Doug Aitken Quotes

Life doesn't last; art doesn't last. It doesn't matter.

We're all expendable. We think the world's going to stop when a pope dies, or a king. And then... life goes on.

What is life? A madness. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story. And the greatest good is little enough; for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams.

If one considered life as a simple loan, one would perhaps be less exacting. We possess actually nothing; everything goes through us.

We pass through this world but once.

Time hurries by, we're here and gone.

Our time on Earth is so random.

Art is eternal, but life is short.

My work is about my life as an event, and I find myself to be very temporal, transient.

Time is long but life is short.

All things which exist in time must perish

Man is like the foam of the sea, that floats upon the surface of the water. When the wind blows, it vanishes, as if it had never been. Thus are our lives blown away by Death.

We are tiny flames, Helikaon, and we flicker alone in the great dark for no more than a heartbeat. When we strive for wealth, glory and fame, it is meaningless. The nations we fight for will one day cease to be. Even the mountains we gaze upon will crumble to dust. To truly live we must yearn for that which does not die.

Life is a bubble in a lake, that glitters for an instant, bursts, and leaves not even a blur on the water; it is the leap of a minnow, which sends a tiny ripple trembling for a few inches.

The end of all is death and man's life passeth away suddenly as a shadow.

Life is short. If you doubt me, ask a butterfly. Their average life span is a mere five to fourteen days.

Every thing admonishes us how needlessly long life is.

Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.

But life is short: while one lives, everything is lacking; when one is dead, everything is superfluous.

Lives are mere blips on the canvas of eternity.

Youth is about the only thing worth having, and that is about the only thing youth has.

Life is short and we have scarcely begun to live when we are called to die.

As leaves on the trees, such is the life of man.

I came like Water, and like Wind I go.