Quotes About Existence

In Buddhist writings, mention is often made of "the abyss of birth." An abyss indeed, a gulf into which we do not fall but from which, instead, we emerge, to our universal chagrin.

To suffer is the great modality of taking the world seriously.

The Real gives me asthma.

Though we may prefer ourselves to the universe, we nonetheless loathe ourselves much more than we suspect. If the wise man is so rare a phenomenon, it is because he seems unshaken by the aversion which, like all beings, he must feel for himself.

You are done for — a living dead man — not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.

Ce-i vom raspunde oarbei care se plange in poezia lui Rilke: «nu mai pot trai asa cu cerul pe mine»? Oare am mangaia-o de i-am spune ca nu mai putem trai cu pamantul sub noi?

The initial revelation of any monastery: everything is nothing. Thus begin all mysticisms. It is less than one step from nothing to God, for God is the positive expression of nothingness.

It is trifling to believe in what you do or in what others do. You should avoid simulacra and even "realities"; you should take up a position external to everything and everyone, drive off or grind down your appetites, live, according to a Hindu adage, with as few desires as a "solitary elephant.

Ever since I was born"—that since has a resonance so dreadful to my ears it becomes unendurable.

Time is heavy sometimes; imagine how heavy eternity must be.

În tristete, totul are doua fete. Nu poti fi nici în iad si nici în rai, nici în viata si nici în moarte, nici fericit si nici nefericit. Un plîns fara lacrimi, un echivoc fara sfîrsit. Caci nu te izgoneste ea în aceeasi masura din aceasta lume, ca si din cealalta? Esti trist de totdeauna, nu de acum. Si acest totdeauna e toata lumea înainte de nasterea ta. Nu-i tristetea amintirea vremii în care n-am fost?

Tristetea, ca si suferinta, ne revela existenta, deoarece în ele avem în constiinta separatia noastra de lumea obiectiva si nelinistea care da un caracter tragic vietuirii în existenta. Daca ar exista un zeu al tristetii, lui nu i-ar putea creste decât aripi negre si grele, pentru a zbura nu înspre ceruri, ci în infern.

The sphere of consciousness shrinks in action; no one who acts can lay claim to the universal, for to act is to cling to the properties of being at the expense of being itself, to a form of reality to reality's detriment.

Dau în scris, pentru toat? lumea care va veni dup? mine, c? n-am în ce s? cred pe acest p?mînt ÅŸi c? unica sc?pare este uitarea absolut?. AÅŸ vrea s? uit de tot, s? m? uit complet, s? nu mai ÅŸtiu nimic de mine ÅŸi de lumea aceasta. Adev?ratele confesiuni nu se pot scrie decît cu lacrimi. Dar lacrimile mele ar îneca aceast? lume, precum focul meu interior ar incendia-o.

Am tr?it întotdeauna cu conÅŸtiinÅ£a neputinÅ£ei de a tr?i. Åži ceea ce mi-a f?cut existenÅ£a suportabil? e curiozitatea de a vedea cum aveam s? trec de la un minut, de la o zi, de la un an la altul.

The pessimist has to invent new reasons to exist every day: he is a victim of the "meaning" of life.

Extraordinary and null—these two adjectives apply to the sexual act, and, consequently, to everything resulting from it, to life first of all.

Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it, this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What do do? where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.

As the years accumulate, we form an increasingly somber image of the future. Is this only to console ourselves for being excluded from it? Yes in appearance, no in fact, for the future has always been hideous, man being able to remedy his evils only by aggravating them, so that in each epoch existence, is much more tolerable before the solution is found to the difficulties of the moment.

The state of health is a state of nonsensation, even nonreality. As soon as we cease to suffer, we cease to exist.

Aduni,cuceresti,castigi si lupti pentru a fugi de tine,pentru a-ti invinge intristarea de a nu exista,in mod real,decat tu insuti.

A harmonious being cannot believe in God. Saints, criminals, and paupers have launched him, making him available to all unhappy people.

We are all deep in a hell each moment of which is a miracle.

The dead center of existence: when it is all the same to you whether you read a newspaper article or think about God.