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Time is the River on which the leaves of our thoughts are carried into oblivion.
Doris Lessing
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Time carries away our thoughts and memories, leading them to be forgotten.

In this quote, Doris Lessing uses the metaphor of a river to illustrate how time flows continuously, taking with it the thoughts and ideas that we hold. Just like leaves are carried along the water, our thoughts can drift into oblivion over time, emphasizing the transient nature of our consciousness and the importance of cherishing our memories before they fade away.

Themes

TimeThoughtsOblivionMemoryTransience

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of mindfulness and living in the moment.

More from Doris Lessing

I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.
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In the writing process, the more the story cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest. I find dreams particularly useful. I myself think a great deal before I go to sleep and the details sometimes unfold in the dream.
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Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences. At the very simplest, it can be: 'He/she was born, lived, died.' Probably that is the template of our stories - a beginning, middle, and end. This structure is in our minds.
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There is a great line of women stretching out behind you into the past, and you have to seek them out and find them in yourself and be conscious of them.
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The World War I, I'm a child of World War I. And I really know about the children of war. Because both my parents were both badly damaged by the war. My father, physically, and both mentally and emotionally. So, I know exactly what it's like to be brought up in an atmosphere of a continual harping on the war.
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You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.
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