Fleeting Quotes
More Fleeting Quotes
Life is short, even for those who live a long time, and we must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them. We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.
sarah bernhardt— Ch. 33 (My Double Life (1907))
Good theories of the mind must span at least three different scales of time: slow, for the billions of years in which our brains have survivied; fast, for the fleeting weeks and months of childhood; and in between, the centuries of growth of our ideas through history.
marvin minsky— Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind (1988) Ch.1
Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
thomas gray— Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, lines 41-4 (1751)
So when or you or I are made A fable, song, or fleeting shade; All love, all liking, all delight Lies drowned with us in endless night. Then while time serves, and we are but decaying; Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a Maying.
Robert Herrick— 1648 'Corinna's Going a Maying'.
As drifting logs of wood may haply meet On ocean's waters surging to and fro, And having met, drift once again apart, So, fleeting is the intercourse of men. E'en as a traveler meeting with the shade Of some o'erhung tree, awhile reposes, Then leaves its shelter to pursue his ways, So men meet friends, then part with them for ever.
— Translation of the Code of Manu. In Words of Wisdom.
Can storied urn, or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
thomas gray— St. 11. (Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750))
There is no better feeling than the feeling that I have done something right. That feeling comes so rarely and is so fleeting that I can never really enjoy it. So in a way, it's not a good feeling at all.
john s. hall— October 7
Now from head to foot I am marble-constant: now the fleeting moon No planet is of mine.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act V, scene 2, line 238.
Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume, labuntur anni. Oh, my Postumus,Postumus, the fleeting years are slipping by.
— Odes, bk.2, no.14, l.1-2.
7.Joy is fleeting, sinful and the forerunner of despair.
A(lison) L(ouise) Kennedy— 1993 Looking for thePossible Dance,'The Scottish Methodfor the Perfection of Children'.
Art is long, and time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— 1838 'A Psalm of Life', stanza 4. In Knickerbocker or NewYork Monthly Magazine, Sep. Collected in Voices of the Night (1839).
Thus heavenly hope is all serene,But earthly hope, how bright soe’er,Still fluctuates o’er this changing scene,As false and fleeting as ’t is fair.
Reginald Heber— "On Heavenly Hope and Earthly Hope".
So when or you or I are madeA fable, song, or fleeting shade,All love, all liking, all delightLies drowned with us in endless night.
Robert Herrick— "Corinna's Going A-Maying".
This world is all a fleeting show,For man's illusion given;The smiles of joy, the tears of woe,Deceitful shine, deceitful flow,—There's nothing true but Heaven.
thomas moore— This World is all a fleeting Show.
Consecrate the place and day To music and Cecilia. Let no rough winds approach, nor dare Invade the hallow'd bounds, Nor rudely shake the tuneful air, Nor spoil the fleeting sounds. Nor mournful sigh nor groan be heard, But gladness dwell on every tongue; Whilst all, with voice and strings prepar'd, Keep up the loud harmonious song, And imitate the blest above, In joy, and harmony, and love.
joseph addison— Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692).
The Conscious mind is a maelstrom of fleeting thoughts , images, sensations, feelings , conflicting desires , and doubts ; barely able to confine its attention to a single clear objective for a microsecond before secondary thoughts begin to adulterate it and provoke yet further trains of mental discourse. If you do not believe this, then attempt to confine your conscious attention to the dot at the end of this sentence without involving yourself in any other form of thinking, including thinking about the dot.
peter j. carroll— p. 87 (Liber Kaos (1992))
We were two of a kind, and our relationship would endure as long as we did: but it could not make up entirely for the fleeting riches to be had from encounters with different people.
Simone de Beauvoir— On her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre, as quoted in "Did Simone de Beauvoir's open 'marriage' make her happy?" by Lisa Appignanesi, in The Guardian (9 June 2005)
What is this world of ours? A complex entity subject to sudden changes which all indicate a tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings which follow one another, assert themselves and disappear; a fleeting symmetry; a momentary order.
Denis Diderot— Dying words of Nicholas Saunderson as portrayed in Lettre sur les aveugles [Letter on the Blind] (1749)
Don't let your heart depend on things That ornament life in a fleeting way! He who possesses, let him learn to lose, He who is fortunate, let him learn pain.
friedrich von schiller— Die Braut von Messina (The Bride of Messina), Act IV, sc. iv (1803).
Devoting ourselves too much to an exclusive search of a material happiness, of ephemerous (or fleeting) goods, one fails to appreciate ("méconnaît", Fr.) the true(or real)realities of life and one let the spirit (or mind) decline and dry up (or waste away, or become insensitive) ("En s'adonnant trop exclusivement à la recherche d'un bonheur matériel, de biens éphémères, on méconnaît les vraies réalités dela vie et on laisse s'étioler et se dessécher l'esprit.", Fr.)
african spir— p. 49 (Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937))
Like a drum my heart was beating, And your kiss was sweet as wine, But the joys of love are fleeting For Pierrot and Columbine.
tom springfield— Song The Carnival Is Over
I, the solitary fish, a fish apart (apart at least from the tree fish and the stone fish), write, at isolated moments, a tiny fish or two whose glittering scales, so fleeting, may only be the dark's embarrassed wink.
wisława szymborska— "In Heraclitus' River"
One of those passing rainbow dreams, Half light, half shade, which fancy's beams Paint on the fleeting mists that roll, In trance or slumber, round the soul!
thomas moore— Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh (1817), Fire Worshippers, Stanza 54.
Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.
— Carl Sagan, in Cosmos (1980), p. 332
Even the seeming remoteness of Pythagorean teaching helps one to realize that the current world view, while it seems destined to dominate the planet, is fleeting and temporary and, like others before it, will pass.
— John Strohmeier and Peter Westbrook. (1999) Divine Harmony : The Life and Teachings of Pythagoras.
This world is all a fleeting show, For man's illusion given; The smiles of joy, the tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful flow, There's nothing true but Heaven.
thomas moore— Thomas Moore, This World is all a Fleeting Show; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 911-17.
Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clarence, That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury; Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!
— Clarence, scene iv
Art is long, and time is fleeting.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life (1839), stanza 4
