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Living in the Moment

  • ... it is when you are really living in the present—working, thinking, lost, absorbed in something you care about very much, that you are living spiritually.

  • If you let yourself be absorbed completely, if you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.

  • I am always more interested in what I am about to do than in what I have already done.

    • Rachel Carson,
    • in Martha Freeman, ed., Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman 1952-1964 ()
  • To one who has enjoyed the full life of any scene, of any hour, what thoughts can be recorded about it seem like the commas and semicolons in the paragraph, — mere stops.

  • To-morrow, yes, those songs will break my heart, / But I am only very glad to-night.

  • Do what you want to do, when you want to do it ... and not a moment sooner.

    • Oprah Winfrey,
    • in Bill Adler, ed., The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey ()
  • I'm one of those people who lives for the moment. If you concern yourself with what's going to happen a year from now, or five years from now, you defuse the moment. Whatever comes, comes. For this time I enjoy the ascent. I don't worry about anything except getting thinner thighs.

    • Oprah Winfrey,
    • in Bill Adler, ed., The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey ()
  • I have come to believe in the 'Sacrament of the Moment,' which presupposes trust in the ultimate goodness of my creator.

    • Ruth Casey,
    • in Karen Casey, Each Day a New Beginning ()
  • To live exhilaratingly in and for the moment is deadly serious work, fun of the most exhausting sort.

  • There is no magic tomorrow; we can think things through rationally today.

  • ... if we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves ...

  • Moments / of sinking my teeth / into now like a hungry fox: / never otherwise / am I so cruel; / never otherwise / so happy.

  • ... the fact is, that life is too short to be occupied by aught but the present — hope and remembrance are equally a waste of time.

  • Love only what you do, / and not what you have done.

  • We mustn't let next week rob us of this week's joy.

  • I learned that this is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.

  • I only need to see my path / For this one day.

    • Mary Butts,
    • "To-Day," in Mary Allette Ayer, Heart Melodies ()
  • If you wake up in the morning with a great sense of the things that have to be done in the day in order to get through to the next day, you lose the sense of the day as any kind of end in itself.

    • Fay Weldon,
    • in Nina Winter, Interview With the Muse ()
  • And every year a day as yet unknown / which I won't be here to enjoy goes by, / which is why now I celebrate each one.

  • I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us.

  • In every life there is a perfect moment, like a flash of sun. We can shape our days by that, if we will — before by faith, and afterward by memory.

  • It is easy to be mindless in America, because dreaming of and living for a better tomorrow is the American way. ... The problem is, in the second half of the twentieth century, we have gotten so good at living for tomorrow that most of us spend very little time in the present.

  • Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.

  • Let me be really here, here in this place and this time where I am.

  • Exhaust the little moment / Soon it dies.

  • My last defense / Is the present tense.

  • ... she was learning to love moments. To love moments for themselves.

  • The day you spend hoping, the day you spend waiting, the day you spend in despair, is a day in your life as much as the tomorrow you hope for, but which may never come, so betting today on tomorrow is always a bad bet.

  • ... most People are wretched more by the Fears of what may come, than what they endure at present. ... a manifest Contradiction to good Sense; for who, with the right use of that, wou'd lose the Enjoyment of a present Comfort, to lament a Misfortune only in Supposition; which ten to one never comes to pass ...

    • Eliza Haywood,
    • "The Tea-Table: or, A Conversation Between Some Polite Persons of Both Sexes" (1725), in Alexander Pettit et al., eds, Fantomina and Other Works ()
  • No time like the present.

  • To-Morrow and To-Morrow, cheat our Youth: / In riper Age, To-Morrow still we cry, / Not thinking, that the present Day we Dye; / Unpractis'd all the Good we had Design'd; / There's No To-Morrow to a Willing Mind.

    • Anne Finch,
    • "There's No To-Morrow," Miscellany Poems, Written by a Lady ()
  • One by one the sands are flowing, / One by one the moments fall; / Some are coming, some are going; / Do not strive to grasp them all.

  • Each point I play is the now moment: the last point means nothing; the next point means nothing.

  • It is only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day-to-day basis.

  • Forget the past and live the present hour; / ... / Be glad to-day, tomorrow may bring tears; / Be brave to-day, the darkest night will pass, / And gold rays will usher in the dawn; / Who conquers now shall rule the coming years.

  • I am sitting here in the sun / Watching the kittens playing / And the children playing / And I am convinced / There is nothing worth doing more.

  • Just for today I will be happy. ... Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals. Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is ... Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not to tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime. Just for today ...

    • Sybil F. Partridge,
    • "Just for Today" (1916), in Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying, and Start Living ()
  • Were I called upon to offer a formula for 'the perfect moment,' I might advise to just be where you are — one of the hardest places to arrive at in the here-there-everywhere-at-the-same time world we've created.

    • Rodica Woodbury,
    • in Andrea Van Steenhouse, with Doris A. Fuller, A Woman's Guide to a Simpler Life ()
  • Oh! what a crowded world one moment may contain!

    • Felicia Hemans,
    • "The Last Constantine," The Poetical Works of Felicia Dorothea Hemans ()
  • Yesterday is past. Tomorrow is only a promise. Only today is legal tender.

  • It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth — and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up — that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

  • Any joy, creativity or wisdom our next moment brings will ensue from the way we live our present one.

  • Time is a friend — perhaps the best one we shall ever have. ... Time is a now — and there is only now. Memories look backward. Hope looks ahead. But there is in reality only now.

  • Love the moment / and the energy / of that moment / will spread / beyond all / boundaries.

  • Accept the moment / as a friend / it is.

  • this moment contains / the fullness of all moments / nothing else is needed.

  • Life is a succession / of moments / to live each one / is to succeed.

  • If there's any possibility for enlightenment, it's right now, not at some future time. Now is the time.

  • We keep missing the moment we're in. Yet if we can experience the moment we're in, we discover that it is unique, precious, and completely fresh. It never happens twice. One can appreciate and celebrate each moment — there’s nothing more sacred. There’s nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there’s nothing more!

  • Now is almost always the better choice. You never know about later.

  • I lived in the moment of the now, without concern about tomorrow's pitfalls. If unpleasantness lurked there, I would drink the bitter cup only once, while worriers drink it twice.

  • Everything in your life — every moment, every struggle — is the path. Everything is an opportunity for awakening.