For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress -- to the future.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
Our knowledge of life is limited to death
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding life is often only possible through the lens of mortality.
This quote by Erich Maria Remarque suggests that our understanding of existence, experiences, and the essence of life is profoundly influenced by the inevitability of death. It highlights the idea that reflecting on mortality can lead to deeper insights about life's value and nature, urging us to appreciate our time and the experiences we gather before it ends.
Themes
KnowledgeLifeDeathUnderstandingMortality
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy class when discussing existential themes.
More from Erich Maria Remarque
All quotes →They are more human and more brotherly towards one another, it seems to me, than we are. But perhaps that is merely because they feel themselves to be more unfortunate than us.
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Anyway the war is over so far as they are concerned. But to wait for dysentery is not much of a life either.
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We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out…we creep in upon ourselves and with big eyes stare into the night…and thus we wait for morning.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
There was only the broad square with the scattered dim moons of the street lamps and with the monumental stone arch which receded into the mist as though it would prop up the melancholy sky and protect beneath itself the faint lonely flame on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which looked like the last grave of mankind in the midst of night and loneliness.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
(Ravic speaking of a butterfly caught in the Louvre) In the morning it would search for flowers and life and the light honey of blossoms and would not find them and later it would fall asleep on millennial marble, weakened by then, until the grip of the delicate, tenacious feet loosened and it fell, a thin leaf of premature autumn.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
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