I'd been trying to remember where I'd heard the "all time is eternally present" thing before. Just now I recalled that it's from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, specifically the opening part of Burnt Norton.
This is poetry, of course, so we don't know whether Eliot himself believes this or is using it for another reason.
This is poetry, of course, so we don't know whether Eliot himself believes this or is using it for another reason.
Quote:Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
