There’s a lot of things you can buy in life. But, time isn’t one of them. Time management quotes yes, more time no! Once time is spent, it’s gone forever. It may help you to have some inspiring quotes in front of you to think about — live by — and keep you motivated.
Because your time is priceless, you need to make sure that you’re getting the most out of every second. That may sound challenging in today’s fast-paced world where we’re plugged-in 24/7.
However, if you don’t take the reins, those precious seconds will slip through your fingers.
To help you make the most of your time, here are 50 inspiring time management quotes to live by.
1. “Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” – Jean de la Bruyère, “Les Caracteres” (1688).
2. “Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin.
3. “Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes, and the hardest to correct, is this waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material.” – Henry Ford.
4. “Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.” – Rodin.
5. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler.
6 “I like to do weird things in the shower, like drink my coffee, brush my teeth and drink a smoothie. It’s good time management.” – Michelle Williams.
7. “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck.
8. “The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.” – Stephen R. Covey.
9. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Marthe Troly-Curtin, “Phrynette Married” (1911).
10. “Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.” – Carl Sandburg.
11. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – William Penn.
12. “The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.” – Thomas Sowell.
13. “You can’t make up for lost time. You can only do better in the future.” – Ashley Ormon.
14. “I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.” – Golda Meir.
15. “One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.” – Malcolm S. Forbes.
16. “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa.
17. “The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.” – Barbara Corcoran
18. “Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.” – Charles Richards.
19. “Procrastination is the foundation of all disasters.” – Pandora Poikilos.
20. “The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.” – Barry Werner.
21. “My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” – Steve Jobs.
22. “Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” – Lord Chesterfield.
23. “We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.” – William Shakespeare.
24. “He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.” – Victor Hugo.
25. “Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.” – Thomas Jefferson.
26. “Time is money. Use it wisely.” – Folorunsho Alakija.
27. “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
28. “In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do, It is not really the time, but the will that is lacking.” – Sir John Lubbock.
29. “Don’t count every hour in the day. Make every hour in the day count.” – Alfred Binet.
30. “A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin.
31. “Disciplined use of the time everybody else wastes can give you an edge. The now rich and famous writer of legal thrillers, Scott Turow, wrote his first novel using only his morning commutes into New York City on the train. All around him, others just killed the same time. For most people, these minutes don’t matter. But they can. So when you say to yourself ‘it’s only 10 minutes,’ you miss the entire point of time.” – Dan Kennedy.
32. “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year — and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!” – Anthony Robbins.
33. “To have more peace, as well as more time, start by letting go of the notion that time can be manipulated. Then, let go of the idea that it confines you. Instead, set out to use the time that is there for its true and best purpose — as the space within which you can live your life to the fullest.” – Michelle Passoff.
34. “You can have it all. Just not all at once.” — Oprah Winfrey.
35. “Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real.” – Sara Paddison.
36. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee.
37. “If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.” – Lee Iacocca.
38. “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” – Warren Buffett.
39. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar.
40. “Because a big portion of what I do doesn’t have a rhythm or predictable cadence to it, I’ve made it an even bigger priority to create routine where I can.” – Sara Blakely.
41. “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” – Coco Chanel.
42. “To do two things at once is to do neither.” – Publius Syrus.
43. “Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.” – Peter Drucker.
44. “Many people concentrate on what I call ‘ant stomping’ when they should concentrate on ‘elephant hunting.’ When you focus on stomping ants you confuse activity with accomplishment.” – Peter Turla.
45. “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau.
46. “It’s very easy to get distracted by your inbox or phone. When I have a big project or when I need to get something done — and done well — I shut down my email, I turn off my phone, and I put on some of my favorite music. I just dig in and get it done.” – Koel Thomae.
47. “Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.” – Thomas Edison.
48. “It’s how we spend our time here and now, that really matters. If you are fed up with the way you have come to interact with time, change it.” – Marcia Wieder.
49. “Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they’ve started.” – David Allen.
50. “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – H. Jackson Brown.
