QuoteProject
We are swimming on the face of time and all else has drowned, is drowning, or will drown.
Henry Miller
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the transient nature of existence and the inevitability of time's passage.

Henry Miller's quote suggests that life is fleeting and ephemeral, much like swimming in water where everything around us succumbs to time. It highlights the frailty of human existence and the relentless flow of time, reminding us that while we may be navigating life, everything else inevitably fades away or is submerged by the relentless tide of time.

Themes

TimeTransienceExistenceEphemeralLife

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of living in the moment.

More from Henry Miller

Jump off. You are a protected individual. Do not fear.
Henry MillerRead
I saw through to the last sign and symbol, but I could not read her face. I could see only the eyes shining through, huge, fleshy-like luminous beasts, as though I were swimming behind them in the electric effluvia of her incandescent vision.
Henry MillerRead
The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Henry MillerRead
Great God! What have I turned into? What right have you people to clutter up my life, steal my time, probe my soul, suckle my thoughts, have me for your companion, confidant, and information bureau? What do you take me for? Am I an entertainer on salary, required every evening to play an intellectual farce under your stupid noses? Am I a slave, bought and paid for, to crawl on my belly in front of you idlers and lay at your feet all that I do and all that I know?
Henry MillerRead
To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Henry MillerRead
What are our conductors giving us year after year? Only fresh corpses. Over these beautifully embalmed sonatas, toccatas, symphonies and operas the public dance the jitterbug. Night and day without let the radio drowns us in a hog-wash of the most nauseating, sentimental ditties. From the churches comes the melancholy dirge of the dead Christ, a music which is no more sacred than a rotten turnip.
Henry MillerRead

Similar quotes

Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.
Coretta Scott KingRead
Indeed, the test of orderliness in a country is not the number of millionaires it owns, but the absence of starvation among its masses.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The Spirit is the first power we practically experience, but the last power we come to understand.
Oswald ChambersRead
So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.
Bah'U'LlhRead
We've become embarrassed about asking ourselves the straightforward, simple questions that are actually the most relevent: what is it to be human? How can we steer a course between self-indulgence and self-denial and be the very best version of ourselves that we can?
Bettany HughesRead
Emotional life is - alongside work - one of the great challenges of existence and is a theme that I keep returning to.
Alain De BottonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.