best quotations about
Transience |
54 quotes | Visits: 5,341 |
Quotations
It takes 60 years to make a man, and after that he is only good to die. — André Malraux, 1901-1976, French writer & statesman 9 likes | |
Only the ephemeral lasts. — Eugene Ionesco, 1912-1994, French-Romanian playwright 7 likes | |
Everything passes, only truth remains. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881, Russian writer 7 likes | |
You are the music while the music lasts. — T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 6 likes | |
What words say does not last. The words last. Because words are always the same, and what they say is never the same. — Antonio Porchia, 1885-1968, Italian-Argentinian poet 5 likes | |
Nothing is built on stone. All is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone. — Jorge Luis Borges, 1899-1986, Argentine writer 5 likes | |
Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last. — Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970, French President 4 likes | |
Luck must be dealt with like health: enjoy it when it is good, be patient when it is bad. — La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680, French writer 4 likes | |
Nothing lasts and yet nothing passes either, and nothing passes just because nothing lasts. — Philip Roth, 1933-2018, American writer 4 likes | |
Every wave, regardless of how high and forceful it crests, must eventually collapse within itself. — Stefan Zweig, 1881-1942, Austrian writer 4 likes | |
Everything goes away, Jack Sawyer, like the moon. Everything comes back, like the moon. — Stephen King, 1947-, American author of horror & fantasy fiction 4 likes | |
I’m really afraid to feel happy because it never lasts. — Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American artist 3 likes | |
Nature has four great scenes – the seasons – and always the same actors: the sun, the moon and the stars. But it constantly changes the audience. — Antoine Rivarol, 1753-1801, French author of maxims 3 likes | |
It is strange how fragile this man-creature is.....in one second he's just garbage. Garbage, that's all. — Nelson Algren, 1909-1981, American writer 3 likes | |
She loved him absolutely, perhaps for half an hour. — E. M. Forster, 1879-1970, British writer 2 likes | |
Where have all the flowers gone? — Marlen Dietrich, 1901-1992, German-American actress 2 likes | |
Life’s short span forbids us to enter on far reaching hopes. 2 likes | |
Fashion is ephemeral, dangerous and unfair. — Karl Lagerfeld, 1933-2019, German fashion designer 2 likes | |
The modern world seems invincible. Like the extinct dinosaurs. | |
Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker. | |
If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat. | |
The trouble is, you think you have time. | |
Fashion fades, only style remains the same. | |
Fashion is made to become unfashionable. | |
What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. | |
The first and the most important thing is to know that life is one and immortal. Only the forms, countless in number, are transient and brittle. The life everlasting is independent of any form but manifests itself in all forms. Life then does not die... but the forms are dissolved. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher | |
It is almost banal to say so yet it needs to be stressed continually: all is creation, all is change, all is flux, all is metamorphosis. | |
Happiness is sand between the fingers in the wind. — Maurice Chapelan, 1906-1992, French author of maxims & journalist | |
Everything in life is just for a while. | |
Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake. | |
Old praise dies unless you feed it. | |
Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away. | |
So absurd and fleeting is our passage through this world, that only the knowledge that I have been authentic, that I have managed to be the closest thing to myself, leaves me calm. | |
Every moment is the last, because it is unique. | |
Failure is part of the natural cycle of business. Companies are born, companies die, capitalism moves forward. |
Latin Quotes
Thus passes the glory of the world. Sic transit gloria mundi. 29 likes | |
Night, shortly. Mox nox. — Medieval Sundial motto 23 likes | |
Even in Arcadia was I. Et in Arcadia ego. — Tomb inscription in the painting of Nicolas Poussin “Shepherds of Arcadia” (Arcadia, in Peloponnese, symbolizes Utopia) 13 likes |
Quotes in Verse
Let everything happen to you Beauty and terror Just keep going No feeling is final. | |
Cities and Thrones and Powers Stand in Time's eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die. |
Ancient Greek
Everything flows, nothing stands still. Τα πάντα ρει και ουδέν μένει. — Heraclitus, 544-484 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher 26 likes | |
Pleasures are transient, honors are immortal. Αι μεν ηδοναί φθαρταί, αι δε τιμαί αθάνατοι. — Periander of Corinth, 668-584 BC, tyrant of Corinth 17 likes | |
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. Ο κόσμος αλλοίωσις, ο βίος υπόληψις. — Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD, Roman Emperor ‐ Meditations IV, 3 16 likes | |
Learn to bear bravely the changes of fortune. Τας μεταβολάς της τύχης γενναίως επίστασο φέρειν. — Periander of Corinth, 668-584 BC, tyrant of Corinth 14 likes | |
Always keep in mind that things change. Καιρών μεταβολήν πάντοτε χρη σε σκοπείν. — Menander, 4th cent. BC, Ancient Greek dramatist (New Comedy) 12 likes | |
Do not act as if you are going to live ten thousand years. The inevitable hangs over you. As long as you live, while it is in your power, be good. Μη ως μύρια μέλλων έτη ζην. Το χρεών επήρτηται. Έως ζης, έως έξεστιν, αγαθός γενού. — Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD, Roman Emperor ‐ Meditations IV, 16 11 likes | |
No mortal can be fortunate until his end. Θνητών όλβιος εις το τέλος ουδείς. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Iphigeneia at Aulis 11 likes | |
Knowing that human happiness never remains long in the same place. Την ανθρωπηίην ων επιστάμενος ευδαιμονίην ουδαμά εν τωυτώ μένουσαν. — Herodotus, 480-420 BC, Ancient Greek historian, the “ father of History” 8 likes | |
Sometimes the day is a step mother, sometimes a mother. Άλλοτε μηρτυιή πέλει ημέρη, άλλοτε μήτηρ. — Hesiod, 7th cent. BC, Ancient Greek poet ‐ Works and Days -825 8 likes | |
And you, old man, we are told you prospered once. Και σε γέρον το πριν μεν ακούομεν όλβιον είναι. — Homer, c. 800-750 BC, Ancient Greek Poet ‐ Iliad XXIV (Achilles to Priam) 6 likes | |
Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered. Βραχύβιον και ο επαινών και ο επαινούμενος και ο μνημονεύων και ο μνημονευόμενος. — Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD, Roman Emperor ‐ Meditations VIII, 21 5 likes | |
The great happiness is not lasting among mortals. Ο μέγας όλβος ού μόνιμος εν βροτοίς. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Orestes 4 likes | |
God likes to bring low all things of surpassing greatness. Φιλέει γαρ ο θεός τα υπερέχοντα πάντα κολούειν. — Herodotus, 480-420 BC, Ancient Greek historian, the “ father of History” 3 likes |
Proverbs
All pass, all fade, all break. Tout passe, tout lasse, tout casse. 9 likes |