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"The past is always tense, the future perfect."
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Exlpore more Time quotes

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once."

"The future is what matters - because one never reaches it, but always stays in the present - like the White Queen who had to run like the wind to remain in the same spot."

"Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood."

"So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Explore more quotes by Zadie Smith

"There were good and bad kinds of weakness in men, and she had come to the conclusion that the key was to know which kind you were dealing with."

"I'd decided to establish a new rule for myself: read for half an hour an evening, no matter what."

"And I'm not going to get any thinner or any younger, my ass is going to hit the ground, if it hasn't already--and I want to be with somebody who can still see me in here. I'm still in here. And I don't want to be resented or despised for changing...I'd rather be alone."

"Now, how do the young prepare to meet the old? The same way the old prepare to meet the young: with a little condescension; with low expectation of the other's rationality; with the knowledge that the other will find what they say hard to understand, that it will go beyond them (not so much over the head as between the legs); and with the feeling that they must arrive with something the other will like, something suitable."

"Under every friendship there is a difficult sentence that must be said, in order that the friendship can be survived."

"He had liked to listen to the exotic (to a Belsey) chatter of business and money and practical politics; to hear that Equality was a myth, and Multiculturalism was a fatuous dream; he thrilled at the suggestion that Art was a gift from God, blessing only a handful of masters, and most Literature merely a veil for poorly reasoned left-wing ideologies."

"Cos if it's encyclopedias we've got enough, like, information... and if it's God, you've got the wrong house."

"American houses...' she said, peering over her right shoulder and down the street. 'They always seem to believe that nobody ever loses anything, has lost anything. I find that very sad. Do you know what I mean?"

"They were smooth and bright, and their timing was wonderful, and they were young and hilarious. It was really something to see, they thought, and this was why they spoke loudly and gestured, inviting onlookers to admire."
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