Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.
Kenneth GrahameRead
But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, but can recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty in it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the fleeting nature of beauty and dreams, contrasting the comfort of dreams with the harsh realities of waking life.
In this quote, Kenneth Grahame captures the essence of how beautiful dreams can evoke strong emotions and memories that are often ephemeral. The character's moment of reflection highlights the struggle to hold onto the beauty and joy of these dreams, which ultimately fade away, leaving behind the stark realities of life and its inherent challenges. This poignant imagery illustrates the tension between the idealized world of dreams and the sometimes harsh truths we face upon waking.
Themes
DreamsBeautyRealityWakingLife
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a discussion on the importance of pursuing our dreams despite life's challenges.
More from Kenneth Grahame
All quotes →Take the adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes! 'Tis but a banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of your old life and into the new!
Kenneth GrahameRead
Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror - indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy - but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august presence was very, very near.
Kenneth GrahameRead
There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
Kenneth GrahameRead
Similar quotes
True Christian is not an angel; he is not a halfangelic being, in whom is no weakness, or blemish, or infirmity: he is nothing of the kind. He is nothing more than a sinner who has found out his sinfulness, and has learned the blessed secret of living by faith in Christ.
J. C. RyleRead
Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.
Peter KreeftRead
I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents, and then later on in our life when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on other's kindness, how can it be in the middle that we would neglect kindness towards others?
Dalai LamaRead
It was not a matter of believing or disbelieving what I read, but of feeling something new, of being affected by something that made the look of the world different.
Richard WrightRead
I'm bothered when people don't understand that they have an obligation to use their best measure of devotion, of resources, to sacrifice for the common good.
Cory BookerRead