
“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”
In the Belly of the Beast (1981)
“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”
“Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there 's nothing but illusion true!”
"The Old Player" (1861), in Songs in Many Keys (1862).
Context: Dream on! Though Heaven may woo our open eyes,
Through their closed lids we look on fairer skies;
Truth is for other worlds, and hope for this;
The cheating future lends the present's bliss;
Life is a running shade, with fettered hands,
That chases phantoms over shifting sands;
Death a still spectre on a marble seat,
With ever clutching palms and shackled feet;
The airy shapes that mock life's slender chain,
The flying joys he strives to clasp in vain,
Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there 's nothing but illusion true!
Enlightenment
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)
“Soon there'll be nothing left of me
Nothing left to release”
"Bring Me the Disco King"
Song lyrics, Reality (2003)
“Life is a space between two illusions: Birth and Death…”
ESOF (2010).
“But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. ”
1:73
"Quotes", Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2002)
“For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion.”
Introduction to Ward's English Poets (1880)
Context: For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry.