Quotes About Meaning

Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time. That

Why, an old, mangy dog, warming himself at the hearth, and struggling to his feet with a little whimper to welcome his master home—why, that dog has more memories than I! At least he recognizes his master. His master. But what can I call mine?

It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not 'one thing in my life' - not even the most important - because my life no longer belongs to me because...you are always me.

Through the lack of attaching myself to words, my thoughts remain nebulous most of the time. They sketch vague, pleasant shapes and then are swallowed up; I forget them almost immediately.

Existence is an imperfection.

As for me, I am mean: that means that I need the suffering of others to exist. A flame. A flame in their hearts. When I am all alone, I am extinguished.

I found the human heart empty and insipid everywhere except in books.

What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

I said to myself, 'I want to die decently'.

He is always becoming, and if it were not for the contingency of death, he would never end.

Death is a continuation of my life without me...

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.

Nothingness haunts Being.

What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-and defines himself afterward.

There is no reality except in action. Man is nothing else than his plan; he exists only to the extent that he fulfills himself; he is therefore nothing else than the ensemble of his acts, nothing else than his life.

It is disgusting -- Why must we have bodies?

All men are Prophets or else God does not exist.

I am not asking for sensational revelations, but I would like to sense the meaning of that minute, to feel it's urgency...

Life is nothing until it is lived; but it is yours to make sense of and the value of it is nothing else but the sense that you choose.

On meurt toujours trop tôt ? ou trop tard. Et cependant la vie est là, terminée: le trait est tiré, il faut faire la somme. Tu n'es rien d'autre que ta vie.

A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing.

know very well that I don't want to do anything: to do something is to create existence—and there's quite enough existence as it is.