Do not believe that others will die, not you.... I have wrestled with Thanatos knee to knee and I know how death is vanquished. Man's immortality is not to live forever; for that wish is born of fear. Each moment free from fear makes a man immortal.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that true immortality comes from living fearlessly rather than the mere desire to avoid death.
Mary Renault's quote reflects the idea that fearing death is a common human experience, but our true essence and immortality are found in how we confront life itself. The act of overcoming fear allows one to truly live in the moment, making every experience meaningful and everlasting, rather than being shackled by the fear of death.
In practice
This quote can inspire a group discussion on fear and how we can find freedom in facing our mortality.
Change is the sum of the universe, and what is of nature ought not to be feared. But one gives it hostages, and lays one's grief upon the gods. Sokrates is free, and would have taught me freedom. But I have yoked the immortal horse that draws the chariot with a horse of earth; and when the one falls, both are entangled in the traces.
One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.
In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul.
I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a King. And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.
Gods, religions and national boundaries are absolutely imaginary. They don't tend to exist. As soon as you pull back half a mile and look down at the Earth there are no national boundaries. There aren't even national boundaries when you get down and walk around. They're just imaginary lines we draw on maps. I just get fascinated by people who assume that things that are imaginary have no relevance to their lives.
With disdain I will throw my gauntlet full in the fact of the world and see the collapse of this pygmy giant. Then will I wander god-like and victorious through the ruins of the world. And giving my words an active force, I will feel equal to the Creator.
You are sitting on the earth and you realize that this earth deserves you and you deserve this earth. You are there - fully, personally, genuinely.
All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States - and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!
We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Everything in-between is a gift.
Men make their own history but not in circumstances of their own choosing.
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