Echoes Across Time

Death, with a Dry Smile

The writers who looked at mortality and chose irony over dread. Seneca, Lord Byron, Samuel Beckett, Zora Neale Hurston, Gabriel García Márquez — because sometimes the most honest response to the absurd is a raised eyebrow.

47 total quotes

“
A person doesn't die when he should, but when he can.

—Gabriel García MárquezNovelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
You don’t waste your youth. You just get rid of it.

—F. Scott FitzgeraldNovelist & Essayist

Early Modern ERA • North America

“
The future is uncertain. Eat your soup while it's hot.

—Nasreddin HodjaPhilosopher & Satirist

Medieval ERA • MENA

“
There are no second acts in American lives.

—F. Scott FitzgeraldNovelist & Essayist

Early Modern ERA • North America

“
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

—Percy Bysshe ShelleyPoet & Thinker

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

“
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

—HerodotusHistorian

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
We are all dogeaters, consuming and consumed, in the grand, absurd carnival of life.

—Jessica HagedornNovelist, Poet & Artist

Late Modern ERA • Southeast Asia

“
The world is an illusion. We are but a dream, and life is a fleeting shadow.

—Sholem AleichemAuthor

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

“
The 'good old times' ‑ all times when old are good.

—Lord ByronPoet

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

“
There is nothing new under the sun, except that which is forgotten.

—Nachman of BreslovMystic

Industrial Age ERA • Eastern Europe

“
Life is a chronic illness with short periods of remission.

—Armonía SomersNovelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star.

—Stephen HawkingTheoretical Physicist

Late Modern ERA • Western Europe

“
Fortune is blind and so are those in her power.

—Giovanni BoccaccioWriter & Poet

Medieval ERA • Southern Europe

“
The world's joy is fleeting, its sorrow ever present, a bitter truth.

—Mustafa Safi al-Din al-Tughra'iPoet

Medieval ERA • MENA

“
Marriage is like a long conversation that you have to continue until you die.

—Zhang AilingWriter & Novelist

Early Modern ERA • East Asia

“
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.

—Eleanor RooseveltDiplomat & Activist

Post-War ERA • North America

“
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

—SenecaPhilosopher, Statesman & Playwright

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

—William ShakespearePlaywright & Poet

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

“
Happiness is but a transient episode in the drama of existence.

—Thomas HardyNovelist & Poet

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

“
The future is a present that hasn't quite arrived.

—Roberto BolañoNovelist & Poet

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

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