Quotes About Transition

We all had to say goodbye, sooner or later, to those we love--or they had to say goodbye to us. Those were the only two possibilities that this world allowed. But no matter how much we tried to face up to it, it never became easier.

Men can be teenagers until well into their twenties. That is well known

what is one thing today becomes quite another thing tomorrow.

We've all had that sort of experience," said Mma Ramotswe. "Every one of us, Mma. We've all had a first day at school, or a first day in a new job. We've all been unsure what to do.

good things that we have in life are on temporary loan, at best, and can be taken away from us in an instant. The borderline between good fortune and disaster, between plenitude and paucity, between the warm hearth of love and the cold chamber of loneliness, was a narrow one. We could cross over from one to the other at any moment, as when we stumbled or fell, or simply walked over to the other side because we were paying insufficient attention to where we were.

In her experience, the places one set off for were usually still there no matter when one arrived; it would be different, naturally enough, if towns, villages, houses moved—then one might have a real reason to hurry—but they did not.

Human history seems to me to be one long story of people sweeping down—or up, I suppose—replacing other people in the process.

We all had to say goodbye, sooner or later, to those we loved—or they had to say goodbye to us. Those were the only two possibilities that this world allowed. But no matter how much we tried to face up to it, it never became easier.

That place is the place we have always been, and if you think that where you have been is where you should be, then why go to another place that you do not know at all and may not be as good as the place you were in before somebody came along and said to you that you must go forwards—which is not what you wanted to do?

Do you know what makes for a good still life? I'll tell you: it's when the painter manages to convey a sense that something is about to happen. The objects in the painting all look immobile, but as you contemplate them you begin to feel that at any moment there could be movement. Somebody might come into the room. A storm might blow up outside. The wind will move the curtains. All of these things might happen.

But look at it now: a detective agency, right here in Gaborone, with me, the fat lady detective, sitting outside and thinking these thoughts about how what is one thing today becomes quite another thing tomorrow.

Life is a progression of partings," said the psychotherapist. "One by one, people—and things too—are taken from us. We lose them, they die, they are shown by us to be things of transitory association." "I'm sorry," said Ulf. "So am I," said Dr. Svensson.

it,' he said. 'People change their

She decided to change the subject. Hooks were useful, but there was a limit to what one could say about them.

Everything, thought Mama Ramotswe, has been something before.

Perhaps the cloud had blown over and covered his sky.

Shrugging off this mortal coil?

Could you say that your business had expanded if it had gone from owning one teapot to two? Somehow

The way to leave this life, I always say: some sudden, cataclysmic disaster and whoosh, you're propelled into the next world—or oblivion. One might take one's pick.

One never gets anywhere unless one leaves

They are not much use to anybody, really. It is very sad." He smiled. "And then, suddenly, at seventeen—sometimes at age sixteen—they grow out of all of that and they become nice once more, just as they were before this terrible thing called adolescence happened to them.

You'll grow up. People did not like to be told that, she thought, because we all think that what we are now is what we shall be tomorrow. That was clearly false—but we all believed it.

It was not really like a person moving, thought Mma Ramotswe; it was more a geological movement

And thus they aged, as do all mortals. Until at last the husband found That death had opened wide its portals, Through which he entered, newly crowned.