quotations about eternity
Eternity is a good man's meditation; for by thinking thereon he preventeth sin.
ST. BASIL
attributed, Day's Collacon
Minutes are sometimes like eternities if they are let go.
STEPHEN GRAFF
River Dawn
Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
JOSEPH ADDISON
Cato
Can eternity belong to me,
Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour?
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing.
THOMAS AQUINAS
attributed, Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom
The moon
It wears the veils of
Eternity
SARAH BRIGHTMAN
"La Lune"
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! 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
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"
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
Eternity is but time continued.
F. V. MOTHE
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
The Present is the point at which time touches eternity.
C. S. LEWIS
The Screwtape Letters
This world which stretches out before you, is but the vestibule of an immortal life. These deeds that are taking place around you, touch upon chords that extend by a thousand connections, visible and invisible, and vibrate in eternity.
EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN
Duties of Young Men
Eternity is the lifetime of the Almighty.
J. E. BEAUMONT
"The Soul an Object of Benevolent Sympathy and Regard", The British Pulpit
Every situation, every moment -- is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret
In eternity there is no time, only an instant long enough for a joke.
HERMANN HESSE
Steppenwolf
Eternity! Didn't it give you the cold shivers?
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Summer and Smoke
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
Life is short. Eternity is long.
BENTLEY LITTLE
His Father's Son