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.
We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?
I feel it now: there's a power in me to grasp and give shape to my world I know that nothing has ever been real without my beholding it. All becoming has need me.
I ask why your Omnipotent God does not hold a man back when he is about to commit a sin or offence. It is child’s play for God. Why did He not kill war lords? Why did He not remove the fury of war from their minds? In this way God could have saved humanity from great calamity and horror.
My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.
The most important question in 21st-century economics may well be, 'What should we do with all the superfluous people, once we have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better than humans?'
The founding of our Nation was more than a political event; it was an act of faith, a promise to Americans and to the entire world. The Declaration of Independence declared that people can govern themselves, that they can live in freedom with equal rights, that they can respect the rights of others.
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