--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: and all at once it seemed that past and…" description: "\"“and all at once it seemed that past and present had joined again without any divisions in it, and that all my memories and impressions had ordered the..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c77/lawrence-durrell-2169_past-and-present_and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and_374663.jpg" --- # and all at once it seemed that past and present had joined… ![“and all at once it seemed that past and present had joined again without any divisions in it, and that all my memories and impressions had ordered themselves into one complete pattern whose metaphor was always the shining city of the disinherited — a city now trying softly to spread the sticky…” quote by Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c77/lawrence-durrell-2169_past-and-present_and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and_374663.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c77/lawrence-durrell-2169_past-and-present_and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and_374663.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c77/lawrence-durrell-2169_past-and-present_and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and_374663.jpg) > ““and all at once it seemed that past and present had joined again without any divisions in it, and that all my memories and impressions had ordered themselves into one complete pattern whose metaphor was always the shining city of the disinherited — a city now trying softly to spread the sticky prismatic wings of a new-born dragonfly on the night.”” [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) ## 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 experiences a moment where past and present merge, forming a unified memory pattern likened to a luminous, evolving city and a newborn dragonfly spreading its wings. **In simple terms:** Memories blend into a vivid, evolving whole. Key Takeaway Embrace the fluidity of memory. Themes memory identity transformation creativity Mood reflective poetic Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - personal reflection - creative writing - psychological insight Key Concepts Narrative consciousness symbolic imagery Questions to Reflect On - How does merging past and present affect your self‑understanding? - What does the dragonfly symbolize for you? A Different Perspective The metaphor may be overly ornate, obscuring practical meaning. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [City Disinherited](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/city-disinherited-1327078/) [Disinherited City](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disinherited-city-3411690/) [Dragonfly Night](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dragonfly-night-3411691/) [Metaphor Shining](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/metaphor-shining-3411689/) [Past and present](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/past-and-present/) [Shining City](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shining-city-1895777/) ## Related quotes > [Private beneficence is totally inadequate to deal with the vast numbers of the city's disinherited.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-addams/private-beneficence-is-totally-inadequate-to-deal-with-the-vast/) [Jane Addams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-addams/) > [I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ronald-reagan/i-ve-spoken-of-the-shining-city-all-my-political-life-but-i-don-t/) [Ronald Reagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ronald-reagan/) > [With our eyes fixed on the future, but recognizing the realities of today, we will achieve our destiny to be as a shining city…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ronald-reagan/with-our-eyes-fixed-on-the-future-but-recognizing-the-realities-of/) [Ronald Reagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ronald-reagan/) > [A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the White House and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mario-cuomo/a-shining-city-is-perhaps-all-the-president-sees-from-the-portico-of/) [Mario Cuomo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mario-cuomo/) > [We didn't just wake up one day and here is the United States of America, and it is the gem, the shining city on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rush-limbaugh/we-didn-t-just-wake-up-one-day-and-here-is-the-united-states-of/) [Rush Limbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rush-limbaugh/) > [Because of my father, we are that Shining City on a Hill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-reagan/because-of-my-father-we-are-that-shining-city-on-a-hill/) [Michael Reagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-reagan/) > [May every day be a new beginning, and every dawn bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ronald-reagan/may-every-day-be-a-new-beginning-and-every-dawn-bring-us-closer-to/) [Ronald Reagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ronald-reagan/) > [America is, and always will be, a shining city on a hill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ronald-reagan/america-is-and-always-will-be-a-shining-city-on-a-hill/) [Ronald Reagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ronald-reagan/) > [“What is the present if not the graveyard of the past where, for each of our deeds we dig a grave. Everything we do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mladen-or-evi/what-is-the-present-if-not-the-graveyard-of-the-past-where-for-each/) [Mladen Đorđević](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mladen-or-evi/) > [“To believe that the Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a delusion of the mind. What has been possible to salvage has been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grann/to-believe-that-the-osages-survived-intact-from-their-ordeal-is-a/) [David Grann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grann/) > [“Its protagonists were lonely and Williams explores their past and present lives in the kind of tedious detail that could only appeal to retards…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stewart-home/its-protagonists-were-lonely-and-williams-explores-their-past-and/) [Stewart Home](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stewart-home/) > [“Sometimes people rise above their past, sometimes not. And sometimes the people you least expect it from—like Raylan and my father— have a way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kayla-cunningham/sometimes-people-rise-above-their-past-sometimes-not-and-sometimes/) [Kayla Cunningham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kayla-cunningham/) > [Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime, and every…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/our-lives-are-not-our-own-from-womb-to-tomb-we-are-bound-to-others/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“But it’s bells at twenty-seven thousand feet as the plane breaks into the clear again, as its motion steadies again; it is bells; it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-king/but-it-s-bells-at-twenty-seven-thousand-feet-as-the-plane-breaks-into/) [Stephen King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-king/) > [Global poverty is the product of reversible policy failures overseen by politicians, past and present. The poorest of the poor don't vote in American…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hugh-evans/global-poverty-is-the-product-of-reversible-policy-failures-overseen/) [Hugh Evans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hugh-evans/) ## More by Lawrence Durrell > [Life is more complicated than we think, yet far simpler than anyone dares to imagine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/life-is-more-complicated-than-we-think-yet-far-simpler-than-anyone/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [“Suddenly at the end of the great couloir my vision is sharpened by a pale disjunctive shudder as a bar of buttercup-yellow thickening gradually…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/suddenly-at-the-end-of-the-great-couloir-my-vision-is-sharpened-by-a/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [To be the equal of reality you must learn how to ignore it without danger.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/to-be-the-equal-of-reality-you-must-learn-how-to-ignore-it-without/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [The cocktail party - as the name itself indicates - was originally invented by dogs. They are simply bottom-sniffings raised to the rank of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/the-cocktail-party-as-the-name-itself-indicates-was-originally/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [It only takes one match to ignite a haystack, or one remark to fire a mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/it-only-takes-one-match-to-ignite-a-haystack-or-one-remark-to-fire-a/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [“He felt that his mind had become a battle-ground for the forces of good and evil and that his task was to strain every…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/he-felt-that-his-mind-had-become-a-battle-ground-for-the-forces-of/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [Science is the poetry of the intellect and poetry the science of the heart's affections.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/science-is-the-poetry-of-the-intellect-and-poetry-the-science-of-the/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/travel-can-be-one-of-the-most-rewarding-forms-of-introspection/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [We live" writes Pursewarden somewhere, "lives based upon selected fictions. Our view of reality is conditioned by our position in space and time -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/we-live-writes-pursewarden-somewhere-lives-based-upon-selected/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [It's unthinkable not to love -you'd have a severe nervous breakdown. Or you'd have to be Philip Larkin.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/it-s-unthinkable-not-to-love-you-d-have-a-severe-nervous-breakdown-or/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [“...man is only an extension of the spirit of place.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/man-is-only-an-extension-of-the-spirit-of-place/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [“God did not create us, nor did He wish us to be created. We are the work of a lesser deity, a demiurge, who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/god-did-not-create-us-nor-did-he-wish-us-to-be-created-we-are-the/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [The steward, according to custom, had stopped all the clocks. This, in the language of Narouz, said "Your stay with us is so brief,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/the-steward-according-to-custom-had-stopped-all-the-clocks-this-in/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/everyone-loathes-his-own-country-and-countrymen-if-he-is-any-sort-of/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [“The slither of tyres across the waves of the desert under a sky blue and frost-bound in winter; or in summer a fearful lunar…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/the-slither-of-tyres-across-the-waves-of-the-desert-under-a-sky-blue/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) [Explore all 179 Lawrence Durrell quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) ## More Past and present quotes > [Global poverty is the product of reversible policy failures overseen by politicians, past and present. The poorest of the poor don't vote in American…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hugh-evans/global-poverty-is-the-product-of-reversible-policy-failures-overseen/) [Hugh Evans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hugh-evans/) > [“But it’s bells at twenty-seven thousand feet as the plane breaks into the clear again, as its motion steadies again; it is bells; it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-king/but-it-s-bells-at-twenty-seven-thousand-feet-as-the-plane-breaks-into/) [Stephen King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-king/) > [Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime, and every…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/our-lives-are-not-our-own-from-womb-to-tomb-we-are-bound-to-others/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Sometimes people rise above their past, sometimes not. And sometimes the people you least expect it from—like Raylan and my father— have a way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kayla-cunningham/sometimes-people-rise-above-their-past-sometimes-not-and-sometimes/) [Kayla Cunningham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kayla-cunningham/) > [“Its protagonists were lonely and Williams explores their past and present lives in the kind of tedious detail that could only appeal to retards…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stewart-home/its-protagonists-were-lonely-and-williams-explores-their-past-and/) [Stewart Home](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stewart-home/) > [“To believe that the Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a delusion of the mind. 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It deepens our natural sensibilities, and strengthens by exercise our intellectual capacities.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-henry-lewes/literature-is-at-once-the-cause-and-the-effect-of-social-progress-it/) [George Henry Lewes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-henry-lewes/) [Browse all 249 Past and present quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/past-and-present/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“and all at once it seemed that past and present had joined again without any divisions in it, and that all my memories and impressions had ordered themselves into one complete pattern whose metaphor was always the shining city of the disinherited — a city now trying softly to spread the sticky prismatic wings of a new-born dragonfly on the night.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lawrence Durrell" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and-present-had-joined-again/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Past and present" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and-present-had-joined-again/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c77/lawrence-durrell-2169_past-and-present_and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and_374663.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c77/lawrence-durrell-2169_past-and-present_and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and_374663.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c77/lawrence-durrell-2169_past-and-present_and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and_374663.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“and all at once it seemed that past and present had joined again without any divisions in it, and that all…” — Lawrence Durrell", "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": "Lawrence Durrell", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“and all at once it seemed...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and-present-had-joined-again/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/and-all-at-once-it-seemed-that-past-and-present-had-joined-again/#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 } } ] } ```