--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Men may perish, but the world will…" description: "\"“Men may perish, but the world will neither celebrate nor mourn. It will go on.' His smile thinned. 'Would you like to know how?' 'No.' 'Animals will s..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a89/r-lee-smith-25820_dark_men-may-perish-but-the-world-will-neithe_517955.jpg" --- # Men may perish, but the world will neither celebrate nor… ![“Men may perish, but the world will neither celebrate nor mourn. It will go on.' His smile thinned. 'Would you like to know how?' 'No.' 'Animals will swell to fill the void left by men," he told her. 'And over-swell it, perhaps. There will be other extinctions and other recoveries. The sky will…” quote by R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a89/r-lee-smith-25820_dark_men-may-perish-but-the-world-will-neithe_517955.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a89/r-lee-smith-25820_dark_men-may-perish-but-the-world-will-neithe_517955.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a89/r-lee-smith-25820_dark_men-may-perish-but-the-world-will-neithe_517955.jpg) > ““Men may perish, but the world will neither celebrate nor mourn. It will go on.' His smile thinned. 'Would you like to know how?' 'No.' 'Animals will swell to fill the void left by men," he told her. 'And over-swell it, perhaps. There will be other extinctions and other recoveries. The sky will clear, but those who see it will not marvel at its many colors. Those ruins will collapse, burying treasures like this-' He waved at the walls. '-and this-' He picked up the spoon from her coffee tray and tossed it down again with a clatter. '-forever, but the world will go on. Years become centuries so easily when no one is there to count them. Centuries become millennia. The forests will reclaim the lands that Men have razed. Rivers will carve canyons across the scars left by this fallen cities. Mountains will rise up, trapping seas to dry under and uncaring sun and leaving the bones of whales to bleach in the newborn deserts for no one to find, no one to be inspired by thoughts of giants and dragons. And still the worlds will go on, and I will go on with it through ages that can only be measured by the coming and going of glaciers. The stars themselves will shift in the heavens and no one will be there to invent names for their new alignments or remember the stories of the old ones, no one but me. In time, the sun itself will begin to cool. Here on Earth, the world goes on and on as its remaining life passes through its last changes and dies away. It will be quiet. And lonely.' His mouth curved into a bitter line. 'But I'll live.' 'Stop it,' Lan whispered through numb lips. 'I read once that the sun will someday swell and engulf this world before it burns itself out. Perhaps I will finally die with it. Or perhaps I' will continue to endure... my ashes pulled eternally apart through the frozen vacuum of space, and I with no more mouth to scream... still alive.”” [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage reflects on humanity’s fleeting impact versus Earth’s relentless, indifferent continuity, emphasizing existential loneliness and the inevitability of natural cycles. **In simple terms:** Human life is brief; the planet endures indifferent. Key Takeaway Recognize our smallness and find meaning beyond legacy. Themes existentialism impermanence nature loneliness cosmic perspective Mood melancholic reflective solemn Type narrative philosophical speculative When to use this quote - personal reflection - science fiction writing - philosophical discussion Key Concepts entropy anthropocentrism deep time environmental decay Questions to Reflect On - How does acknowledging Earth’s indifference affect your choices? - What responsibilities arise from recognizing our temporary presence? A Different Perspective The poetic tone may overlook human agency and hope for change. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Dark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dark/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [Immortality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/immortality/) ## Related quotes > [“ Nothing Stays Shiny Forever In This World. ”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erin-watt/nothing-stays-shiny-forever-in-this-world/) [Erin Watt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erin-watt/) > [“I’ll love you forever G, wherever I am in the world, whatever I’m doing, it will always be you, I’m yours, for as long…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lesley-jones/i-ll-love-you-forever-g-wherever-i-am-in-the-world-whatever-i-m-doing/) [Lesley Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lesley-jones/) > [A sound precipitates air, then fire, then water and earth- and that's how the world becomes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/a-sound-precipitates-air-then-fire-then-water-and-earth-and-that-s/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [God put Marijuana on the earth to keep the world or at least some people mello.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/scott/god-put-marijuana-on-the-earth-to-keep-the-world-or-at-least-some/) [Scott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/scott/) > [Earth is a in-between world touched by both Heaven and Hell. 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Priestley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-b-priestley/) > [“It is, and has been, and will forever be, this world of ours, a fucking joke.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-hicks/it-is-and-has-been-and-will-forever-be-this-world-of-ours-a-fucking/) [Bill Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-hicks/) > [“You’ll forever be a part of me. A world without you in it is a song without the music. You need both to make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karina-halle/you-ll-forever-be-a-part-of-me-a-world-without-you-in-it-is-a-song/) [Karina Halle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karina-halle/) > [“I hope I'm always a part of you, Eden. You'll forever be a part of me. A world without you in it is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karina-halle/i-hope-i-m-always-a-part-of-you-eden-you-ll-forever-be-a-part-of-me-a/) [Karina Halle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karina-halle/) > [“...we are always entertaining the delusion that we will go on forever in this world. The result is that the very things which ought…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-b-ferguson/we-are-always-entertaining-the-delusion-that-we-will-go-on-forever-in/) [Sinclair B. Ferguson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-b-ferguson/) > [You're burned into my mind forever. There is nothing, nothing in this world that will ever change that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richelle-mead/you-re-burned-into-my-mind-forever-there-is-nothing-nothing-in-this-2/) [Richelle Mead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richelle-mead/) ## More by R. Lee Smith > [“Beginning the day in a bad mood made it awfully easy to find reasons to stay there.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/beginning-the-day-in-a-bad-mood-made-it-awfully-easy-to-find-reasons/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“He told her not to speak or look at him. He told her not to try to kiss him. He told her she was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/he-told-her-not-to-speak-or-look-at-him-he-told-her-not-to-try-to/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“I had but one love and it is gone and now there is nothing and I tell you, that is the most awful feeling…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/i-had-but-one-love-and-it-is-gone-and-now-there-is-nothing-and-i-tell/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“She’d become her own ghost, haunting her own life.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/she-d-become-her-own-ghost-haunting-her-own-life/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“Jesus Christ, really? How did you ever survive living with me as long as you did without having sex every other hour?” “With God’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/jesus-christ-really-how-did-you-ever-survive-living-with-me-as-long/) [R. 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Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“There were no words, no capacity to form them, but there were thoughts swelling huge in her head and he was in every one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/there-were-no-words-no-capacity-to-form-them-but-there-were-thoughts/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“There is rightness in every hour, for it takes little more than a moment’s whim to lie with one in passion, but to sleep…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/there-is-rightness-in-every-hour-for-it-takes-little-more-than-a/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“Hormones.  The gift that just kept giving.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/hormones-the-gift-that-just-kept-giving/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“Yet for all the aggravation of tending them, it was not so terrible an ordeal. He’d never kept a pet before and keeping close…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/yet-for-all-the-aggravation-of-tending-them-it-was-not-so-terrible-an/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“So tell me, oh unhappy human, what is ypur suffering to mine?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/so-tell-me-oh-unhappy-human-what-is-ypur-suffering-to-mine/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“It was just boring, is all. I knew better than to think there was going to be booze after all this time, but still,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/it-was-just-boring-is-all-i-knew-better-than-to-think-there-was-going/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) > [“It's one slice of shit-cake after another with me, isn't it? Why did you marry me?" "God gave you to me." "Did you keep…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-lee-smith/it-s-one-slice-of-shit-cake-after-another-with-me-isn-t-it-why-did/) [R. Lee Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) [Explore all 22 R. Lee Smith quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-lee-smith/) ## More Dark quotes > [Crony capitalism is essentially a condition in which... public officials are giving favours to people in the private sector in payment of political favours.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-greenspan/crony-capitalism-is-essentially-a-condition-in-which-public-officials/) [Alan Greenspan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-greenspan/) > [“I could see her will leaving and death seeping through her skin to skewer her soul.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-d-stroube/i-could-see-her-will-leaving-and-death-seeping-through-her-skin-to/) [J.D. Stroube](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-d-stroube/) > [The soul wanders in the dark, until it finds love. 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Do you see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-gentile/twinking-tears-in-a-sea-of-black-soft-light-in-a-world-of-darkness/) Nicole Gentile > [Even in the dark your shadow is like a guide to me! you are my rising sun that brings forth hope just as it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nkemjika-linus/even-in-the-dark-your-shadow-is-like-a-guide-to-me-you-are-my-rising/) [Nkemjika Linus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nkemjika-linus/) [Browse all 10,198 Dark quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dark/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Men may perish, but the world will neither celebrate nor mourn. It will go on.' His smile thinned. 'Would you like to know how?' 'No.' 'Animals will swell to fill the void left by men,\" he told her. 'And over-swell it, perhaps. There will be other extinctions and other recoveries. The sky will clear, but those who see it will not marvel at its many colors. Those ruins will collapse, burying treasures like this-' He waved at the walls. '-and this-' He picked up the spoon from her coffee tray and tossed it down again with a clatter. '-forever, but the world will go on. Years become centuries so easily when no one is there to count them. Centuries become millennia. The forests will reclaim the lands that Men have razed. Rivers will carve canyons across the scars left by this fallen cities. Mountains will rise up, trapping seas to dry under and uncaring sun and leaving the bones of whales to bleach in the newborn deserts for no one to find, no one to be inspired by thoughts of giants and dragons. And still the worlds will go on, and I will go on with it through ages that can only be measured by the coming and going of glaciers. The stars themselves will shift in the heavens and no one will be there to invent names for their new alignments or remember the stories of the old ones, no one but me. In time, the sun itself will begin to cool. Here on Earth, the world goes on and on as its remaining life passes through its last changes and dies away. It will be quiet. And lonely.' His mouth curved into a bitter line. 'But I'll live.' 'Stop it,' Lan whispered through numb lips. 'I read once that the sun will someday swell and engulf this world before it burns itself out. Perhaps I will finally die with it. Or perhaps I' will continue to endure... my ashes pulled eternally apart through the frozen vacuum of space, and I with no more mouth to scream... still alive.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "R. 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