The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.
James JoyceRead
No one would think he'd make such a beautiful corpse.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the unexpected beauty found in death and the human condition.
James Joyce's quote suggests that there is an irony in how people perceive beauty and identity, particularly in life and death. The statement implies that one's value or aesthetic may not be recognized until after their life has ended, leading to deeper reflections on mortality, legacy, and the complexity of human existence.
Themes
DeathBeautyMortalityIdentityIrony
In practice
Example use cases
During a memorial service, to reflect on how people often appreciate the deceased's beauty and spirit more after they have passed.
More from James Joyce
All quotes βI think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
James JoyceRead
If he had smiled why would he have smiled? To reflect that each one who enters imagines himself to be the first to enter whereas he is always the last term of a preceding series even if the first term of a succeeding one, each imagining himself to be first, last, only and alone whereas he is neither first nor last nor only nor alone in a series originating in and repeated to infinity.
James JoyceRead
Gentle lady, do not sing Sad songs about the end of love; Lay aside sadness and sing How love that passes is enough. Sing about the long deep sleep Of lovers that are dead, and how In the grave all love shall sleep: Love is aweary now.
James JoyceRead
I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.
James JoyceRead
The movements which work revolutions in the world are born out of the dreams and visions in a peasant's heart on the hillside.
James JoyceRead
Similar quotes
Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mahomed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles.
Benjamin RushRead
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.
Ernest HemingwayRead
...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.
Dante AlighieriRead
If God existed, and if He cared for humankind, He would never have given us religion.
Martin AmisRead
Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. (quoting the Bhagavad-Gita after witnessing the first Nuclear explosion.)
J. Robert OppenheimerRead