“All that is transitory is but a likeness.”Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · Faust · 1808 · Faust II, actul V, v. 12104
What fades is not lost: it sketches a truth that never dies.
These are the final words of Faust, spoken by the chorus of mystics after the hero's soul is saved. The idea is that the visible world, with all its perishing, points beyond itself: what passes away is not empty, but a copy of an enduring model. It is as if a beauty that dies were still a sketch of a beauty that does not.
Why it matters It consoles anyone grieving that everything they love is temporary: transience can be read as a sign, not pure loss.