“The poor old Past,
The Future's slave,
She drudged through pain and crime
To bring about the blissful Prime,
Then — perished. There's a grave!”

— Herman Melville

The Conflict of Convictions, st. 6
Battle Pieces: And Aspects of the War (1860)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 8, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The poor old Past, The Future's slave, She drudged through pain and crime To bring about the blissful Prime, Then —…" by Herman Melville?

Herman Melville 144

American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891

Related quotes

“From the first dawn of Life, unto the Grave,
Poor Womankind's in every State, a Slave.”

Sarah Egerton (1782–1847) English actress

Source: The Emulation http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/emulation (1703), Lines 3–4

“And I dream in the morning that she brings me water
And I dream in the evening that she brings me wine
Just a poor man's daughter from Puerta Piñasco
South of the border, in old Mexico.”

Hoyt Axton (1938–1999) American country singer

"Evangelina" on Fearless (1976) · Stage performance by Axton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O53wg24FAT0

“He was a man without a past, whose future was the imminent grave and whose present was a bitter fever of living.”

Jack London Martin Eden

Source: Martin Eden

“The past and present speak to the future. The future does not speak, but waits to see what we bring to it.”

Randolph Roque Calvo (1951) Catholic bishop

Bishop visits Virginia City to give homily at final St. Mary's Mass https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2008/sep/08/bishop-visits-virginia-city-to-give-homily-at-fina/ (September 8, 2008)

“Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VIII, 36
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Context: Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable to hold out against even this.

“No man, standing where the horizon of a life has touched a grave, has any right to prophesy a future filled with pain and tears.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Paraphrased variant: I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.
At A Child's Grave (1882)
Context: No man, standing where the horizon of a life has touched a grave, has any right to prophesy a future filled with pain and tears. It may be that death gives all there is of worth to life. If those we press and strain against our hearts could never die, perhaps that love would wither from the earth. Maybe this common fate treads from out the paths between our hearts the weeds of selfishness and hate, and I had rather live and love where death is king, than have eternal life where love is not.

“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again.”

H.P. Lovecraft book The Dunwich Horror

"The Dunwich Horror " - Written Summer 1928; first published in Weird Tales, 13, No. 4, (April 1929)
The Thing on the Doorstep (1937), first published in Weird Tales
Fiction
Context: Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.