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Now the spoiler has come: does it care? Not faintly. It has all time. It knows the people are a tide That swells and in time will ebb, and all Their works dissolve. Meanwhile the image of the pristine beauty Lives in the very grain of the granite, Safe as the endless ocean that climbs our cliff. - As for us: We must uncenter our minds from ourselves; We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident As the rock and ocean that we were made from.

Robinson Jeffers#32

NatureTimeHumanityPerspectiveEgoEnduranceHumility

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About this quote

What does it mean?
Jeffers argues that human existence is temporary like a tide while nature retains pristine beauty. He urges humans to step back from self-centered views to align with the confidence of rocks and oceans.
In plain terms
Humans and their works fade but nature lasts forever so we should stop thinking we are the center.
What can you take from it?
Shift focus from human concerns to the enduring stability of the natural world.

Where it applies

  • seeking wisdom
  • overcoming ego
  • contemplating scale

Putting it to work

  • practice humility
  • focus on long-term nature
  • reduce self-importance

Questions to consider

  • What does it mean to unhumanize our views?
  • Can we find confidence in nature rather than ourselves?

Another view

It risks devaluing human creativity and moral agency.

More from Robinson Jeffers

  1. The extraordinary patience of things! This beautiful place defaced with a crop of suburban houses - How beautiful when we first beheld it, Unbroken field of po…

    Permalink to quote #31

  2. Against the outcrop boulders of a raised beach We built our house when I and my love were young.

    Permalink to quote #33

  3. When the sun shouts and people abound One thinks there were the ages of stone and the age of bronze And the iron age; iron the unstable metal; Steel made of ir…

    Permalink to quote #30

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