Quotes About Existence

We rarely see that "past" and "future" are happening right now. All that there is, is an unfolding of present moments. We have created these concepts to serve a useful purpose, but by taking the ideas to be the reality, by not understanding that they are merely the product of our own thought processes, we find ourselves burdened by worries and regrets about the past and anxieties of anticipation about what has not yet happened.

When you close your eyes there is the breath, sensations, sounds, thoughts—where is "man" or "woman" except as an idea, a concept?

Ask yourself how many of the billions of inhabitants of this planet have any idea of how rare it is to have been born as a human being.

The frog is almost five hundred million years old. Could you really say with much certainty that America, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is highest in the world, will last as long as...the frog?

Of course you're dying. We're all dying. Where the devil else do you think you're heading?

How do you feel Yossarian? Fine. No, I'm very frightened. That's good, said Major Danby. It proves you're still alive. It won't be fun. Yossarian started out. Yes it will.

Well, maybe it's true,' Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. 'Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?' 'I do,' Dunbar told him. 'Why?' Clevinger asked. 'What else is there?

The dead man in Yossarian's tent was a pest, and Yossarian didn't like him, even though he had never seen him. Having him laying around all day annoyed Yossarian so much that he had gone to the orderly room several times to complain to Sergeant Towser, who refused to admit that the dead man even existed, which, of course, he no longer did.

There was no way of really knowing anything, he knew, not even that there was no way of really knowing anything.

Man was matter. Drop him out of a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage.

The years are too short, the days are too long.

Of course you're dying. We're all dying. Where the devil else do you think you're heading?

As far as I know, I'm the only Captain Yossarian I know, but that's only as far as I know.

Dehogynem haldoklik. Mindahányan haldoklunk.

The man who declares that survival at all costs is the end of existence is morally dead, because he's prepared to sacrifice all other values which give life its meaning. —SIDNEY HOOK

Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one? I do, Dunbar told him. Why? Clevinger asked. What else is there?

Well, maybe it's true, Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions to make it seem long. But in that event, who wants one? I do Dunbar told him. why? Clevinger asked. What else is there?

In fact, though the books came slowly, he was a novelist to his bootlaces, an avid narrator who couldn't stop the story once it had started, who felt the terrors of existence so acutely that he had to tell them and tell them until he'd made them something else.

Be thankful you're healthy. Be bitter you're not going to stay that way. Be glad you're even alive. Be furious you're going to die. Things could be much worse, she cried. They could be one hell of a lot better, he answered heatedly.

Well, maybe it is true, Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subded tone. Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one? I do, Dunbar told him. Why? Clevinger asked. What else is there?

You began in a sperm cell as a strand of DNA that still doesn't know who you are.

How much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever? Keep in mind that the earth itself is destined to be destroyed by the sun in twenty-five million years or so.

Cum te simÈ›i, Yossarian? -Bine. Ba nu, sunt foarte speriat. -Asta-i bine, spuse maiorul Danby, dovedeÈ™te c? eÈ™ti înc? viu.

Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who needs one?