Talk:This too shall pass

Quote by Lincoln in Life and Works...

I transcribed Lincoln's speech containing this quote from the Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln volume 5 "The Advantages of Thorough Cultivation, and the Fallacies of the Mud-sill Theory of Labor's Subjection to Capital". This primary source with page scans I believe to be more authoritative that the existing reference to a web page quoting from The Collected Works.... In a few days, I'll make the change unless there are concerns raised. - DutchTreat (talk) 13:54, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

Done, added as a second reference. - DutchTreat (talk) 11:12, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Confucian origin?

I just removed the following paragraph from above the lead: “"This too shall pass" - Confucious to the King of Lu, 500 BCE.” I have the feeling that this is a simple misattribution, but if there's any evidence other than some blog posts, please add this info back into the page in the appropriate places. — Harry (talk) 08:24, 11 November 2015 (UTC) The universality of the sentiment is reflected in the numerous different cultures which have expressed it.

Article scope

Is this article about the phrase or about the fable? The phrase "this too shall pass" is not equivalent to "nothing endures".

Obviously, you will find wisdom literature expressing the idea of "nothing endures" in all places throughout the history of writing. But is this article supposed to be about the notion of ephemerality in general? Or about this particular fable involving king Solomon? Or about the English phrase coined by Fitzgerald? --dab (𒁳) 09:06, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Original research

I've removed the following paragraph, as it appears to be Original Research and is unrelated to the Persian origin of the phrase.

In the tenth-century Anglo-Saxon poem "Deor's Lament", each stanza of the elegy ends in the repetition of the refrain "Þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg" translated variously as "That passed away; this also may" or "That was overcome, so may this be." In this case the similarity with the Persian form is, of course, coincidental. The same is probably true of the following passage in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (Vol. III, Ch. 6), published in 1813. The "philosophic composure" of Mr. Bennet leads him to reply to his daughter, Elizabeth, who has counseled him not to become inconsolable after a recent family misfortune, that "You may well warn me against such an evil. Human nature is so prone to fall into it! ...I am not afraid of being overpowered by the impression. It will pass away soon enough."

~dom Kaos~ (talk) 10:47, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

I think it would be better if this article was rewritten to be about the phrase in general (compare the article Ubi sunt), with subsections for the Persian, Jewish and Old English attestations, instead of presenting it as a primarily Persian affair. (Then the part about Deor could be re-added - finding a good secondary source should be trivially easy, there has been much written on Deor.) It seems to be a fairly universal human sentiment, which happens to have been particularly eloquently expressed by Persians. — Mnemosientje (t · c) 09:45, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

"It will pass away soon enough" is not the same as "this too shall pass". If we were to expand the article to include every reference to any banal phrase about something subsiding or vanishing or abating, the article would be infinite in lenghth, completely unenlightening, utterly pointless, and deadly dull. TheScotch (talk) 02:36, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

References

Short Description

I shortened the description per WP:SDSHORT but couldn't think of a shorter one except "Adage". Editor2020 (talk) 23:58, 11 October 2021 (UTC)