“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really.”

— Paul Bowles, book The Sheltering Sky

The quote "Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well.…" is famous quote by Paul Bowles (1910–1999), American composer, writer, translator.

The Sheltering Sky (1949)
Context: Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 20, 2023. History

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Paul Bowles22

American composer, writer, translator 1910–1999

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