Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Human life is a long night march against unseen enemies, weary and painful, toward a distant goal few can reach, with no time to linger.
In plain terms
Life is a weary night march toward a distant, hard‑to‑reach goal.
What can you take from it?
Persist despite hardship, knowing the journey is brief.

Where it applies

  • overcoming adversity
  • pursuing long‑term ambitions

Putting it to work

  • maintain perseverance
  • accept limited time

Questions to consider

  • How can we balance struggle with moments of happiness?
  • What defines a worthwhile goal?

Another view

The metaphor may overemphasize struggle, ignoring joy.

More from Bertrand Russell

  1. The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things …

    Permalink to quote #71
  2. The true function of logic ... as applied to matters of experience ... is analytic rather than constructive; taken a priori, it shows the possibility of hither…

    Permalink to quote #73
  3. Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

    Permalink to quote #70

Related quotes

  1. Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you…

    Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky quote #27
  2. There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome - to be got over.

    Arthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer quote #71
  3. Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.

    Bette DavisBette Davis quote #1