There are gods, but there is no God; and all gods become devils eventually.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
Here halt, I pray you, make a little stay. O wayfarer, to read what I have writ, And know by my fate what thy fate shall be. What thou art now, so shall thou be. The world's delight I followed with a heart Unsatisfied: ashes am I, and dust.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the transience of life and the inevitability of death.
In this quote, Alcuin invites the reader to pause and reflect on their own fate by sharing his own experiences. He laments the fleeting nature of worldly pleasures, suggesting that despite a life spent in pursuit of delight, he has ultimately found himself reduced to nothing but ashes and dust. This serves as a somber reminder of mortality and the importance of introspection.
Themes
MortalityTransienceReflectionFateLife'S Journey
In practice
Example use cases
In a eulogy to remind us all of the fragility of life.
Similar quotes
What can be said, lacks reality. Only what fails to make its way into words exists and counts.
Emile M. CioranRead
Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences. At the very simplest, it can be: 'He/she was born, lived, died.' Probably that is the template of our stories - a beginning, middle, and end. This structure is in our minds.
Doris LessingRead
The man who only loves beautiful things is dreaming, whereas the man who knows absolute beauty is wide awake.
Bertrand RussellRead
The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead