Existential Angst Quotes

• As women glide from their twenties to thirties, Shazzer argues, the balance of power subtly shifts. Even the most outrageous minxes lose their nerve, wrestling with the first twinges of existential angst: fears of dying alone and being found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian.

  Helen Fielding

  Wrestling, Dying Alone, Balance

  Helen Fielding (2013). “The Bridget Jones Omnibus: The Singleton Years: Bridget Jones's Diary & The Edge of Reason”, p.17, Pan Macmillan

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have a very good life, so I have nothing to complain about. Sometimes, I just have existential angst.

  Meg Ryan

  Good Life, Complaining, Existentialism

  78 Copy quote

• I sometimes look into the face of my dog Stan and see a wistful sadness and existential angst, when all he is actually doing is slowly scanning the ceiling for flies.

  Merrill Markoe

  Dog, Sadness, Ceilings

  Merrill Markoe (1992). “What the Dogs Have Taught Me: And Other Amazing Things I've Learned”, Viking Press

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• I feel there’s an existential angst among young people. I didn’t have that. They see enormous mountains, where I only saw one little hill to climb.

  Sergey Brin

  People, Mountain, Littles

  "Google co-founder Sergey Brin wants more computers in schools" by Dan Fost, latimesblogs.latimes.com. October 28, 2009.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think that the thing is, all those years of creating music or trying to express something of a dark shadow, an existential angst that I have felt most of my life and still feel today, to not be overwhelmed by it. Music, in a way, is a great vehicle, a means by which one can express all these somewhat contradictory feelings.

  Annie Lennox

  Mean, Dark, Thinking

  "Annie Lennox: Music + Passion + Freedom". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I seem to have come out of the womb with existential angst and wasn't a happy kid, so I've been on a lifelong search trying to discover how to live the best life possible. I committed my life to doing what I could to experience greater happiness, which ultimately led me to write a book on the subject called Happy for No Reason.

  Marci Shimoff

  Book, Writing, Kids

  Source: theindiespiritualist.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The great thing about 'The Office' and it being single-camera and the documentary style is that it's mostly a comedy, but 10 percent of it is, we get to show the existential angst that exists in the American workplace.

  Rainn Wilson

  Being Single, Office, Style

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. August 19, 2008.

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• First, you hand over some basics-overwhelming joy, existential angst, a giving-in to desire, etc. And then you promise to withstand talking idly about the weather, to encourage cliché, to uphold the virtues of average. You hand over the need to be understood and, in return, you get a bar of Normal soap. And you can wash in it and be daily reborn to a safe world of modest, enduring love or, at least, mild, well-mannered bonding.

  Julianna Baggott

  Love, Average, Hands

  4 Copy quote

• When I talk about the pain and hardship of a scientist's life, I'm speaking of more than existential angst. Galileo's work was condemned by the Church; Madame Curie paid with her life, a victim of leukemia wrought by radiation poisoning. Too many of us develop cataracts. None of us gets enough sleep. Most of what we know about the universe we know thanks to a lot of guys (and ladies) who stayed up late at night.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Pain, Sleep, Night

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.16, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

  Show source