Time and tide wait for no man

Origin of: Time and tide wait for no man

Time and tide wait for no man

This is an ancient proverb meaning that man has no control over time or the tidal movements of the world’s oceans, and as such it has existed in many different languages and cultures. Its first appearance in English is in the writings of St Marher in 1225. John Heywood Proverbs (1546) lists, “The tide tarrieth no man” while Robert Greene Disputations (1592) records, “Time nor tide tarrieth no man.”