Quotes About Transience

A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true.

You can also look upon our life as an episode unprofitably disturbing the blessed calm of nothingness.

The past and the future (considered apart from the consequences of their content) are empty as a dream, and the present is only the indivisible and unenduring boundary between them.

Every moment of our life belongs to the present only for a moment; then it belongs for ever to the past.

Our life is to be regarded as a loan received from death, with sleep as the daily interest on this loan.

Time is that by which at every moment all things become as nothing in our hands, and thereby lose all their true value.

The more clearly you become conscious of the frailty, vanity and dream-like quality of all things, the more clearly will you also become conscious of the eternity of your own inner being; because it is only in contrast to this that the aforesaid quality of things becomes evident, just as you perceive the speed at which a ship is going only when looking at the motionless shore, not when looking into the ship itself.

And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.

Everyone appears mad who recognizes the eternal ideas in fleeting things.

That which has been exists no more; it exists as little as that which has never been.

Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our hands and loses all real value.

A vida é como uma bola de sabão, que conservamos e sopramos tanto quanto for possível, porém com a firme certeza de que ela irá estourar.

But you could just as well call this mode of life the greatest folly: for that which in a moment ceases to exist, which vanishes as completely as a dream, cannot be worth any serious effort.

A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more.

Wir sind eben bloß zeitliche, endliche, vergängliche, traumartige, wie Schatten vorüberfliegende Wesen. Und was sollte denen ein Intellekt, der unendliche, ewige, absolute Verhältnisse fasste?

Come nel tempo ciascun attimo esiste solo in quanto ha cancellato l'attimo precedente - suo padre - per venire anch'esso con la medesima rapidità alla sua volta cancellato; come passato e avvenire (facendo astrazione dalle conseguenze del loro contenuto) sono illusori a modo di sogni, e il presente non è che un limite tra quelli, privo di estensione e durata: proprio così riconosceremo la stessa nullità anche in tutte le altre forme del principio di ragione.

It was a grand old house, the Ayemenem House, but aloof-looking. As though it had little to do with the people who lived in it. Like an old man with rheumy eyes watching children play, seeing only transience in their shrill elation and their whole-hearted commitment to life.

A bee died in a coffin flower.

Like an old man with rheumy eyes watching children play, seeing only transience in their shrill elation and their wholehearted commitment to life.

Jis sar ko ghurur aaj hai yaan taj-vari ka Kal uss pe yahin shor hai phir nauhagari ka The head which today proudly flaunts a crown Will tomorrow, right here, in lamentation drown

All that on earth hath life and breath To earth must fall before his spear, And sorrow, saved alone from death, Inscribes above the mighty bier. Vanity, all is vanity. Yes

In the midst of happiness grows a seed of unhappiness. Happiness consumes itself like a flame. It cannot burn for ever, it must go out, and the presentiment of its end destroys it at its very peak.

Like socks in a dryer, it had vanished into the ether.

There's so much nonsense about human inconstancy and the transience of all emotions. I've always thought that a feeling which changes never existed in the first place.