165 Quotes About Impermanence

Drama of life may get gripping, intense or interesting but eventually it's still a drama.

But because day at her dawning hours hath so bewitched me, must I yet love her when glutted with triumph she settles to garish noon? . . . Who dares call me turncoat, who do but follow now as I have followed this rare wisdom all my days: to love the sunrise and the sundown and the morning and the evening star.

Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.

That which is impermanent attracts compassion. That which is not provides wisdom. (116)

We rush through our days in such stress and intensity, as if we were here to stay and the serious project of the world depended on us. We worry and grow anxious; we magnify trivia until they become important enough to control our lives. Yet all the time, we have forgotten that we are but temporary sojourners on the surface of a strange planet spinning slowly in the infinite night of the cosmos.

Why are the desert blooms that spring to life after a monsoon so magnificent? The answer is – their impermanence. The lush growth and blooming flowers do not last very long here in the desert, and this new growth only happens once a year. If this growth was never-ending, we would soon take it for granted. Likewise, our human lives. What makes them so special and unique? Our fleeting impermanence.

We are so consumed with wanting this or that or are wanting to solve our problems, that we fail to see Life’s impermanence. Most of the time, we are not living, we are merely existing; cowering in fear and insecurity. We are not present in the now. The now is the ultimate, and only, reality. Unless we are celebrating Life in the present, unless we are living fully with what is, we will never be happy!

Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.

Every loss is a lesson in learning to stay detached. So, when you lose someone, or something, examine your grief. Yet, don't resist it; let it flow…grieve, shed a tear, but quickly wipe it away, move on, don't cling on to your sorrows! Go beyond the smokescreen of permanence. Remember: nothing is permanent, not even your own Life!