# Ephemerality

Ephemeral things (from Greek εφήμερος – ephemeros, literally "lasting only one day"are transitory, existing only briefly. Typically the term is used to describe objects found in nature, although it can describe a wide range of things. Ephemeral can also be used as an adjective to refer to a fast-deteriorating importance or temporary nature of an object to a person.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Anon · See also · External links

## A

* A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.
** James Allen,in As a Man Thinketh and Other Writings, p. 13
* I don't mind being ridiculed - well, I guess I would mind a little, but it would only last a few minutes - it's all very ephemeral; it doesn't really matter what people think of me.
** Jonathan Ames, in Never Boring: The Curious Case Of Jonathan Ames
* Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral. You can never see your own face, only a reflection, not the face itself.
** Farid ud-Din Attar, in Farid ud-Din Attar, p. 21
* All is ephemeral, - fame and the famous as well.
** Marcus Aurelius, in The Quotable Intellectual: 1,417 Bon Mots, Ripostes, and Witticisms for ..., p. 171
* Let you sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Time and fever burns away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children and the grave Proves the child ephemeral; But in my arms till break of day Let the living creature lie: Mortal, guilty, but to me The entirely beautiful.
** W. H. Auden, in A Book of Love Poetry, p. 155
* Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.
** Marcus Aurelius, in The thoughts of the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, tr. by G. Long, p. 103

## B

* As for theatre, there's ups and downs to everything. Theatre is ephemeral. But that is part of its charm because you can always say the production was better than it was.
** Clive Barker, in Author Interview Clive Barker
* When the ephemeral vision's lure is past All, all, must face their Passion at the last. So touch my dying lip: so bridge that deep: So pledge my waking from the gift of sleep.
** Hilaire Belloc, in Dionysus: a case of vintage tales about wine, p. 309

## C

* To strip human nature until its divine attributes are made clear, to inform ordinary activities with spiritual fervour, to give wings of eternity to that which is most ephemeral; to make divine things human and human things divine; such is Bach, the greatest and purest moment in music of all time.
** Pablo Casals, in CONCERTS AT SAINT THOMAS - Saint Thomas Church
* In the network society, the space of flows dissolves time by disordering the sequence of events and making them simultaneous in the communication networks, thus installing society in structural ephemerality: being cancels becoming.
** Manuel Castells, in Communication Power, p. 36
* The Case for the Ephemeral. It is incomprehensible to me that any thinker can calmly call himself a modernist; he might as well call himself a Thursdayite.
** G. K. Chesterton, in All Things Considered, p. 1
* Dalitz plots led to the discovery of some 100 ephemeral particles, many living no longer than the time taken by a light beam to cross an atomic nucleus.
** Frank Close, in Richard Dalitz:Physicist who mapped the behaviour of exotic particles and argued for the reality of quarks

## D

* To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.
** Claude Debussy, in The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God, p. 83
* A dress is a piece of ephemeral architecture, designed to enhance the proportions of the female body.
** Christian Dior, in Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New, p. 170
* Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
** Denis Diderot, in Quotes about Patriotism, p. 4
* You judge of the continuous existence of the world, as an ephemeral insect might judge of yours. The world is eternal for you, as you are.
** Denis Diderot, in Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, p. 64
* I have no idea. Acting is ephemeral. You can't hang it on a wall. You can't throw it off. And you can't bring it out of a closet. It's there one night and it's gone the next, at least with stage acting anyhow. One night, maybe it soars, and the next night it may go right in the toilet. You need to be as honest as you can be, that's the main thing, and you need to be honest with the other actors.
** Charles Durning, in Charles Durning, Versatile Actor of Stage and Film, Dies at 89

## F

* The fashion world is much more ephemeral than the film industry and moves at a faster pace, and it's got even more frenetic since the Nineties; more paparazzi hanging about and it seems to me there are even more fashion magazines.
** Richard E. Grant, in My Perfect Weekend: Richard E Grant

## G

* When we look back at our experience, we can see so clearly its ephemeral, dreamlike nature. Yet when we look ahead, when we look to the future, somehow (and this is the great enchantment) we get dazzled by all the possibilities that are there waiting for us as if the next event in our lives, the next situation, the next project, the next relationship, the next meal, even on meditation the next breath … we live our lives in anticipation of the next hit of experience as if the one that's coming will finally do it for us. What's so strange is that nothing up 'til now has brought that sense of real completion or fulfillment. So why are we so seduced into thinking that the next one will? This is a very strange phenomena.
** Joseph Goldstein, Wisdom and Compassion Talk]
* Ephemeral work made outside, for and about a day, lies at the core of my art and its making must be kept private.
** Andy Goldsworthy, in Hess Art Collection
* useful message to relay to young women about the perils of confusing sexual autonomy with the real but ephemeral ability to manipulate men.
** Germaine Greer, in Germaine Greer The impulsive, fatally naive diva of feminism made the world a better place in spite of herself.

## H

* And so castles made of sand slips into the sea, eventually.
** Jimi Hendrix, in The Essential Jimi Hendrix, p. 51
* I somehow see what's beautiful In things that are ephemeral I am my only friend, am I? and Love is just a piece of time In the world In the world.
** She & Him, She And Him - I Thought I Saw Your Face Today tab
* Substance is enduring, form is ephemeral. Preserve substance; modify form; know the difference.
** Dee Hock, in Birth of the Chaordic Age, p. 198

## J

* Such songs belong to a group of sometimes ephemeral phenomena which might be called "subjective folklore".
** Víctor Jara, Music on the move; The UNESCO Courier: a window … - unesdoc

## K

* Because of this many have cried out: The goal of ephemeral life is immortality! In the temporary living organism these two streams collide: (a) the ascent toward composition, toward life, toward immortality; (b) the descent toward decomposition, toward matter, toward death, Both streams well up from the depths of primordial essence.
** Nikos Kazantzakis, in Exploring Complex Dynamics in Multi Agent-based Intelligent Systems ..., p. ii
* Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite. That was the face Zorba was seeing and talking to, and desiring. Dame Hortense was only an ephemeral and transparent mask which Zorba tore away to kiss the eternal mouth.
** Nikos Kazantzakis, orba the Greek, in Zorba the Greek
* An artist's creative energy is ephemeral as a flower. It blooms and soon dies. No artist is great forever. Personally, I think I reached my peak in 2004 when I shot 'Samaria' and '3-Iron'.
** Kim Ki-duk, in Busan 2012: Oscar Hopeful Kim Ki-duk on His Controversial Film, 'Pieta'
* We wallow in nostalgia but manage to get it all wrong. True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories.
** Florence King, in Escape the Pace: 100 Fun and Easy Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy Your Life, p. 58
* True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories...but American-style nostalgia is about as ephemeral as copyrighted déjà vu.
** Florence King, in Crosscurrents: A Fly Fisher's Progress, p. 29
* I've never cared that much for cementing my place in history. Sports is so transitory, so ephemeral. It just seems like so much nonsense comparing me to Helen Wills Moody or Suzanne Lenglen or anybody else from some other time. One lesson you learn from sports is that life goes on without you.
** Billie Jean King, in Billie Jean, p. 10
* We come humbly to say to the men in the forefront of our government that the civil rights issue is not an ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked about by reactionary guardians of the status quo; it is rather an eternal moral issue which may determine the destiny of our nation (Yeah) in the ideological struggle against communism.
** Martin Luther King, Jr., in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr: Symbol of the movement, January 1957 ..., p. 211

## L

* Fashion is ephemeral, dangerous and unfair.
** Karl Lagerfeld, in The Truth About Style, p. 12
* Yet I've discovered that how I look is not a function of anything as ephemeral as my hair.
** Judith Light, in Women Know Everything!: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, & Brilliant Remarks, p. 195
* One of the most ephemeral and important things is atmosphere and tone and it's very hard to put your finger on what creates that.
** Julia Leigh, in Interview: Sleeping Beauty Director Julia Leigh
* No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.
** Mario Vargas Llosa, in 8 Fiske WordPower: The Exclusive System to Learn, Not Just Memorize, Essential
* To trace the remote in the immediate; the eternal in the ephemeral; the past in the present; the infinite in the finite; these are to me the springs of delight and beauty.
** H. P. Lovecraft, "The Defence Remains Open!" (1921)

## M

* Sound is ephemeral, fleeting, but some sort of a physical manifestation can help you hold on to it longer in time. I'm sure of this; I've always thought the sound that you make is just the tip of the iceberg, like the person that you see physically is just the tip of the iceberg as well.
** Yo-Yo Ma, in The Big Interview: Yo-Yo Ma pays back his debt to Toronto
* The simplest gesture, the ephemeral movement, the commonest object all become precious beyond words when touched, noticed, lived by one's own dear child.
** Mike Mason, in Mindbenders

## N

* Miserable, ephemeral race, children of hazard and hardship, why do you force me to say what it would be much more fruitful for you not to hear?
** Friedrich Nietzsche, in [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=9_Y47pavtUEC&pg=PA51 The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on overcoming nihilism\, p. 51

## P

* Since the beginning of 1979, it has often been said that the Shiite religion, like the ephemeral French Republic of 1792 is "one and indivisible".
** Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, in The Shah's story, p. 205
* I don't seek discomfort. But, very often, you realise that what you fear is actually quite ephemeral; something's different, something's unfamiliar; therefore, it must be worse.
** Michael Palin, in Michael Palin: 'I'm just curious about the world'
* We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused / in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery should not degenerate into pop-gunnery/by which term we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press/their sole legitimate object being the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner.
** Edgar Allan Poe, in The Virginia Spectator, p. 54

## S

* In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality. The most ideal human passion is love, which is also the most absolute and animal and one of the most ephemeral.
** George Santayana, in Quotes by Santayana George, p. 7
* How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.
** Arthur Schopenhauer, in The way, p. 336
* They who think that it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether.
** William H. Seward, in The Enduring Relevance of Robert E. Lee: The Ideological Warfare .., p. 46
* It is a piece of writing replete with those typical Japanese wistful and melancholic evocations of ephemerality. It was written a thousand years ago almost exactly to the year the film was made, and it was written by a woman.
** Sei Shōnagon, in Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope all-story 2, p. 237
* How fleeting is the world... Yet it survives It is ourselves that fade from it and our ephemeral lives.
** Angelus Silesius, in Messenger of the Heart: The Book of Angelus Silesius with Observations by ..., p. 36
* No, love is an ephemeral and illusive concept, it doesn't last; lust lasts.
** Khuswant Singh, on being asked, "Have you ever been in love? in India Today International, Volume 24, p. 358
* It does not have the same unchanging character as a mountain or a river; it is a recent and ephemeral product.
** Soil, in Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, p. 37
* Only the people are immortal, everything else is ephemeral. That is why it is necessary to appreciate the full value of the confidence of the people.
** Joseph Stalin, in The Anatomy of Terror: Political Violence under Stalin, p. 62

## T

* The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains. Therein lies the profound difference between the individual and the whole.
** Nikola Tesla, in The Nikola Tesla Treasury, p. 362
* In her world, the high and the low, the light and the dark, the eternal and the ephemeral, are balanced in perfect equilibrium...
** Sophey Taeuber, in Concise Dictionary of Women Artists, p. 652

## V

* In the theater, everything is ephemeral. Everything is almost weightless and without a very clear definition of how you made it.
** Rafael Vinoly, in Rafael Viñoly Takes The Opera Stage

## W

* ...the river valley is a magic box. To those who would observe, the pattern of colour and movement paint a picture that is a masterwork resulting from millions of years of nature's efforts, yet dynamic and ephemeral.
** Nancy S.M. Waldman, in http://practicallycreative.net/2009/06/05/art-of-the-now-a-video-essay-of-ephemeral-art/ Art of the Now – an essay of ephemeral art]]
* Ephemeral art is everywhere. Often it isn’t thought of as art with a capital “A.” By its nature, it can’t be bought, sold, collected, moved about easily, and it is impermanent. However, with photography and video we now can and do capture and make relatively permanent even the ephemeral. In many respects, this changes the artforms greatly.
** Nancy S.M. Waldman, in "Art of the Now – an essay of ephemeral art".
* Thou! thou! the vital, universal, giant force resistless, sleepless, calm, Holding Humanity as in thy open hand, as some ephemeral toy, How will to e'er forget thee!
** Walt Whitman, in Walt Whitman, Philosopher Poet: Leaves of Grass by Indirection, p. 126
* I am not interested in the ephemeral-such subjects as the adulteries of dentists. I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions.
** Thornton Wilder, in Thornton Wilder, p. 12
* So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories.
** John Williams, in Conducting Business: Unveiling the Mystery Behind the Maestro, p. 110

## Z

* Blithe spirits bringing a myriad colours to our gardens, magic, ephemeral wings - butterflies- with short life-spans of a week to a few ...
** Alfred de Zayas, in Aphorisms

## Anonymous

* On occasion, we find within w:Sedimentary rocksedimentary rock “ephemeral markings” - these are imprints/impressions that are made in mud and or sand that is rapidly hardened into stone with the impressions still in tact. Such ephemeral markings are also known as “trace fossils” or “ichnofossils”. These can include things like bird tracks or wave ripples or other types of evidence of movement that would normally be left within a soft surface. This usually occurs through some form of flood catastrophe (usually the laying down of a lot of water rapidly)
** In Fossils and Ephemeral Markings
* My flower is ephemeral, [the little prince said to himself], and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!
** In The Streams and Rivers of Minnesota, p. 4
* Why is that? The flower is the most beautiful thing on my planet! We do not record them, said the geographer, because they are ephemeral.
** In Chapter 15