Quotes About Impermanence

Spiritual realization is to see clearly that what I perceive, experience, think, or feel is ultimately not who I am, that I cannot find myself in all those things that continuously pass away.

It read: 'Danger. All structures are unstable.' I said to my friend, 'That's a profound sutra [sacred scripture].' And we stood there in awe. Once you realize and accept that all structures (forms) are unstable, even the seemingly solid material ones, peace arises within you. This is because the recognition of the impermanence of all forms awakens you to the dimension of the formless within yourself, that which is beyond death.

Así cómo los objetos permanecen en el cuarto aunque desaparezcan de la vista una vez apagada la luz, los ausentes rondan, tenaces, aún cuando no se piense en ellos.

But, my dear, it's just the fugitiveness of mortal caring that makes it so exquisite! It's because we know we can't hold fast to it, or to each other, or to anything...

He thought to himself, I'll never be this perfect again, an idea that made him sad.

I'll let you in on a little secret, Garry: everything is history. By the time you notice it, it's already happened. That famous imposter, the present, disappears in the cognitive gap. Mind the gap!

Maybe we're all dying, one breath at a time.

Consider the world as an abode where in you have dropped down for an hour, then you have got to leave it and go ahead; or (suppose it is) like the wealth which you lay hands upon in a dream and become over-joyed and glad. Then you wake up to find yourself empty handed.

She's a manner of speaking. Even the flowers don't come back, or the green leaves. There are new flowers, new green leaves. There are other beautiful days. Nothing comes back, nothing repeats itself, because everything is real.

SOME PAINTINGS become famous because, being durable, they are viewed by successive generations, in each of which are likely to be found a few appreciative eyes. I know a painting so evanescent that it is seldom viewed at all, except by some wandering deer. It is a river who wields the brush, and it is the same river who, before I can bring my friends to view his work, erases it forever from human view. After that it exists only in the mind's eye.

I realized once again that what I believed myself to be was an arbitrary deformation, a rational mask floating in the infinite unexplored internal shadows. Later, I understood that diseases do not actually sicken us; they sicken what we believe ourselves to be. Health is achieved by overcoming prohibitions, quitting paths that are not right for us, ceasing to pursue imposed ideals, and becoming ourselves: the impersonal consciousness that does not define itself.

Do not become attached to anything that can destroy you in the course of time.

Quante volte avrebbe desiderato di vederla dinanzi viva e reale, piuttosto che averla sempre fissa nel pensiero, piuttosto che dover trovarsi, giorno e notte, in compagnia di quella gorma vana, terribile, impassibile!

Nothing lives forever even the president

It's the shadow on every kiss and every dollar, that it might not be there tomorrow.

All forms that perish other forms supply, (By turns we catch the vital breath and die) Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return.

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, they rise, they break, and to that sea return.

You always think there will be more time and then suddenly there isn't. You know how it is. You have to leave before the rains come, or it's too late.

What comes, will go. What is found, will be lost. But what you are is beyond coming and going and beyond description. You are this: The timeless-time

mais il y a au monde une chose sainte et sublime, c'est l'union de deux de ces êtres si imparfaits et si affreux. On est souvent trompé en amour, souvent blessé et souvent malheureux; mais on aime, et quand on est sur le bord de sa tombe, on se retourne pour regarder en arrière et on se dit : j'ai souffert souvent, je me suis trompé quelquefois, mais j'ai aimé. C'est moi qui ai vécu, et non pas un être factice créé par mon orgueil et mon ennui.»

What is the use of building an expensive house when it will soon be sacked?

I call Washington 'the city of the perishable.'

After we air the call, it's gone. I always thought, 'What a waste.' That's such a powerful story, and there's no way to revisit it or share it.

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.