As the clockwork of the millennia moved a notch in front of their eyes, it had taken their thoughts from small things and reminded them of how vulnerable they were to time.
Mark HelprinRead
As long as you have life and breath, believe. Believe for those who cannot. Believe even if you have stopped believing. Believe for the sake of the dead, for love, to keep your heart beating, believe. Never give up, never despair, let no mystery confound you into the conclusion that mystery cannot be yours.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of belief in life and the value of holding onto hope for oneself and others.
Mark Helprin's quote serves as a powerful reminder to maintain belief and hope, not only for ourselves but also for those who can no longer do so. It suggests that belief is a vital force that keeps our hearts beating and encourages us to persevere through despair and mystery, reinforcing the notion that our convictions can transcend our own doubts and be a source of strength for others.
Themes
BeliefHopePerseveranceLifeMystery
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about resilience and hope.
More from Mark Helprin
All quotes →They're not just dreams. Not anymore, I dream more than I wake now, and, at times, I have crossed over. Can't you see? I've been there.
Mark HelprinRead
their powerlessness, innocence, and imagination fused to enable them to turn time inside out, travel on the wind, and enter the souls of animals.
Mark HelprinRead
You’ll join me sooner than you know in a place with . . . no illusions, where the truth is the only architecture, the only color, the only sound--where that which we sense merely on occasion, and which takes us up and gives us the rare and beautiful glimpses of the things we truly love, flows in deep rivers and tumbles about like clouds in the sky.
Mark HelprinRead
Perhaps things are most beautiful when they are not quite real; when you look upon a scene as an outsider, and come to possess it in its entirety and forever; when you live in the present with the lucidity and feeling of memory; when, for want of connection, the world deepens and becomes art.
Mark HelprinRead
The horse could not do without Manhattan. It drew him like a magnet, like a vacuum, like oats, or a mare, or an open, never-ending, tree-lined road.
Mark HelprinRead
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