How small life is here and how big nothingness. The sky, tired of light, has given everything to the snow. The two trees bow their heads to each other. Clouds cross the world’s silence in a circle dance
Robert WalserRead
I don't want a future, I want a present. To me this appears of greater value. You have a future only when you have no present, and when you have a present, you forget to even think about the future.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of living in the present moment rather than fixating on the future.
In this quote, Robert Walser highlights the value of experiencing the present fully. He suggests that when one is deeply engaged in the now, thoughts of the future become secondary, and this dynamic creates a sense of fulfillment that an uncertain future cannot offer. Walser's perspective encourages us to prioritize our current experiences and appreciate life's immediate moments.
Themes
PresentValueLifeFutureExperience
In practice
Example use cases
During a mindfulness workshop, this quote can remind participants to focus on their current sensations and thoughts.
More from Robert Walser
All quotes →I am not here [in the sanitarium] to write, but to be mad.
Robert WalserRead
The novel I am constantly writing is always the same one, and it might be described as a variously sliced-up or torn-apart book of myself.
Robert WalserRead
Similar quotes
Violence is a symptom of impotence.
Anais NinRead
We want a world where life is preserved, and the quality of life is enriched for everybody, not only for the privileged.
Isabel AllendeRead
I've got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.
Louisa May AlcottRead
I understand that you take the Bible, as written in English, translated many many times over the last three millennia as to be a more accurate, more reasonable assessment of the natural laws we see around us than what I and everybody in here can observe. That, to me, is unsettling.
Bill NyeRead
Does the open wound in another's breast soften the pain of the gaping wound in our own? Or does the blood which is welling from another man's side staunch that which is pouring from our own? Does the general anguish of our fellow creatures lessen our own private and particular anguish? No, no, each suffers on his own account, each struggles with his own grief, each sheds his own tears.
Alexandre DumasRead
Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.
George MasonRead