Eternity, thou pleasing dreadful thought! through what variety of untried being! through what new scenes and changes must we pass! The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me; but shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
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
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
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
One never ends. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
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
For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
In time there is no present, In eternity no future, In eternity no past.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
The most momentous concern of man is the state he shall enter upon after this short and transitory life is ended; and in proportion as eternity is of greater importance than time, so ought men to be solicitous upon what grounds their expeciations with regard to that durable state are built, and on what assurances their hopes or their fears stand.
—McDonald Clarke (1798–1842) American Poet, Eccentric
Eternity looks grander and kinder if time grows meaner and more hostile.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.
—C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) Irish-British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Forever is a long bargain.
—German Proverb
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
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, Philosopher
No man can pass into eternity, for he is already in it.
—Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903) English Clergyman, Writer
Every situation, every moment—is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
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
Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears; there is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death.
—Buddhist Teaching
Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
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
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Eternity is really long, especially near the end.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
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—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-American Philosopher, Poet, Sculptor
A human life is a schooling for eternity.
—Gottfried Keller (1819–1890) Swiss German-Language Novelist
What we call eternity may be but an endless series of the transitions which men call deaths, abandonments of home, going ever to fairer scenes and loftier heights.—Age after age, the spirit—that glorious nomad—may shift its tent, carrying with it evermore its elements, activity and desire.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Space is to place as eternity is to time.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
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