"Time and tide wait for no man"
About this Quote
Time and tide wait for no man compresses a sailor’s reality and a philosopher’s warning into one hard truth: the world moves whether we are ready or not. Time advances without appeal, and the tide, governed by the moon rather than human will, rises and falls on its own schedule. The pairing is not accidental. In Middle English, tide could mean time or season, so the phrase doubles the point: temporal hours and ocean rhythms are both relentless.
The insight fits Chaucer’s world. He lived in a mercantile London whose ports depended on the tides, and he served as a customs official on the waterfront. Miss the tide, and a ship sits idle; catch it, and trade flows. Practical life trained people to think in cycles they could not command and windows they dared not squander. Chaucer’s poems return often to the mutability of things, to Fortune’s turning wheel, and to the way human schemes bend before larger orders. The maxim urges action born of humility: measure your plans by forces bigger than you, and act while the chance exists.
There is also a moral edge. Procrastination is not neutral; it is a wager against laws that never lose. Time erodes status, pleasure, grievance, and hope alike. That impartiality can be frightening, but it is also clarifying. It frees one from the illusion that a better moment will present itself simply because we prefer it. The right moment is the one you have, and it will pass.
The line endures because it unites cosmic fact and everyday habit. Monastic bells marked the hours; markets and voyages kept tide tables; lovers and kings learned that delay has a cost. The world will not wait, so wisdom lies in catching the current, aligning effort with the brief favorable turn, and going while there is still go in you.
The insight fits Chaucer’s world. He lived in a mercantile London whose ports depended on the tides, and he served as a customs official on the waterfront. Miss the tide, and a ship sits idle; catch it, and trade flows. Practical life trained people to think in cycles they could not command and windows they dared not squander. Chaucer’s poems return often to the mutability of things, to Fortune’s turning wheel, and to the way human schemes bend before larger orders. The maxim urges action born of humility: measure your plans by forces bigger than you, and act while the chance exists.
There is also a moral edge. Procrastination is not neutral; it is a wager against laws that never lose. Time erodes status, pleasure, grievance, and hope alike. That impartiality can be frightening, but it is also clarifying. It frees one from the illusion that a better moment will present itself simply because we prefer it. The right moment is the one you have, and it will pass.
The line endures because it unites cosmic fact and everyday habit. Monastic bells marked the hours; markets and voyages kept tide tables; lovers and kings learned that delay has a cost. The world will not wait, so wisdom lies in catching the current, aligning effort with the brief favorable turn, and going while there is still go in you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Time |
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