Quotes about eternity (2355 quotes, page 24)

“Cause, Principle, and One eternal
From whom being, life, and movement are suspended,
And which extends itself in length, breadth, and depth,
To whatever is in Heaven, on Earth, and Hell;
With sense, with reason, with mind, I discern,
That there is no act, measure, nor calculation, which can comprehend
That force, that vastness and that number,
Which exceeds whatever is inferior, middle, and highest;
Blind error, avaricious time, adverse fortune,
Deaf envy, vile madness, jealous iniquity,
Crude heart, perverse spirit, insane audacity,
Will not be sufficient to obscure the air for me,
Will not place the veil before my eyes,
Will never bring it about that I shall not
Contemplate my beautiful Sun.”

Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer

"Of Love" as translated in The Infinite in Giordano Bruno : With a Translation of His Dialogue, Concerning the Cause, Principle, and One (1978) by Sidney Thomas Greenburg, p. 89
Variant translation:
<p>Cause, Principle and One, the Sempiterne,
On whom all being, motion, life, depend.
From whom, in length, breadth, depth, their paths extend
As far as heaven, earth, hell their faces turn :
With sense, with mind, with reason, I discern
That not, rule, reckoning, may not comprehend
That power and bulk and multitude which tend
Beyond all lower, middle, and superne.</p><p> Blind error, ruthless time, ungentle doom,
Deaf envy, villain madness, zeal unwise,
Hard heart, unholy craft, bold deeds begun,
Shall never fill for one the air with gloom,
Or ever thrust a veil before these eyes,
Or ever hide from me my glorious sun.</p>
As quoted in "Giordano Bruno" by Thomas Davidson, The Index Vol. VI. No. 36 (4 March 1886), p. 429
Cause, Principle, and Unity (1584)

Life , Hell , Time , Sun

“Initiation leads to the mount whence vision can be had, a vision of the eternal Now, wherein past, present, and future exist as one.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Initiation, Human and Solar (1922), p. 13

Past , Future

“According to tradition, the Blessed One preordained the Bodhisattva Maitreya as his successor. “And the Blessed One said to Ananda, ‘I am not the first Buddha who has come upon Earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time another Buddha will arise in the world, a Holy One, a supremely enlightened One, endowed with wisdom in conduct, embracing the Universe, an incomparable leader of men, a ruler of devas and mortals. He will reveal to you the same eternal truths, that I have taught you. He will establish his Law, glorious in its origin, glorious at the climax, and glorious at the goal, in the spirit and in the letter. He will proclaim a righteous life, wholly perfect and pure, such as I now proclaim. His disciples will number many thousands while mine number many hundreds.’ “Ananda said, ‘How shall we know him?’ “The Blessed One said, ‘He will be known as Maitreya!’ ”  (Paul Carus, The Gospel of Buddha) The future Buddha, Maitreya, as his name indicates, is the Buddha of compassion and love. This Bodhisattva, according to the power of his qualities, is often called Ajita—the Invincible.”

Helena Roerich (1879–1955) Russian philosopher

Source: Foundations of Buddhism (1930)

Time , Law , Future , Perfection

“She is all peace, all quiet,
All passionate desires, the eloquent thunder
Of new, glad suns, shouting aloud for joy,
Over fresh worlds and clean, trampling the air
Like stooping hawks, to the long wind of horns,
Flung from the bastions of Eternity...
And she is the low lake, drowsy and gentle,
And good words spoken from the tongues of friends,
And calmness in the evening, and deep thoughts,
Falling like dreams from the stars' solemn mouths.
All these.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Lover in Hell

Peace , Sun , Star , Dreams

“I stumbled, slipped... and all was gone
That I had gained. Once more I lay
Before the long bright Hell of ice.
And still the light was far away.
There was red mist before my eyes
Or I could tell you how I went
Across the swaying firmament,
A glittering torture of cold stars,
And how I fought in Titan wars...
And died... and lived again upon
The rack... and how the horses strain
When their red task is nearly done. . .
I only know that there was Pain,
Infinite and eternal Pain.
And that I fell — and rose again.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Pain , Hell , Light , War

“It is not given me to trace
The lovely laughter of that face,
Like a clear brook most full of light,
Or olives swaying on a height,
So silver they have wings, almost;
Like a great word once known and lost
And meaning all things. Nor her voice
A happy sound where larks rejoice,
Her body, that great loveliness,
The tender fashion of her dress,
I may not paint them.
These I see,
Blazing through all eternity,
A fire-winged sign, a glorious tree!”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Tree , Painting , Love , Light

“May you be able to overclimb the obstacles custom, tradition, thoughtlessness, and habit have built up; may even such poor words as mine win you to the realization that there is no joy in life like the joy of discipleship, no so-called sacrifice that can be made which is not as the dross cast into the fire where gold comes out instead; oh! that in the hearts of even a few of you — one here and there scattered through this vast audience — the feeble words may light the eternal flame, and the passing movement caused by speech may grow into resolute will and a determined endeavor. Oh, then for you, too, in the near future there awaits the Finding of the Master, for you also who seek shall find; if you knock with the hammer of these Qualifications, surely the door shall swing open before you, that you may find Him, as I have been blessed enough to find Him, that you may know that service which is perfect freedom, that joy which is in the presence of the Master.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man, 1923, p. 83

Freedom , Light , Future , Heart

“It is the Path by which, to use a simile often used, instead of going round and round the mountain by an ever-climbing spiral, man climbs straight up the mountainside regardless of cliff and precipice, regardless of gulf and chasm, knowing there is nothing that can stop the Eternal Spirit, and that no obstacle is stronger than the strength that is omnipotence, because it has its source in Omnipotence itself.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man (1923)

Mountain

“The faith commended to their faithful by all religions, and considered by them as a virtue essential for him who hopes for eternal salvation, is nowise approved in the Secret Teachings. Based on the advice given by the Buddha to His disciples, the primary recommendation that the Masters give to neophytes is: Doubt! Doubt is an incitement to research, and research is the Way which leads to Knowledge.”

Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist and writer

Source: The Secret Oral Teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist Sects (1964)

Faith , Religion , Hope , Knowledge

“A civilization of life is one that embraces life, caring for families, supporting children and the elderly. A civilization of death authorizes the killing of unborn human beings, condones the killing of the elderly and encourages people to live only in their own interest. A culture of life is the one with eternal and timeless values.”

Don Feder (1946) writer; Media consultant

Is Formal Marriage Out of Fashion? Interview with Communications Director of the World Congress of Families Don Feder https://youth-time.eu/don-feder-communications-director-of-the-world-congress-of-families/ (November 15, 2014)

Family , Support , Children , People

“...the great Book of Genesis—a marvellous cup filled with the “wine” of the esoteric knowledge of the Sanctuaries of ancient days. Temples of the Ageless Wisdom exist to-day, even if less easily discoverable, and in them are to be found the selfsame teachings, laws, successions, Initiations and radiations of the light of Truth. World changes are not reflected in the Mysteries, which are repositories and conveyors of eternal and unchanging Ideas. A sack of corn containing a silver cup awaits every Benjamin who finds himself called by a Hierophant (Joseph) from the “famine-stricken” outer world to the “storehouse” from which an elder brother (a Master) Who has already attained will, in prodigal abundance, supply a gift of the golden grain of eternal verities.”

Geoffrey Hodson (1886–1983) New Zealand occultist

The Hidden Wisdom In The Holy Bible (1963), Volume III

Law , Success , Light , Knowledge

“For it may be very plausibly urged on their behalf, that it is impossible to extinguish evil until the origin thereof has been discovered and destroyed. This great river of human Time (rivers were expressly created to feed metaphors, allegories, and navigable canals) which comes flowing down thick with filth and blood from the immemorial past surely cannot be thoroughly cleansed by any purifying process applied to it here in the present for the pollution, if not in its very source (supposing it has a source), or deriving from unimaginable remotenesses of eternity indefinitely beyond its source, at any rate interfused with it countless ages back, and is perennial as the river itself. This immense poison-tree of Life, with its leaves of illusion, blossoms of delirium, apples of destruction, surely cannot be made wholesome and sweet by anything we may do to the branchlets and twigs on which, poor insects, we find ourselves crawling, or to the leaves and fruit on which we must fain feed; for the venom is drawn up in the sap by the taproots plunged in abysmal depths of the past. This toppling and sinking house wherein we dwell cannot be firmly re-established, save by re-establishing from its lowest foundation upwards.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

"The Speedy Extinction of Evil and Misery", part VIII, pp. 93–94
Essays and Phantasies (1881)

Tree , Time , Housing , Past

“Speech is silvern, Silence is golden; or, as I might rather express it: speech is of time, silence is of eternity.”

Thomas Carlyle book Sartor Resartus

As the Swiss inscription says: Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden
Bk. III, ch. 3.
1830s, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834)

Silence , Time

“Sentiment changes. Truth is eternal.”

Liu Yiming

Truth , Change

“Silence is deep as Eternity, Speech is shallow as Time.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Time , Silence , Deep

“Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

Pain , Sun , Knowledge , Wisdom

“And when the world is created, it is created in such a way that those eternal objects of God's loving wisdom become actualities - interacting with one another, relating to God in the finite realm.”

Rowan Williams (1950) Archbishop of Canterbury (2002–2012)

God , World , Way , Love

“The sacred introduces a quality of the absolute into relativities and confers on perishable things a texture of eternity.”

Frithjof Schuon book Understanding Islam

[1998, Understanding Islam, World Wisdom, 45, 0-941532-24-0]
Spiritual life, Sense of the sacred

“I am sure I speak for all my sisters when I say that we prefer to be known as directors, not just as women directors. To the eternal question that I am plagued with — what is the main disadvantage of being a woman director — my answer is: being endlessly harangued with this very question”

Sai Paranjpye (1938) Indian film director

FirstPost article by Chintan Girish Modi - Originally an excerpt from Sai Paranjpye's English Autobiography titled "A Patchwork Quilt: A Collage of My Creative Life", published by HarperCollins India - In A Patchwork Quilt, renowned filmmaker Sai Paranjpye reflects on her creative practice, flaws, and failures https://www.firstpost.com/art-and-culture/in-a-patchwork-quilt-renowned-filmmaker-sai-paranjpye-reflects-on-her-creative-practice-flaws-and-failures-9087461.html - 8 December 2020 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210901095737/https://www.firstpost.com/art-and-culture/in-a-patchwork-quilt-renowned-filmmaker-sai-paranjpye-reflects-on-her-creative-practice-flaws-and-failures-9087461.html
Quotes from Sai Paranjpye

Question , Sister , Women

“The confirmation of the Republic has been my object; and I know that the Republic can be established only on the eternal basis of morality.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Last Speech to the National Convention (26 July 1794)

“Apply yourself fully to the introspection offered here. It is good for all seekers... This self-inquiry is your internal work. Internal work – eternal satisfaction. Internal work revealing timeless Self.”

Mooji (1954) Jamaican spiritual teacher

Greater than Sky, Vaster than Space, (2018), Part I

“Though it seemed so beautiful, the world around us was eternally dangerous. The price of spiritual freedom, we learnt, was eternal vigilance. Such a high price for so long.”

Tim Winton book The Turning

Short story, 'Damaged Goods' - p.60
Short stories, The Turning (2004)

Freedom , Beauty , World

“The purpose of meditation is not to calm the mind. It's all about controlling your thoughts and emotions. Familiarise yourself with good and evil, the shortest path to eternal wisdom.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Wisdom , Evil

“It is up to us Christians to announce that man needs God to have meaning for his life and for eternal life, without the illumination that comes from the cross of Christ, we would not be able to resolve the inner issues of our hearts.”

Orani João Tempesta (1950) Cistercian abbot, archbishop and cardinal

Cardinal consecrates Brazil to Immaculate Heart of Mary https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/44530/cardinal-consecrates-brazil-to-immaculate-heart-of-mary (May 14, 2020)

God , Heart , Christ , Life

“Truth, high-seated upon its rock of adamant, is alone eternal and supreme.”

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky book Isis Unveiled

Isis Unveiled (1877), Vol. I Preface

Truth

“Father is eternally tragic.”

Sakutarō Hagiwara (1886–1942) Japanese writer

"Father"
Cat Town (2014), Other Poems and Prose Poems

“If I were a metaphor I'd be a truth. I am invincible, I am never defeated. I am immortal, I never die, I'm invisible, nobody can cut me, I am for eternity, I have no end, I am a stone's line, no one can erase me, the time can change, but i never change, I'm the truth, no one can deny me.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Truth , Change , Time

“Philosophy can never reconcile itself with science. Science aims at self-evident truths and finds in them that "natural necessity" which, after having proclaimed itself for ever eternal, claims to serve as the foundation of all knowledge and strives to rule over all wanton "suddenly."”

Lev Shestov (1866–1938) Russian theologian

But philosophy has always been, and will always be, a fight with and a conquest of self-evident truths; philosophy is not looking for any "natural necessity", it sees in naturalness and in necessity alike an evil magic, which, if one cannot quite shake it off (for in this no mortal has ever yet succeeded), yet one must at least call by its right name; and even this is an important step! p. 342
Source: In Job's Balances: on the sources of the eternal truths, Words That Are Swallowed Up - Plotinus's Ecstasies

Truth , Science , Nature , Knowledge

“Prudishness is pretense of innocence without innocence. Women have to remain prudish as long as men are sentimental, dense, and evil enough to demand of them eternal innocence and lack of education. For innocence is the only thing which can ennoble lack of education.”

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) German poet, critic and scholar

Athenäum (1798 - 1800)
Source: “Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #31

Women , Evil , Education , Men

“Dur home, a pale blue dot in the vastness of univers s untouched heauty. a tiny, spherical World, afloat in a immensity of space and time. Here for amoment. and then we're leaving for the eternity. In the school of mortality we learn to accobat over the abyss. Alexis karpouzos”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://gr.pinterest.com/pin/688628599258307225/

School , Home , Time , Learning

“We find ourselves in a time of global uncertainty and in such a time are called to offer the common man Christian hope, perspective for the future and faith in eternity. The people of today actually hunger the most for God. They seek solace in various surrogates and, therefore, experience disappointment. Nothing can give man meaning and peace except God. The Church should open its doors to all people. We Greek Catholics, with our mystical spirituality, ecclesiastical tradition and the wealth of our liturgy, can and should offer the living Christ, his joy, love, forgiveness and hope to the people around us in our own characteristic way. With great hope, I look toward the future of our Eparchy of Križevci and anticipate days of spiritual revival. Whoever truly wants to follow Christ will inevitably encounter resistance and persecution from the world. However, let us not lose hope. With God we are always in the majority and always on the winning side. May our many holy ancestors be our role models and support us on this path.”

Milan Stipić (1978) Croatian Greek-Catholic bishop

Source: The Episcopal Ordination of Msgr. Milan Stipić as the Bishop of Križevci https://ika.hkm.hr/english/the-episcopal-ordination-of-msgr-milan-stipic-as-the-bishop-of-krizevci/ (October 2020)

Wealth , Love , Hunger , God

“Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide,
Like all created things, secrets from me,
And stand a barrier to eternity.”

Alice Meynell (1847–1922) English publisher, editor, writer, poet, activist

Source: Preludes (1875), "To a Daisy", p. 70

Art , Secret

“Why from the plain truth should I shrink?
In woods men feel; in towns they think.
Yet, which is best? Thought, stumbling, plods
Past fallen temples, vanished gods,
Altars unincensed, fanes undecked,
Eternal systems flown or wrecked;
Through trackless centuries that grant
To the poor trudge refreshment scant,
Age after age, pants on to find
A melting mirage of the mind.
But feeling never wanders far,
Content to fare with things that are.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: At the Gate of the Convent (1885), "A Defence of English Spring", p. 58.

God , Truth , Age , Past

“The spirit of our age is Democracy. All for the people, and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people… My nation will rise, called to resurrection by the eternal principles of the law of nature and of nature’s God. It will not lie in the grave longer than the holy number three, and will require your magnanimity by becoming the corner-stone of national independence on the European Continent.”

Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894) Hungarian politician

Source: In front of Ohio's legislators on 7 february, 1852.

Democracy , God , People , Lie

“The great disease of mankind is ignorance.
With knowledge you can grasp tight a belief: that you can be better, that the world can be better. With that, you can claim hope.
Hope is the eternal tool in the survival kit for mankind. We hope for a little luck, we hope for a better tomorrow, we hope — although it is an impossible hope — to somehow get out of this world alive.
And if we can't and don't, then it is enough to rejoice in our short time here and to remember how much we loved the view.”

Sidney Poitier (1927) American-born Bahamian actor, film director, author, and diplomat

Source: Life Beyond Measure (2008), twenty-third letter — The World I Leave You, p. 273

World , Disease , Time , Hope

“Experiencing oneself as Life does is to enjoy oneself [jouir de soi]. Enjoyment does not presuppose any differences similar to those in which the world is born: it is homogeneous phenomenological material, a monolithic affective body whose phenomenality is affectivity as such. The self-revelation of Life is not a formal structure that can be conceived on the basis of “outside oneself” and in terms of its own structures, since these are bypassed, overcome while being maintained in this very bypassing. The self-revelation of life is its enjoyment, the primordial self-enjoyment that defines the essence of Living and thus of God himself. According to Christianity, God is Love. Love is nothing other than the self-revelation of God understood as in its pathetic phenomenological essence, specifically, the self-enjoyment of absolute Life. This is why the Love of God is the infinite love in which he eternally loves himself, and the revelation of God is none other than this Love.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 30

Love , Life , God , World

“People did not always love the mountains. Just a few hundred years ago the high mountains were regarded as horrible, monstrous places filling people with terror and fear. The inhabitants near them were seen as awful demons, subhumans. But this attitude got transformed into just the opposite, especially by Romantic writers and painters in the nineteenth century. Seen by the Romantics, high mountains became places of impossible beauty, where the quality of light and the expansive solitary grandeur of the high peaks opened the heart of the individual. A man climbing a mountain became the image of self-conscious intelligence pitted against the eternal indifference of the forces of nature. Compared to these forces of nature, we are nothing save for the will that moves our limbs. Only that will is truly our own.”

Heinz R. Pagels (1939–1988) American physicist

Source: The Cosmic Code (1982), p. 271-272

Mountain , Intelligence , Indifference , Nature

“The Church must always be popular. It is about the person and his relationship with God. The church that is financially well off can forget its content. We are nothing without the people. What is important is that the people connect with their God, and with the Eternal Word of the Father, who became man and walked with us. Now it is us who are trying to walk with him.”

Josu Iriondo (1938) Catholic bishop

Source: For Latin Immigrants, Church Is Home, Says Auxiliary of New York https://zenit.org/2003/11/05/for-latin-immigrants-church-is-home-says-auxiliary-of-new-york/ (5 November 2003)

God , Personality , People , Forgetting

“Oh, I cannot tell you how the notion of eternity bores me—not to mention all the silly stories we are always making up to render the idea palatable!”

Samuel R. Delany book They Fly at Çiron

Source: They Fly at Çiron (1993), Chapter 7 (p. 202)

Idea

“I want the money, the women, the fortune and fame
That means I end up burnin' in Hell, scorchin' in flame
That means I'm stealin' your checkbook and forgin' your name
This lifetime bliss for eternal torture and pain”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Rock Bottom"
1990s, The Slim Shady LP (1999)

Money , Pain , Hell , Women

“Heaven is a Christian-free eternity.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“Eternal vigilance. Remember, no one said democracy would be easy.”

John Dean (1938) American lawyer, politician

Source: Authoritarian Nightmare (2020), p. 282

Democracy

“Our culture idolizes athletes, and God has really blessed my career. But at the end of the day, you want something that's eternal. We were made for so much more than fame or power, and coming to that realization has really made me say, "God, you know that’s best for me and that's what I want, too."”

Christina Wirth (1987) American basketball player

Friendship, Faith and Free Throws: Two professional basketball players to become full-time Catholic missionaries http://site.focus.org/news-for-you/february/friendship-faith-freethrows.html (2013)

God

“Nothing can exist without ceasing to exist as the present exists only once in a lifetime.
The essence of life is the eternity of change experienced, perceived and affected by and from the consciousness of matter transpiring from the energy of life’s creations directed towards its true love(desires)”

Boukabyegga

Change , Love , Life