love.”
– Joyce Rachelle.
19. “Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.”
– Jim Rohn.
20. “Time brings all things to pass.”
– Aeschylus.
21. “Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.”
– Jean de La Bruyère.
22. “Don’t use time and words carelessly – neither can be retrieved.”
– Lecrae.
23. “How time flies when one has fun.”
– Samuel Beckett, ‘The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett’.
24. “Who knows where the time goes?”
– Nina Simone, ‘The Dancer Upstairs’, 2002.
25. “It’s strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.”
– Veronica Roth, ‘Allegiant’, 2013.
26. “Time flies when you are having fun.”
– Albert Einstein.
27. “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.”
– Henry Ford.
28. “The trouble is you think you have time.”
– Gautama Buddha, from Jack Kornfield’s ‘Buddha’s Little Instruction Book’, 1994.
29. “Time meanwhile is flying, flying beyond recall.”
– Virgil, from his 3rd book of ‘Georgics’.
30. “‘Time flies? You know, like, time goes really fast and suddenly you’re saying goodbye and it’s like no time passed at all?’ His eyes drifted. He liked it. ‘Time flies.’ ‘With you,’ she added.”
– Mitch Albom, ‘The Time-Keeper’.
31. “Time flies when you’re changing the world.”
– Craig Kielburger.
32. “Time flies, whether you’re wasting it or not.”
– Crystal Woods.
33. “Time is a precious thing. Never waste it.”
– Gene Wilder as ‘Willy Wonka’ in 1971.
34. “Memory is a stopgap for humans, for whom time flies and what is passed is passed.”
– Umberto Eco.
35. “Time is a gift that most of us take for granted.”
– Cheryl Richardson.
36. “There are no refunds on misspent time.”
– Jack Butcher.
37. “Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you’re in diapers; the next day you’re gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul.”
– ‘The Wonder Years’, Drama series, 1988.
38. “If you don’t value your time, no one else will.”
– Donna Brazile.
39. “Real love moves freely in both directions. Don’t waste your time on anything else.”
– Cheryl Strayed.
40. “Hurry up: your dreams are waiting for you, but they will not wait forever.”
– Paulo Coelho.
41. “We must take the time to do what needs to be done now, what is right, instead of passing a bad bill.”
– Grace Napolitano.
42. “We have had a good time while we were young, but it is in the nature of time to fly.”
– T H While.
43. “Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.”
– Victor Hugo.
44. “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”
– Harvey Mackay.
45. “Enjoy the now. Time flies, enjoy it while you can.”
– Eddie Jemison.
46. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.”
– Robert H. Schuller, the title of his book.
47. “Those who possess time are often not aware of their value.”
– Sunday Adelaja.
48. “Time and tide wait for no man.”
– Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘Prologue to the Clerk’s Tale’, 1395.
49. “Time flies when you’re multitasking.”
– Bert McCoy.
50. “Our time in this life is limited. And how we respect that time will create a greater possibility for fulfillment.”
– Ruben Papian.
51. “We are aboard inside time, as it flies and never wear out.”
– Ronnie Cornelisz.
52. “We feast on time as time feasts on us.”
– Maria Popova.
53. “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”
– Sydney J. Harris.
54. “It’s crazy how fast time flies and how things progress.”
– Nathan Chen.
55. “How did it get so late so soon?”
– Dr. Suess, the poem title ‘How Did It Get So Late So Soon?’.
56. “Time is an illusion.”
– Albert Einstein, his general ‘Theory of relativity’.
57. “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”
– Jim Rohn.
58. “When you kill time, you kill your opportunities for success.”
– Denis Waitley.
59. “Lost time is never found again.”
– Benjamin Franklin.
60. “Time flies sometimes like a bird, sometimes crawls like a worm, but a man feels particularly well when he does not even notice that the time flies away.”
– Ivan Turgenev.
61. “Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”
– Hector Berlioz, a letter published in Pierre Citron November 1856.
62. “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
– Bertrand Russell.
63. “They say I’m old-fashioned and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!”
– Dr. Seuss.
64. “Time flies, never to be recalled.”
– Virgil.
65. “Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.”
– Art Buchwald.
66. “Time flies apace-we would fain believe that everything flies forward with it.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche.
67. “Has it ever struck you … that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going? It’s really all memory … except for each passing moment.”
– Eric Kandel.
68. “Every second is of infinite value.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
69. “People always talk about how time flies; it’s become a sort of a colloquialism now. You don’t really understand it until you reach your late 30s and early 40s – and I’m sure time will move even faster as I get older.”
– Ben Gibbard.
70. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”
– Michael Altshuler.
71. “The most beautiful moments always seemed to accelerate and slip beyond one’s grasp just when you want to hold onto them for as long as possible.”
– E.A. Bucchianeri.
72. “Don’t ever waste a day. Once time goes by, you never get back it.”
– Joyce Meyer.
73. “Albert Einstein was never clear if he believed in time travel, but had he raised a toddler, he certainly would have.”
– Michael R French, ‘Once Upon a Lie’, 2016.
74. “Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.”
– Haruki Murakami, Author.
75. “Yes, time flies. And where did it leave you? Old too soon…smart too late.”
– Mike Tyson, Boxer.
76. “Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.”
– Nathaniel Hawthorne.
77. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
– Earl Nightingale.
78. “Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new.”
– Paracelsus.
79. “The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”
– Stephen R. Covey.
80. “You may delay, but time will not.”
– Benjamin Franklin.