Quotes About Impermanence

She wasn't a child who needed imaginary friends. She was imaginary to herself.

Any action, in the fullness of time, sinks to nothingness.

Nihil sub sole novum [...] Any action, in the fullness of time, sinks to nothingness.

He's telling you that living things don't last—it's all temporary. Death in life.

He's telling you that living things don't last—it's all temporary. Death in life. That's why they're called natures mortes. Maybe you don't see it at first with all the beauty and bloom, the little speck of rot. But if you look closer—there it is.

They really knew how to work this edge, the Dutch painters?ripeness sliding into rot. The fruit's perfect but it won't last, it's about to go. And see here especially," she said, reaching over my shoulder to trace the air with her finger, "this passage?the butterfly." The underwing was so powdery an delicate it looked as if the color would smear if she touched it. "How beautiful he plays it. Stillness with a tremble of movement.

Probably I'll be dead soon.

Whenever you see flies or insects in a still life—a wilted petal, a black spot on the apple—the painter is giving you a secret message. He's telling you that living things don't last—it's all temporary. Death in life. That's why they're called natures mortes. Maybe you don't see it at first with all the beauty and bloom, the little speck of rot. But if you look closer—there it is

Trying to hold onto "how it was" will only create suffering and disappointment, because life is a river and everything changes.

The truth is that things change whether we want them to or not. Becoming attached to things as they are or pushing things away that we do not like does not stop them from changing. It only leads to further suffering.

We note feelings and find that they last for only a few seconds. We pay attention to thoughts and find that they are ephemeral, that they come and go, uninvited, like clouds.

You will begin to see desire's impermanent nature, and you will also realize that you do not have to act on every thought or desire. You will learn that you can choose from the many possibilities of how to respond to desire when it arises, and you can discover a new kind of freedom, where you do not have to follow your desires, but can choose to behave in new ways in response to your desires.

everything is intertwined in a continuous movement, arising in certain forms that we call bodies or thoughts or feelings, and then dissolving or changing into new forms.

Every experience that arises passes away.

the reality of experience is an ever-changing river. Direct perception drops beneath the names of things to show us their ephemeral, mysterious nature. When we bring our attention to the direct perception of experience, we become more alive and free.

If you hold on to any expectation, you miss the wisdom. It is impermanent. Be the One Who Knows, the witness to it all. This is how trust grows." And it is how love grows as well. Trust and love are the keys.

Meditation is a vehicle for opening to the truth of this impermanence on deeper and deeper levels.

Time is like a river. As soon as a thing is seen, it is carried away and another takes its place, and then that other is carried away also. —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS         DAVE

You wander around near Independence Park and the Hall of the People, and you get a sense that they will be there forever. But forever is a long time. The people who lived in Washington before the waters came probably thought that about their city. But it's all temporary, baby. Perpetuity is an illusion.

There's no such thing as this baby, this toddler, this little person, because it's quicksilver, there's no such thing as anybody. We shouldn't have children, it's impossible, but if you want children, and you can't have them, then that's its own impossible. It's impossible to lose them, but it happens, it happened to my mother, it's happening all the time.

what do all the objects in the world have in common if not the fact of being- and of being nothing but- the provisional permanence of certain changes.

Te voici Sujette à la Mort Etale ton Bien sur le Sol Poches, lettres, photos, paroles, Te voici Sujet en ta Mort. Te voici Corps perdant tout Corps Perdant tes lèvres, tes paroles, Chevelure noire du sol Au bord d'une Mort sans rebord. Ici le présent retenu Que tu ne tiendras pas, que tu Laisses continuer sa cible. Là ma mémoire sans projet Sans impossibles, sans possibles, Dont ta Mort est l'autre Sujet.

The photograph of my brother that is in this album shows a young man, beautiful and perfect in the way of young people, for young people are always perfect and beautiful until they are not, until the moment they just are not.

Possessions are mere transient effects that come when they are required, and after their purpose has been served, pass away.