Quote: Somewhere between sunrise and sunset…
What’s your most precious possession?
Time.
You can lose it easily, but you can never get it back.
It’s worth more than gold, but you can’t buy more of it. We try, of course. We spend thousands on time-saving products, and pay people to use their time doing the tasks we don’t want to do.
But in the end, we still only get twenty-four hours in a day. And so often, we waste our time on pursuits which add nothing to our lives, which don’t develop our characters or skills; which can’t enrich our relationships or make us happier. And we don’t save some free time to relax and enjoy the material things we’ve worked so many hours to earn.
That’s why this quote from Horace Mann has so much resonance:
‘Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.’
So treasure your time. Spend it well, because you’ll only get it once.
And if you let other people take it, make sure they’ll give you some of theirs in return.
That is a brilliant quote, Emily! Thanks for sharing it. I recall it from my childhood, but it’s more appropriate now. I feel I still have a lot to do to stop wasting time.
For me, internet news sites are my biggest time sucker. So I use Evernote Web Clipper to save interesting articles, then I read them offline, when travelling, at home, in bed, or otherwise not able to work. It helps, but I still could improve more….
Thanks for your comments, Rick. That’s a great time-saver tip – although I can think of two other things to do in bed!