Quotes from Eugene Thacker

Around you this night a thousand million firefly anatomies breathe in and out in their slow-burning liturgical glow.

There is no surer sign of pessimism than an overly-optimistic person.

It seems to have no motive, no vendetta, no program of action, other than simply that of "being ooze.

Traditionally, the Socratic tradition in philosophy has a therapeutic function, which is to dispel the horrors of the unknown through reasoned argument. What cannot be tolerated in this tradition is the possibility of a world that cannot be known, or a world that is indifferent to our elaborate knowledge-producing schemes.

There will always be someone who will see the futility of your actions. There will always be someone who is irritated by what you do, whatever you do. In this way we participate in a kind of shared, communal pessimism.

Whenever it occurs, however it occurs, pessimism has but one effect: it introduces humility into thought. It undermines the innumerable, self-aggrandizing postures that constitute the human being. Pessimism is the humility of the species that has named itself, thought furtively stumbling upon its own limitations on black wings of futility.

The most devastating thing about suffering is that it is relative. There is always someone who hurts more, someone who hurts less.

For optimists, the most perplexing question is how one becomes a pessimist – if one is not born one. For the pessimist, the question is how each person, by virtue of being born, is not already a pessimist.

Kierkegaard famously wrote "my sorrow is my castle." Unfortunately not all of us have as much space.

How are things going?" "Oh, I can't complain…" The greatest complaint of all.

The question that runs through these disputatio is the following: What if "horror" has less to do with a fear of death, and more to do with the dread of life?

Are you a pessimist?" "On my better days…

Everything does work out in the end, one way or another.

The logic of pessimism moves through three refusals: a no-saying to the worst (refusal of the world-for-us, or Schopenhauer's tears); a yes-saying to the worst (refusal of the world-in-itself, or Nietzsche's laughter); and a no-saying to the for-us and the in-itself (a double refusal, or Cioran's sleep). Crying, laughing, sleeping — what other responses are adequate to a life that is so indifferent?

It is often said that the more spiritual a person becomes, the more unassuming they are. Eventually, they vanish entirely.

An oft-mentioned example in this regard is the Medieval practice of catapulting corpses. The primal scene in this regard is the 14th century Italian trading post at Caffa, on the northern border of the Black Sea. Ongoing skirmishes between Italian merchants and Muslim locals led, in one instance, to the catapulting of plague-ridden corpses by the latter, over the fortress walls of the former.87

Is there yet another meaning of "black" beyond this? There is, but it is a difficult thought to think, and nearly impossible to know, though it does exist (actually it doesn't exist, though the thought of its not-existing does).

There are times when I feel that the only real aptitude of our species is that we can ruin anything.

A bit of philosophizing leads to a wonderment of life. A lot of philosophizing leads to a contempt of it.

Human culture: a kind of incessant ringing in the ears.

T]he pinnacle of humanity lies in its ability to be disgusted with itself. What really separates us from other forms of life is our ability to detest our kind, to recognize the stupidity of being human. I spite, therefore I am.

How is it possible to feel nothing but unmitigated spite for so many different kinds of people?

If one is willing to go down this path, retinal pessimism is not just about the non-color that is black, but it is about the perception of color itself. It is, ultimately, the suspicion that all colors are black, that all retinal activity is retinal inactivity. Retinal pessimism: there is nothing to see (and you're seeing it).

Each time I read, and witness the scintillating and austere construction of a system, I cannot help but to feel a certain sadness - the edifice itself is somehow depressing.