Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

I often work by avoidance.

You cannot step into the same river twice.

You can write a short story in two hours. Two hours a day, you have a novel in a year.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

Housework, if you do it right, will kill you.

Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.

Too often we… enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

You tell me: Can you live crushed under the weight of the present? Without a memory of the past and without the desire to look ahead to the future by building something, a future, a family? Can you go on like this? This, to me, is the most urgent problem that the Church is facing.

To the people I forgot, you weren’t on my mind for some reason and you probably don’t deserve any thanks anyway.

To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

It is extremely difficult to say how long the process actually took to finally achieve my fragrance, Boudoir, because there was a lot of time waiting around for other people.

Time is more valuable than money, because time is irreplaceable.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

Every man’s memory is his private literature.

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

Why should I stop working? If I do, I’ll die and it’ll all be finished.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

However great may be the work for which we are responsible, we will always do well if we pause to spend time in sacred praise.

My goals are so high that I don’t have time to relax in any way, shape or form.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.

Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

Lost time is never found again.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.

I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to.

The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

I’m not the same man I used to be, I’m not out hell-raising, stuff like that. I am a changed man.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

If you are working 50 hours a week in a factory, you don’t have time to read 10 newspapers a day and go back to declassified government archives. But such people may have far-reaching insights into the way the world works.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

Someone once asked me, ‚How long does it take to do your hair.‘ I said, ‚I don’t know, I’m never there.‘

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

What’s done can’t be undone.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

I like the cold weather. It means you get work done.

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

We want to do a lot of stuff; we’re not in great shape. We didn’t get a good night’s sleep. We’re a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.

Only those who want everything done for them are bored.

All great achievements require time.