|
Existence |
|
| "I have an existential map. It has 'You are here'
written all over it."
|
| -- Steven Wright |
|
| “Man does not
simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he
will become in the next moment.” |
| --
Viktor Frankel |
|
"No man or woman of
the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the
world being better for it, without somebody being helped and
comforted by the very existence of that goodness."
|
| -- Alan Alda, American actor |
|
| “To exist is to change, to change is to
mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” |
| -- Henri Bergson |
|
| "The whole secret of existence is to have
no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only
the moment you reject all help are you freed." |
| -- Buddha (563?-483? BC), Indian mystic,
founder of Buddhism |
|
| "We are all born for love. It is the
principle of existence, and its only end." |
| -- Benjamin "Dizzy" Disraeli
(1804-81), British politician |
|
| "Of what significance is one's one
existence, one is basically unaware. What does a fish know about the
water in which he swims all his life? The bitter and the sweet come
from outside. The hard from within, from one's own efforts. For the
most part I do what my own nature drives me to do. It is
embarrassing to earn such respect and love for it." |
| -- Albert Einstein (1875-1955), German-born
American theoretical physicist |
|
| "The education of the will is the object
of our existence." |
| -- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), American
writer, philosopher, poet |
|
| "Don\'t part with your illusions. When
they are gone you may still exist but you have ceased to live." |
| -- Mark Twain (1835-1910), [Samuel Langhorne
Clemens] American author, humorist |
|
| "I see knowledge increasing and human
power increasing. I see ever-increasing possibilities before life,
And I see no limits set to it at all, Existence impresses me as a
perpetual dawn. Our lives, as I apprehend, are great in
expectations." |
| -- H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells (1866-1946),
English author |
|
| "I believe that one of the great problems
for us as individuals is the depression and the tension resulting
from existence in a world which is increasingly less pleasing to the
eye." |
| -- "Lady Bird" Johnson (b.
1912), First Lady of the US, wife of Lyndon |
|
| "Existence reveals essence. Existence is
the litmus test of the human spirit; it is the medium on which the
spirit leaves its indelible mark." |
| -- Alfred Emerson Unaterra (1952-2002),
American writer |
|
| "Man supposes that he directs his life and
governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the
control of destiny." |
| -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832),
German writer, scientist |
|
| "Question with boldness even the existence
of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the
homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." |
| -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd US
President |
|
| "Every moment of one's
existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is
always living a little more or dying a little bit." |
| -- Norman Mailer, American writer |
|
| "As death, when we come to
consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have
formed during the last few years such close relations with this best
and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer
terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I
thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity...of
learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true
happiness." |
| -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91), Austrian
composer |
|
| "The question is no longer between
violence and non-violence; it is between non-violence and
non-existence." |
| -- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68),
African-American reverend, civil rights leader |
|
| "The only alternative to co-existence is
co-destruction." |
| -- Jawaharial Nehru (1889-1964), Prime Minister
of India |
|
| "As far as we can discern, the sole
purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the
darkness of mere being." |
| -- Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), Swiss
psychiatrist, founded psychology |
|
| "In the consciousness of the
truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness
or the absurdity of existence… and loathing seizes him." |
| -- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900),
German philosopher |
|
| "Being religious means asking passionately
the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to
receive answers, even if the answers hurt." |
| -- Paul Johannes Tillich (1886-1965),
German-born American theologian |
|
| "Life is a wave, which in no two
consecutive moments of its existence is composed of the same
particles." |
| -- John Tyndall (1820-93), Irish-born British
physicist |
|
| "It is by no means an irrational fancy
that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our
present existence, as a dream." |
| -- Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), American writer |
|
| "The lightning-bug is brilliant, but he
hasn't any mind; He stumbles through existence with his head-light
on behind." |
| -- Eugene F. Ware |
|
| "Civilization is the progress toward a
society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by
the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man
free from men." |
| -- Ayn Rand (1905-82), Russian-born American
writer |
|
| "As soon as man does not take his
existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably
mysterious, thought begins." |
| -- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), French
philosopher, physician, musician |
|
| "Fact of the matter is, there is no hip
world, there is no straight world. There's a world, you see, which
has people in it who believe in a variety of different things.
Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact
that they believe in something, use that something to support their
own existence." |
| -- Frank Zappa, American rock artist |
|
| "Human existence begins when the lack of
fixation of action by instincts exceeds a certain point; when the
adaptation to nature loses its coercive character; when the way to
act is no longer fixed by hereditarily fixed mechanisms. In other
words, human existence and freedom are from the beginning
inseparable." |
| -- Eric Fromm |
|
| "Life without sex might be safer but it
would be unbearably dull. It is the sex instinct which makes women
seem beautiful, which they are once in a blue moon, and men seem
wise and brave, which they never are at all. Throttle it,
denaturalize it, take it away, and human existence would be reduced
to the prosiac, laborious, boresome, imbecile level of life in an
anthill." |
| -- Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956), American
editor, critic |
|
| "Only to the extent that someone is living
out this self transcendence of human existence, is he truly human or
does he become his true self. He becomes so, not by concerning
himself with his self's actualization, but by forgetting himself and
giving himself, overlooking himself and focusing outward." |
| -- Viktor Frankl (1905-97),
Austrian-born psychiatrist, writer |
|
"Look to this day,
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your
existence;
the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of beauty.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes
every yesterday a dream of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore to this day,
such is the salutation of the dawn." |
| -- The Sufi (1200 BC) |
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