Blood had long since ceased to beat from one end to the other, but one could sense, from passages marked with fresher traces of wheels and hooves, that once the meaning and even the very idea of a long journey was lost, sleep had not descended over it in one fell swoop: it had continued to steal a march here and there, in a discontinuous way, and over short distances, like a laborer who feels his cart jolt on a section of Roman road that crosses his field.. Julien Gracq
About This Quote

In the text, "Blood had long since ceased to beat from one end to the other," the author is describing a journey that had been going on for a long time. There was a point in time where the journey seems to have come to a stop, but there were still traces of it left behind. Though it no longer had a defined route, it was still moving in some way. The meaning of this quote is that when we lose sight of what we are doing, we can still continue doing what we were doing before.

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More Quotes By Julien Gracq
  1. Blood had long since ceased to beat from one end to the other, but one could sense, from passages marked with fresher traces of wheels and hooves, that once the meaning and even the very idea of a long journey was lost, sleep had not...
  2. Often, beyond the next turning, footfalls of a herd galloping across stone were heard, or further in the distance, with reassuring grunts, a wild boar could be seen, trotting with steady stride along the edge of the road with her sow and a whole procession...
  3. It was a fossilized path: the will which had cut this gash out of these solitary places so that the blood and sap would flow there was long since dead - and dead too were the circumstances which had guided this will. A whitish and...
  4. No, what numbed these fields, peopled with bad dreams was not the oppressive grip of a plague but rather an ailing retreat, a sort of sad widowhood. Man had started to subdue these vacant expanses, then had grown weary of eating into it, and now...
  5. A history of literature, unlike history as such, ought to list only victories, for its defeats are no victory for anyone.
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