“The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today…The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow.”

—  George Macaulay Trevelyan

"Autobiography of an Historian", An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today…The poetry of history lies in the quasi-mir…" by George Macaulay Trevelyan?
George Macaulay Trevelyan photo
George Macaulay Trevelyan10
Historian 1876–1962

Related quotes

Euripidés photo

“Today's today. Tomorrow we may be
ourselves gone down the drain of Eternity.”

Euripidés Alcestis

Source: Alcestis (438 BC), l. 788

Joseph Campbell photo

“Centuries of husbandry, decades of diligent culling, the work of numerous hearts and hands, have gone into the hackling, sorting, and spinning of this tightly twisted yarn. Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

Joseph Campbell book The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Chapter 1

Dr. Seuss photo

“Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
Every day,
from here to there,
funny things are everywhere.”

Dr. Seuss book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960)
Variant: From there to here,
from here to there,
funny things are everywhere.
Source: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Aphra Behn photo

“Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow.”

Aphra Behn (1640–1689) British playwright, poet, translator and fiction writer

The Lucky Chance, Act IV (1686).

Joseph Campbell photo

“We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us — the labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Episode 1, Opening introduction voice-over
The Power of Myth (1988)

Clifford D. Simak photo

“We thought all the time that we were passing through time when we really weren’t, when we never have. We’ve just been moving along with time. We said, there’s another second gone, there’s another minute and another hour and another day, when, as a matter of fact the second or the minute or the hour was never gone. It was the same one all the time. It had just moved along and we had moved with it.”

Clifford D. Simak book City

Source: City (1952), Chapter 7, “Aesop” (p. 207)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Our sky has lost another star,
The earth has claimed its own,
And into dread eternity
A glorious one is gone.
He who could give departed things
So much of light and breath,
He is himself now with the past —
Gone forth from life to death.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

(29th September 1832) On the death of Sir Walter Scott
The London Literary Gazette, 1832

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Ah! it is well we can forget,
Or who could linger on
Beneath a sky whose stars are set,
On earth whose flowers are gone?
For who could welcome loved ones near,
Thinking of those once far more dear”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Sarah Dessen photo

“With my mom, when someone was gone, they were gone. She didn't waste another minute thinking about them, and neither should you.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Morarji Desai photo

“Is truth out of place today? Then we are gone. Will it ever be out of place? Is international politics based on convenience rather than ethics? That’s the malady of the world today. I tried to do things differently.”

Morarji Desai (1896–1995) Former Indian Finance Minister, Freedom Fighters, Former prime minister

Morarji Desai speaks about life and celibacy

Related topics