“Time: A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.”—The Free Dictionary by Farlex
Snapshot of our kitchen’s wall clock. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.
What is time you might ask? The definition is at the beginning of this blog post. Over the years, many people have defined this mysterious concept in several ways. Below you will find some famous quotations about time.
“If you let slip time, like a neglected rose it withers on the stalk with languished head.”—John Milton
“Like the waves make toward the pebbled shore, so do our minutes hasten to their end.”—William Shakespeare
“The minutes ticked off like separate eternities.”—Dan Wakefield
“Time looked like snow dropping silently into a black room or…like a silent film in an ancient theater, one hundred billion faces falling like those New Year balloons, down, and down into nothing.”—Ray Bradbury
“Upon his silver hairs, time, like a Panama hat, sits on a tilt and smiles.”—Karl Shapiro
There is a time shift which has a peculiar name; it’s called the Graveyard Shift. The Graveyard Shift is a work shift usually from midnight until eight in the morning. The phrase, American slang and dating from the early part of the last century, is an allusion to the late hour of the shift, which works in the dead of the night when it is quiet and still as a graveyard.
I’m currently 65. As the aging process continues, I’m more aware of this construct called time which is shrinking with each passing day. The less I have of it, the more important it becomes. It’s essential to squeeze every bit of juice out of Life until the Man upstairs decides to turn off the switch.
This optimistic attitude of life is called kafi by the Greeks, joie de vivre by the French, and pasión por la vida by Latin Americans. Carpe Diem. Good Day.
I love time, and I love your quotation that includes the Panama hat! Here’s another quotation I like: “Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening at once”.
Here’s something else I love. Greek has two words for time, kairos and chronos. Chronological time is the kind mentioned at the top of your blog – unidirectional and measured off in equal units. A kairotic moment is “the right time”, or event-filled time. Asking “what time is it?”, the Greeks would use chronos. But if they said, “We’ll gather the tomatoes when the time is right”, kairos would be a better choice.
And now it’s time for me to be quiet!
Hi Linda:
I always cherish your comments, Thank you.
Loved your quotation about God and time. Wrote in down in my agenda.
Take Care,
Omar.-
There are also two words for “time” in Spanish…vez and tiempo. Omar needs to explain the difference.
Hello Richard:
“Vez” in Spanish is related to an specific event in a certain period of time. Example: “Esta vez te lo perdono, mañana no será así.” (This time I will pardon you, tomorrow it will not be this way.)
“Tiempo” is chronological time like the one you measure in an almanac, calendar or in a time machine like a clock or a watch.
Regards,
Omar.-
Sleeping normal hours is out of the question, of course, if you work a “graveyard,” “lobster” or “dog” shift, all three of which are slang terms for a late night shift, usually from midnight to 8 a.m. I’ve never worked a graveyard shift, but I did, for several years, work a “swing” (evening) shift, so-called because such shifts often overlap both the day and night shifts and mark a metaphorical pivot point between the two.