Existence Quotes - Page 21

• Little by little things began to assume a new aspect. The sense of insecurity vanished, words came of themselves, I was no longer so painfully conscious of everything I said. I drank on and felt the great soft wave approach and embrace me; the dark hour began to fill with pictures and stealthily the noiseless procession of dreams appeared again superimposed on the dreary, grey landscape of existence.

  Erich Maria Remarque

  Dream, Dark, Insecurity

  Erich Maria Remarque (1937). “Three Comrades”

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• NIHILIST, n. A Russian who denies the existence of anything but Tolstoi. The leader of the school is Tolstoi.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Leadership, School, Nihilist

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.149, 谷月社

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• Imagine that human existence is defined by an Ache: the Ache of our not being, each of us, the center of the universe; of our desires forever outnumbering our means of satisfying them.

  Jonathan Franzen

  Mean, Forever, Desire

  Jonathan Franzen (2007). “How to Be Alone: Essays”, p.70, Macmillan

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• Good Morning, on July 7 My thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved I can only live wholly with you or not at all- Be calm my life, my all. Only by calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together. Oh continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever Thine Ever Mine Ever Yours

  Ludwig van Beethoven

  Morning, Heart, July

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• Unless you call attention to your presence who will know you're there? Even a country has to weave and wave a flag as proof of its existence.

  Rod McKuen

  Country, Attention, Flags

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• Don't separate the mind from the body. Don't separate even character - you can't. Our unit of existence is a body, a physical, tangible, sensate entity with perceptions and reactions that express it and form it simultaneously. Disease is one of our languages. Doctors understand what disease has to say about itself. It's up to the person with the disease to understand what the disease has to say to her.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Character, Doctors, Perception

  Susanna Kaysen (2001). “The Camera My Mother Gave Me”, p.126, Vintage

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• We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Science, Survival

  On the Origin of Species ch. 3 (1859) See Malthus 2

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• Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following four and a half billion years of other acts, and after looking about for a few thousand years declares itself in possession of eternal truths. But in a world that is changing as fast as ours, this is a prescription for disaster. No nation, no religion, no economic system, no body of knowledge, is likely to have all the answers for our survival. There must be many social systems that would work far better than any now in existence. In the scientific tradition, our task is to find them.

  Carl Sagan

  Years, Survival, Answers

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• No one, in the world's whole history, ever attempted to substantiate a truth by a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of miracle. Nothing but falsehood ever attested itself by signs and wonders. No miracle ever was performed, and no sane man ever thought he had performed one, and until one is performed, there can be no evidence of the existence of any power superior to, and independent of nature.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Independent, Men, Miracle

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.34, Library of Alexandria

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• That which exists possesses identity; he could keep it out of existence by refusing to identify it.

  Ayn Rand

  Identity

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.478, Hamilton Books

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• How quickly the apparently solidly laid foundation of one's existence could crumble.

  Patrick Süskind

  Foundation

  Patrick Süskind (2015). “The Pigeon”, p.32, Penguin UK

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• On the Bigotry of Culture: : it presented us with culture, with thought as something justified in itself, that is, which requires no justification but is valid by it's own essence, whatever its concrete employment and content maybe. Human life was to put itself at the service of culture because only thus would it become charged with value. From which it would follow that human life, our pure existence was, in itself, a mean and worthless thing.

  Jose Ortega y Gasset

  Mean, Essence, Culture

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• There is a systematic flocci-nauci-nihili-pilification of all other aspects of existence that angers me.

  Patrick O'Brian

  Systematic, Aspect

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• Depression is a lot like that: slowly, over the years, the data will accumulate in your heart and mind, a computer program for total negativity will build into your system, making life feel more and more unbearale. But you won't even notice it coming on, thinking that it is somehow normal, something about getter older, about turning eight or about turning twelve or turning fifteeen, and then one day you realize that your entire life is just awful, not worth living, a horror and a black blot on the white terrain of human existence. One morning you wake up afraid you are going to live.

  Elizabeth Wurtzel

  Morning, Heart, Thinking

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• How can you know what is missing if you’ve never met it? You must know of something’s existence before you can notice its absence.

  E. L. Konigsburg

  Missing, Absence, Mets

  E.L. Konigsburg (2010). “The View from Saturday”, p.137, Simon and Schuster

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• Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.

  Rajneesh

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Creativity

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• the Twelve Apostles are the most evident sign of Jesus' will regarding the existence and mission of his Church, the guarantee that between Christ and the Church there is no opposition: despite the sins of the people who make up the Church, they are inseparable. Therefore, a slogan that was popular some years back, 'Jesus yes, Church no,' is totally inconceivable with the intention of Christ. This individualistically chosen Jesus is an imaginary Jesus.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Jesus, Years, Guarantees That

  Pope Benedict XVI (2016). “Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church”, p.8, Ignatius Press

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• The transitoriness of our existence in now way makes it meaningless. But it does constitute our responsibleness; for everything hinges upon our realizing the essentially transitory possibilities.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Doe, Way, Realizing

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.120, Beacon Press

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• That's not a real answer.' Says who?' Says me. I mean real fear, like of failure, of death, of regret. Like that. Something that keeps you awake nights, questioning your very existence.' Clowns.

  Sarah Dessen

  Regret, Real, Mean

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• The root of the matter is a very simple and old fashioned thing... love or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide for action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Honesty, Simple

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.626, Routledge

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• Sometimes I think that the amount of time you live on earth is just an inverse reflection of how good you were in a previous existence. For example, infants who die from SIDs were actually great people when they were alive for real, so they get to go to heaven after a mere five weeks in purgatory. Meanwhile anyone Willard Scott ever congratulated for turning one hundred two was obviously a terrible individual who had many many previous sins to pay for and had to spend a century in his or her own unknown purgatory even though the person seemed perfectly wholesome in this particular world.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Real, Reflection, Thinking

  Chuck Klosterman (2006). “Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story”, p.24, Simon and Schuster

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• It is neither easy nor agreeable to dredge this abyss of viciousness, and yet I think it must be done, because what could be perpetrated yesterday could be attempted again tomorrow, could overwhelm us and our children. One is tempted to turn away with a grimace and close one's mind: this is a temptation one must resist. In fact, the existence of the death squads had a meaning, a message: 'We, the master race, are your destroyers, but you are no better than we are; if we so wish, and we do so wish, we can destroy not only your bodies, but also your souls, just as we have destroyed ours.

  Primo Levi

  Children, Thinking, Race

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• On the chessboard of his godforsaken existence, the pieces were lined up, the play preordained. Man, so many times in life you didn't get to pick your path because the way you went was decided for you. Free will was such bullshit. -Vishous's thoughts

  J.R. Ward

  Men, Play, Bullshit

  J.R. Ward (2007). “Lover Unbound: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood”, p.86, Penguin

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• Because there is nothing here than invites us to cherish unhappy lovers. Nothing is more vain than to die for love. What we ought to do is live.

  Albert Camus

  Unhappy, Lovers, Cherish

  Albert Camus (2012). “Lyrical and Critical Essays”, p.97, Vintage

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• If you don't want anyone to know about your existence, you might as well kill yourself. You're taking up space, air.

  Dave Eggers

  Air, Space, Want

  Dave Eggers (2000). “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”

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