Absurdity Quotes - Page 21

• The anchor of meaning resides in an abyss, deeper than the reach of despair. Yet the abyss is not not infinite; its bottom may suddenly be discovered within the confines of a human heart or under the debris of might doubts. This may be the vocation of man: to say "Amen" to being and to the Author of being; to live in defiance of absurdity, notwithstanding futility and defeat; to attain faith in God even in spite of God.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Heart, Men, Anchors

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.80, Stanford University Press

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• I have never been able to soothe myself with the sugary delusions of religion; for these things stand convicted of the utmost absurdity in light of modern scientific knowledge.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Light, Able, Modern

  Letter to Reinhardt Kleiner (14 September 1919), in "Selected Letters I, 1911-1924" edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, (pp. 86-87), 1965.

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• Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

  Thomas Nagel

  Interesting, Characteristics, Manifestation

  Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mortal Questions”, p.23, Cambridge University Press

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• Because waking I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdities of my waking thoughts, I am well satisfied that being awake, I know I dream not; though when I dream, I think myself awake.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Dream, Thinking, Waking

  Thomas Hobbes (1750). “The Moral and Political Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury: Never Before Collected Together : To which is Prefixed, the Author's Life, Extracted from that Said to be Written by Himself, ...”, p.102

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• I manage a toast to the Christmas tree and one to the sweet absurdity in the miracle of the verb to be. Lucky you, lucky me.

  Miller Williams

  Christmas, Sweet, Tree

  Miller Williams (1997). “The Ways We Touch: Poems”, p.29, University of Illinois Press

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• It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

  David Hume

  Believe, Passion, Deities

  David Hume (1793). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.595

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• [...] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Philosophy, War, Principles

  Carl von Clausewitz (2016). “On War: Vom Kriege: fog of war”, p.8, Aegitas

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• Absurdity and anti—absurdity are the two poles of creative energy.

  Karl Lagerfeld

  Two, Creative, Style

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• He knew the world and its absurdities as only an intelligent Irishman can; which is to say that where his knowledge or memory failed him, his imagination was always ready to fill the gap.

  John Fowles

  Memories, Intelligent, Imagination

  JOHN FOWLES “THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN”

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• If I acknowledge my dependency, I do so because for me it is a means of signifying my demand: in the realm of love, futility is not a "weakness" or an "absurdity": it is a strong sign: the more futile, the more it signifies and the more it asserts itself as strength.)

  Roland Barthes

  Strong, Mean, Weakness

  Roland Barthes (1990). “A lover's discourse: fragments”, Penguin Books

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• I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity.

  Salman Rushdie

  All Things

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• Wherever we go, there seems to be only one business at hand - that of finding workable compromises between the sublimity of our ideas and the absurdity of the fact of us.

  Annie Dillard

  Hands, Ideas, Facts

  Annie Dillard (2016). “Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters”, p.31, Canongate Books

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• Without the constantly living and articulated eperience of absurdity, there would be no reason to attempt to do something meaningful. And on the contrary, how can one experience one's own absurdity if one is not constantly seeking meaning?

  Vaclav Havel

  Meaningful, Would Be, Reason

  "Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvizdala". Book by Vaclav Havel translated by Paul Wilson (Chapter 5: The Politics of Hope, p. 114), 1990.

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• THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. Such topics, therefore, ought entirely to be forborne; as serving nothing to the discovery of truth, but only to make the person of an antagonist odious.

  David Hume

  Philosophical, Discovery, Topics

  David Hume (1875). “Essays Moral, Political, and Literary”, p.79

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• As to your Newton, I confess I do not understand his void and his gravity; I admit he has demonstrated the movement of the heavenly bodies with more exactitude than his forerunners; but you will admit it is an absurdity to to maintain the existence of Nothing.

  Frederick The Great

  Movement, Body, Void

  Letter 221 to Voltaire on November 25, 1777. "Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great", translated by Richard Aldington, 1927.

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• Young man, nature is not frightening, it's people who are frightening! You just need to get to know nature and it will become friendly. This creature known as man is of course highly intelligent, he's capable of manufacturing almost anything from rumours to test-tube babies and yet he destroys two to three species every day. This is the absurdity of man.

  Gao Xingjian

  Baby, Men, Intelligent

  Gao Xingjian (2000). “Soul Mountain”

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• Religion itself is an absurdity and an anomaly, and paganism is acceptable only because it represents that purely orgiastic phase of religion farthest from reality.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Reality, Anomalies, Phases

  H. P. Lovecraft (2010). “Against Religion: The Atheist Writings of H.P. Lovecraft”, p.139, Lulu.com

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