We Have Only the Present Moment, Sparkling Like a Star in Our Hands — and Melting Like a Snowflake

Marie Beynon Ray? Francis Bacon? Henry David Thoreau? W. Somerset Maugham? Booth Tarkington?

Dear Quote Investigator: Our life on Earth does not extend forever. A writer once used two vivid and clashing metaphors to describe this precious moment:

Sparkling like a star in our hands and melting like a snowflake

This figurative language has been attributed to English philosopher Francis Bacon and U.S. self-help author Marie Beynon Ray. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Francis Bacon penned this remark. He died in 1626, and the saying was attributed to him centuries later in 2001.

In 1952 Marie Beynon Ray published “The Best Years of Your Life” in which she discussed enjoying a full life during retirement years. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1] 1952, The Best Years of Your Life by Marie Beynon Ray, Quote Page 82, Little, Brown and Company, Boson, Massachusetts, (Google Books snippet match; not yet verified with hardcopy by QI)

But we are not living in eternity. We have only the present moment, sparkling like a star in our hands — and melting like a snowflake.
We’d better get started.

QI believes Marie Beynon Ray deserves credit for the saying above. Other writers have penned thematically related statements about the importance of the present moment. Here are some chronologically ordered examples.

In 1862 “The Atlantic Monthly” published an essay titled “Walking” by U.S. transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau in which he celebrated the experience of being enveloped in nature:^[2] 1862 June, The Atlantic Monthly, Walking by Henry David Thoreau, Start Page 657, Quote Page 673, Ticknor and Fields, Boston, Massachusetts. (HathiTrust Full View) link

Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present. He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past.

In 1908 popular U.S. author Booth Tarkington wrote about the salience of the present in his novel “The Guest of Quesnay”:^[3] 1908, The Guest of Quesnay by Booth Tarkington, Chapter 20, Quote Page 293, Grosset & Dunlap, New York. (Google Books Full View) link

Do you know the relation of time to this little life of ours? We have only the present moment; your consciousness of that is your existence. Your knowledge of each present moment as it passes—and it passes so swiftly that each word I speak now overlaps it—yet it is all we have. For all the rest, for what has gone by and what is yet coming—that has no real existence; it is all a dream. It is not alive. It is not! It is—nothing!

In 1938 English playwright and novelist W. Somerset Maugham published “The Summing Up” presenting his views on life and art:^[4] 1938 Copyright, The Summing Up by W. Somerset Maugham, Chapter 15, Quote Page 51, The Literary Guild of America, New York. (Verified with scans)

The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it; the future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now. But common sense avails me little. I do not find the present unsatisfactory; I merely take it for granted.

In 1952 Marie Beynon Ray employed the expression under examination as shown at the beginning of this article. In 1953 she published a series of pieces based on her book. The following passage is from an essay extolling hobbies:^[5]1953 February 8, The San Francisco Examiner, Section: The American Weekly, Stay Young with a Hobby by Marie Beynon Ray, Start Page 20, Quote Page 23, Column 2, San Francisco, California. … Continue reading

There are literally hundreds of hobbies which prove the old saying that one man’s work is another man’s play.

Here we can only urge you to discover, before it is too late (and 60 is not too late), the thing above all others you would want to spend your first million years in heaven doing. And we advise you to begin doing it now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake.

Let us use it before it is too late.

In 1969 Wilferd A. Peterson published “The Art of Living in the World Today”, and he referred to Ray’s statement:^[6] 1969 Copyright, The Art of Living in the World Today by Wilferd A. Peterson, Quote Page 14, Simon and Schuster, New York. (Verified with scans)

I once read a beautiful sentence by Marie Beynon Ray that we should all memorize and remind ourselves of each day: “We have only the present moment, sparkling like a star in our hands—and melting like a snowflake.”

In 1997 “The Forbes Book of Business Quotations” credited Ray with the following passage:^[7]1997, The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,173 Thoughts on the Business of Life, Edited by Ted Goodman, Topic: Present, Quote Page 681, Column 1, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York. … Continue reading

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand—and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late.
Marie Beynon Ray

In 2001 a message posted to the newsgroup 24hoursupport.helpdesk of the Usenet discussion system attributed the passage to Francis Bacon:^[8] Dec 28, 2001, Usenet discussion message, Newsgroup: 24hoursupport.helpdesk, From: FRB#1 klu…@terraworld.net, Subject: test-please ignore. (Google Groups Search; Accessed Jan 26, 2022) link

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snowflake. –Sir Francis Bacon

In 2005 the “Breese Journal” of Illinois also attributed the passage to Francis Bacon:^[9] 2005 May 12, Breese Journal, Country Lines by Lynn Venhaus, Quote Page 2C, Column 3, Breese, Illinois. (Newspapers_com)

NOTABLE QUOTABLE: “Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake.”—Sir Francis Bacon

In conclusion, Marie Beynon Ray deserves credit for this expression. QI does not know how the spurious ascription to Francis Bacon was generated.

Image Notes: Public domain illustration of snowflakes from “The Century Dictionary” of 1895. Image has been resized.

(Great thanks to Jochen Fromm whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.)