Quotes About Meaning

It is better to be a human without any gifts than a Jinn or a genius with one too many.

Must everything have a purpose? Must a star have a purpose? Must a pretty sparkler have a purpose other than to emit light? Must a beautiful stone have a purpose?

The first condition of happiness is that a man must find joy in his work. Unless the work brings joy, the tedium of an aimless life can be soul-destroying.

People often ask me why my style is so simple. It is, in fact, deceptively simple, for no two sentences are alike. It is clarity that I am striving to attain, not simplicity. Of course, some people want literature to be difficult and there are writers who like to make their readers toil and sweat. They hope to be taken more seriously that way. I have always tried to achieve a prose that is easy and conversational. And those who think this is simple should try it for themselves.

Man seeks objectives that enable him to convert the attainment of every goal into a means for the attainment of a new and more desirable goal. The ultimate objective in such a sequence cannot be obtainable; otherwise its attainment would put an end to the process. An end that satisfies these conditions is an ideal… Thus the formulation and pursuit of ideals is a means by which to put meaning and significance into his life and into the history of which he is part.

One feels that things are about to change. I have felt this all my life. It is a readiness that robs every act of meaning, making every situation obsolete, putting the present into the past.

Remember, words are the enemy of poetry.

A story is what remains when you leave out most of the action.

The things that matter don't necessarily make sense.

Richard Weaver in his book, "Ethics of Rhetoric" calls a "god-term": a charismatic expression drained dry of any objective significance, but remaining an empty symbol intended to win unthinking applause

Tax reform means, 'Don't tax you, don't tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.'

What is most satisfying for a photographer,' he noted 'is not recognition, success and so forth. It's communication: what you say can mean something to other people, can be of certain importance. . . The photographer's task is not to prove anything about a human event. We're not advertisers; we're witnesses of the transitory.

You know what I've often said, ever since Auschwitz. Life is absurd. It has no meaning. But it has beauty, and wonder, and we have to enjoy that.

You know what I've often said, ever since Auschwitz. Life is absurd. It has no meaning. But it has beauty, and wonder, and we have to enjoy that." Her hand was still on his cheek, her arm

Collectors tend to feel attached to their collections in ways that may seem irrational if viewed in terms of the normal functions of the things collected.

It turned out that while you were searching for the meaning of life, you missed the experience of being alive.

My life has become a story. One day your life with become a story too. All we can do is have faith that life leads us where it does for a reason, so we can learn things we didn't know about ourselves. One day you will look back on your suffering and you will find a meaning for it and that will be your story" -Baba

Time had no meaning, save that it was running out.

Ask me not where I live      or what I like to eat. . . .      Ask me what I am living for      and what I think is keeping me      from living fully for that. THOMAS MERTON, Thoughts in Solitude

I studied every page of this book, and I didn't find enough love to fill a salt shaker. God is not love in the Bible; God is vengeance, from Alpha to Omega.

A KZ-ekben nem írtak nagy verseket. Ha nem így volna, még azt mondhatnánk, hogy a lágerek jók voltak valamire, mondjuk megtisztulásra, aminek nagy m?vészet lett az eredménye. De semmire se voltak jók.

big stories love little words to fly around in

All pauses in space, a violent compression of meaning in an instant within the meaningless.

This tedious letter to you . . . what is one life to another?