Idea 31: Time used well is life
Time wasted is existence, used is life.
Edward Young, English poet
‘Remember that time is money,’ wrote US Founding Father Benjamin Franklin in Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748). In 1723 Franklin had run away from his Puritan parents in New England, but not before he had imbibed the Puritan virtues of thrift, industry and conscientiousness.
‘Do you love life?’ said Franklin. ‘Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.’
Both time and money are limited resources. That is the point of the analogy. Therefore time (like money) is a valuable commodity. It can be borrowed, saved or squandered – all words springing from the original and basic analogy. Indeed, there is a whole system of smaller metaphors ...
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