quote · Legacy record
History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription moulders from the tablet: the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand; and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust?
History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription moulders from the tablet: the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand; and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust?
Historical period not yet established
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An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
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- Author or tradition
- Irving (identity unresolved)
Attribution: unknown - Country attributed
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- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922) (1922 AD)
Printed page 687 · quotation 4 · Irving · The Sketch Book. Westminster Abbey.
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