“Nothing lasts forever, few things even last for long: all are susceptible of decay in one way or another; moreover all that begins also ends.”

— Seneca the Younger, book To Polybius

From Ad Polybium De Consolatione (Of Consolation, To Polybius), chap. I; translation based on work of Aubrey Stewart
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Seneca the Younger225

Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist -4–65 BC

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Voces (1943)

“The truth is, some relationships are supposed to last forever, and some are only supposed to last a few days. That’s the way life is.”

Sophie Kinsella book Can You Keep a Secret?

Source: Can You Keep a Secret?

“I see only reminders that nothing lasts forever, not even greatness.”
“Some things last.”
I faced him. “Really? And just what would that be?”
“The things that matter.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Kiss of Deception

Source: The Kiss of Deception

“Evidently one cannot look for long at the Last Supper without ceasing to study it as a composition, and beginning to speak of it as a drama. It is the most literary of all great pictures, one of the few of which the effect may largely be conveyed — can even be enhanced — by description.”

Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) Art historian, broadcaster and museum director

Source: Leonardo da Vinci (1939), Ch. Five: 1485-1496

“Nothing lasts forever, not even the best machines. And everything can be reused.
- Hephaestus”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“Nothing lasts forever.”

Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007) American writer

“To die is to become like a child, at last one knows nothing, nothing of death and nothing of life, only that all distances are equally long and all words unintelligible but beautiful.”

Stig Dagerman book A Burnt Child

Source: A Burnt Child (1948), p. 251

“…even in the folly of youth we know that nothing lasts, but … even in that folly we are afraid that maybe Nothing will last, that maybe Nothing will last forever, and anything is better than Nothing.… So now, as another poet sings, That Fancy passed me by And nothing will remain; which, praise the gods, is a damned lie since, praise, O gods! Nothing cannot remain anywhere since nothing is vacuum and vacuum is paradox and unbearable and we will have nothing of it even if we would, the damned-fool poet's Nothing.”

William Faulkner book The Town

Gavin Stevens in Ch. 8
The two lines quoted — not altogether accurately — are from A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (1896), XVIII:<p>And now the fancy passes by
And nothing will remain.
The Town (1957)

“The life we’ve been leading couldn’t last forever. It’s a wonder it lasted as long as it did.”

Jack Vance book The Last Castle

Source: The Last Castle (1966), Chapter 2, section 1

“And you know, these things don't last forever.'

I know, Mandy. Nothing does.'

That's the spirit.”

Scott Westerfeld book So Yesterday

Source: So Yesterday

“Nothing lasts forever, few things even last for long: all are susceptible of decay in one way or another; moreover all that begins also ends.”

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Seneca the Younger225

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