Quotes About Transience

he asked himself whether this period, upon which he had entered, was to last much longer, whether presently his mind's eye would cease to behold that dear countenance, save as occupying a distant and diminished position, and on the verge of ceasing to shed on him the radiance of its charm.

Of a different order again were those of M. de Charlus, as we shall presently see, with people wholly unlike Mme. de Villeparisis. In spite of which we must bear in mind that the opinions which we hold of one another, our relations with friends and kinsfolk, are in no sense permanent, save in appearance, but are as eternally fluid as the sea itself.

But political passions are like all the rest, they do not last. New generations arise which no longer understand them; even the generation that experienced them changes, experiences new political passions which, not being modelled exactly upon their predecessors, rehabilitate some of the excluded, the reason for exclusion having altered.

Monelle grew quiet and looked at me: I came from the night, she said, and I shall return to the night. For I too am a young prostitute.

Say not: I live today, I shall die tomorrow. Divide not reality between life and death. Say: now I live and die.

Que toda inteligencia brille y se extinga en ti durante el espacio de un relámpago.

A man is a little soul carrying around a courpse.

You are a little soul carrying about a corpse.

How very near us stand the two vast gulfs of time, the past and the future, in which all things disappear.

Reflect frequently upon the instability of things, and how very fast the scenes of nature are shifted. Matter is in perpetual flux. Change is always and everywhere at work; it strikes through causes and effects, and leaves nothing fixed and permanent.

You will quickly be reduced to ashes and skeleton. And it may be you will have a name left you, and it may be not. And what is a name? Nothing but sound and echo.

All is ephemeral--fame and the famous as well.

When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.

Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man—yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.

This thing is not going to last forever, and the flaming ferris wheel will continue to spin without you.

The lobby was at once attractive and bleak, a place meant to impress without creating the desire to linger.

Life is a raindrop

The long time to come when I shall not exist has more effect on me than this short present time, which nevertheless seems endless.

The sands of time are quicksands ... so much can sink into them without a trace.

So I learned two things that night, and the next day, from him: the perfection of a moment, and the fleeting nature of it.

The need exists. I serve the need. After me the need will exist and the need will be served. Let me do well what has and will be done as well by others. Let me take on the role and then let it go.

Avril raised his fine head. 'Yes,' he said. 'My poor Margaret.' His face changed only for an instant. The grief upon it appeared and passed like the shadow of a leaf in the wind, but its intensity was so great that Luke, who was still a young man, was dismayed to learn that it could exist.

Schopenhauer once put it, we insist on living our lives "with great interest and much solicitude as long as possible, just as we blow out a soap-bubble as long and as large as possible, although with the perfect certainty that it will burst.

You don't really own anything. Nothing is yours forever, not your body, not your youth, not even your mind.