ephemeral nature of human life Quotes

All things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong suddenly falls and sinks in ruins.

The partition separating life from death is so tenuous. The unbelievable fragility of our organism suggests a vision on a screen: a kind of mist condenses itself into a human shape, lasts a moment and scatters.

A human action becomes genuinely important when it springs from the soil of a clearsighted awareness of the temporality and the ephemerality of everything human. It is only this awareness that can breathe any greatness into an action.

All human things hang on a slender thread, the strongest fall with a sudden crash.

For all men have but a little while to live and none knows his fate thereafter. So that a man possesses nothing certainly save a brief loan of his body: and yet the body of man is capable of much curious pleasure.

Consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man's life is only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead.

Man has been lent, not given, to life.

Individuals may wear for a time the glory of our institutions, but they carry it not to the grave with them. Like raindrops from heaven, they may pass through the circle of the shining bow and add to its luster; but when they have sunk in the earth again, the proud arch still spans the sky and shines gloriously on.

Of human life, the most glorious or humble prospects are alike and soon bounded by the sepulchre.

Our days on earth are like a shadow, and the time of our affliction is the length of our days.