#existentialism

One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the Universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#humor #sarcastic-humor #satire #humor

It is interesting to note how many of the great scientific discoveries begin as myths. ↗

— Rollo May

#myth #science #science

The hardest bones, containing the richest marrow, can be conquered only by a united crushing of all the teeth of all dogs. That of course is only a figure of speech and exaggerated; if all teeth were but ready they would not need even to bite, the bones would crack themselves and the marrow would be freely accessible to the feeblest of dogs. If I remain faithful to this metaphor, then the goal of my aims, my questions, my inquiries, appears monstrous, it is true. For I want to compel all dogs thus to assemble together, I want the bones to crack open under the pressure of their collective preparedness, and then I want to dismiss them to the ordinary life they love, while all by myself, quite alone, I lap up the marrow. That sounds monstrous, almost as if I wanted to feed on the marrow, not merely of bone, but of the whole canine race itself. But it is only a metaphor. The marrow that I am discussing here is no food; on the contrary, it is a poison. ↗

— Franz Kafka

#philosophy #faith

Without knowledge of what I am and why I am here, it is impossible to live, and since I cannot know that, I cannot live either. In an infinity of time, in an infinity of matter, and an infinity of space a bubble-organism emerges while will exist for a little time and then burst, and that bubble am I. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#knowledge #life #philosophy #life

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules ↗

— Albert Camus

#morality #ethics

The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it. ↗

— Anton Chekhov

#metaphysics #metaphysics

I rebel; therefore I exist. ↗

— Albert Camus

#rebel #existentialism

You look up when you wish to be exalted. And I look down because I am exalted. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#wisdom #writing #existentialism

We do not pray for immortality, but only not to see our acts and all things stripped suddenly of all their meaning; for then it is the utter emptiness of everything reveals itself. ↗

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

#existentialism #meaning #existentialism

Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level. ↗

— Ernest Becker

#existentialism