“Man wants to own his existence. But no one owns time.”
Source: The Time Keeper
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Mitch Albom 289
American author 1958Related quotes
“Man exists in a world of his own creation.”
Lecture I. Introductory.
A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts (1836)
Context: Man exists in a world of his own creation. He cannot step, but on ground transformed by culture; nor look, but on objects produced by art. The animals which constitute his food are unknown to nature, while trees, fruits, and herbs, are the trophies of his labour. In himself nearly every natural impulse is suppressed as vicious, and every mortification solicited as a virtue. His language, actions, sentiments, and desires are nearly all factitious. Stupendous in achievement, he is boundless in attempt. Having subdued the earth's surface, he would explore its centre; having vanquished diseases, he would subdue death. Unsatisfied with recording the past, he would anticipate the future. Uncontented with subjugating the ocean, he would traverse the air. Success but sharpens his avidity, and facility but augments his impatience.
“Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the state.”
Journal, 328, Nov. 15, 1839, http://www.perfectidius.com/Volume_5_1838-1841.pdf
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)
Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 20, “The Otherwhere Marble” (p. 285)
Source: The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981), Chapter 18 (p. 168)
The Power of the Spirit (1898), edited by Andrew Murray, further edited by Dave Hunt (1971) Ch. 6 : The Church : A Habitation of the Spirit.
“All wars are civil ones; for it is still man spilling his own blood, tearing out his own bowels.”
Toutes les guerres sont civiles; car c'est toujours l'homme contre l'homme qui répand son propre sang, qui déchire ses propres entrailles.
Dialogues des morts, ch. 17, cited from De l'éducation des filles, Dialogues des morts et opuscules divers (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1857) p. 149; translation from Mr. Elphingston (trans.) Dialogues of the Dead, Together with Some Fable Composed for the Education of a Prince (Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1754) vol. 1, p. 87. (1700).
Henri Poincaré, Critic of Crisis: Reflections on His Universe of Discourse (1954), Ch. 2. The Age of Innocence
Volume 1 [Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1860] ( p. 336 https://books.google.com/books?id=rszxUvpszaMC&pg=PA336)
Also in The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins by Catherine Peters ( p. 224 https://books.google.com/books?id=T0AABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA224)
Source: The Woman in White (1859)