--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The dead made this world. We didn't make…" description: "\"The dead made this world. We didn't make it. They made the poetry and the songs and the customs.\" — Robert Bly" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d55/robert-bly-3269_customs_the-dead-made-this-world-we-didn-t-make_1327372.png" --- # The dead made this world. We didn't make it. They made the… ![“The dead made this world. We didn't make it. They made the poetry and the songs and the customs.” quote by Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d55/robert-bly-3269_customs_the-dead-made-this-world-we-didn-t-make_1327372.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d55/robert-bly-3269_customs_the-dead-made-this-world-we-didn-t-make_1327372.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d55/robert-bly-3269_customs_the-dead-made-this-world-we-didn-t-make_1327372.png) > “The dead made this world. We didn't make it. They made the poetry and the songs and the customs.” [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The dead shape culture through their artistic and cultural legacies, not the living. **In simple terms:** Our ancestors created our songs and customs. Key Takeaway Honor and learn from past creators. Themes culture legacy creativity inheritance Mood reflective appreciative Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - teaching - museum curation - family storytelling - artistic inspiration Key Concepts Artistic influence cultural transmission Questions to Reflect On - Which ancestors inspire you most? - How can we keep their work alive? A Different Perspective Living generations also contribute to culture. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Customs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/customs/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Song](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/song/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [Dont blame me, I was given this world, I didn't make it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tupac-shakur/dont-blame-me-i-was-given-this-world-i-didn-t-make-it/) [Tupac Shakur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tupac-shakur/) > [We were the only pulsating creatures in a dead world of ice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-albert-cook/we-were-the-only-pulsating-creatures-in-a-dead-world-of-ice/) Frederick Albert Cook > [“You could bury people one hundred floors down, and a whole dead world could be underneath the living one.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-safran-foer/you-could-bury-people-one-hundred-floors-down-and-a-whole-dead-world/) [Jonathan Safran Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-safran-foer/) > [“Does anyone else day dream about what it would be like if specific age groups just dropped dead all across the world?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christy-leigh-stewart/does-anyone-else-day-dream-about-what-it-would-be-like-if-specific/) [Christy Leigh Stewart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christy-leigh-stewart/) > [A loveless world is a dead world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/a-loveless-world-is-a-dead-world/) [Albert Camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/he-is-dead-in-this-world-who-has-no-belief-in-another/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [“Dead, all dead but me, and I am dead to the world.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-r-r-martin/dead-all-dead-but-me-and-i-am-dead-to-the-world/) [George R.R. Martin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-r-r-martin/) > [“The dead do not squabble as this land’s rulers do. The dead do not fight one another. The dead have no desires, no petty…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-mcneill/the-dead-do-not-squabble-as-this-land-s-rulers-do-the-dead-do-not/) [Graham McNeill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-mcneill/) > [When you're dead, everything in the world is like a song that makes you cry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adam-selzer/when-you-re-dead-everything-in-the-world-is-like-a-song-that-makes/) [Adam Selzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adam-selzer/) > [“And out the bus window, here is my dead world come true, my whole dead world in motion.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-baume/and-out-the-bus-window-here-is-my-dead-world-come-true-my-whole-dead/) [Sara Baume](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-baume/) > [I'm a live wire in a dead world,](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eyedea/i-m-a-live-wire-in-a-dead-world/) [Eyedea](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eyedea/) > [“She was so alone. Dead to the world. No one to love. No one who loved her.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allison-brennan/she-was-so-alone-dead-to-the-world-no-one-to-love-no-one-who-loved-her/) [Allison Brennan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allison-brennan/) > [“There was no sign of any life, just erratic hints of a faded sun peeking down with sorrow on the dead world it once…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-j-anderson/there-was-no-sign-of-any-life-just-erratic-hints-of-a-faded-sun/) [C.J. Anderson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-j-anderson/) > [A short story relies on those values that make poetry and jazz what they are: tension, rhythms, inner beat, into unforeseen within foreseen parameters](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julio-cort-zar/a-short-story-relies-on-those-values-that-make-poetry-and-jazz-what/) [Julio Cortazar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julio-cort-zar/) > [How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nina-simone/how-do-you-explain-what-it-feels-like-to-get-on-the-stage-and-make/) [Nina Simone](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nina-simone/) ## More by Robert Bly > [I use the phrase 'sibling society' to suggest a culture fundamentally without fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, or ancestors. The thinking is horizontal.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-use-the-phrase-sibling-society-to-suggest-a-culture-fundamentally/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [All of Japan once a year will get up on their rooftops, because that's the night that the shepherd boy from one side of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/all-of-japan-once-a-year-will-get-up-on-their-rooftops-because-that-s/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [I got about half the time I wanted to write poetry. I got about half the time I needed to be a father. So…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-got-about-half-the-time-i-wanted-to-write-poetry-i-got-about-half/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Every noon as the clock hands arrive at twelve, I want to tie the two arms together, And walk out of the bank carrying…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/every-noon-as-the-clock-hands-arrive-at-twelve-i-want-to-tie-the-two/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Rumi is astounding, fertile, abundant, almost more an excitable library of poetry than a person.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/rumi-is-astounding-fertile-abundant-almost-more-an-excitable-library/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [One could say the higher the spirit goes, the more deeply the soul sinks down into the waters of melancholy and tragedy. Drowning in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/one-could-say-the-higher-the-spirit-goes-the-more-deeply-the-soul/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Don't go outside your house to see flowers. My friend, don't bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/don-t-go-outside-your-house-to-see-flowers-my-friend-don-t-bother/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [The models of adulthood are disappearing fast. How can two people have a new marriage if neither of them is an adult?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/the-models-of-adulthood-are-disappearing-fast-how-can-two-people-have/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [I have spent many years trying to recover a common language, one that can cross the distance between people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-have-spent-many-years-trying-to-recover-a-common-language-one-that/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [One out of three black men are in the criminal justice system in some form. Their despair is beginning to resonate through the entire…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/one-out-of-three-black-men-are-in-the-criminal-justice-system-in-some/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Sociological prose is generally written without images in an exact form for an academic audience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/sociological-prose-is-generally-written-without-images-in-an-exact/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourself to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/we-spend-our-life-until-we-re-twenty-deciding-what-parts-of-ourself/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Every modern male has, lying at the bottom of his psyche, a large, primitive being covered with hair down to his feet. Making contact…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/every-modern-male-has-lying-at-the-bottom-of-his-psyche-a-large/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/my-feeling-is-that-poetry-is-also-a-healing-process-and-then-when-a/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [The ancestors are very much invested in the children, because the children are the ones who are going to continue the world that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/the-ancestors-are-very-much-invested-in-the-children-because-the/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Explore all 135 Robert Bly quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) ## More Customs quotes > [Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it, nor too precisely in it; what custom hath civilized is become…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-quarles/be-neither-too-early-in-the-fashion-nor-too-long-out-of-it-nor-too/) [Francis Quarles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-quarles/) > [What is philosophy but a continual battle against custom?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-carlyle/what-is-philosophy-but-a-continual-battle-against-custom/) [Thomas Carlyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-carlyle/) > [In reality no food is valued solely for its nutritive power and no garment or house solely for the protection it affords against cold…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ludwig-von-mises/in-reality-no-food-is-valued-solely-for-its-nutritive-power-and-no/) [Ludwig von Mises](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ludwig-von-mises/) > [Often a quite assified remark becomes sanctified by use and petrified by custom; it is then a permanency, its term of activity a geologic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/often-a-quite-assified-remark-becomes-sanctified-by-use-and-petrified/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-bacon/since-custom-is-the-principal-magistrate-of-man-s-life-let-men-by-all/) [Francis Bacon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-bacon/) > [To me the female principle is, or at least historically has been, basically anarchic. It values order without constraint, rule by custom not by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/to-me-the-female-principle-is-or-at-least-historically-has-been/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/there-will-be-no-lasting-peace-either-in-the-heart-of-individuals-or/) [Albert Camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities of higher education, for the full development of her faculties, forces of mind and body;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-cady-stanton/the-strongest-reason-for-giving-woman-all-the-opportunities-of-higher/) [Elizabeth Cady Stanton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-cady-stanton/) > [Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/society-everywhere-is-in-conspiracy-against-the-manhood-of-every-one/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [He that would travel for the entertainment of others, should remember that the great object of remark is human life. Every nation has something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-johnson/he-that-would-travel-for-the-entertainment-of-others-should-remember/) [Samuel Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-johnson/) > [It is necessary to obey a Pope in all things as long as he does not go against the universal customs of the Church,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pope-innocent-iii/it-is-necessary-to-obey-a-pope-in-all-things-as-long-as-he-does-not/) [Pope Innocent III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pope-innocent-iii/) > [One of the Canadian customs guards got suspicious and said 'Haven't you been coming and going across the border a lot lately?' I finally…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hugh-jackman/one-of-the-canadian-customs-guards-got-suspicious-and-said-haven-t/) [Hugh Jackman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hugh-jackman/) > [There aren't any looks or customs I wish would come back. Today almost anything goes. Culture constantly devours the past so there's not much…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graydon-carter/there-aren-t-any-looks-or-customs-i-wish-would-come-back-today-almost/) [Graydon Carter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graydon-carter/) > [I believe it is essential to have English as the official language of our National Government, for the English language is the tie that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-sensenbrenner/i-believe-it-is-essential-to-have-english-as-the-official-language-of/) [Jim Sensenbrenner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-sensenbrenner/) > [In each human heart terror survives The ravin it has gorged: the loftiest fear All that they would disdain to think were true: Hypocrisy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/percy-bysshe-shelley/in-each-human-heart-terror-survives-the-ravin-it-has-gorged-the/) [Percy Bysshe Shelley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/percy-bysshe-shelley/) [Browse all 817 Customs quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/customs/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The dead made this world. 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