“Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold…”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
Source: Mother of Storms (1994), p. 54
“Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold…”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
“When the center does not hold, the circle falls apart.”
Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…
This is a paraphrase of lines in "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats.
Misattributed
William Pfaff (1928–2015) American journalist
Source: Barbarian Sentiments - How The American Century Ends (1989), Chapter 2, The Challenge of Europe, p. 63.
“I told you before, we’re the center,” she said. “And the center will hold.”
Richelle Mead (1976) American writer
Source: The Ruby Circle
Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter
Quoted in Christopher Goodwin, "Get real – ageing’s not all Helen Mirren," Times Online (UK) (4 March 2007)
Dennis Kucinich (1946) Ohio politician
Quoted in Alyssa Kim, "Kucinich Campaigns for Peace," http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/08/kucinich-campai.html (August 12, 2007). Kucinich was speaking on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC News (August 12, 2007)
“Stories are at the absolute center of human existence.”
Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books
Alan Moore on Anarchism (2009)
Context: Stories are at the absolute center of human existence. Sometimes to disastrous effect; if you think about how various ancient religious stories — that may have been intended at the time as no more than fables — have led to so many devastating wars up to and including the present day. Obviously there are some occasions when the fictions that we base our lives upon lead us into some terrifying territory.