Quotes About Meaning

You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow.

No, said the blind man. I do not mean in this house. I mean here. Among us.

Words are things.

I know that you can make a good case that all of human sorrow is grounded in injustice. Ands sorrow is what is left when rage is expended and found to be impotent.

The uncle narrowed his eyes at Suttree. No need to get on your high horse with me, he said. At least I was never in the goddamned penitentiary. Suttree smiled. The workhouse, John. It's a little different. But I am what I am.

And that would be my life. And I would be happy.

They have a long life, dreams. I have dreams now which I had as a young girl. They have an odd durability for something not quite real. Do you think they mean anything? She looked surprised. Oh yes, she said. Dont you? Well. I dont know. They're in your head. She smiled again. I suppose I dont consider that to be the condemnation you do.

Everything's important. A man lives his life, he has to make that important. Whether he's a small town county sheriff or the president. Or a busted out bum.

I only know that if she does not come to value what is true above what is useful it will make little difference whether she lives at all.

This is what Great Art does. It becomes more real than the real, more true than the truth.

The straight and the winding way are one and now that you are here what do the years count since last we two met together? Men's memories are uncertain and the past that was differs little from the past that was not.

I don't know what to tell you, he wrote. Much has changed and yet everything is the same. I am the same. I always will be. I'm writing because there are things that I think you would like to know. I am writing because there are things I dont want to forget. Everything is gone from my life except you. I dont even know what that means.

White      There's nothing to follow. It's all right. The things that I loved were very frail. Very fragile. I didnt know that. I thought they were indestructible. They werent. Black      And that's what sent you off the edge of the platform. It wasnt nothin personal. White It is personal. That's what an education does. It makes the world personal.

No one cares. It's not important. That's where you're wrong my friend. Everything's important. A man lives his life, he has to make that important. Whether he's a small town county sheriff or the president. Or a busted out bum. You might even understand that some day. I don't say you will. You might.

I had trouble with the God thing. A lot of people do.

One could even say that what endows any thing with significance is solely the history in which it has participated. Yet wherein does that history lie?

I'm not sure what the adaptive advantage could be to share an innate and collective misery.

Letzte Worte sind auch nur Worte.

I only know that if she does not come to value what is true above what is useful it will make little difference whether she lives at all. And by true I do not mean what is righteous but

She aint worth it. None of em are. He didnt answer for a while. Then he said: Yes they are. When

That's where you're wrong my friend. Everything's important. A man lives his life, he has to make that important. Whether he's a small town county sheriff or the president. Or a busted out bum. You might even understand that some day.

The best way to die well is to live well. To die for another would give your death meaning. Ignoring for the time being the fact that the other is going to die anyway.

the major enemy of black survival in America has been and is neither oppression nor exploitation but rather the nihilistic threat—that is, loss of hope and absence of meaning. For as long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive. The self-fulfilling prophecy of the nihilistic threat is that without hope there can be no future, that without meaning there can be no struggle.

Like alcoholism and drug addiction, nihilism is a disease of the soul. It can never be completely cured, and there is always the possibility of relapse. But there is always a chance for conversion -- a chance for people to believe that there is hope for the future and a meaning to struggle... Nihilism is not overcome by arguments or analyses; it is tamed by love and care.