Quotes About Existence

Metaphysics is a closed system;

La cuestión de la arquitectura es de hecho el problema del lugar, de tener lugar en el espacio

Het solipsisme is geen verstandsverbijstering en geen sofisme; het is de wezenlijke structuur van de rede.

If man--if each one of us--abdicates his responsibilities with regard to values; if each one of us limits himself to leading a trivial existence in a technological civilization, with greater adaptation and increasing success as his sole objectives; if we do not even consider the possibility of making a stand against these determinants, then everything will happen as I have described it, and the determinates will be transformed into inevitabilities.

O quizá no venimos tampoco para eso. La cuestión se reduce a estar vivo un instante, aunque sea un instante no más, a estar vivo

I thought of Bobby, of the last look he had given me, and at that moment I understood one of the differences between man and cat: man knows he's going to die, so he can get ready and be willing, even eager, to go. A cat knows the end is near, but that's all. He can't accept death: he can't trust in it; cats are perhaps too metaphysical an entity to need to believe in the idea of a beyond; a cat is his own god and man his creation.

We are all afraid that one day we shall pass away into nonexistence. But if the truth be known, nonexistence is trembling in fear that it might be given human shape.

Her nakedness was a challenge, her beauty a danger, her way of life an abomination and her existence an evil.

The chance emergence of the was nothing. Remember this. But its persistence and patient accumulation of stature were everything. Only by relentless effort did it establish its right to exist.

We are mankind because we survive. We do it in a half-assed way, but we do it.

The curious thing about this little forerunner of greatness is that although we are sure that he existed and are intellectually convinced that he had to have certain characteristics, no man has ever seen a shred of physical evidence that he really did exist.

Every man is where he is by the law of his being;

Unrest and pain and sorrow are the shadows of life.

Not only great happiness but great power arises from doing little things unselfishly, wisely, and perfectly, for life in its totality is made up of little things. Wisdom inheres in the common details of everyday existence, and when the parts are made perfect the Whole will be without blemish.

Despair = Suffering - Meaning.

Most people think they need to say "thank you" to the world. But the world is constantly saying "thank you" to you for being alive, for creating new things, new energies, new experiences. Every day give the world at least one more reason to whisper "thank you" to you. If you can hear that whisper, everything else, every gift in life, becomes expected. You earned it. Just take it.

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

The occurrence of an event is not the same thing as knowing what it is that one has lived through. Most people had not lived -- nor could it, for that matter, be said that they had died-- through any of their terrible events. They had simply been stunned by the hammer. They passed their lives thereafter in a kind of limbo of denied and unexamined pain. The great question that faced him this morning was whether or not had had ever, really, been present at his life.

I can't be a pessimist because I'm alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter.

It's astounding the first time you realize that a stranger has a body - the realization that he has a body makes him a stranger. It means that you have a body, too. You will live with this forever, and it will spell out the language of your life.

I simply wondered about the dead because their days had ended and I did not know how I would get through mine.

I remembered that life in that room seemed to be occuring beneath the sea, time flowed past indiffrently above us, hours and days had no meaning.

Though we do not wholly believe it yet, the interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world.