quotations about eternity
Awful as the consideration of eternity is, it is a source of great consolation to the righteous.
CHARLES BUCK
The Works of the Rev. Charles Buck
How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Confessions
The blunder is to estimate,--
"Eternity is Then,"
We say, as of a station.
Meanwhile he is so near,
He joins me in my ramble,
Divides abode with me,
No friend have I that so persists
As this Eternity.
EMILY DICKINSON
"The blunder is to estimate"
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
T. S. ELIOT
"Burnt Norton", The Four Quartets
The moon
It wears the veils of
Eternity
SARAH BRIGHTMAN
"La Lune"
Shall not this bygone Eden that we knew
In our Eternal Life have shape and hue?
For where Time is not shall not all Time be?
In that calm breast whereto our souls are cleaving
Shall we not find our loved ones beyond grieving
About the hearth-stone of Eternity?
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
"Memory and Hope"
Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing.
THOMAS AQUINAS
attributed, Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom
The vanity which adheres to the world in every form, when its pleasures and occupations are regarded as ultimate objects, is at once corrected when they are viewed in connexion with a boundless futurity; and whatever may be their intrinsic value, they rise into dignity and importance when considered as the seed of a future harvest, as the path which, however obscure, leads to honour and immortality.
ROBERT HALL
funeral sermon for the Princess Charlotte of Wales
Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
JOSEPH ADDISON
Cato
Yet some there be that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key
That opes the palace of Eternity.
JOHN MILTON
Comus
The Present is the point at which time touches eternity.
C. S. LEWIS
The Screwtape Letters
Eternity is not an everlasting flux of time, but time is as a short parenthesis in a long period; and eternity had been the same as it is, though time had never been.
JOHN DONNE
Book of Devotions
Eternity is the lifetime of the Almighty.
J. E. BEAUMONT
"The Soul an Object of Benevolent Sympathy and Regard", The British Pulpit
In eternity there is no time, only an instant long enough for a joke.
HERMANN HESSE
Steppenwolf
Eternity! Ah! know you what it is! It is a timepiece, whose pendulum speaks, and incessantly repeats two words only, in the silence of the tomb--ever, never--never, ever--and forever.
JAMES BRIDAINE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Eternity is but time continued.
F. V. MOTHE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Life is short. Eternity is long.
BENTLEY LITTLE
His Father's Son
A thousand years ago five minutes were
Equal to forty ounces of fine sand.
Outstare the stars. Infinite foretime and
Infinite aftertime: above your head
They close like giant wings, and you are dead.
VLADIMIR NABOKOV
Pale Fire
Lord, since eternity is Thine, art Thou ignorant of what I say to Thee? or dost Thou see in time, what passeth in time? Why then do I lay in order before Thee so many relations? Not, of a truth, that Thou mightest learn them through me, but to stir up mine own and my readers' devotions towards Thee, that we may all say, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. I have said already; and again will say, for love of Thy love do I this. For we pray also, and yet Truth hath said, Your Father knoweth what you have need of, before you ask. It is then our affections which we lay open unto Thee, confessing our own miseries, and Thy mercies upon us, that Thou mayest free us wholly, since Thou hast begun, that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves, and be blessed in Thee; seeing Thou hast called us, to become poor in spirit, and meek, and mourners, and hungering and athirst after righteousness, and merciful, and pure in heart, and peace-makers. See, I have told Thee many things, as I could and as I would, because Thou first wouldest that I should confess unto Thee, my Lord God. For Thou art good, for Thy mercy endureth for ever.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Confessions
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity!
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden