Quotes About Meaning

No gift is worth a damn, unless its the most precious thing you've got.

The writer who develops a beautiful style, but has nothing to say, represents a kind of arrested esthetic development; he is like a pianist who acquires a brilliant technique by playing finger-exercises, but never gives a concert.

It is this insistence of man upon meaning that makes him so difficult. Once he realizes that he is of no importance whatever in the vast scheme of the universe, that no possible significance can be attached to his activities, that it does not matter whether he lives or dies, he will become much more … tractable.

She heard the words; she understood the meaning; she was unable to make it real—to grant the respect of anger, concern, opposition to a nightmare piece of insanity that rested on nothing but people's willingness to pretend to believe that it was sane.

Happiness? But that is so middle-class. What is happiness? There are so many things in life so much more important than happiness.

It feels as if it has been ages, doesn't it, since sports was something other than a playful preamble to an advertising career?

It is love alone that gives worth to all things.

Doy la bienvenida a nuestros invitados, los filósofos europeos, que desean obtener información de primera mano de por qué considero que no soy nadie, a pesar de estar usando el pronombre de la primera persona del singular.

Reflexiona en lo que significa la muerte. Es una pérdida, trágica por irreversible. ¿A quién pierde el que muere? ¿A sí mismo? No, porque el muerto ha dejado de existir y quien no existe no puede perder nada. La muerte es asunto de los vivos: es la pérdida de un ser querido.

humanity is a hunchback who, in ignorance of the fact that it is possible not to be hunchbacked, for thousands of years has sought an indication of a Higher Necessity in his hump, because he will accept any theory but the one that says that his deformity is purely accidental

People do not want immortality,' I continued. 'They simply do not want to die. They want to live, Decantor. They want to feel the ground beneath their feet, see the clouds overhead, love other people, be with them, and think. Nothing more. Everything that has been said beyond that is a lie. An unconscious lie.

Qué te sugirió el concepto de un dios imperfecto? -preguntó de repente, sin apartar la vista del resplandeciente desierto. -No lo sé. Me pareció algo muy, muy acertado, ¿sabes? Es el único Dios en el que estaría dispuesto a creer, un dios cuyo martirio no significa redención, que no pretende salvar a nadie, ni está al servicio de nada, sino que simplemente está.

Il comportamento logico ci abbandona molto prima che la vita stessa e non è cosa rara che l'uomo si comporti senza senso.

From a chemical analysis of the ink with which a letter is written to us, we will never deduce the intellectual attributes of the writer.

First I thought to fill this void that is I, and thereby dispel its insufferable monotony. So let us think of something, for when we think, behold, there is thought, and naught but our thought has existence.

A physicist never thinks that Someone has set the electrons in their orbits for the express purpose of making him, the physicist, rack his brains over orbital configurations.

to Hogarth humanity is a hunchback who, in ignorance of the fact that it is possible not to be hunchbacked, for thousands of years has sought an indication of a Higher Necessity in his hump, because he will accept any theory but the one that says that his deformity is purely accidental, that no one bestowed it upon him as part of a master plan, that it serves absolutely no purpose, for the thing was determined by the twists and turns of anthropogenesis.

The fate of a single person can mean many things, the fate of several hundred is hard to encompass; but the history of thousands, millions, means essentially nothing at all.

No confiéis en aquellos de vosotros que consideran que única y simplemente anheláis la inmortalidad, porque aunque estén diciendo la verdad, no es esta sino superficial e incompleta. La inmortalidad del individuo no os saciaría. Siempre exigís más, aunque no seáis capaces de denominar el objeto de vuestro deseo.

People do not want immortality," I continued. "They simply do not want to die. They want to live, Decantor. They want to feel the ground beneath their feet, see the clouds overhead, love other people, be with them, and think. Nothing more. Everything that has been said beyond that is a lie.

Sabes, por casualidad, si existió alguna vez una fe en un dios… imperfecto?(...) Es el único dios en el que yo podría creer, un dios cuya pasión no es una redención, un dios que no salva nada, que no sirve para nada: un dios que simplemente es.

Excuse me, what does 'no appreciable relation' mean'? In what proportion is reality appreciable or not?

The destruction of this universe would have no significance on a cosmic scale.

The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent... if we come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death -- however mutable man may be able to make them -- our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.