# Quotes about eternity - Quotes: 22 - Authors: 21 - Broader topic: [Quotes about time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.json ## Quotes > The first eternity we encounter is that of rocks, of the swooping contour of the plains, of the skylines: all that is resistant, unchanging. ... You are facing a mountain, walking among great trees, and you think: they are just there. They are there, they didn’t expect me, they were always there. They were there long before me and they will still be there long after me. [Frederic Gros](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederic-gros.md) · [A Philosophy of Walking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederic-gros/a-philosophy-of-walking.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederic-gros/a-philosophy-of-walking/the-first-eternity.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no limits. [Ludwig Wittgenstein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludwig-wittgenstein.md) · [Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludwig-wittgenstein/tractatus-logico-philosophicus.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludwig-wittgenstein/tractatus-logico-philosophicus/death-is-not.md) Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > In the Gnostic formula it is understood that, though thrown into temporality, we had an origin in eternity, and so also we have an aim in eternity. [Hans Jonas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hans-jonas.md) · [The Gnostic Religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hans-jonas/the-gnostic-religion.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hans-jonas/the-gnostic-religion/in-the-gnostic.md) Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > Before my birth there was infinite time, and after my death, inexhaustible time. I never thought of it before: I'd been living luminously between two eternities of darkness. [Orhan Pamuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orhan-pamuk.md) · [My Name Is Red](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orhan-pamuk/my-name-is-red.md) · p. 3 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orhan-pamuk/my-name-is-red/before-my-birth.md) Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > “The point is: what happens in heaven?” > > “Unknowable wonderfulness?” > > “Nonsense. The answer is nothing. Nothing can happen because if something happens, in fact if something can happen, then it doesn’t represent eternity. Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change.” > > “Have you always thought that?” > > If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual’s circumstances—and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse—then you don’t have life after death; you just have death.” > > “There are those who believe that after death the soul is recreated into another being.” > > “That is conservative and a little stupid, certainly, but not actually idiotic.” > > “And there are those who believe that, upon death, the soul is allowed to create its own universe.” > > “Monomaniacal and laughable as well as provably wrong.” > > “There there are those who believe that the soul—” > > “Well, there are all sorts of different beliefs. However, the ones that interest me are those concerning the idea of heaven. That’s the idiocy it annoys me that others cannot see.” [Iain M. Banks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks.md) · [Look To Windward](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/look-to-windward.md) · p. 229 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/look-to-windward/the-point-is-what.md) Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradise.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > There are people in every age who come early or late to a sense of the futility of the world. Some people, such as the monks of the desert, flee the entanglements of the world to rush toward eternity. But even for those who remain in the world, the approach of eternity is implacable. “The glacier knocks in the cupboard, / The desert sighs in the bed,” was W. H. Auden’s mock-prophetic forecast. He meant the desert is incipient in the human condition. Time melts away from us. Even in luxuriant weather, even in luxuriant wealth, even in luxuriant youth, we know our bodies will fail; our buildings will fall to ruin. [Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Darling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/there-are-people.md) Topics: [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity. [Paulo Coelho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho.md) · [The Alchemist](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist/each-day-in-itself.md) Topics: [the present](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > Yea, all things live for ever, though at times they sleep and are forgotten. [Henry Rider Haggard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-rider-haggard.md) · [She](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-rider-haggard/she.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-rider-haggard/she/yea-all-things.md) Topics: [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > "When we sleep," Merryn told me, "we move from temporality to eternity." > > "When we wake," the Cumaean whispered, "we lose the facility to see beyond the present moment." [Gene Wolfe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe.md) · [The Citadel of the Autarch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-citadel-of-the-autarch.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-citadel-of-the-autarch/when-we-sleep.md) Topics: [sleep](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sleep.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > 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](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany.md) · [They Fly at Ciron](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/they-fly-at-ciron.md) · p. 202 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/they-fly-at-ciron/oh-i-cannot.md) Topics: [boredom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > I didn't know the full dimensions of forever, but I knew it was longer than waiting for Christmas to come. [Richard Brautigan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-brautigan.md) · [So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-brautigan/so-the-wind-wont-blow-it-all-away.md) · p. 38 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-brautigan/so-the-wind-wont-blow-it-all-away/i-didnt-know.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > Through such impressions one gathers oneself, wins oneself back from the exacting multiplicity, which speaks and chatters there (and how talkative it is!), and one slowly learns to recognize the very few Things in which something eternal endures that one can love and something solitary that one can gently take part in. [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke.md) · [Letters to a Young Poet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet/through-such-impressions.md) Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > Campbell: Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. There's a wonderful formula that the Buddhists have for the Bodhisattva, the one whose being (sattva) is illumination (bodhi), who realizes his identity with eternity and at the same time his participation in time. And the attitude is not to withdraw from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but to realize that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder and to come back and participate in it. "All life is sorrowful" is the first Buddhist saying, and it is. It wouldn't be life if there were not temporality involved which is sorrow. Loss, loss, loss. > > Moyers: That's a pessimistic note. > > Campbell: Well, you have to say yes to it, you have to say it's great this way. It's the way God intended it. [Joseph Campbell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell.md) · [The Power of Myth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth/campbell-eternity-isnt.md) Topics: [the present moment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > For modern man one of the most troubling aspects of eternity lies in getting used to the slippery quality of time. With no clocks and no calendars and lacking even the alternation of day and night, or the phases of the moon, or the pageant of seasons, duration becomes subjective and "What time is it?" is a matter of opinion, not of fact. [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Job: A Comedy of Justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice.md) · p. 367 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice/for-modern-man.md) Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > “I can imagine nothing more terrifying than an Eternity filled with men who were all the same. The only thing which has made life bearable…has been the diversity of creatures on the surface of the globe.” [T. H. White](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white.md) · [The Book of Merlyn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-book-of-merlyn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-book-of-merlyn/i-can-imagine.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > “Just remember: If one bird carried every grain of sand, grain by grain, across the ocean, by the time he got them all on the other side, that would only be the beginning of eternity.” [Truman Capote](https://www.leafyquotes.com/truman-capote.md) · [In Cold Blood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/truman-capote/in-cold-blood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/truman-capote/in-cold-blood/just-remember-if-one.md) Topics: [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > “To be born,” they say, “is a felony--it is a capital crime, for which sentence may be executed at any moment after the commission of the offence. You may perhaps happen to live for some seventy or eighty years, but what is that, compared with the eternity you now enjoy? And even though the sentence were commuted, and you were allowed to live on for ever, you would in time become so terribly weary of life that execution would be the greatest mercy to you. [Samuel Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler.md) · [Erewhon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler/erewhon.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler/erewhon/to-be-born.md) Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [birth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > When I think that it is he that gives life and movement to the living and moving substance which controls all living bodies; when I hear it said that my soul is spiritual and that God is a spirit, I revolt against this abasement of the divine essence; as if God and my soul were of one and the same nature! As if God were not the one and only absolute being, the only really active, feeling, thinking, willing being, from whom we derive our thought, feeling, motion, will, our freedom and our very existence! We are free because he wills our freedom, and his inexplicable substance is to our souls what our souls are to our bodies. I know not whether he has created matter, body, soul, the world itself. The idea of creation confounds me and eludes my grasp; so far as I can conceive of it I believe it; but I know that he has formed the universe and all that is, that he has made and ordered all things. No doubt God is eternal; but can my mind grasp the idea of eternity? Why should I cheat myself with meaningless words? This is what I do understand; before things were—God was; he will be when they are no more, and if all things come to an end he will still endure. That a being beyond my comprehension should give life to other beings, this is merely difficult and beyond my understanding; but that Being and Nothing should be convertible terms, this is indeed a palpable contradiction, an evident absurdity. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/when-i-think.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > Nothing is lost, nothing wholly passes away, for in some way or another everything is perpetuated; and everything, after passing through time, returns to eternity. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/nothing-is-lost.md) Topics: [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > "God does not think, He creates; He does not exist, He is eternal," wrote Kierkegaard (Afslutende uvidenskabelige Efterskrift); but perhaps it is more exact to say with Mazzini, the mystic of the Italian city, that "God is great because his thought is action" (Ai giovani d'Italila), because with Him to think is to create, and He gives existence to that which exists in His thought by the mere fact of thinking it, and the impossible is unthinkable by God. It is not written in the Scriptures that God creates with His word — that is to say, with His thought — and that by this, by His Word, He made everything that exists? And what God has once made does He ever forget? May it not be that all the thoughts that have ever passed through the Supreme Consciousness still subsist therein? In Him, who is eternal, is not all existence eternalized? [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/god-does-not.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > On the floor, and hanging on to the bar, squatted an old man, immobile as an object. His years had reduced and polished him as water does a stone or the generations of men do a sentence. He was dark, dried up, diminutive, and seemed outside time, situated in eternity. [Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges.md) · [Ficciones](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones/on-the-floor.md) Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md) > He turned over towards the light and lay gazing into the glass paperweight. The inexhaustibly interesting thing was not the fragment of coral but the interior of the glass itself. There was such a depth of it, and yet it was almost as transparent as air. It was as though the surface of the glass had been the arch of the sky, enclosing a tiny world with its atmosphere complete. He had the feeling that he could get inside it, and that in fact he was inside it, along with the mahogany bed and the gateleg table, and the clock and the steel engraving and the paperweight itself. The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia's life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal. [George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) · [Nineteen Eighty-Four](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/he-turned-over.md) Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [eternity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity.md)