“All human things are subject to decay,
And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century
Source: Mac Flecknoe (1682), l. 1–2.
“All things are subject to decay and change.”
— Polybius, book The Histories
The General History of Polybius as translated by James Hampton' (1762), Vol. II, pp. 177-178
The Histories
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Polybius15
ancient Greek historian -208–-126 BCRelated quotes
Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism
Last words, as quoted in DN 16; Mahaparinibbana Sutta 6:8
Variant translations:
Mendicants, I now impress it upon you, the parts and powers of man must be dissolved; work out your own salvation with diligence.
As quoted in Present Day Tracts on the Non-Christian Religions of the World (1887) by Sir William Muir, p. 24
Now, then, monks, I exhort you: All fabrications are subject to decay. Bring about completion by being heedful.
translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!
translated by Sister Vajira & Francis Story
Unclassified
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician
Quarterly Review, 156, 1883, p. 570
1880s
“All things that have form eventually decay." -Orochimaru”
Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer
Cause, Principle, and Unity (1584)
Variant: Everything that makes diversity of kinds, of species. differences, properties, everything that consists in generation, decay, alteration and change, is not an entity, but condition and circumstances of entity and being, which is one, infinite, immobile, subject, matter, life, soul, truth and good.
“Many creatures go through a natural change and by decay pass into different forms, as bees [are formed] by the decaying flesh of calves, as beetles from horses, locusts from mules, scorpions from crabs.”
Siquidem et per naturam pleraque mutationem recipiunt, et corrupta in diversas species transformantur; sicut de vitulorum carnibus putridis apes, sicut de equis scarabei, de mulis locustae, de cancris scorpiones.
Isidore of Seville book Etymologiae
Bk. 11, ch. 4, sect. 3; p. 221.
Etymologiae
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France (23 January 1967), quoted in The New York Times (24 January 1967), p. 12.
Prime Minister
“Nothing lasts forever, few things even last for long: all are susceptible of decay in one way or another; moreover all that begins also ends.”
Nihil perpetuum, pauca diuturna sunt; aliud alio modo fragile est, rerum exitus variantur, ceterum quicquid coepit et desinit.
Seneca the Younger book To Polybius
From Ad Polybium De Consolatione (Of Consolation, To Polybius), chap. I; translation based on work of Aubrey Stewart
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