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"Time flies"

Posted by ESC on January 19, 2000

In Reply to: "Time flies when having fun" posted by Rock Heindel on January 18, 2000

: Does anyone know source for this phrase: My how time flies when you're having fun?
: Thanks.

I can't tell you the origin of that variation. But here's the source of "time flies." "...While we dawdle, our lives pass swiftly. The proverb has been traced back in English to 1386 in Chaucer's 'Prologue to the Clerk's Tale.' The earliest American appearance in print is 1710 in 'Mayflower Descendant.' The idea was first expressed by Virgil (70-19 B.C.), who wrote in the 'Aeneid': Fugit inreparabile tempus' (Time is flying never to return)..." From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman.

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