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We rest. - A dream has power to poison sleep; We rise. - One wandering thought pollutes the day; We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away: It is the same! - For, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free: Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.

Percy Bysshe Shelley#21

LifeTimeChangeImpermanenceEmotionsHuman experience

About this quote

What does it mean?
Human experience is the same whether joy or sorrow; nothing endures except change.
In plain terms
Joy or sorrow, nothing lasts except change.
What can you take from it?
Accept that mutability is the only constant.

Where it applies

  • grief processing
  • existential anxiety
  • daily stress

Putting it to work

  • accept change
  • avoid rigid expectations
  • focus on flow

Questions to consider

  • Can anything truly endure?
  • How do you live with constant change?

Another view

It may discourage efforts to create lasting value or stability.

More from Percy Bysshe Shelley

  1. Some say that gleams of a remoter world Visit the soul in sleep, - that death is slumber, And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumber Of those who wake and…

    Permalink to quote #20
  2. A wild dissolving bliss Over my frame he breathed, approaching near, And bent his eyes of kindling tenderness Near mine, and on my lips impressed a lingering k…

    Permalink to quote #22
  3. The day becomes more solemn and serene When noon is past; there is a harmony In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, Which through the summer is not heard or seen,…

    Permalink to quote #19

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