Quotes About Meaning

We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.

If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.

What keeps all living things busy and in motion is the striving to exist. But when existence is secured, they do not know what to do: that is why the second thing that sets them in motion is a striving to get rid of the burden of existence, not to feel it any longer, 'to kill time', i.e. to escape boredom.

If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world.

Life presents itself first and foremost as a task: the task of maintaining itself, the task of earning one's living. If this task is accomplished, what has been gained is a burden, and there then appears a second task: that of doing something with it so as to ward off boredom, which hovers over every secure life like a bird of prey. Thus the first task is to gain something and the second to become unconscious of what has been gained, which is otherwise a burden.

Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as ??????? ??????. Indeed without death men would scarcely philosophise.

The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it.

A book can never be anything more than the impress of its author's thoughts; and the value of these will lie either in the matter about which he has thought, or in the form which his thoughts take, in other words, what it is that he has thought about it.

You can also look upon our life as an episode unprofitably disturbing the blessed calm of nothingness.

A word too much always defeats its purpose.

Whenever we are not occupied in one of these ways, but cast upon existence itself, its vain and worthless nature is brought home to us; and this is what we mean by boredom.

Die, welche schwierige, dunkle, verflochtene, zweideutige Reden zusammensetzen, wissen ganz gewiss nicht recht, was sie sagen wollen, sondern haben nur ein dumpfes, nach einem Gedanken erst ringendes Bewusstsein davon; oft aber wollen sie sich selber und anderen verbergen, dass sie eigentlich nichts zu sagen haben.

We all feel that we are something other than a being which someone once created out of nothing: from this arises the confidence that, while death may be able to end our life, it cannot end our existence.

Exigir la inmortalidad del individuo es querer perpetuar un error hasta el infinito. En el fondo, toda individualidad es un error especial, una equivocación, algo que no debiera existir, el verdadero objetivo de la vida es librarnos de él.

Nothing is without a reason why it is rather than it is not

Abstract reasoning serves rather to fix the immediate cognition of the understanding for reason by setting it down in abstract concepts, that is, by making it clear,e i.e. putting it into a state to be interpreted for others, to make it meaningful.f –

Není nic t?žšího než vyjádÃ…â"¢it významnou myÅ¡lenku tak, aby jí každý rozumÄ›l.

A happy life is impossible, the highest that man can achieve is a heroic life.

una existencia cuya verdadera valía hay que ponderar solo por la ausencia de dolor y no por la presencia de placeres y mucho menos de lujos.

Thrasymachos. Tell me now, in one word, what shall I be after my death? And mind you be clear and precise. Philalethes. All and nothing! Thrasymachos. I thought so! I gave you a problem, and you solve it by a contradiction. That's a very stale trick. Philalethes. Yes, but you raise transcendental questions, and you expect me to answer them in language that is only made for immanent knowledge. It's no wonder that a contradiction ensues.

It is this which makes suicide easier: for the physical pain associated with it loses all significance in the eyes of one afflicted by excessive spiritual suffering.

Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our hands and loses all real value.

Dünyada kitaplardan daha tuhaf sat?? metalar?na rastlamak galiba imkâns?zd?r: Anlamayan kimseler taraf?ndan bas?l?r, anlamayan kimseler taraf?ndan sat?l?r, anlamayan kimseler taraf?ndan okunulur, hatta tetkik ve tenkit edilir; ve ÅŸimdilerde art?k onlar? anlamayan kimseler taraf?ndan kaleme al?nmaktad?r.

Every ought simply has no sense and meaning except in relation to threatened punishment or promised reward … . Thus every ought is necessarily conditioned through punishment or reward, hence, to put it in Kant's terms, essentially and inevitably hypothetical [with if-clause] and never, as he maintains categorical [without if-clause] … Therefore an absolute ought is simply a contradictio in adjecto.