QuoteProject
Tomorrow may never come to us. We do not live in tomorrow. We cannot find it in any of our title-deeds. The man who owns whole blocks of real estate, and great ships on the sea, does not own a single minute of tomorrow. Tomorrow! It is a mysterious possibility, not yet born. It lies under the seal of midnight-behind the veil of glittering constellations.
Edwin Hubbel Chapin
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Tomorrow is uncertain and cannot be owned or controlled, emphasizing the importance of the present moment.

This quote highlights the ephemeral nature of time and the futility of trying to possess future moments. It asserts that no matter one's material wealth or accomplishments, tomorrow remains an unknown entity that is unattainable, urging us to focus on the present instead of anxiously anticipating what the future may hold.

Themes

TimeFuturePresentUncertaintyPhilosophyLife

In practice

Example use cases

Use this quote in a motivational speech about embracing the present.

More from Edwin Hubbel Chapin

Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly drops out of the darkness, and falls, as a golden link into the great chain of order.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
Revolution does not insure progress. You may overturn thrones, but what proof that anything better will grow upon the soil?
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
Do not ask if a man has been through college; ask if a college has been through him; if he is a walking university.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing we are.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
Neutral men are the devil's allies.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead

Similar quotes

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Haven’t you heard of the music of the spheres?” asked the dragon. “It’s the music that space makes to itself. All the spirits inside all the stars are singing. I’m a star spirit. I sing too. The music of the spheres is what makes space so peaceful.
Ted HughesRead
And I have the others in me. Even when I’m far away from them, I am forced to live with them. Even when I’m all alone, crowds surround me. I have no place to flee to, unless I were to flee from myself.
Fernando PessoaRead
Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active collaboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable.
Aurora Levins MoralesRead
It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.
Samuel ButlerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.