“To-day alone was real. Never was man brought into contact with reality save through the evanescent emotions and sensations of that single moment, that infinitesimal fraction of a second, which was passing now — and it was in the insignificance of this moment, precisely, that religious persons must believe.”
Source: The Cream of the Jest (1917), Ch. 26 : "Epper Si Muove"
Context: To-day alone was real. Never was man brought into contact with reality save through the evanescent emotions and sensations of that single moment, that infinitesimal fraction of a second, which was passing now — and it was in the insignificance of this moment, precisely, that religious persons must believe. So ran the teachings of all dead and lingering faiths alike. Here was, perhaps, only another instance of mankind's abhorrence of actualities; and man's quaint dislike of facing reality was here disguised as a high moral principle. That was why all art, which strove to make the sensations of a moment soul-satisfying, was dimly felt to be irreligious. For art performed what religion only promised.
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James Branch Cabell 130
American author 1879–1958Related quotes
“It is anticipation and recollection that fill the heart—never the sensation of the moment.”
Source: Threshold
“But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.”
“You are the emotion of life that is renewed every moment to your thought alone.”
Original: (it) Sei l'emozione della vita che si rinnova ogni istante al solo tuo pensiero.
Source: prevale.net
Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Human Immortality: its Positive Argument, p.297
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