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"Quality time" (QT) is an informal reference to time spent with loved ones (e.g., close family, partners or friends) that is in some way important, special, productive or profitable. It is time that is set aside for paying full and undivided attention to the person or matter at hand. It may also refer to time spent performing some favorite activity.
"Quality time" (noun phrase) is a relatively new expression, in use since the 1970s. One of the earliest records of this phrase in print was in the Maryland (USA) newspaper The Capital, January 1973, in the article "How To Be Liberated":
The major goal of each of these role changes is to give a woman time to herself, Ms. Burton explained. "A woman's right and responsibility is to be self fulfilling," she said. She gives "quality time" rather than "quantity time" to each task, whether it be writing, cleaning the house or tending the children.Famous quotes containing the words quality and/or time:
“The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.”
—Sun Tzu (6–5th century B.C.)
“Our fathers water’d with their tears
This sea of time whereon we sail,
Their voices were in all men’s ears
Who pass’d within their puissant hail.
Still the same ocean round us raves,
But we stand mute, and watch the waves.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)