Scientists are peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
All great natures delight in stability; all great men find eternity affirmed in the very promise of their faculties.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
In time there is no present, In eternity no future, In eternity no past.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Eternity is really long, especially near the end
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
No man can pass into eternity, for he is already in it.
—Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903) English Clergyman, Writer
The wish falls often, warm upon my heart, that I may learn nothing here that I cannot continue in the other world; that I may do nothing here but deeds that will bear fruit in heaven.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence, and this takes the deepest root, and is most discoverable, in the greatest geniuses and most exalted souls.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Eternity—waste of time.
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
God exists in eternity. The only point where eternity meets time is in the present. The present is the only time there is.
—Marianne Williamson (b.1952) American Activist, Author, Lecturer
The created world is but a small parenthesis in eternity, and a short interposition for a time, between such a state of duration as was before it, and may be after it.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
Our object in life should be to accumulate a great number of grand questions to be asked and resolved in eternity.—Now we ask the sage, the genius, the philosopher, the divine, but none can tell; but, we will open our queries to other respondents—we will ask angels, redeemed spirits, and God.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
If one understands eternity as timelessness, and not as an unending timespan, then whoever lives in the present lives for all time.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
The eternal world is not merely a world beyond time and the grave. It embraces time; it is ready to realize itself under all the forms of temporal things. Its light and power are latent everywhere, waiting for human souls to welcome it, ready to break through the transparent veil of earthly things and to suffuse with its ineffable radiance the common life of man.
—John Ciardi (1916–86) American Poet, Teacher, Etymologist, Translator
Beauty is a precious trace that eternity causes to appear to us and that it takes away from us. A manifestation of eternity, and a sign of death as well.
—Eugene Ionesco (1909–94) Romanian-born French Dramatist
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears; there is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death.
—Buddhist Teaching
Eternity stands always fronting God; a stern colossal image, with blind eyes, and grand dim lips, that murmur evermore, “God—God—God!”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of the ages. Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but when I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
He that will often put eternity and the world before him, and will dare to look steadfastly at both of them, will find that the more he contemplates them, the former will grow greater and the latter less.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
Eternity is not something that begins after you’re dead. It is going on all the time. We are in it now.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
Eternity looks grander and kinder if time grows meaner and more hostile.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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