Yesterday I lived, today I suffer, tomorrow I die; but I still think fondly, today and tomorrow, of yesterday.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the inevitability of suffering and mortality while emphasizing the importance of cherishing past experiences.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's quote captures the essence of human existence, highlighting the continuous cycle of life, suffering, and death. It suggests that while we must confront hardships and the reality of our mortality, there is value in holding onto the positive memories and experiences of the past. This duality of existence encourages an appreciation for life, even in the face of inevitable challenges.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech to emphasize the importance of cherishing memories despite life's challenges.
Why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this world? Why should I not come back as often as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge? Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest? Because the human understanding, before the sophistries of the schools had dissipated and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once?
The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes
Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone.
Pleasures, riches, honor and joy are sure to have care, disgrace, adversity and affliction in their train. There is no pleasure without pain, no joy without sorrow. O the folly of expecting lasting felicity in a vale of tears, or a paradise in a ruined world.
Would that we could at once paint with the eyes! In the long way from the eye through the arm to the pencil, how much is lost!
I had been brought up in a church which decides everything and permits no doubts, so that having rejected one article of faith I was forced to reject the rest.
How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it.
Why would the disciples invent a God whose holiness was more terrifying than the forces of nature that provoked them to invent a god in the first place?
We are called to live our baptism every day, as new creatures, clothed in Christ.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.