Time is a dream ... a destroying dream;_x000D_ _x000D_ It lays great cities in dust, it fills the seas;_x000D_ _x000D_ It covers the face of beauty, and tumbles walls.
Interpretation
Time is ephemeral and ultimately destructive, affecting everything from beauty to civilizations.
This quote reflects on the transient nature of time, suggesting that it has the power to erode beauty and topple great accomplishments, symbolized by cities and walls. Aiken emphasizes the relentless passage of time, which, despite being an intangible concept, leaves a tangible impact on the world around us.
In practice
In a lecture about the philosophy of time, this quote can illustrate the concept of impermanence.
One cricket said to another -_x000D_ _x000D_ come, let us be ridiculous, and say love!_x000D_ _x000D_ love love love love love_x000D_ _x000D_ let us be absurd, woman, and say hate!_x000D_ _x000D_ hate hate hate hate hate_x000D_ _x000D_ and then let us be angelic_x000D_ _x000D_ and say nothing.
Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread. Now that I am without you, all is desolate; all that was once so beautiful is dead.
Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
Ron: Why spiders? Why couldn't it be "follow the butterflies?
This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.
Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.
I don't believe in death, neither in flesh nor in spirit.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.