The book ended up with a pretty fun collection of epigraphs for each chapter. But there are a lot more good quotes about time than chapters in the book. Here are some of the quotes I did not end up using. Further examples are hereby solicited — who knows when they might turn out to be useful?
“Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.” — George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah
“Time is the longest distance between two places.” — Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
“The future’s not ours to see.” — Doris Day
“Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.” — Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo
“Time, you old gypsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day?”
– Ralph Hodgeson“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.”
– T.S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton” (Four Quartets)“Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river that carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.” — Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths.
Apparently you have to be extremely careful when it comes to poetry; fair use doesn’t necessarily extend very far.
September 29th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
“Time is an illusion; lunchtime doubly so.” –Zarniwoop, The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
“All of cosmology’s missing mass can be explained by people who lie about their weight.” — R. Knop, 1989, back when there still *was* “missing mass”.
“Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and [Time]” — Simon & Garfunkel (with bonus Oxford comma)
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,” –Macbeth, Macbeth
September 29th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Time like shadows is the most permanent thing in the world.
September 29th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
“Time is the fire in which we burn.”
-Dr. Tolian Soran, Star Trek: Generations
(originally from the poem “Calmly We Walk Through This April’s Day” by Delmore Schwartz)
September 29th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Much of the lyrics to David Bowie’s “Time”, but particularly the first 3 stanzas.
Time – he’s waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me, boy
Time – he flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy
Time – in quaaludes and red wine
Demanding billy dolls
And other friends of mine
Take your time
September 29th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Sean,
Where do you find all these quotes? The one from Shaw seems especially relevant if you’re talking about Poincare’s recurrence theorem or something similar.
Do you just have encyclopedic knowledge? Or happened to write down every relevant quote you encountered in your life?
I’m sure there are some good quotes from Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
September 30th, 2009 at 6:31 am
“The future’s not ours to see” should be credited to Ray Evans. Doris Day is just a singer.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:42 am
You’ve used Marx, I hope (bananarrow).
“Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow. You’re only a day away.”
“If not tomorrow, then the day after that.”
Does it show that I procrastinate a lot?
September 30th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
My two favourite quotes regarding poets and poetry:
“In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact opposite.” — Paul Dirac
“I stopped being afraid because I read the truth, and that’s the scientifical truth, which is much better. You shouldn’t let poets lie to you.” — Björk
October 5th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Time is confusing because pointing the other way its Emit.