Quote by: Tom Stoppard

We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language. Ancient cures for diseases will reveal themselves once more. Mathematical discoveries glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again. You do not suppose, my lady, that if all of Archimedes had been hiding in the great library of Alexandria, we would be at a loss for a corkscrew?


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Author Bio


  • NameTom Stoppard
  • DescriptionBritish playwright
  • BornJuly 3, 1937
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPlaywright; Screenwriter; Journalist; Writer
  • AwardsLaurence Olivier Award; Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire; PEN Pinter Prize; Laurel Award For Screenwriting Achievement; Academy Award For Best Writing (Original Screenplay); Writers Guild Of America Award; Praemium Imperiale