The simple truth of our finiteness is that we could, by whatever means, go on interminably only at the price of either losing the past and, therewith, our identity, or living only in the past and therefore without a real present. We cannot seriously wish either and thus not a physical enduring at that price.

Hans Jonas

Cannot Could Either Enduring Go Identity In The Past Living Losing Means Only Our Past Physical Present Price Real Seriously Simple Simple Truth Therefore Thus Truth We Cannot Whatever Wish Without

Related Quotes

We do violence to the consciousness of a past age when we divide what was indivisible to it: the one sacred truth of the Christian creed.

AgeChristianConsciousness

Our family, from day one, has only sought the simple truth in this matter.

— Sam Sheppard

DayFamilyMatter

Time that is spent dwelling on the past will surely continue in your present moment - and the future.

— Michelle Cruz-Rosado

inspirational-quoteliving-in-the-presentthe-future

I have always wished the present to resemble memory: because the present can be flat at times, and bald as a road. But memory is never like that. It makes hills of feeling in collapsed hours, a scene of enclosure made all precious by its frame.

— Lydia Millet

living-in-the-pastliving-in-the-presentmemory

While we can remember the past, we cannot write the future. Only our children, the future of our community, can do that.

— Jonathan Sacks

CannotChildrenCommunity