Existence Quotes - Page 26

• There's a large strain of irony in our human affairs... Interwoven with our affairs is this wonderful spirit of irony which prevents us from ever being utterly and irretrievably serious, from being unaware of the mysterious nature of our existence.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Serious, Spirit, Irony

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• A freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied. And it is not true that the recognition of the freedom of others limits my own freedom: to be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future; the existence of others as a freedom defines my situation and is even the condition of my own freedom. I am oppressed if I am thrown into prison, but not if I am kept from throwing my neighbor into prison.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Able, Limits, Recognition

  Simone de Beauvoir (1948). “The Ethics of Ambiguity”

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• For there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence.

  Joseph Conrad

  Sea, Mistress, Mysterious

  Joseph Conrad (2008). “Heart of Darkness and Other Tales”, OUP Oxford

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• No culture has yet solved the dilemma each has faced with the growth of a conscious mind: how to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in all life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s own culture but within oneself.

  Barry Lopez

  Blood, Darkness, Mind

  Barry Lopez (2013). “Arctic Dreams”, p.529, Open Road Media

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• That,' he said, with almost religious fever, 'was the coolest thing you have ever done. In fact, that may have been the coolest thing you ever will do. Your entire existence has been moving toward one shining moment, George, and that was the moment when you thought, 'Hey, why don't I just go over the zombies?

  Mira Grant

  Religious, Moving, Shining

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• The existence of other people is essentially awkward.

  Lionel Shriver

  People, Awkward

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• When I consider the narrow limits within which our active and inquiring faculties are confined; when I see how all our energies are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which again have no further end than to prolong a wretched existence; and then that all our satisfaction concerning certain subjects of investigation ends in nothing better than a passive resignation... when I consider all this... I am silent.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Limits, Satisfaction, Inquiring

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2016). “THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER (Literary Classics Series): Historical Romance Novel”, p.7, e-artnow

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• And I like those authors best whose scenes describe my own situation in life-- and the friends who are about me whose stories touch me with interest, from resembling my own homely existence.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Situations In Life, Stories, Scene

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2016). “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, p.22, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. To make this a living force and bring it to clear consciousness is perhaps the foremost task of education. The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.

  Albert Einstein

  Giving, Doubt, Balance

  Albert Einstein (2013). “Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives”, p.95, Princeton University Press

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• Thought is no longer theoretical. As soon as it functions it offends or reconciles, attracts or repels, breaks, dissociates, unites or reunites; it cannot help but liberate or enslave. Even before prescribing, suggesting a future, saying what must be done, even before exhorting or merely sounding an alarm, thought, at the level of its existence, in its very dawning, is in itself an action-a perilous act.

  Michel Foucault

  Alarms, Done, Levels

  Michel Foucault (1980). “Language, Counter-memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews”, p.5, Cornell University Press

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• At teenage parties he was always wandering into the garden, sitting on a bench in the dark . . . staring up at the constellations and pondering all those big questions about the existence of God and the nature of evil and the mystery of death, questions which seemed more important than anything else in the would until a few years passed and some real questions had been dumped into your lap, like how to earn a living, and why people fell in and out of love, and how long you could carry on smoking and then give up without getting lung cancer.

  Mark Haddon

  Love, Teenage, Giving Up

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• Writing is not a job or activity. Nor do I sit at a desk writing for inspiration to strike. Writing is like a different kind of existence. In my life, for some of the time, I am in an alternative world, which I enter through day-dreaming or imagination. That world seems as real to me as the more tangible one of relationships and work, cars and taxes. I don't know that they're much different from each other.

  John Marsden

  Dream, Jobs, Real

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• Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?

  Emile M. Cioran

  Home, Exile, Nothingness

  "Tears and Saints". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1937.

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• You know, Jacob, if it weren’t for the fact that we’re natural enemies and that you’re also trying to steal away the reason for my existence, I might actually like you.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Enemy, Trying, Might

  Stephenie Meyer (2009). “Eclipse”, p.288, Hachette UK

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• What Richard is talking about is instead admitting to the existence of negative thoughts, understanding where they came from and why they arrived, and then - with great forgiveness and fortitude - dismissing them.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Talking, Understanding, Negative

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.169, A&C Black

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• You don't want me to feel obligated? Well, I'm sorry, Lily. I am here because I feel obligated." He brought her hand to his chest, pressing her palm flat against his rapidly thumping pulse. "I'm obligated by my heart. It's decided you're essential to my existence, you see. And it's threatening to go out on labor strike if I don't make you mine this very day. So yes. I am here on bended knee, acting from a deep, undeniable sense of obligation. I am, quite simply, yours." He swallowed hard. "If you'll have me.

  Tessa Dare

  Sorry, Heart, Hands

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• A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

  Carl Jung

  Passion, Men, Light

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• I am filled with you. Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul. There's no room for lack of trust, or trust. Nothing in this existence but that existence.

  Rumi

  Blood, Soul, Brain

  Rumi (2015). “Selected Poems”, p.175, Penguin UK

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• It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. It is as if loneliness were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the outstretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsolable and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp.

  Joseph Conrad

  Stars, Loneliness, Eye

  Joseph Conrad (1905). “Lord Jim”, p.167, McClure, Phillips & Company

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• I would always love this fragile human girl, for the rest of my limitless existence.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Girl, Limitless, Humans

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• You are...Well, not exactly the love of my life, because I expect to love you for much longer than that. The love of my existence." -Bella

  Stephenie Meyer

  Love You, Love Of My Life, Switzerland

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• All objects exist in a moment of time.

  Amy Tan

  Moments, Objects

  Amy Tan (2001). “The Bonesetter's Daughter”, p.248, Penguin

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• In the Kingdom of Heaven, there is no grandeur to be won, inasmuch as there all is an established hierarchy, the unknown is revealed, existence is infinite, there is no possibility of sacrifice, all is rest and joy. For this reason, bowed down by suffering and duties, beautiful in the midst of his misery, capable of loving in the face of afflictions and trials, man finds his greatness, his fullest measure, only in The Kingdom of This World.

  Alejo Carpentier

  Beautiful, Sacrifice, Greatness

  Alejo Carpentier (1990). “The Kingdom of this World”, Andre Deutsch

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• The psychological dangers through which earlier generations were guided by the symbols and spiritual exercises of their mythological and religious inheritance, we today (in so far as we are unbelievers, or, if believers, in so far as our inherited beliefs fail to represent the real problems of contemporary life) must face alone, or, at best with only tentative, impromptu, and not often very effective guidance. This is our problem as modern, "enlightened" individuals, for whom all gods and devils have been rationalized out of existence.

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Religious

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• And if I should leave you, for any reason," he added, tightening his grip as she struggled to free her hand, "I will return to you. That is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow morning and the thunderbolt falling tomorrow night. That is as sure as the god's existence. I will come back to you, or I will find you - over and over again, as often as we are parted, until the end of the world itself.

  Sharon Shinn

  Morning, Fall, Night

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