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Decay Quotes

Browse 701 quotes about Decay.

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Decay Quotes

“In the medieval tradition, Beksinski seems to believe art to be a forewarning about the fragility of the flesh– whatever pleasures we know are doomed to perish– thus, his paintings manage to evoke at once the process of decay and the ongoing struggle for life. They hold within them a secret poetry, stained with blood and rust.”

KnowsBelieveArtSeemsProcessPleasureSecretStruggleBloodPaintingTraditionFleshManageDecayDoomedOngoingMedievalEvokeRustFragility
Author:Guillermo del Toro
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“All Kings, and all their favorites, All glory of honors, beauties, wits, The sun itself, which makes times, as they pass, Is elder by a year, now, than it was When thou and I first one another saw: All other things, to their destruction draw, Only our love hath no decay; This, no tomorrow hash, nor yesterday, Running, it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.”

YearsFirstsRunningLastsSunSawsKingsTomorrowHonorGloryDrawsDestructionWitYesterdayDecayOur LoveEverlastingEldersElderlyMaking TimeHash
Book:Selected poems
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“One trait in the philosopher's character we can assume is his love of the knowledge that reveals eternal reality, the realm unaffected by change and decay. He is in love with the whole of that reality, and will not willingly be deprived even of the most insignificant fragment of it - just like the lovers and men of ambition we described earlier on.”

MenWholeCharacterRealityLoversWords Of WisdomAmbitionEternalAssumingPhilosopherRealmsTraitsDecayHis LoveInsignificantFragmentsDeprived
Book:The Republic
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“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica: look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins. Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

LooksStillsSoulYoungNightHeavenSoundSleepSweetAngelGoldEarsHarmonyImmortalStillnessThickDecaySmallestMoonlightCreepsMuddyJessicaMerchant Of VeniceImmortal SoulSound Of MusicOrbsSweet Music
Author:William Shakespeare
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“All good things vanish in less than a day, Peace, plenty, pleasure, suddenly decay Go not yet away, bright soul of the sad year, The earth is hell when you leav'st to appear.”

YearsSoulEarthPleasureHellGood ThingsPlentyDecaySeptember
Book:Pierce Penniless his supplication to the Devil: Summer's last will and testament. The terrors of the night. The unfortunate traveller, and selected writings
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“I've always thought that the most extraordinary special effect you could do is to buy a child at the moment of its birth, sit it on a little chair and say, "You'll have three score years and ten," and take a photograph every minute. "And we'll watch you and photograph you for ten years after you die, then we'll run the film." Wouldn't that be extraordinary? We'd watch this thing get bigger and bigger, and flower to become extraordinary and beautiful, then watch it crumble, decay, and rot.”

YearsChildrenLittlesMomentsRunningBeautifulFilmDiesThreeWatchesMinutesSpecialEffectsFlowerBirthQuietTenBiggerExtraordinaryPhotographScoreChairsDecaySpecial Effects
Author:Clive Barker
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“Life appears: a complex dampness, destined to an intricate future and charged with secret virtues, capable of challenge and creation. A kind of precarious slime, of surface mildew, in which a ferment is already working. A turbulent, spasmodic sap, a presage and expectation of a new way of being, breaking with mineral perpetuity and boldly exchanging it for the doubtful privilege of being able to tremble, decay, and multiply.”

WayKindAbleChallengesSecretVirtueCreationCapableExpectationsComplexesPrivilegeSurfaceDecayNew WaysDestinedDoubtfulIntricateMineralsSapPrecariousExchangingSlimeMildew
Book:The writing of stones
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“For me it's really important that the work here displays an aesthetic of decay along with the sunken boat with the broken ceramic pieces. They form a unity in showing the power of destruction, the beauty of destruction, whether it's from nature - because the boat has sunk - or through other forces. It's really the beauty of decay and death that holds a power here.”

ImportantFormForcePiecesBrokenDestructionUnityBoatAestheticDisplayDecayCeramics
Author:Cai Guo-Qiang
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“The point is that no matter what you choose to do with your body when you die, it won't, ultimately, be very appealing. If you are inclined to donate yourself to science, you should not let images of dissection or dismemberment put you off. They are no more or less gruesome, in my opinion, than ordinary decay or the sewing shut of your jaws via your nostrils for a funeral viewing.”

IfsShouldMatterBodyDiesOpinionOrdinaryNo Matter WhatYour BodyFuneralYou ChooseDecayDonateSewingDissectionCadavers
Book:Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
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“In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. All things are corrupted and decay in time; Saturn ceases not to devour the children that he generates; all the glory of the world would be buried in oblivion, unless God had provided mortals with the remedy of books.”

IfsWorldChildrenBookWould BeLawAliveGloryAll ThingsAffairCeaseMortalsBuriedDecayRemedyOblivionSaturn
Book:The Love of Books: The Philobiblon of R
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“In interviews, the first question I get in America is always: 'What do you do to stay young?' I do nothing. I don't think aging is a problem ... I'm so surprised that the emphasis on aging here is on physical decay, when aging brings such incredible freedom. Now what I want most is laughs. I don't want to hurt anybody by laughing -- there is no meanness to it. I just want to laugh.”

ThinkingWantFirstsProblemAmericaYoungHurtLaughingAgingIncrediblesInterviewsDecayEmphasisMeanness
Author:Isabella Rossellini
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“Looking after children can be a subtle way of giving up... They become the whole ones, the well ones, the postponement of happiness, the ones who won't drink too much, give up, get divorced, become mentally ill. The part of oneself that's fighting against decay and depression is transferred to guarding them from decay and depression. In the meantime one decays and gets depressed.”

WayGivingWellsChildrenWholeFightingToo MuchDrinkGiving UpIllOneselfSubtleDecayDivorcedMentally IllGuardingPostponement
Author:Edward St Aubyn
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“Munch writes poetry with color. He has taught himself to see the full potential of color in art His use of color is above all lyrical. He feels color and he reveals his feelings through colors; he does not see them in isolation. He does not just see yellow, red and blue and violet; he sees sorrow and screaming and melancholy and decay.”

FeelsWritingDoeArtUseFeelingsTaughtColorSorrowRedBlueIsolationMelancholyYellowDecayVioletLyricalFull PotentialRed And Blue
Author:Sigbjørn Obstfelder
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“The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

KindSoundCommonMediaIgnoranceProgrammingSecondsBitesCelebrationSuperstitionsDecayEvidentLowestPresentationInfluentialCommon DenominatorPseudoscienceSound BitesLowest Common DenominatorDumbing Down
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“The wind is blowing; those vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of the wind? Is it the fault of the merciful Father, whose wind of mercy is blowing without ceasing, day and night, whose mercy knows no decay, is it His fault that some of us are happy and some unhappy? We make our own destiny. His sun shines for the weak as well as for the strong. His wind blows for saint and sinner alike. He is the Lord of all, the Father of all, merciful, and impartial.”

KnowsWayWellsNightFatherStrongLordDestinySunWindWeakMercyShiningFaultsSaintBlowUnhappySinnerDecaySailVesselDay And NightMercifulSun ShinesSaints And Sinners
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“I am willing to admit that some people might live there for years, or even a lifetime, so protected that they never sense the sweet stench of corruption that is all around them - the keen, thin scent of decay that pervades everything and accuses with a terrible accusation the superficial youthfulness, the abounding undergraduate noise, that fills those ancient buildings.”

PeopleYearsMightBuildingCollegeWillingSweetTerribleLifetimeUniversityAncientCorruptionNoiseProtectedDecayScentSuperficialAccusationYouthfulnessUndergraduate
Book:The Seven Storey Mountain
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“And by the influence of heat, light, and electrical powers, there is a constant series of changes; matter assumes new forms, the destruction of one order of beings tends to the conservation of another; solution and consolidation, decay and renovation, are connected; and whilst the parts of the system continue in a state of fluctuation and change, the order and harmony of the whole remain unalterable.”

MatterStatesWholeLightFormScienceOrderChangeAnimalInfluenceSolutionsDestructionHarmonyConstantAssumingSeriesConnectedSubstanceHeatDecayElectricityConservationElectricalFluctuationConsolidationRenovationElectrical Power
Author:Humphry Davy
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“The decay of old aristocratic prejudices against greedy speculation, the undermining of orthodox Christian faith (which forbids avarice)... the debauching of agriculture to a gross money-getting concern: these particular aspects of a vast and voracious concentration upon profits are so many illustrations of our sinning confusion of values.”

ChristianValuesParticularConcernAspectPrejudiceProfitConservativeConfusionConcentrationOrthodoxDecayAgricultureGreedyGrossSpeculationOrthodox ChristianAvariceChristian FaithIllustrationUnderminingSinningAristocratic
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“All our language about the future ... is like a set of signposts pointing into a bright mist ... the New Testament image of the future hope of the whole cosmos, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, gives as coherent a picture as we need or could have of the future that is promised to the whole world, a future in which, under the sovereign and wise rule of the creator God, decay and death will be done away with and a new creation born, to which the present one will stand as mother to child.”

WorldNeedsGivingChildrenDoneWholeMotherJesusLanguageBornWiseCreationCreatorWhole WorldCosmosResurrectionDecaySovereignTestamentGroundedPointingStewardshipMistNew TestamentJesus ResurrectionSignpostsCreator God
Author:N. T. Wright
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