Quotes About Meaning

Working to establish a more comfortable style of survival has grown to feel complete in and of itself as a reason to live, and we've gradually, methodically, forgotten our original question … We've forgotten that we still don't know what we're surviving for.

The awareness begins with a feeling of restlessness—an inner urging to find more meaning in life. As we respond to this inner prompting we begin to notice the "chance coincidences"—strange synchronistic events in our life. We begin to realize that some underlying process is operating our life.

Working to establish a more comfortable style of survival has grown to feel complete in and of itself as a reason to live, and we've gradually, methodically, forgotten our original question … We've forgotten that we still don't know what we're surviving for.' Out

creatures smart enough and unlucky enough to have figured out we're alive, and we're going to die without ever knowing any purpose. We can pretend all we want and we can wish all we want, but that basic existential fact remains—we can't know.

They can't slow down because they use their routine to distract themselves, to reduce life to only its practical considerations. And they do this to avoid recalling how uncertain they are about why they live.

You can't know how amazing this is, how it makes up for everything. I knew that there was something like this out there, because if there wasn't, then life is just dental floss and vegetables and word problems. That can't be everything.

He chooses his language for its rich canorousness rather than for intensity of meaning.

There never yet was flower fair in vain.

Why'd you call, boy? What did you want from me? The company of a friend, I think. Always a cheap treat.

He longs for the one line to give them that they will always remember, that will embrace everything, that will point the way, but he cannot find the line, he cannot recognize it. It is more precious, he knows, than anything else they might own, but he does not have it.

Dingen die je geschreven hebt, rijpen niet met je mee, zo lijkt me althans. De waarheid ervan kan bepaald zijn door de tijd, maar er bestaat niet zoiets als bij de tijd zijn wanneer de tijd voorbij is. Boeken blijven bestaan buiten de tijd om of ze houden op te bestaan. Dat is zoals het gaat in de literatuur. Boeken markeren een periode of een plaats, en geleidelijk worden ze die tijd en plaats'.

Their life was two things: it was a life, more or less—at least it was the preparation for one—and it was an illustration of life for their children.

That's what's this is.

Tough guys didn't carry. 22s. Kids did. He felt

Taking a single letter from the alphaber, he said, should make life simpler. I don't see why. Take the F from life and you have lie. It's adding a letter to simple that makes it simpler. Taking a letter from hoarder makes it harder.

All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why

I am trying to use reason and intelligence, said the strange new mongoose. Reason is six-sevenths of treason, said one of his neighbors. Intelligence is what the enemy uses, said another.

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from and to and why.

Since the alternatives to war remain roads largely not taken in the United States, however, they are tricky subjects for historians. As Edward Carr notes, History is, by and large, a record of what people did, not what people failed to do. On the other hand, making the present seem inevitable robs history of all its life and much of its meaning. History is contingent on the actions of people.

Making the present seem inevitable robs history of all its life and much of its meaning.

The freedom of speech is meaningless without the freedom of attention, which is both its complement and prerequisite

It goes without saying that a fine short poem can have the resonance and depth of an entire novel.

There is a reason for all things and all things have a reason.

Damn it all, MacMurrough, are you telling me you are an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort?' 'If you mean am I Irish, the answer is yes.