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As a wise older friend puts it, neither the past nor the future is real. Only the present is real.
by hkmurakami 8y ago
As a wise older friend puts it, neither the past nor the future is real. Only the present is real.
- keiferski 8y agoDeath is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Myrmornis 8y agoI feel like what he's saying is similar to the way that the open interval between 0 and 1 has no end when viewed as an open set in real analysis. Which is nice, but the only time I felt that I could advance time by infinitesimally small increments I was on mushrooms.
- keiferski 8y agoI read an explanation of the quote awhile ago, and IIRC the German word he uses is actually better translated as “outside of time” and not “timeless.” In other words, the only way to escape the concept of incremental time is to not think of it as increments at all.
- longerthoughts 8y agoWhile that sounds romantic and liberating, the reality is that our experience in the present is shaped by the events of the past and anticipation of the future. The greatest sources of fulfillment in my life are the result of thoughtful consideration of the future that took place in the past.