Quotes About Meaning

Belane, are you nuts? Who knows? Insanity is comparative. Who sets the norm?

Most people's deaths are a sham. There's nothing left to die.

Kita semua akan mati, semuanya. Menakutkan bukan? Alasan itu saja seharusnya membuat kita saling mencintai, tetapi tidak. Kita diteror dan digilas oleh hal-hal yang remeh dalam hidup; ditelan oleh kehampaan.

O era contradictorio, o había que redefinir el término improvisación. Siempre se piensa que improvisar es actuar sin pensar. Pero si uno hace una cosa por un impulso, o porque le da la gana, o directamente sin saber por qué, de todas maneras es uno el que la hace, y uno tiene una historia que lo ha llevado a ese punto de su vida; y entonces, lejos de no haber pensado ese acto, no podría haberlo pensado más: lo ha estado pensando cada minuto desde que nació.

I was almost unimaginably vague, not because I was stupid, but because nothing really mattered to me. This is an enormous paradox, because everything mattered to me, far too much; I made a mountain out of every molehill, and that was my main problem... I might have seemed indifferent, but nothing could have been further from the truth and I knew it.

Hacedores de imágenes, devolved la palabra a los hombres!

Poetry is the language of intensity. Because we are going to die, an expression of intensity is justified.

This is not the true meaning of jihad," he spoke into the starless dark. "Jihad is the holy war we have within ourselves. That is the meaning below the surface. Our internal struggle for purity," he said with emphasis, pressing his forefinger into his chest. "It is the war of ascendance over our basal instincts. It has absolutely nothing to do with others. The only thing we can have control over is ourselves.

We come to know ourselves only through stories. We listen to the stories of others, we inherit the stories of those who came before, and we make sense of our own experiences by constructing a narrative that holds them, and holds us, together. Stories are how we make sense of our lives.

I suppose regret is an expression of humanity. Without regret . . . where does that leave us?

Every reading is partial, but that does not absolve us from the quest for meaning, which defines us as a species.

I tell Ki that I'm learning about words and stories to help our family. He says he's protecting our family with his knife. Who is right? Which is best, protecting with words or with his knife? She is instant, certain, and solemn, and there is no misunderstanding her meaning. Fight ignorance with words. Fight evil with your knife. Tell you husband, Ki, that he is right.

Being a writer is all about having something to say. And it'd better be interesting. If you don't have anything interesting to say, don't become a writer. Become something useful. Like a doctor.

private investigator. Which he actually was. So the turtle-eyed sergeant ignored him.

The whales consider themselves different individuals, so we have to treat them that way. Think of tribes. Tribes of other beings. Other beings with other minds living other lives on the same planet. Different, certainly. But fundamentally not really very different. They mean something to one another, and so their lives mean something to them. Perhaps that should mean something to us.

we make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers

The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.

We make our purpose.

If we are merely matter intricately assembled, is this really demeaning? If there's nothing here but atoms, does that make us less or does that make matter more?

The nature of life on Earth and the search for life elsewhere are two sides of the same question—the search for who we are.

We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock. The significance of our lives and our fragile realm derives from our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning.

El Universo no parece ni benigno ni hostil, simplemente indiferente a las preocupaciones de seres tan insignificantes como nosotros.

Demon" means "knowledge" in Greek. "Science" means "knowledge" in Latin. A jurisdictional dispute is exposed, even if we look no further.