Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright and poet, author of some thirty-eight plays and a hundred and fifty-four sonnets. He wrote for the public theatre and for audiences of every rank, and his effect on the English language is such that a great many of his phrases are now ordinary speech.
About this theme: Time
Time is the one theme here where every author writes from the same position — none of them had more of it than they had. Seneca devoted an essay to it, and his central claim is uncomfortable: we are not given a short life, we spend it in a way that makes it seem short.
More by William Shakespeare
- Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
- All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
- Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
- There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
- How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
More on Time
- Lost time is never found again.— Benjamin Franklin
- The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.— Chinese Proverb
- It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.— Seneca
- The life given us by nature is short, but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.— Cicero
- The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.— Nikola Tesla