Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The Earth represents history and what has passed, while the sky represents the future and possibilities. Nature symbols map our understanding of time.
In plain terms
Earth is the past and sky is the future.
What can you take from it?
Use nature to understand concepts of time.

Where it applies

  • writing
  • contemplation

Putting it to work

  • map concepts to physical symbols
  • reflect on time

Questions to consider

  • How does nature reflect time?
  • What does the sky mean to you?

Another view

Nature does not inherently symbolize time; this is human interpretation.

More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  1. To see him act, is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.

    Permalink to quote #126
  2. Hamlet's character is the prevalence of the abstracting and generalizing habit over the practical. He does not want courage, skill, will, or opportunity; but e…

    Permalink to quote #128
  3. Plagiarists are always suspicious of being stolen from, - as pickpockets are observed commonly to walk with their hands in their breeches' pockets.

    Permalink to quote #125

Related quotes

  1. La Nature est un temple ou de vivants piliers Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles; L'homme y passe a travers des forets de symboles Qui l'observent ave…

    Charles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire quote #9
  2. Sometimes I think: I am older than this tree, older than this bench, older than the rain. And yet. I'm not older than the rain. It's been falling for years and…

    Nicole KraussNicole Krauss quote #11
  3. How old the world is! I walk between two eternities... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel eve…

    Denis DiderotDenis Diderot quote #14