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Your Quotes. Give Dem To Me.
I've decided a few things, after staring blankly at a number of word processors over the past few weeks. Why a number of word processors? Because I'm one of those procrastinators that blames the tool and thinks "If only I had a different application, the words would flow freely to paper." Yeah, doesn't happen like that.
What I've learned from my book publishing experience is that I'm not so great with the blank slate approach to writing, where every word and all the structure is my own. It's too big a project for my attention span to fully comprehend. What I am good at, I think, is compiling and doing the value-add thing - hit and run style, almost. What project finally got me to publish a book? Collecting a bunch of quotes on the subject of weddings, and then adding value. I can do that.
So I'd like to put that theory to the test, a bit. My next project, should this work, will be a free ebook on the subject of Shakespeare and productivity, time management, procrastination...etc. I haven't decided yet. The idea remains the same - compile, organize, add value. I want to make this one free, mostly because I think it's been done before and I don't want to push my luck, but primarily because I want to start building up value around my name as an author. I think that people searching for ebooks will be more likely to find time management books than wedding books, and they're certainly more likely to try out free books than $$ books. But if people *do* try out my free book and they like it, then maybe they click on that author link Amazon provides and say "I like this guy's style, what else has he written?" My goal for 2011 is to get a handful of titles attached to my name to see if I can make that happen.
So then, tell me - what are your favorite quotes on that broad subject? I can google "Shakespeare and time" all day long, and have been. And, just like with the wedding project, it's been easy to see that a handful of quotes shows up over and over again - better three hours too soon than a minute late, I have wasted time and now time doth waste me, and so on. Just like the wedding project, I'd like to hit somewhere between those - I don't think there's value in a dry and boring collection of the 5000 times Shakespeare used the words "time" or "minute" or "hour". But I think there's far more than half a dozen good quotes on the subject. I bet we could find closer to 100 or more if we tried.
Got anything for me?
7 comments:
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." Richard II
Ha! You already have that quote in your post.
Second try...
"The clock upbraids me with the waste of time." -- Twelfth Night.
Well, of course, The Sonnets have something to say:
Sonnet 12:
"...nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence."
(i.e., "Hurry up and have kids!")
All of Sonnet 126:
O thou my lovely Boy who in thy power,
Dost hold times fickle glasse, his sickle, hour:
Who hast by waning growne, and therein show’st,
Thy lover's withering, as thy sweet selfe grow’st.
If Nature (soveraine mistress over wrack)
As thou goest onwards still will plucke thee backe,
She keepes thee to this purpose, that her skill,
May time disgrace, and wretched minute kill.
Yet feare her O thou minion of her pleasure,
She may detaine, but not still keepe her treasure!
Her Audite (though delay'd) answer'd must be,
And her Quietus is to render thee.
(The "lovely boy" has held Time's hourglass still [his beauty remains unchanged] and has thus held off Time's sickle [which leads to death], the advancing hour. The spell is only broken when Nature's attempt to kill "wretched minute" is foiled by Time, to whom she must eventually yield in the final line. So...even if Nature seems to spare you the ravages of Time, watch out! Time will get you in the end!)
--Carl
"I'll be back" [lader] :)
"The time is out of joint: Oh cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right. "
Hamlet
Check out Ulysses' speech in Troilus and Cressida, Act 3 Scene 3. It begins "Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back/ Wherein he keeps ams for oblivion/ A great-sized monster of ingratitudes:/ These scraps are good deeds past, which are devoured/ As soon as they are made, forgot/ As soon as done." Overall, it's rather cynical, but the personification of time and oblivion is very cool. It boils down to the fact most people have a "what have you done for me LATELY" mindset. :)
Alexi reminded me. A favorite from the same play Act IV:
ULYSSES
Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue:
My prophecy is but half his journey yet;
For yonder walls, that pertly front your town,
Yond Towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds,
Must kiss their own feet.
HECTOR
I must not believe you:
There they stand yet, and modestly I think,
The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost
A drop of Grecian blood: the end crowns all,
And that old common Arbitrator, Time,
Will one day end it.
ULYSSES
So to him we leave it.
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