Quotes About Transience

Life is a mere waiting room in which we spend time before entering into the void.

It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn.

Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death

Wherever it lies, under earth or over earth, the body will always rot.

The whole like of a man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.

Il mondo è solo carne che si va putrefacendo su un teschio- mormorò la troll

I'm only certain that nothing is forever. No matter how carefully you design a system, it will go bad and die.

Mengapa orang ini tak ramai-ramai lahir dan ramai-ramai mati? Aku ingin dunia ini seperti pasar malam

But life is just a party, and parties weren't meant to last.

Reason is immortal, all else mortal.

Life is like the footprint left by a solitary crane in the snow, visible for one moment, and then gone.

To all light things I compared her: to a snowflake, a feather

Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas.

I sit at my window gazing The world passes by, nods to me And is gone.

When I think of ages past That have floated down the stream Of life and love and death, I feel how free it makes us To pass away.

My dearest life, I know you are not mine forever; but do love me even if it's for this moment. After that I shall vanish into the forest where you cast me, I won't ask anyone for anything again. Give me something that can last me till I die.

Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away. And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.

Oh my only friend, my best beloved, the gates are open in my house — do not pass by like a dream.

These paper boats of mine are meant to dance on the ripples of hours, and not reach any destination.

Like the meeting of the seagulls and the waves we meet and come near. The seagulls fly off, the waves roll away and we depart.

I sit at my window this morning where the world like a passer-by stops for a moment, nods to me and goes.

I must launch out my boat. The languid hours pass by on the shore---Alas for me! The spring has done its flowering and taken leave. And now with the burden of faded futile flowers I wait and linger. The waves have become clamorous, and upon the bank in the shady lane the yellow leaves flutter and fall. What emptiness do you gaze upon! Do you not feel a thrill passing through the air with the notes of the far-away song floating from the other shore?

Spring scatters the petals of flowers that are not for the fruits of the future, but for the moment's whim.

Though its colour be not deep and its smell be faint, use this flower in thy service and pluck it while there is time.