Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
Death is an ascension to a better library.
Interpretation
Death can lead to a greater understanding and knowledge in the afterlife.
In this quote, John Donne suggests that death is not an end, but rather a transition to a more enlightened state, metaphorically represented by a 'better library.' This implies that, in death, one gains access to greater wisdom and understanding that we may not fully grasp in our earthly existence, encouraging a perspective that values learning and intellectual growth beyond the physical life.
In practice
In a eulogy to celebrate the life of a loved one.
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity
All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree, Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned; alas; why should I be?
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.
That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it.
A true libertarian supports free enterprise, opposes big business; supports local self-government, opposes the nation-state; supports the National Rifle Association, opposes the Pentagon.
A thousand deaths would still be less than he deserves.
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. Death is the opposite of birth.
The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind.
With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.