“Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations.” ~ Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Ten Quotes from Literature About Time
The old year is slipping away fast! Where did the time go? Here are quotes about time from literature that may, or may not, answer that question.
Men live their lives trapped in an eternal present, between the mists of memory and the sea of shadow that is all we know of the days to come. ~ A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. ~ The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ~ The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
The very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare. ~ To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” ~ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
You are here for but an instant, and you mustn’t take yourself too seriously. ~ The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
That which is loved may pass, but love hath no end. ~ Parables Of A Province by Gilbert Parker
Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future. ~ The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
The right time is ANY time that one is still so lucky as to have. ~ The Ambassadors by Henry James
“The past and the present are within the field of my inquiry, but what a man may do in the future is a hard question to answer.” ~ The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
More Quotes From Literature About Time
New Quotes Added
A new batch of quotes was added to the site today. They’ll soon be added into the quote topics section of the site. Remember that all of our quotes list an author and a source. We’re proud that this quotation site is curated by people and NOT by a computer program.
Here are some of my favorites from the new batch. If you have a quote that you’d like to see added to the site, you can contribute a quote.
Sometimes I wonder if our memories are as good as we think they are and if the whole past wasn’t once entirely different from anything we remember, and we’ve forgotten that we forgot. ~ The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils. ~ Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
To see and know the worst is to take from Fear her main advantage. ~ Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. ~ Dune by Frank Herbert
5 Quotes about Drinking from Literature
Does it mean anything that three out of the five quotes are from Charles Dickens?
Late hours, nocturnal cigars, and midnight drinkings, pleasurable though they may be, consume too quickly the free-flowing lamps of youth, and are fatal at once to the husbanded candle-ends of age. ~ Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
“Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.” ~ The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink. ~ Penrod by Booth Tarkington
In particular, there was a butler in a blue coat and bright buttons, who gave quite a winey flavour to the table beer; he poured it out so superbly. ~ Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
“Take another glass of wine, and excuse my mentioning that society as a body does not expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying one’s glass, as to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one’s nose.” ~ Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
If they ever WERE there, they ARE there still!
Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever WERE there, they ARE there still! ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
I’ve posted this at the LitQuotes Facebook page and the LitQuotes Twitter page in case you’d like to share the photo.
Thinking of Paris
There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. ~ The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
I’ve posted this at the LitQuotes Facebook page and the LitQuotes Twitter page in case you’d like to share the photo.
15 Inspirational Quotes from Literature
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul. ~ Invictus by William Ernest Henley
“The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right.” ~ Endymion by Benjamin Disraeli
“Look at that sea, girls–all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.” ~ Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
“Simple, generous goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.” ~ Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
From the death of each day’s hope another hope sprung up to live to-morrow. ~ The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. ~ Paradise Lost by John Milton
The dew seemed to sparkle more brightly on the green leaves; the air to rustle among them with a sweeter music; and the sky itself to look more blue and bright. Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercise, even over the appearance of external objects. ~ Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
“Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.” ~ Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
“I say that the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.” ~ Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
“All things are ready, if our minds be so.” ~ Henry V by William Shakespeare
There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. ~ The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. ~ The Awakening by Kate Chopin
“Love has no age, no limit; and no death.” ~ The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
“You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.” ~ Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Come what may, I am bound to think that all things are ordered for the best; though when the good is a furlong off, and we with our beetle eyes can only see three inches, it takes some confidence in general principles to pull us through. ~ The Stark Munro Letters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
See More Inspirational Quotes from Literature
Phineas Redux
Phineas Redux, by Anthony Trollope, was first published in 1873 as a serial in The Graphic. It is the fourth of the “Palliser” series of novels.
Ride at any fence hard enough, and the chances are you’ll get over. The harder you ride the heavier the fall, if you get a fall; but the greater the chance of your getting over. ~ Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
When you have done the rashest thing in the world it is very pleasant to be told that no man of spirit could have acted otherwise. ~ Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
A bull in a china shop is not a useful animal, nor is he ornamental, but there can be no doubt of his energy. ~ Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
More Information about Phineas Redux:
New Quotes Added – Phineas Redux and A Dance With Dragons
The site now contains quotes from Phineas Redux and A Dance with Dragons. This latest batch of quotes puts the site at over 2,600 quotes! Remember that all of our quotes list a source and are sorted into topics by people, not algorithms.
Here are some of my favorites from the new batch. If you have a quote that you’d like to see added to the site, you can contribute a quote.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,” said Jojen. “The man who never reads lives only one.” ~ A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
It is the necessary nature of a political party in this country to avoid, as long as it can be avoided, the consideration of any question which involves a great change. ~ Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
“Prophecy is like a half-trained mule,” he complained to Jorah Mormont. “It looks as though it might be useful, but the moment you trust in it, it kicks you in the head.” ~ A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
Ride at any fence hard enough, and the chances are you’ll get over. The harder you ride the heavier the fall, if you get a fall; but the greater the chance of your getting over. ~ Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
Quotes About Poetry from Literature
We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. ~ East of Eden by John Steinbeck
She carried her pocket Shakespeare about with her, and met life fortified by the words of the poets. ~ Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
How is it that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love? Are their first poems their best? Or are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their larger experience, their deeper-rooted affections? ~ Adam Bede by George Eliot
“She dotes on poetry, sir. She adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and entwined with it. She has produced some delightful pieces, herself, sir. You may have met with her `Ode to an Expiring Frog,’ sir.” ~ The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens