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ca18827 As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them. money immortality wisdom eternal-life human-desire J.K. Rowling
d19aeac Yea, all things live forever, though at times they sleep and are forgotten. sleep mortality immortality death life live-forever forgetting forget H. Rider Haggard
2cfe921 Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken? immortality remembrance Terry Pratchett
d80715d I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. immortality atheism Carl Sagan
1e90629 "People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they travel immortality life Marcel Proust
c831ccf Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying. immortality pirates Terry Pratchett
ef511be The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal. immortality inspirational fame Marcus Tullius Cicero
a468474 It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong also to seek immortality by spewing one's germ into the future as though sperm contains your consciousness! immortality future life procreation children Irvin D. Yalom
f50c221 Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. immortality Margaret Atwood
089d7b5 Waking up was a daily cruelty, an affront, and she avoided it by not sleeping. immortality death insomnia Gregory Maguire
260fb5a Study, along the lines which the theologies have mapped, will never lead us to discovery of the fundamental facts of our existence. That goal must be attained by means of exact science and can only be achieved by such means. The fact that man, for ages, has superstitiously believed in what he calls a God does not prove at all that his theory has been right. There have been many gods - all makeshifts, born of inability to fathom the deep fundamental truth. There must be something at the bottom of existence, and man, in ignorance, being unable to discover what it is through reason, because his reason has been so imperfect, undeveloped, has used, instead, imagination, and created figments, of one kind or another, which, according to the country he was born in, the suggestions of his environment, satisfied him for the time being. Not one of all the gods of all the various theologies has ever really been proved. We accept no ordinary scientific fact without the final proof; why should we, then, be satisfied in this most mighty of all matters, with a mere theory immortality makeshift satisfaction theory wonder reason science truth inspirational superstitious falsehood miracles study theology naturalism gods destruction soul Thomas A. Edison
5e32593 Every reader exists to ensure for a certain book a modest immortality. Reading is, in this sense, a ritual of rebirth. reading immortality books rebirth reader Alberto Manguel
9e06911 If, before every action, we were to begin by weighing up the consequences, thinking about them in earnest, first the immediate consequences, then the probable, then the possible, then the imaginable ones, we should never move beyond the point where our first thought brought us to a halt. The good and evil resulting from our words and deeds go on apportioning themselves, one assumes in a reasonably uniform and balanced way, throughout all the days to follow, including those endless days, when we shall not be here to find out, to congratulate ourselves or ask for pardon, indeed there are those who claim that this is the much talked of immortality. immortality deeds forgiveness consequences José Saramago
19bd5dc Glenn used to say the reason you can't really imagine yourself being dead was that as soon as you say, 'I'll be dead,' you've said the word I, and so you're still alive inside the sentence. And that's how people got the idea of the immortality of the soul - it was a consequence of grammar. immortality grammar Margaret Atwood
a70ccd9 We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations. mourning grief loss immortality sorrow death life-goes-on memory John Banville
984f58c My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me, So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell. immortality life Emily Dickinson
3a7723c One plays at being immortal and after a few weeks one doesn't even know whether or not one can hang on till the next day. immortality the-fall Albert Camus
ed28c2d The reappearance of the crescent moon after the new moon; the return of the Sun after a total eclipse, the rising of the Sun in the morning after its troublesome absence at night were noted by people around the world; these phenomena spoke to our ancestors of the possibility of surviving death. Up there in the skies was also a metaphor of immortality. immortality science Carl Sagan
3ce7bb8 . . . it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn't touch. immortality art Donna Tartt
2891f74 "Lucien studied the wine in his goblet. "You don't hold on to power by being everyone's friend. And among the faeries, lesser and High Fae alike, a firm hand is needed. We're too powerful, and too bored with immortality, to be checked by anything else." immortality freyre high-fae lucien powerful power faeries Sarah J. Maas
06f5f0a In death - no! even in the grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for man. Arousing from the most profound slumbers, we break the gossamer web of some dream. Yet in a second afterward, (so frail may that web have been) we remember not that we have dreamed. immortality the-pit-and-the-pendulum life-after-death Edgar Allan Poe
95dc0fb Bones are patient. Bones never tire nor do they run away. When you come upon a man who has been dead many years, his bones will still be lying there, in place, content, patiently waiting, but his flesh will have gotten up and left him. Water is like flesh. Water will not stand still. It is always off to somewhere else; restless, talkative, and curious. Even water in a covered jar will disappear in time. Flesh is water. Stones are like bones. Satisfied. Patient. Dependable. Tell me, then, Alobar, in order to achieve immortality, should you emulate water or stone? Should you trust your flesh or your bones? immortality death life transitory stones permanence Tom Robbins
afd3b47 Yet some men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu into another place; and men say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy cross. immortality hope england king-arthur matter-of-britain resurrection Thomas Malory
1ba3180 "Been thinking of my grandfather, whose wayward brilliance skipped my father's generation. Once, he showed me an aquatint of a certain Siamese temple. Don't recall its name, but ever since a disciple of the Buddha preached on the spot centuries ago, every bandit king, tyrant, and monarch of that kingdom has enhanced it with marble towers, scented arboretums, gold-leafed domes, lavished murals on its vaulted ceilings, set emeralds into the eyes of its statuettes. When the temple finally equals its counterpart in the Pure Land, so the story goes, that day humanity shall have fulfilled its purpose, and Time itself shall come to an end. To men like Ayrs, it occurs to me, this temple is civilization. The masses, slaves, peasants, and foot soldiers exist in the cracks of its flagstones, ignorant even of their ignorance. Not so the great statesmen, scientists, artists, and most of all, the composers of the age, any age, who are civilization's architects, masons, and priests. Ayrs sees our role is to make civilization ever more resplendent. My employer's profoundest, or only, wish is to create a minaret that inheritors of Progress a thousand years from now will point to and say, "Look, there is Vyvyan Ayrs!" How vulgar, this hankering after immortality, how vain, how false. Composers are merely scribblers of cave paintings. One writes music because winter is eternal and because, if one didn't, the wolves and blizzards would be at one's throat all the sooner." immortality music composer David Mitchell
edb4468 That which is alive hath known death, and that which is dead can never die, for in the Circle of the Spirit life is naught and death is naught. Yea, all things live forever, though at times they sleep and are forgotten. mortality immortality death life circle-of-life H. Rider Haggard
1bf1b69 Immortality is a chancy thing; it cannot be promised or earned. Perhaps it cannot even be identified for what it is. immortality Gregory Maguire
f0d5a59 One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide and made my pains his prey. Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalise; For I myself shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wiped out likewise. Not so (quod I); let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame; My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, And in the heavens write your glorious name: Where, when as Death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew. immortality poetry love Edmund Spenser
98093be "If I should die," said I to myself, "I have left no immortal work behind me - nothing to make my friends proud of my memory - but I have lov'd the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remember'd." immortality remeberance Dan Simmons
e8d4510 Though the face before me was that of a young woman of certainly not more than thirty years, in perfect health and the first flush of ripened beauty, yet it bore stamped upon it a seal of unutterable experience, and of deep acquaintance with grief and passion. Not even the slow smile that crept about the dimples of her mouth could hide the shadow of sin and sorrow. It shone even in the light of those glorious eyes, it was present in the air of majesty, and it seemed to say: 'Behold me, lovely as no woman was or is, undying and half-divine; memory haunts me from age to age, and passion leads me by the hand--evil have I done, and with sorrow have I made acquaintance from age to age, and from age to age evil shall I do, and sorrow shall I know till my redemption comes. immortality sorrow beauty life goddess H. Rider Haggard
45e5ee0 A friend need not be kept either within sight or within reach. A friend must be allowed the freedom to find and follow his own path. If one is fortunate, those paths will for a time join. But if the paths separate, it is comforting to know that a friend still graces the universe with his skills, and his viewpoint, and his presence. For if one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone. immortality Timothy Zahn
b97336a [A] finished tale may give a man immortality in the light and literary sense; but an unfinished tale suggests another immortality, more essential and more strange. immortality writing unfinished-works fame G.K. Chesterton
ad4f7c8 Over the lives borne from under the shadow of death there seems to fall the shadow of madness. loneliness hate mortality immortality friends love lifeboat stranded desperate blame society enemies guilt mental-illness Joseph Conrad
550f496 If death is no longer a fear, we're really free. Free to take any risk under the sun for Christ and for love. immortality faith death John Piper
135d12e I wouldn't want [the people of Baleyworld] to live that long as a general thing. The pace of historical and intellectual advance would then become too slow. Those at the top would stay in power too long. Baleyworld would sink into conversation and decay - as your world has done. progress immortality death longevity decadence Isaac Asimov
f0da447 Forget it, Jonathan, and go back to sleep. And before you go to sleep, pray that no well-meaning god ever makes you immortal. sleep immortality jonathan-rebeck Peter S. Beagle
bc96e89 Shall a man grave his sorrows upon a stone when he hath but need to write them on the water? Nay, oh /She/, I will live my day, and grow old with my generation, and die my appointed death, and be forgotten. mortality immortality H. Rider Haggard
21606da She had lost herself in this old work, her personality dissolving into it, so that she had been set free. The immortality of the soul lies in its dissolution; this was the cryptic comment that so frustrated Olivier and which Julien had only ever grasped as evidence for the history of a particular school of thought. He had known all about its history, but Julia knew what it meant. He found the realization strangely reassuring. immortality freedom meaning philosophy self-abandonment liberation thought soul Iain Pears
5afc299 Death starves us of life. So we learn to fabricate our own immortalities. immortality life fabricate immortalities fabrication starve John Fowles
86b3d73 I love you now... I love you immortally, even if I die and there is nothing left of me. immortality love ever Gail Carson Levine
8641e47 You know, it's really very peculiar. To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn't know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn't even know how to be dead. mortality immortality living life philosophy dying Milan Kundera
f091105 What decides whether a man will become immortal, is not his character but his vitality. Nothing save intensity confers immortality. A man manifests himself more vividly, in proportion as he is strong and unified, effective and unique. Immortality knows nothing of morality or immorality, of good or evil; it measures only work and strength; it demands from a man not purity but unity. Here, morality is nothing; intensity, all. immortality morality immorality Stefan Zweig
593242a But man by his nature is an unnatural animal. If any creature stands a chance of defeating death, it is man. immortality Tom Robbins
cf51f2c If they succeed, it will not matter if Man becomes immortal. He will have nothing to live for. true immortality greed life man-s-pride page-58 greed-of-man James Edwin Gunn
8d01b76 "Holly steps back. Being warned about a ghost and seeing him are not the same. 'What did they metaphor time mortality immortality death life title speech David Mitchell
49afe84 I am telling you that the child will not out live the buildings. Do you understand that wheras women may touch the immortal by giving birth, men--great men-- must build monuments and seek fame? immortality men-vs-women seeking-fame Karen Essex
ada677c Das verzweifelte Nichtsterbenwollen ist der sicherste Weg zum ewigen Tode, wahrend Sterbenkonnen, Hullenabstreifen, ewige Hingabe des Ichs an die Wandlung fuhrt zur Unsterblichkeit. immortality unsterblichkeit tod Hermann Hesse
d503bb8 For everyone nowadays knows, absolutely certain, that nothing will ever happen to me. Others die, I go on. mortality immortality life certainty delusion Ray Bradbury
1d5c046 It is difficult to want to tell a grave that it is not immortal. It's so obvious at that point. mortality immortality Aimee Bender
9314bdf Are you ready to be rejoined for all time with your fellow gods? Oh yes, she explained, For not only was he a god, but so were all mortals gods in disguise, divorced from their divine lineage, their true identities, shrouded from their earthly selves. That is what she now revealed to him; He had been one of the rare humans who had not forgotten the connection with his divine self, and had lived like a god his mortal life. immortality gods julius-caesar Karen Essex
d3521a9 As a species we are a predominantly intelligent and exploratory animal, and beliefs harnessed to this fact will be the most beneficial for us. A belief in the validity of the acquisition of knowledge and a scientific understanding of the world we live in, the creation and appreciation of aesthetic phenomena in all their many forms, and the broadening and deepening of our range of experiences in day-to-day living, is rapidly becoming the 'religion' of our time. Experience and understanding are our rather abstract god-figures, and ignorance and stupidity will make them angry. Our schools and universities are our religious training centres, our libraries, museums, art galleries, theatres, concert halls and sports arenas are our places of communal worship. At home we worship with our books. newspapers. magazines, radios and television sets. In a sense, we still believe in an after-life, because part of the reward obtained from our creative works is the feeling that, through them, we will 'live on' after we are dead. Like all religions, this one has its dangers, but if we have to have one, and it seems that we do, then it certainly appears to be the one most suitable for the unique biological qualities of our species. Its adoption by an ever-growing majority of the world population can serve as a compensating and reassuring source of optimism to set against the pessimism (...) concerning our immediate future as a surviving species. literature immortality religion science belief Desmond Morris
80a28b5 "Boy, how can you think it wise to truck with this culture of death?" Even at ten I knew the correct answer to that cataclysmic catechism: "Right you are, Father. Much better to stick with the life-embracing imagery of a cult that worships a bleeding corpse nailed to bits of wood." ... Egypt was not -- I must repeat for Readers who still do not know it -- a culture of death, for all the mummies and bottled lungs, the jackal-men and cobra-queens. The Egyptians were the inventors of immortality, the first men who saw they could live forever." immortality Arthur Phillips
2741626 Drunkenness is better for the body than physic! Drink always, and you shall never die! immortality drunkenness alcoholism E.R. Eddison
74159a6 I saw that something remained of the fools' play, the death dance of human life, something lasting: works of art. They too will probably perish some day; they'll burn or crumble or be destroyed. Still, they outlast many human lives; they form a silent empire of images and relics beyond the fleeting moment. To work at that seems good and comforting to me, because it almost succeeds in making the transitory eternal. immortality Hermann Hesse
99cb5ba To lose a parent or a lifelong friend is often to lose the past: the person who died may be the only other living witness to golden events of long ago. But to lose a child is to lose the future: what is lost is no less than one's life project--what one lives for, how one projects oneself into the future, how one may hope to transcend death (indeed, one's child becomes one's immortality project). immortality death child-loss Irvin D. Yalom
a0221d7 "Theme It's a sunny weekday in early May and after a ham sandwich and a cold bottle of beer on the brick terrace, I am consumed by the wish to add something to one of the ancient themes- youth dancing with his eyes closed, for example, in the shadows of corruption and death, or the rise and fall of illustrious men strapped to the turning wheel of mischance and disaster. There is a slight breeze, just enough to bend the yellow tulips on their stems, but that hardly helps me echo the longing for immortality despite the roaring juggernaut of time, or the painful motif of Nature's cyclial return versus man's blind rush to the grave. I could loosen my shirt and lie down in the soft grass, sweet now after its first cutting, but that would not produce a record of the pursuit of the moth of eternal beauty or the despondency that attends the eventual dribble of the once gurgling fountain of creativity. So, as far as great topics go, that seems to leave only the fall from exuberant maturity into sudden, headlong decline- a subject that fills me with silence and leaves me with no choice but to spend the rest of the day sniffing the jasmine vine and surrendering to the ivory goverance of the piano by picking out with my index finger the melody notes of "Easy to Love," a song in which Cole Porter expresses, with put-on nonchalance, the hopelessness of a love brimming with desire and a hunger for affection, but met only and always with frosty disregard." hopelessness immortality poetry love Billy Collins
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