溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
If the World's Glory Passes So Swiftly, What Remains?
If the glory the world gives passes so fleetingly, where shall I seek what does not pass?
Oh, how swiftly the glory of the world passes away.
Thomas à Kempis's sigh that "the world's glory passes swiftly" carried into medieval language the old wisdom that what truly remains lies within, not without. This insight grows from one root with the Stoicism of Seneca and Aurelius and the emptiness-gazing of Ecclesiastes — fame and wealth pass, so seek the inner thing. Renaissance humanism, by contrast, held that passing glory is the very reason a human burns their life against the limit of mortality, restoring worldly honor and achievement. Does what truly remains lie in an inwardness turned from passing glory, or in a life that burns knowing it will pass? The question still divides serene inner wisdom from passion against mortality.
In an age where glory flares up and is forgotten in an instant, Thomas à Kempis's question — how swiftly the world's glory passes — makes us seek again what does not pass.
Thomas à Kempis looks upon the world's glory like a sigh: oh, how swiftly the glory of the world passes.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Thomas à Kempis looks upon the world's glory like a sigh: oh, how swiftly the glory of the world passes. Yesterday's applause and fame are forgotten today, and a high seat is emptied in an instant. He turns his eyes from vain outward glory toward an inner life that does not pass. I feel this ancient sigh touches the core of what we leave. Most of the glory we chase is already passing the moment we grasp it. What is it that does not pass, that time cannot seize? I weigh how swiftly the things I chase are passing too.
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