A man’s lifework is like a ship he has built and equipped himself
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
To B. von Fischer 11 July 160
Please accept my most cordial thanks for your kind birthday letter, which it was both an honour and a plea- sure to receive.
I am particularly sensible of the appreciative words you have written on my life’s work, for they are a melody which one does not often hear in our dear Fatherland.
A man’s lifework is like a ship he has built and equipped himself, launched down the ramp and entrusted to the sea, steered towards a distant goal and then left like a passenger, in order to sit on the shore and gaze after it till it is out of sight.
Like all three-dimensional things it gradually sinks below the horizon. What remains is what has been.
I am, Sir,
respectfully and gratefully yours,
C.G. Jung Letters Vol. II, Page 577
