Quotes About Existence

EINMAL, da hörte ich ihn da wusch er de Welt, ungesehn, nactlang, wirklich. Eins und Unendlich, Vernichtet, Ichten. Licht war. Rettung.

Unreadability of this world. All doubles. The strong clocks back the fissure-hour, hoarsely. You, wedged into your deepest, climb out of yourself for ever. — Paul Celan, "Unreadability," Paul Celan: Selections . (University of California Press, March 14th 2005)

Once, I did hear him, he did wash the world, unseen, nightlong, real. One and unending, annihilated, I'ed. Light was. Salvation

They dug and they dug, so their day went by for them, their night. And they did not praise God, who, so they heard, wanted all this, who, so they heard, knew all this. -There was Earth inside Them

What threw us together, scare-scatters, a worldstone, sun-distant, hums.

Zwischen Immer und Nie.

Ich kenne dich, du bist die tief Gebeugte, ich, der Durchbohrte, bin dir untertan. Wo flammt ein Wort, das für uns beide zeugte? Du—ganz, ganz wirklich. Ich—ganz Wahn.)

Von der sinkenden Walstirn les ich dich ab – du erkennst mich, der Himmel stürzt sich in die Harpune, sechsbeinig hockt unser Stern im Schaum, langsam hißt einer, der's sieht, den Trosthappen: das balzende Nichts.

How amazing it is to be alive Anyone who lives and breathes and puts both feet on the ground, What possible reason could he have for envying the gods

Some are convinced that the universe has no point. The cosmos is indifferent, deaf to our cries and oblivious to our tears. Human beings are nothing more than molecules in motion—biological organisms trying to survive and reproduce but destined to eventual extinction along with all else in the universe. Is that the story we should believe?

It's not like there's a vote on what's real," said Judith. "It don't matter what either of you believe, the world just gets on with it.

It is a fundamental denial of your humanity to narrow the size of your life to the size of your own existence,

The world we live in is a house of pain, and we cannot live in it without it touching us. You will never be smart enough to escape its grasp. From the violence of childbirth to cut fingers and scraped knees, from sibling mockery and peer rejection to familial brokenness, suffering is part of every phase of human existence. We enter life through suffering's door and we exit life through suffering's door.

Creation points us to the Creator, but it can never give us what the Creator can give.

Prayer is, in itself, a recognition that something exists in the world that is greater and more glorious than you. Prayer is meant to remind you that your little world, filled with your little plans, is not ultimate. Prayer teaches you that there is a greater glory than any glory that you could ever want for yourself. Prayer is meant to help you remember that the deepest, most important motivation for every person who has ever taken a breath is the awe of God.

Faith is a deep-seated belief in the existence of God that radically alters the way you live your life. Now, here's the rub. Faith isn't natural for us. Biblical faith is counterintuitive and countercultural. So we even need God's grace to have faith to believe in the existence of the One whose grace we so desperately need. And the grace is yours for the asking again today.

Mourning means you recognize the most important reality in the human existence, sin. Mourning means you have been hit by the weight of what it has done to you and to everyone you know.

The most important thing that a child could ever learn about is the existence, character, and plan of God.

It is more natural for your children to deny God's existence than it is for them to humbly recognize it and submit to his holy demands on their

Lord. I must recognize that God, in his awesome glory, is the only being in the universe who exists in timelessness. He has created me to live in and for a certain time and place. I must do all he has called me to do within the limits of the time he has given me.

from birth we are all philosophers, we are all theologians, and we all function like archeologists, digging through the mound of our existence to make sense of it all.

We are all theologians. We are all philosophers. We are all archaeologists who dig into the mounds of our lives to try to make sense of the civilization that is our story. This God-designed mental motivation is accompanied by wonderful and mysterious analytical gifts. This drive and those gifts set us apart from the rest of creation. They are holy, created by God to draw us to him, so that we can know him and understand ourselves in light of his existence and will.

It is a fundamental denial of your humanity to narrow the size of your life to the size of your own existence, because you were created to be an "above and more" being. You were made to be transcendent.

In the beginning, God . . ." These are four thunderously important words. They really do change everything,