There came to him an image of mans whole life upon the earth. It seemed to him that all mans life was like a tiny spurt of flame that blazed out briefly in an illimitable and terrifying darkness, and that all mans grandeur, tragic dignity, his heroic glory, came from the brevity and smallness of this flame. He knew his life was little and would be extinguished, and that only darkness was immense and everlasting. And he knew that he would die with defiance on his lips, and that the shout of his denial would ring with the last pulsing of his heart into the maw of all-engulfing night.
About This Quote
About Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Wolfe was a 19th-century American novelist. Thomas Clayton Wolfe was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known largely for his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last years of his life. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Death — Contemplations on mortality, loss, and the legacy we leave