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Read through the most famous quotes by topic #existentialism
The spirit of rebellion can only exist in a society where a theoretical equality conceals great factual inequalities. The problem of rebellion, therefore, has no meaning except within our own Western society. ↗
Anybody watch General Clinic yesterday,” Vivian asked. “I had to work the lunch shift.” “Ooh, yeah,” Darlene said. “‘Fraid it doesn’t look good for Emile. It’s all that Mona’s fault. He wanted a private marriage and she wouldn’t listen.” At this, Vivian got a sad look in her eyes. Her mother had raised her on General Clinic. Her mother herself had been a faithful viewer for most of her life, ever since it was first aired. Instead of growing up on the stories of her mother’s childhood, Vivian was raised on bedtime summaries of past episodes of General Clinic, mostly from the 1970’s episodes, the so-called ‘stagnant years,’ highly underrated in her mother’s opinion. For 39 years her mother watched that show. Then she died. It happened just the way Aubrey murdered her son’s babysitter in the April 3, 1971 episode. What was the coincidence of that? Vivian thought about the irony of fate. Now she would be a victim of the very same unlikely probability. If only Emile would pull through…she might have a chance to hope. ↗
Mma Ramotswe had listened to a World Service broadcast on her radio one day which had simply taken her breath away. It was about philosophers who called themselves existentialists and who, as far as Mma Ramotswe could ascertain, lived in France. These French people said that you should just live in a way which made you feel real, and that the real thing to do was the right thing too. Mma Ramotswe had listened in astonishment. You did not have to go to France to meet existentialists, she reflected; there were many existentialists right here in Botswana. Note Mokoti, for example. She had been married to an existentialist herself, without even knowing it. Note, that selfish man who never once put himself out for another--not even for his wife--would have approved of existentialists, and they of him. It was very existentialist, perhaps, to go out to bars every night while your pregnant wife stayed at home, and even more existentialist to go off with girls--young existentialist girls--you met in bars. It was a good life being an existentialist, although not too good for all the other, nonexistentialist people around one. ↗
The unfailing rhythm of the seasons, the ever-turning wheel of life, the four facets of the earth which are lit in turn by the sun, the passing of life--all these filled me once more with a feeling of oppression. Once more there sounded within me, together with the cranes' cry, the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other, and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us. A mind hearing this pitiless warning--a warning which, at the same time, is so compassionate--would decide to conquer its weakness and meanness, its laziness and vain hopes and cling with all its power to every second which flies away forever. Great examples come to your mind and you see clearly that you are a lost soul, your life is being frittered away on petty pleasures and pains and trifling talk. "Shame! Shame!" you cry, and bite your lips. ↗
A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope. ↗
To Vic and other kids his age, the past didn't exist except as a quick, oversimplified Wikipedia snippets, that ultimately didn't matter because they weren't now. Dolores wonders if that is all she really is, a little piece of now, relentlessly pushed forward by time, trying desperately to look back over her shoulder to see what the past could possibly tell her, but caught in a rush that refused to stand still long enough for her to hear what it had to say. ↗
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