Real magic can never be made by offering someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.
Peter S. BeagleRead
Whatever can die is beautiful — more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that mortality enhances the beauty of life, making it more precious than eternal existence.
Peter S. Beagle's quote reflects on the nature of beauty and mortality, positing that things which are transient and have an end are inherently more beautiful than those that are immortal. The idea is that the finite nature of life makes our experiences and relationships more cherished, contrasting the allure of eternal beings like unicorns, which, despite their beauty, lack the depth that comes from the inevitability of death.
Themes
MortalityBeautyLifeTransienceExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a funeral to celebrate the beauty of a person's life.
More from Peter S. Beagle
All quotes →Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name.
Peter S. BeagleRead
You were the one who taught me," he said. "I never looked at you without seeing the sweetness of the way the world goes together, or without sorrow for its spoiling. I became a hero to serve you, and all that is like you.
Peter S. BeagleRead
...because in a way it happened to someone else. I don't really speak that person's language anymore, and when I think about her, she embarrasses me sometimes, but I don't want to forget her, I don't want to pretend she never existed. So before I start forgetting, I have to get down exactly who she was, and exactly how she felt about everything. She was me a lot longer than I've been me so far.
Peter S. BeagleRead
I feel a whole country growing inside me, thousands of years, millions of people, stupid, crazy, shrewd people, and all of them me. I never felt like that before, I never felt that there was anything inside me, even myself.
Peter S. BeagleRead
Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.
Peter S. BeagleRead
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