The World to Come Quotes

“Most people have never seen the inside of a womb—or, rather, everyone has seen it, but almost no one remembers it.”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“It was possible, probable even, that the world could be rebuilt.”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“Or worse, he could be born perfect, and then, through some error she would never perceive, grow up and destroy someone else's life--for there are thousands of ways to destroy someone's life, Sara knew, but to improve someone's life, there are so few, so few!”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“When he finally fell asleep, his dreams contained no stories at all, but only the hard stones of thoughts: the unimaginably unlikely coincidence of being alive at the same time as the love of your life, the frequency with which a person was expected to bear the body and the burden of someone else, the idiocy of thinking that kindness can protect the person who is kind, and worst of all, the bottomless pit of a truth that he had suddenly, sickeningly seen: that the world to come that his parents had always talked about was not an afterlife at all, but simply this world, to come--the future world, your own future, that you were creating for yourself with every choice you made in it.”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“It had been a long time, perhaps years, since she had heard a man apologize”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“No one is anything more than a cloud that vanishes, and the best anyone could hope for was not to be the last.”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“Why are children so much smarter than adults?”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“In that fraction of an instant between when that person stops singing and when that person decides to rise from the bed and disappear-a tiny rehearsal, though you do not yet know it, of what will eventually happen for good-time holds still, and you can feel, through your closed eyes, how that person, watching your still, small face in the darkness, has suddenly realized that you are the reason his life matters.”
― Dara Horn, The World to Come

“Denn, wie einer von Daniels Lehrern zu sagen pflegte: "Die ZEit an sich wird erst durch Akte wahrer Menschlichkeit erschaffen.”
― Dara Horn , The World to Come

“Seine eigene Familiengeschichte hatte Daniel Ziskind, Ben und Saras Vater, eins gelehrt, dass die Zeit durch Akte wahrer Güte geschaffen wird. Tage, Stunden und Jahre sind nicht die Zeit, sondern deren Gefäße, und die sind allzu häufig leer. Die Welt steht still, zeitlos und hohl, bis eine besondere Großherzigkeit sie urplötzlich anstößt. Und dann beschert sie uns üppige Jahreszeiten und rauschende Augenblicke rasender Schönheit. Eine einzige schmähliche Tat jedoch, eine einzige nicht gereichte Hand - und die Zeit hört auf.”
― Dara Horn , The World to Come