David Shields Quotes

Human life is beyond comprehension.

If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.

Certainly people have a lot tougher situations than I've had to deal with. But I will say we are all dying from the moment we are born. This is not just rehearsal.

Life is a predicament which precedes death.

We don't like admitting this, but it is a key component of human existence: the fact that life has the potential for things both wondrous and horrific.

Life will end in death and unhappiness, but we do it anyway.

Acquisition means life to miserable mortals.

If our life is unhappy it is painful to bear; if it is happy it is horrible to lose, So the one is pretty equal to the other.

Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.

I find life so shocking in general. Everything about it surprises me.

Poor humans; they will all die.""Poor us; we will not.

We mourn the transitory things and fret under the yoke of the immutable ones.

Everything passes away-suffering,pain, blood, hunger,pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the Earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes toward the stars? Why?

We're all making castles in the sand, wonderful tapestries, an exquisite corpse. But is it meaningful? No. It's dogs barking. It doesn't mean anything beyond our yelping, at the pain of being alive.

We are all born and someday we'll all die. Most likely to some degree alone. Our aloneness in this world is, maybe not anymore, a thing to mourn.

Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.

Man is never always happy, and very often only a brief period of happiness is granted him in this world; so why escape from this dream which cannot last long?

No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found.

Life is such a tragicomedy.

Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.

I know all human beings will be successful. How do I know? They all die.

Well, life is dark, isn't it? Mostly, it's dreadful. At the same time, death is funny too. I mean, look at the fuss we make of it.

In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast.