Ephemeral nature of life

Explore 23 quotes about Ephemeral nature of life

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare

Macbeth

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Topic

Absurdity of life The absurd Life as performance Ephemeral nature of life Life

Speaker

Macbeth

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Macbeth

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 5, sc. 5.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 5, sc. 5.

All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.

1st Peter 1:24

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Topic

Sic transit gloria mundi Ephemeral nature of life Grass Life

Source

1st Peter The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Greek

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (1st Peter 1:24).

As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.

Psalm 103:15-16

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Shortness of life The human condition

Source

Psalms The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Hebrew

Time

450 BC 450s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Thomas Nelson, 1982. (Psalm 103:15-16).

Men flourish only for a moment.

Homer

The Odyssey

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life

Author

Homer

Source

The Odyssey

Medium

Poem

Genre

Epic poem

Language

Greek

Time

700 BC 700s BC 8th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Homer. Ὀδύσσεια [Odyssey]. c. 710 BC, bk. 19, l. 328.

Current Citation

Homer. The Odyssey, edited by Bernard Knox, translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics, 2006, bk. 19, l. 328.

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

Ecclesiastes 1:4

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Circle of life Life The human condition The world

Source

Ecclesiastes The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Hebrew

Time

931 BC 930s BC 10th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Ecclesiastes 1:4).

Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out.

Heraclitus

More information about this quote

Topic

Ephemeral nature of life The human condition

Author

Heraclitus

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

480 BC 480s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Heraclitus. On the Universe. c. 500 BC, no. 77.

Current Citation

Heraclitus. "On the Universe." Hippocrates, translated by W. H. S. Jones. Vol. 4, Harvard University Press, 1931, no. 77.

Mankind, fleet of life, like tree leaves, weak creatures of clay, unsubstantial as shadows, wingless, ephemeral, wretched, mortal and dreamlike.

Aristophanes

Birds

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life

Author

Aristophanes

Source

Birds

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

424 BC 420s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aristophanes. Ὄρνιθες [Birds]. c. 414, Dionysia, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Aristophanes. "Birds." Aristophanes: The Complete Plays, translated by Paul Roche. New American Library/Berkley, 2005.

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.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

Individuals pass like shadows; but the commonwealth is fixed and stable.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

The United Kingdom Ephemeral nature of life Impermanence

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Speech on Presenting to the House of Commons a Plan for the Better Security of the Independence of Parliament and the Economical Reformation of the Civil and Other Establishments

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1780 1780s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Speech on Presenting to the House of Commons a Plan for the Better Security of the Independence of Parliament and the Economical Reformation of the Civil and Other Establishments." 11 Feb. 1780, Palace of Westminster, Westminster, London, England, UK.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Speech on Economical Reform." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it-for a little while.

Willa Cather

O Pioneers!

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Topic

The land Ephemeral nature of life Impermanence

Speaker

Alexandra

Author

Willa Cather

Source

O Pioneers!

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers! Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913, pt. 5, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers, edited by Sharon O'Brien. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, pt. 5, ch. 3.

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.

Carl Sagan

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More information about this quote

Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Nature of time

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980, ch. 2.

You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James 4:14

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Shortness of life Life

Source

James The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Greek

Time

49 40s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (James 4:14).

They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.

Samuel Beckett

Waiting for Godot

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Topic

Shortness of life Ephemeral nature of life Life The human condition

Speaker

Pozzo

Author

Samuel Beckett

Source

Waiting for Godot

Medium

Play

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

French

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Beckett, Samuel. En attendant Godot. Directed by Roger Blin. 5 Jan. 1953, Théâtre de Babylone, Paris, France.

Creatures of a day. What is someone? What is no one? Man is the dream of a shadow. But when the brilliance given by Zeus comes, a shining light is on man, and a gentle lifetime.

Pindar

Pythian Odes

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life God's favor

Author

Pindar

Source

Pythian Odes

Medium

Poem

Language

Greek

Time

446 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Pindar. Pythian Odes. c. 474, pythian 8.

Current Citation

Pindar. The Complete Odes, translated by Anthony Verity. Oxford University Press, 2008, pythian 8.

Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go... Life is nothing. Life is all. It is the hand with which we hold off death. It is the glow-worm that shines in the night-time and is black in the morning; it is the white breath of the oxen in the winter; it is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset.

H. Rider Haggard

King Solomon's Mines

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Ephemeral nature of life Shortness of life Life Death

Speaker

Ignosi (Umbopa)

Author

H. Rider Haggard

Source

King Solomon's Mines

Medium

Novel

Genre

Adventure novel

Language

English

Time

1885 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines. London: Cassell and Company, 1886.

Current Citation

Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines. Penguin Classics, 2008.

For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

David

1st Chronicles, 29:15

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Topic

Exile Ephemeral nature of life The human condition

Speaker

David

Source

1st Chronicles The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Hebrew

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (1st Chronicles 29:15).

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

Job

Job 14:1-2 KJV

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Shortness of life The human condition

Speaker

Job

Source

Book of Job The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Hebrew

Time

500 BC 500s BC 6th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Job 14:1-2).

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Psalm 90:10

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Topic

Length of life Ephemeral nature of life Life

Source

Psalms The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Hebrew

Time

450 BC 450s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Psalm 90:10).

One life; a little gleam of time between two eternities.

Thomas Carlyle

More information about this quote

Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Life

Author

Thomas Carlyle

Source

The Hero as Man of Letters

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1840 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "The Hero as Man of Letters." 19 May 1840, London, England, UK. Lecture.

The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail ahead; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant.

Venerable Bede

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Nature of life

Author

Venerable Bede

Source

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Latin

Time

731 730s 8th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Bede. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [Ecclesiastical History of the English People]. c. 731, bk. 2, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Bede. "Ecclesiastical History of the English People." The Ecclesiastical History of the English People; The Greater Chronicle; Bede's Letter to Egbert, edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 2, ch. 13.