All passes. — Only strong art
Passes to eternity.
The bust
Survives the city.And the austere coin
That a workman finds
Underground
Reveals an emperor.[Tout passe. — L’art robuste
Seul a l’éternité,
Le buste
Survit à la cité.Et la médaille austère
Que trouve un laboureur
Sous terre
Révèle un empereur.]Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) French poet, writer, critic
“L’Art,” l. 41ff, Émaux et Camées (1852)
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
Everything passes. --
Only robust art is eternal.
The bust outlives the city.
And the simple coin
Unearthed by a peasant
Reveals the image of an emperor.
[Source]
All passes, Art alone
Enduring stays to us;
The Bust outlasts the throne, --
The Coin, Tiberius.
[Austin Dobson, "Ars Victrix" (1876), in imitation]
Everything passes -- Robust art
Alone is eternal.
The bust
Survives the city.
[Source]
Everything disappears -- Robust art
alone is eternal:
The Bust survives the city.
[Source]
Everything passes away. -- Robust Art
Alone has eternity;
The bust
Survives the city.
[Source]
Quotations about:
ephemeral
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Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
Cakes and Ale, ch. 11 (1930)
(Source)
The custom and fashion of to-day will be the awkwardness and outrage of to-morrow. So arbitrary are these transient laws.
Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870) French novelist and dramatist
(Attributed)
Quoted in James Comper Gray, The Biblical Museum: Old Testament, vol. 3 (1878 ed.).
