It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes and aspirations as the sparks fly upward, unless he has brutalized his nature and quenched the spirit of immortality which is his portion.
Robert SoutheyRead
The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Losing a friend is deeply painful and although time can lessen the hurt, the absence remains permanent.
This quote by Robert Southey compares the loss of a friendship to the loss of a physical limb, emphasizing the profound impact that losing a friend can have on an individual. It suggests that while time can help diminish the pain associated with such a loss, the friend will always be missed, indicating that certain emotional scars never fully heal.
Themes
LossFriendshipPainGriefTime
In practice
Example use cases
Sharing this quote during a eulogy for a friend who has passed away.
More from Robert Southey
All quotes βOh, when a mother meets on high The babe she lost in infancy, Hath she not then for pains and fears, The day of woe, the watchful night, For all her sorrow, all her tears, An over-payment of delight?
Robert SoutheyRead
If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.
Robert SoutheyRead
They sin who tell us Love can die: with Life all other passions fly, all others are but vanity.
Robert SoutheyRead
Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state. Like beams in a house or bones to a body, so is order to all things.
Robert SoutheyRead
My days among the dead are passed; Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old; My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day.
Robert SoutheyRead
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... the friendship of worthless people has a bad effect (because they take part, unstable as they are, in worthless pursuits, and actually become bad through each other's influence). But the friendship of the good is good, and increases in goodness because of their association. They seem even to become better men by exercising their friendship and improving each other; for the traits that they admire in each other get transferred to themselves.
AristotleRead
They might not need me; but they might. I'll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.
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When I went to San Francisco in that cold late spring of 1967, I did not even know what I wanted to find out, and so I just stayed around a while and made a few friends.
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