
As quoted in Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, Ch. 1
Attributed
Source: The Lion in Winter
As quoted in Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, Ch. 1
Attributed
Confucius, as quoted in Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, Ch. 1
Misattributed
Source: The Analects, Chapter II
1970's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970 - 1972)
Vol. XI, p. 288
Posthumous publications, The Collected Works
Context: We know only fragmentarily this extraordinary thing called life; we have never looked at sorrow, except through the screen of escapes; we have never seen the beauty, the immensity of death, and we know it only through fear and sadness. There can be understanding of life, and of the significance and beauty of death, only when the mind on the instant perceives “what is”. You know, sirs, although we differentiate them, love, death, and sorrow are all the same; because, surely, love, death, and sorrow are the unknowable. The moment you know love, you have ceased to love. Love is beyond time; it has no beginning and no end, whereas knowledge has; and when you say, “I know what love is”, you don’t. You know only a sensation, a stimulus. You know the reaction to love, but that reaction is not love. In the same way, you don’t know what death is. You know only the reactions to death, and you will discover the full depth and significance of death only when the reactions have ceased.
The Masque of Balliol http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2735.html (1880)
The Fourfold Treasure (1871) No. 991 http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0991.htm
Source: Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom