Named source · 1883

The Story of My Heart Quotes by Richard Jefferies: Context & Meanings

2 quotations linked to The Story of My Heart by or associated with Richard Jefferies, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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1883 spiritual autobiography / nature meditation

Topics and ideas

Present time, eternity, mortality, consciousness, nature and an intensely personal metaphysical experience of the now.

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“It is eternity now.”

Richard Jefferies

Meaning & context

Jefferies collapses ordinary chronological distinctions into an intensely experienced present, describing the current moment as participation in eternity rather than a point merely passing toward the future.

Source details

The Story of My Heart (1883), Chapter III, Project Gutenberg #2317. The inherited Chapter I note is corrected: ‘It is eternity now’ occurs in Jefferies’s tumulus meditation after he writes that, recognising his inner consciousness / psyche, he cannot understand time. It is speculative spiritual autobiography and metaphysical-poetic reflection, not a scientific theory of time, physics or consciousness.

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“Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.”

Richard Jefferies

Meaning & context

The repeated ‘now’ intensifies Jefferies’s claim that spiritual significance is experienced in the present rather than postponed to a distant future or afterlife.

Source details

The Story of My Heart (1883), Chapter III, Project Gutenberg #2317. The inherited Chapter I note is corrected: ‘Now is eternity; now is the immortal life’ immediately follows the same tumulus passage in which Jefferies treats the present moment as continuous eternity. This is his personal metaphysical/spiritual intuition, not empirical evidence for immortality, neuroscience or clinical guidance.

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1883 spiritual autobiography / nature meditation

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