--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: ...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through…" description: "\"“...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through space and left behind those signs old and new and I still hadn't found mine.”\" — Italo Calvino" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c52/italo-calvino-402_existential_and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-spa_1716466.jpg" --- # ...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through space and left… ![“...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through space and left behind those signs old and new and I still hadn't found mine.” quote by Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c52/italo-calvino-402_existential_and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-spa_1716466.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c52/italo-calvino-402_existential_and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-spa_1716466.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c52/italo-calvino-402_existential_and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-spa_1716466.jpg) > ““...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through space and left behind those signs old and new and I still hadn't found mine.”” [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The narrator feels lost, searching for personal meaning amid the vast, indifferent universe. **In simple terms:** Feeling lost while seeking purpose in a huge universe. Key Takeaway Seek personal meaning despite overwhelming surroundings. Themes existentialism search universe Mood reflective melancholic Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - career choices - creative projects - spiritual quests - scientific research Key Concepts identity meaning loneliness Questions to Reflect On - What signs do you look for to find your place? - How do you stay grounded when the world feels endless? A Different Perspective Finding personal significance is challenging in a boundless cosmos. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Existential](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/) [Galaxy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/galaxy/) [Left behind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/left-behind/) [Old and new](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/old-and-new/) [Signs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/signs/) [Space](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/space/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [There are three signs of old age: loss of memory ... I forget the other two.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/red-skelton/there-are-three-signs-of-old-age-loss-of-memory-i-forget-the-other-two/) [Red Skelton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/red-skelton/) > [As long as we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs. And as long as we have our films, we can preserve…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-veditz/as-long-as-we-have-deaf-people-on-earth-we-will-have-signs-and-as/) George Veditz > [I didn't know I still had the capacity to love until I met you.. And I didn't know I still had space left to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yani/i-didn-t-know-i-still-had-the-capacity-to-love-until-i-met-you-and-i/) Yani > [People like space. But they sometimes have been left out. People are much more open to that if you invite them in.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mae-jemison/people-like-space-but-they-sometimes-have-been-left-out-people-are/) [Mae Jemison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mae-jemison/) > [Overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-bach/overcome-space-and-all-we-have-left-is-here-overcome-time-and-all-we/) [Richard Bach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-bach/) > [I dint know I still had d capacity to luv until I met u... And I didn't know I still had space left to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pooja/i-dint-know-i-still-had-d-capacity-to-luv-until-i-met-u-and-i-didn-t/) [Pooja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pooja/) > [One should try to fill his or her heart with the good so that there is no space left for the bad...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ritu-ghatourey/one-should-try-to-fill-his-or-her-heart-with-the-good-so-that-there/) [Ritu Ghatourey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ritu-ghatourey/) > [I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. .…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-sherman/i-believe-that-there-is-one-only-living-and-true-god-existing-in/) [Roger Sherman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-sherman/) > [At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes-an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/at-the-heart-of-science-is-an-essential-balance-between-two-seemingly/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/old-and-new-make-the-warp-and-woof-of-every-moment-there-is-no-thread-2/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [All my stories are like the Greek and Roman myths, and the Egyptian myths, and the Old and New Testament.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/all-my-stories-are-like-the-greek-and-roman-myths-and-the-egyptian/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“(We) consist of everything the world consists of, each of us, and just as our body contains the genealogical table of evolution as far…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hermann-hesse/we-consist-of-everything-the-world-consists-of-each-of-us-and-just-as/) [Hermann Hesse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hermann-hesse/) > [The revolutionary process by which all books, old and new, in all languages, will soon be available digitally, at practically no cost for storage…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jason-epstein/the-revolutionary-process-by-which-all-books-old-and-new-in-all/) [Jason Epstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jason-epstein/) > [“‎A careful reading of the Old and New Testaments shows that idolatry is nothing like the crude picture that springs to mind of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-keyes/a-careful-reading-of-the-old-and-new-testaments-shows-that-idolatry/) Richard Keyes > [“Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emerson/old-and-new-make-the-warp-and-woof-of-every-moment-there-is-no-thread/) [Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emerson/) ## More by Italo Calvino > [“(one would say yes, if not every day, at least fairly regularly), whether only for yourself or also for others (often only for yourself,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/one-would-say-yes-if-not-every-day-at-least-fairly-regularly-whether/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“The Great Khan tried to concentrate on the game: but now it was the game’s reason that eluded him. The end of every game…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/the-great-khan-tried-to-concentrate-on-the-game-but-now-it-was-the/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“Or else you can say, like the camel driver who took me there: "I arrived here in my first youth, one morning, many people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/or-else-you-can-say-like-the-camel-driver-who-took-me-there-i-arrived/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“The naked man had lost hope now; he would never be able to return to the earth's surface;he would never leave the bottom of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/the-naked-man-had-lost-hope-now-he-would-never-be-able-to-return-to/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“The art of writing tales consists in an ability to draw the rest of life from the little one has understood of it; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/the-art-of-writing-tales-consists-in-an-ability-to-draw-the-rest-of/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“I ask you to come down to earth," said the Baron in a calm, rather faint voice, "and to take up the duties of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/i-ask-you-to-come-down-to-earth-said-the-baron-in-a-calm-rather-faint/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [The unconscious is the ocean of the unsayable, of what has been expelled from the land of language, removed as a result of ancient…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/the-unconscious-is-the-ocean-of-the-unsayable-of-what-has-been/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“... KUBLAI: We have proved that if we were here, we would not be. POLO: And here, in fact, we are.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/kublai-we-have-proved-that-if-we-were-here-we-would-not-be-polo-and/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“And yet, in Raissa, at every moment there is a child in a window who laughs seeing a dog that has jumped on a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/and-yet-in-raissa-at-every-moment-there-is-a-child-in-a-window-who/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“Ludmilla, now you are being read. Your body is being subjected to a systematic reading, through channels of tactile information, visual, olfactory, and not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/ludmilla-now-you-are-being-read-your-body-is-being-subjected-to-a/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“Once the process of falsification is set in motion, it won't stop. We're in a country where everything that can be falsified has been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/once-the-process-of-falsification-is-set-in-motion-it-won-t-stop-we/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“Your case gives me new hope," I said to him. "With me, more and more often I happen to pick up a novel that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/your-case-gives-me-new-hope-i-said-to-him-with-me-more-and-more-often/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [We could say, then, that man is an instrument the world employs to renew its own image constantly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/we-could-say-then-that-man-is-an-instrument-the-world-employs-to/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [“Perhaps it is this story that is a bridge over the void, and as it advances it flings forward news and sensations and emotions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/perhaps-it-is-this-story-that-is-a-bridge-over-the-void-and-as-it/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [Yet, even now, ever time (often) that I find that I don't understand something, then instinctively, I'm filled with the hope that perhaps this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/yet-even-now-ever-time-often-that-i-find-that-i-don-t-understand/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) [Explore all 468 Italo Calvino quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) ## More Existential quotes > [When we watch a play under the standard circumstances, we've lost volition and time is passing. A still play feels like an existential threat.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-greenberg/when-we-watch-a-play-under-the-standard-circumstances-we-ve-lost/) [Richard Greenberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-greenberg/) > [Sometimes it has to do with other longings that are much more existential. Sometimes you go elsewhere not because you are not liking the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/esther-perel/sometimes-it-has-to-do-with-other-longings-that-are-much-more/) [Esther Perel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/esther-perel/) > [No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/no-shepherd-and-one-herd-everybody-wants-the-same-everybody-is-the/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elon-musk/i-think-we-should-be-very-careful-about-artificial-intelligence-if-i/) [Elon Musk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elon-musk/) > [The argument that won the Brexit campaign is the one that said take back control... which is another way of saying we want to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frans-timmermans/the-argument-that-won-the-brexit-campaign-is-the-one-that-said-take/) [Frans Timmermans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frans-timmermans/) > [“When it has finished saying it, it no longer is. The longer it is in saying it, the more it can say it at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-ponge/when-it-has-finished-saying-it-it-no-longer-is-the-longer-it-is-in/) Francis Ponge > [We have an existential crisis, which is the climate crisis. Canada is one of the laggards in the industrialized world. Our record is terrible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-may/we-have-an-existential-crisis-which-is-the-climate-crisis-canada-is/) [Elizabeth May](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-may/) > [Did television execs have souls? Now, that was an existential question and a half.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-r-ward/did-television-execs-have-souls-now-that-was-an-existential-question/) [J.R. Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-r-ward/) > [“So am I dead? How many kinds of living and dead and living dead and dead living had I been in just these few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-frances-turner/so-am-i-dead-how-many-kinds-of-living-and-dead-and-living-dead-and/) [Joan Frances Turner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-frances-turner/) > [I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/i-can-negate-everything-of-that-part-of-me-that-lives-on-vague/) [Albert Camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [I write very rarely. Only, in fact, when the sheet of paper suffers an existential crisis and threatens, if I don't surrender to it,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kiki-dimoula/i-write-very-rarely-only-in-fact-when-the-sheet-of-paper-suffers-an/) [Kiki Dimoula](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kiki-dimoula/) > [Michael Jackson is an extremely productive ethnographer, a serious reader of phenomenological and existential philosophy, and a remarkable writer at a level that one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-kleinman/michael-jackson-is-an-extremely-productive-ethnographer-a-serious/) [Arthur Kleinman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-kleinman/) > [If I had to choose between the two ways of approaching the deity, I should prefer the existential relational way, to the abstract philosophical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-moore-cross/if-i-had-to-choose-between-the-two-ways-of-approaching-the-deity-i/) [Frank Moore Cross](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-moore-cross/) > [Huge public spending and borrowing in the face of an existential crisis is clearly the right thing to do, as is putting people's health…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caroline-lucas/huge-public-spending-and-borrowing-in-the-face-of-an-existential/) [Caroline Lucas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/caroline-lucas/) > [The ability to forget the past enables people to free themselves gradually from the pain they once suffered; but it also often makes them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lu-xun/the-ability-to-forget-the-past-enables-people-to-free-themselves/) [Lu Xun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lu-xun/) [Browse all 616 Existential quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through space and left behind those signs old and new and I still hadn't found mine.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Italo Calvino" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-space-and-left-behind-those/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Existential" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-space-and-left-behind-those/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c52/italo-calvino-402_existential_and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-spa_1716466.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c52/italo-calvino-402_existential_and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-spa_1716466.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c52/italo-calvino-402_existential_and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-spa_1716466.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through space and left behind those signs old and new and I still hadn't…” — Italo Calvino", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Italo Calvino", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-space-and-left-behind-those/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/and-meanwhile-the-galaxy-ran-through-space-and-left-behind-those/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```