Quotes About Insignificance

People and their dwellings were such a thin dust on the surface of the globe, like invisible specks of bacteria on an orange, and the feeble lights of kebab shops and supermarkets failed utterly to register on the infinities of space above.

People and their dwellings were such a thin dust on the surface of the globe, like invisible specks of bacteria on an orange, and the feeble lights of kebab shops and supermarkets failed utterly to register on the infinities of space above. If it weren't for God, the almighty vacuum would be too crushing to endure, but once God was with you, it was a different story.

You know, I'm like Avis rent-a-car: Because I'm insignificant, I try harder.

The time of human domination on Earth is barely a drop in the ocean of geological time, and it takes a lot to make a ripple in that ocean.

she merely wished to find a way out of the maze. She knew that she had become a burden to him: she took things too seriously, turning everything into a tragedy, and failed to grasp the lightness and amusing insignificance of physical love. How she wished she could learn lightness! She yearned for someone to help her out of her anachronistic shell.

And then I realized how powerless I was to revoke my own joke when throughout my life as a whole I was involved in a joke much more vast (all-embracing for me) and utterly irrevocable.

En vivant votre misère, vous pouvez être malheureuse ou heureuse. C'est dans ce choix que consiste votre liberté. Vous êtes libre de fondre votre individualité dans la marmite de la multitude avec un sentiment de défaite, ou bien avec euphorie. (...) notre seule liberté est de choisir entre l'amertume et le plaisir. L'insignifiance de tout étant notre lot, il ne faut pas la porter comme une tare, mais savoir s'en réjouir. (ch. 43)

La insignificancia, amigo mío, es la esencia de la existencia.

She knew that she had become a burden to him: she took things too seriously, turning everything into a tragedy, and failed to grasp the lightness and amusing insignificance of physical love. How she wished she could learn lightness! She yearned for someone to help her out of her anachronistic shell.

L'insignifiance, mon ami, c'est l'essence de l'existence. Elle est avec nous partout et toujours. Elle est présente même là où personne ne veut la voir : dans les horreurs, dans les luttes sanglantes, dans les pires malheurs. Cela exige souvent du courage pour la reconnaître dans des conditions aussi dramatiques et pour l'appeler par son nom. Mais il ne s'agit pas seulement de la reconnaître, il faut l'aimer, l'insignifiance, il faut apprendre à l'aimer.

Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of earth abd his earthy being, and become half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.

The absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant

išta nije shvatio i još danas nimalo ne shva?a važnost bezna?ajnosti. -Da, razumijem. Nepotrebno je biti briljantan. - Više nego nepotrebno. Štetno.

La ausencia absoluta de carga hace que el hombre se vuelva más ligero que el aire, vuele hacia lo alto, se distancie de la tierra, de su ser terreno, que sea real sólo a medias y sus movimientos sean tan libres como insignificantes.

Ništa nije shvatio i još danas nimalo ne shva?a važnost bezna?ajnosti. -Da, razumijem. Nepotrebno je biti briljantan. - Više nego nepotrebno. Štetno.

he looked at me with such vehemence that I felt like a blip, a fart, in the course of his life.

Looking at Tim, one cannot help feeling great waves of uncertainty, an absence of aim, of purpose, as if he is a person who simply doesn't matter.

D'murr no longer needed to concern himself with the mundane affairs of humans, so trivial were they, so limited and short-sighted: political machinations, populations milling about like ants in a disturbed hill, lives flickering bright and dull like sparks from a campfire. His former life was only a vague and fading memory, without specific names or faces. He saw images, but ignored them. He could never go back to what he had been.

As is so often the case with a legend, every incident has two possible interpretations, the plausible and the one that is molded to suit the making of the myth. Man is a romantic at heart and will always put aside dull, plodding reason for the excitement of an enigma. As Doc had pointed out, mystery, not logic, is what gives us hope and keeps us believing in a force greater than our own insignificance.

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the 'Momentary' masters of a 'Fraction' of a 'Dot'

The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.

Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. But if that's their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.

Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their whole lives in the course of a single day. From the point of view of a mayfly, human beings are stolid, boring, almost entirely immovable, offering hardly a hint that they ever do anything. From the point of view of a star, a human being is a tiny flash, one of billions of brief lives flickering tenuously on the surface of a strangely cold, anomalously solid, exotically remote sphere of silicate and iron.