I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

Meaning of the quote

You can't control how long your days are, but you can control how you spend them. Instead of wishing for more time, work on making the most of the time you have. Focus on improving your days and making them as valuable and meaningful as possible.

About Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux is an acclaimed American novelist and travel writer known for works like ‘The Great Railway Bazaar.’ He’s also the father of famous authors Marcel and Louis Theroux, the brother of writers Alexander and Peter Theroux, and the uncle of actor Justin Theroux.

More about the author

More quotes from Paul Theroux

The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson’s on the main drag into maturity.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can’t think of one at the moment.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn’t get hijacked, you didn’t crash, you didn’t throw up, you weren’t late, you weren’t nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.

Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist