Absurd Quotes - Page 4

• I don't know. I think it's funny! I think it's funny! I go, what? It's so absurd. I'm alone.

  Danny DeVito

  Thinking, Knows

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• Life may be not only meaningless but absurd.

  Thomas Nagel

  May, Meaningless Life, Meaningless

  Thomas Nagel (1987). “What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy”, p.82, Oxford University Press

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• Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Silence, Needs

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.28, Vintage

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• The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

  Carl Sagan

  Two, Race, Enemy

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• Rock 'n' roll is ridiculous. It's absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. Now we're wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big kiss.

  Bono

  Kissing, Past, Ducks

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• The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.

  Willem de Kooning

  Art, Attitude, Thinking

  Willem De Kooning, John Elderfield, Lauren Mahony (2011). “De Kooning: A Retrospective”, p.192, The Museum of Modern Art

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• I'm the end of the line; absurd and appalling as it may seem, serious New York theater has died in my lifetime.

  Arthur Miller

  New York, Lines, May

  1989 In The Times,11 Jan.

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• It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.

  John Henry Newman

  Believe, Men, Arguing

  'The Usurpations of Reason' (1831), in 'Oxford University Sermons' (1843) no. 4

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• A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties.

  Franklin Pierce

  Party, Patriotic, Government

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• Sometimes I say to myself, what are you doing in this absurd job? Why don't you go to Africa and help people? But I cannot help people, because I am a hypochondriac.

  Javier Bardem

  Jobs, People, Helping

  "Why am I doing this absurd job?". www.theguardian.com. March 21, 2001.

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• My husband does so many romantic things for me, it's absurd.

  Jennifer Beals

  Husband, Doe, My Husband

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• I was always ready to leave England for some absurd reason.

  Claire Forlani

  England, Reason, Ready

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• I find it hard to take rock groups very seriously or treat them with respect. There is something absurd about these gloomy young men getting together and banging away.

  Robert Wyatt

  Respect, Men, Rocks

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• Most Americans would agree that Plowshares is a Theatre of the Absurd.

  Daniel Berrigan

  Theatre, Agree

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• Now it would be as absurd to deny the existence of God, because we cannot see him, as it would be to deny the existence of the air or wind, because we cannot see it.

  Adam Clarke

  Air, Wind, Would Be

  Adam Clarke (1835). “Christian Theology”, p.62

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• After 50, the rock 'n' roll road is a little absurd. It's very difficult to play these little places. You're out there on a rickety old bus with no place to shower.

  Nancy Sinatra

  Rocks, Play, Littles

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Religious, Atheist

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.11, Broadway Books

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• The Theatre of the Absurd ... can be seen as the reflection of what seems to be the attitude most genuinely representative of our own time.  The hallmark of this attitude is its sense that the certitudes and unshakable basic assumptions of former ages have been swept away, that they have been tested and found wanting, that they have been discredited as cheap and somewhat childish illusions.

  Martin Esslin

  Attitude, Reflection, Age

  "The Theatre of the Absurd". Book by Martin Esslin, 1961.

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• A great many things have been pronounced untrue and absurd, and even impossible, by the highest authorities in the age in which they lived, which have afterwards, and, indeed, within a very short period, been found to be both possible and true.

  Catherine Crowe

  Age, Impossible, Unfaithful

  Catherine Crowe (1850). “The night-side of nature; or, Ghosts and ghost-seers”, p.205

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• The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds.

  Albert Camus

  Giving, Choices, Bitterness

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.67, Vintage

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• Laughing at someone else is an excellent way of learning how to laugh at oneself; and questioning what seem to be the absurd beliefs of another group is a good way of recognizing the potential absurdity of many of one's own cherished beliefs.

  Gore Vidal

  Sarcasm, Laughing, Way

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• I don't like the word ironic. I like the word absurdity, and I don't really understand the word 'irony' too much. The irony comes when you try to verbalize the absurd. When irony happens without words, it's much more exalted.

  David Lynch

  Ironic, Trying, Too Much

  "Inland Empire: the blogosphere's verdict" by Henrietta Clancy, www.theguardian.com. March 12, 2007.

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• You'll call me damned Jew, a Christ murderer, a secret worshipper of pigs and a kidnapper of Christian children. How absurd! Who would want to kidnap children, Christian or otherwise? Vile things. The only mercy of children is that they grow up, as my son has but then, tragically, they beget more children. We do not learn life's lessons.

  Bernard Cornwell

  Christian, Children, Growing Up

  "Harlequin". Book by Bernard Cornwell, 2000.

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• It is absurd to say that the age of miracles is past. It has not yet begun.

  Oscar Wilde

  Future, Past, Miracle

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.107, Courier Corporation

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• The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Positive, Risk, Sometimes

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