38 Present Moment Quotes

In a fast-paced world often consumed by distractions and a relentless focus on the future, the wisdom of living in the present moment can offer profound peace and fulfillment. Embracing the now helps us to appreciate the beauty in simplicity, find joy in the ordinary, and connect deeply with our surroundings. We've curated a collection of 38 inspiring quotes to remind you of the power and serenity found in the present moment. Whether you're seeking motivation, inner peace, or just a brief escape from the daily grind, these quotes serve as gentle reminders to pause, breathe, and relish the here and now.

1. “so here i sit. a sum of the parts. about a third way down this wonderful path, so to speak. and i've been thinking lately about a friendship that fell apart with time, with distance, and with the misunderstanding of youth. i'm trying not to confuse sadness with regret. not the easiest thing at times. i dont regret that certain things happened. i understand that perhaps i had a choice in the matter, or perhaps i believe in fate. probably not, but so far actions as small as the quickest glance to events as monumental as death have pushed me slowly along to right here, right now. there was no other way to get here. the meandering and erratic path was actually the straightest of lines. take away a handful of angry words, things once thought of as mistakes or regrets, and i'm suddenly a different person with a different history, a different future. that, i would regret. so here i sit. thinking about a person i once called my best friends. a man who might be full of sadness and regret, who might not give a damn, or who might, just might, remember the future and realize that's where its at.” - chris wright

2. “I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.” - Abraham Lincoln

3. “The Expulsion from Paradise is eternal in its principal aspect: this makes it irrevocable, and our living in this world inevitable, but the eternal nature of the process has the effect that not only could we remain forever in Paradise, but that we are currently there, whether we know it or not.” - Franz Kafka

4. “The future is greatly different than your life now, the actions that you take must also be greatly different. You cannot do the same thing and get something different.” - Steve Maraboli

5. “Chronocanine Envy:Sadness experienced when one realized that, unlike one's dog, one cannot live only in the present tense. As Kierkegaard said, "Life must be lived forward.” - Douglas Coupland

6. “It was a limitation of human consciousness: We live only in the future and past, we cannot perceive now. Now occupies no space, a hypothetical gap between future and past. Only an exceptional few could feel now athletes and jazzmen and, yes, thieves...” - William Landay

7. “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” - Amit Ray

8. “This I say is the present moment; this is the first day of the summer holidays. This is part of the emerging monster to whom we are attached.” - Virginia Woolf

9. “Living in the present moment means living according to truth and principle (but not according to hard rigid dogma) flexibly applied in the particular way required by the immediate situation in which you are. Such a way of living leaves you free, not ruled tyrannically by imposed regulations which may not at all suit the particular case.” - Paul Brunton

10. “Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.” - Catherynne M. Valente

11. “There is only now. And look! How rich we are in it.” - Vanna Bonta

12. “The undiscovered is not far away. It’s not something to be found eventually. It is contained within what is right in front of us. The essence of reality is being born right now. It has never existed before. Reality is constant creation and destruction, and in this constant change is something unborn and undying, something that cannot be approached through the known or the past. It isn’t seen through striving to become something based on ideals stemming from former experiences. It comes to that which is being, not striving. In this state of being in the moment, without the known, without knowing at all, with neither past nor future, is a space that is not filled with time. And in this space, the undiscovered and ever-changing moment exists—a moment containing all possibilities, the totality of existence, absolute reality. Reality is now, and in the now, we can experience the true nature of the universe and the universal mind.” - H.E. Davey

13. “The past informs the present. Memory makes the map we carry, no matter how hard we try to erase it.” - Cara Black

14. “And along with indifference to space, there was an even more complete indifference to time. "There seems to be plenty of it", was all I would answer when the investigator asked me to say what I felt about time. Plenty of it, but exactly how much was entirely irrelevant. I could, of course, have looked at my watch but my watch I knew was in another universe. My actual experience had been, was still, of an indefinite duration. Or alternatively, of a perpetual present made up of one continually changing apocalypse.” - Aldous Huxley

15. “Nothing is but what is now” - Ron Rash

16. “Learn to say no to demands, requests, invitations, and activities that leave you with no time for yourself. Until I learned to say no, and mean it, I was always overloaded by stress. You may feel guilty and selfish at first for guarding your down- time, but you’ll soon find that you are a much nicer, more present, more productive person in each instance you do choose to say yes.” - Holly Mosier

17. “The only true thing is what's in front of you right now.” - Ramona Ausubel

18. “It isn't very logical to live my life on goundless supposition. I have to assume the truth of the moment is the truth of the future. - Leah” - Jacquelyn Frank

19. “If it’s over, then don’t let the past screw up the rest of your life.” - Nicholas Sparks

20. “If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.” - Idries Shah

21. “The prospect of future lives in remote heavens as a compensation for the inadequacy of our present lives is a bad tradeoff for losing out on the present.” - Francis Harold Cook

22. “From a mind filled with infinite love comes the power to create infinite possibilities. We have the power to think in ways that reflect and attract all the love in the world. Such thinking is called enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a process we work toward, but a choice available to us in any instant.” - Marianne Williamson

23. “The past is set down in a thousand thousand indelible scrolls. But the future is a blank parchment forever in wait of a present.” - Andrew Levkoff

24. “The statue of the Laughing Buddha act as a good friend. Whenever we are off the track, his smiling face can bring us back to the present moment, to a positive mood.” - Sakshi Chetana

25. “Because we demand a future, we live each moment in expectation and unfulfillment. We live each moment in passing. In just this way the real nunc stans, the timeless present, is reduced to the nunc fluens, the fleeting present, the passing present of a mere one or two seconds. We expect each moment to pass on to a future moment, for in this fashion we pretend to avoid death by always rushing toward an imagined future. We want to meet ourselves in the future. We don’t want just now—we want another now, and another, and another, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And thus, paradoxically, our impoverished present is fleeting precisely because we demand that it end! We want it to end so that it can thereby pass on to yet another moment, a future moment, which will in turn live only to pass.” - Ken Wilber

26. “Anything which is just born, which has just come into existence, has no past behind it. Birth, in other words, is the condition of having no past. And likewise, anything which now dies, which has just ceased to be, has no future left in front of it. Death is the condition of having no future. But we have already seen that this present moment has both no past and no future simultaneously. That is, birth and death are one in this present moment. This moment is just now being born—you can never find a past to this present moment, you can never find something before it. Yet also, this moment is just now dying — you can never find a future to this moment, never find something after it. This present, then, is a coincidence of opposites, a unity of birth and death, being and non-being, living and dying. As Ippen put it, "Every moment is the last moment and every moment is a rebirth.” - Ken Wilber

27. “When you are present, you are not needy.” - John Kuypers

28. “Learning how to recognize and act on your Inner Knowing is the greatest tool for discovering what's important now by living in the present.” - John Kuypers

29. “Each of us is the best we can be when we are fully present, focused yet relaxed, curious yet non-judgmental, committed yet flexible.” - John Kuypers

30. “You cannot do what's important now for you if your mind cannot accept what is happening in this present moment.” - John Kuypers

31. “...as long as you are motivated by the approval of others, you cannot know with confidence whether the decisions you are making in your life are what's right for you...” - John Kuypers

32. “We cannot let go of the past enough to live in the present unless we are able to grieve our losses. We must deeply feel our emotional pain in order to accept that what is happening is not what we wanted.” - John Kuypers

33. “The present moment is the definition of eternity. It has never not been the present moment. This isn't scriptural or unscriptural - it is merely a logical fact.” - John Kuypers

34. “The present moment is the substance with which the future is made. Therefore, the best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment. What else can you do?” - Thich Nhat Hanh

35. “There comes a moment in life when one must acknowledge that you just can't keep looking back into your past for reasons to keep someone in your present and future. Regardless of how much looking that cruel reality in the eye hurts...memories can't be enough.” - Eiry Nieves

36. “So often, even when we stop to say a blessing before a meal, we’re mentally preparing to spoon some pasta or potatoes onto our plates. We’re not usually focused on the present moment, simply placing ourselves before our food and entering into the still, slow space where eating is done for eating’s sake and not something we do simply to get to the next thing on our list.” - Mary DeTurris Poust

37. “For what more terrifying revelation can there be than that it is the present moment? That we survive the shock at all is only possible because the past shelters us on one side and the future on another.” - Virginia Woolf

38. “Wherever you are, be there. If you can be fully present now, you’ll know what it means to live.” - Steve Goodier