quotations about eternity
This world which stretches out before you, is but the vestibule of an immortal life. These deeds that are taking place around you, touch upon chords that extend by a thousand connections, visible and invisible, and vibrate in eternity.
EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN
Duties of Young Men
The eternal world and the mortal world are not parallel, rather they are fused.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Anam Cara
It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it as the butterfly in the light-laden air. Nothing has to come; it is now. Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.
RICHARD JEFFERIES
The Story of My Heart
Nobody could stand an eternity of Heaven.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Man and Superman
Lord, since eternity is Thine, art Thou ignorant of what I say to Thee? or dost Thou see in time, what passeth in time? Why then do I lay in order before Thee so many relations? Not, of a truth, that Thou mightest learn them through me, but to stir up mine own and my readers' devotions towards Thee, that we may all say, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. I have said already; and again will say, for love of Thy love do I this. For we pray also, and yet Truth hath said, Your Father knoweth what you have need of, before you ask. It is then our affections which we lay open unto Thee, confessing our own miseries, and Thy mercies upon us, that Thou mayest free us wholly, since Thou hast begun, that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves, and be blessed in Thee; seeing Thou hast called us, to become poor in spirit, and meek, and mourners, and hungering and athirst after righteousness, and merciful, and pure in heart, and peace-makers. See, I have told Thee many things, as I could and as I would, because Thou first wouldest that I should confess unto Thee, my Lord God. For Thou art good, for Thy mercy endureth for ever.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Confessions
The thought of eternity consoles for the shortness of life.
FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE
attributed, Thoughts for Meaningful Life
Time is just quantified eternity.
DEEPAK CHOPRA
The Way of the Wizard
We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
PAULO COELHO
The Alchemist
Yes, from the mountain of eternity we shall look down, and behold the whole plain spread before us. Down here we get lost and confused in the devious valleys that run off from the rdots of the hills everywhere, and we cannot make out where the streams are going, and what there is behind that low shoulder of the hill yonder. But when we get to the summit peak and look down, it will all shape itself into one consistent whole, and we shall see it all at once.
THOMAS BOSTON
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Suppose, after one of our most violent snowstorms, which covers the earth for thousands of miles, one single flake were melted in a thousand years; or if a single beam of the sun's rays stood for a year, and as many years were added as there have been rays flooding the earth since the sun began to shine; or if a single drop of the ocean were exhaled in a million years, till the last drop was taken up; though we cannot conceive the duration of such apparently almost interminable periods, yet though we could, eternity would stretch as far beyond them as if they had not yet begun.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Many habitually think and act as if there is no eternity.... We major in the momentary and minor in the momentous.
RANDY ALCORN
Money
I will pause to consider this eternity from which the subsequent ones derive.
JORGE LUIS BORGES
"A History of Eternity"
In the sight of eternity
I realize my present state
A leaf in the storm of time
Drifting to the final gate
GOLDEN DAWN
"Sub Specie Aeternitatis", The Art of Dreaming
The time will come when every change shall cease,
This quick revolving wheel shall rest in peace:
No summer then shall glow, not winter freeze;
Nothing shall be to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now shall ever last.
PETRARCH
Triumph of Eternity
The problem is, eternity is barred to humans, and so humans, all too painfully aware of that and entertaining little hope of appealing against that verdict of fate, seek to stifle and deafen their tragic wisdom in a hubbub of frail and fleeting pleasures. This admittedly being a false calculation--for the same reason which prompted it (that tragic wisdom can never be chased or conjured away for good)--they condemn themselves, whatever their material wealth, to perpetual spiritual poverty: to continuous unhappiness.... Instead of seeking the way to happiness within the limits of their predicament, they take a long detour, hoping that somewhere along the route their odious and repulsive destiny may be escaped or fooled--only to land back in the despair that prompted them to start on their voyage of (dearly wished for, yet unattainable) discovery. The only discovery humans can possibly make on that voyage is that the route they have taken was but a detour that sooner or later will bring them back to the starting line.
ZYGMUNT BAUMAN
The Art of Life
Forever is a long time, but not as long as it was yesterday.
DENNIS H'ORGNIES
attributed, Quotable Quotes
There's never a beginning for eternity.
TOBA BETA
Master of Stupidity
Eternity is so certain and so terrible that a thousand lives would not suffice to prepare for it.
ALPHONSE MARIE LOUIS DE LAMARTINE
Last Night and Execution of the Girondists
He that will often put eternity and the world before him, and who will dare to look steadfastly at both of them, will find that the more he contemplates them, the former will grow greater and the latter less.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon: Or
Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
JOSEPH ADDISON
Cato