top of page
.png){kind=small}
Existence Quotes
"The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has been in existence for most of this century."
36
"The first sentiment of man was that of his existence, his first care that of preserving it."
36
"You want fantasy? Here's one... There's this species that lives on a planet a few miles above molten rock and a few miles below a vacuum that'd suck the air right out of them. They live in a brief geological period between ice ages, when giant asteroids have temporarily stopped smacking into the surface. As far as they can tell, there's nowhere else in the universe where they could stay alive for ten seconds. And what do they call their fragile little slice of space and time? They call it real life."
35
"That is the exploration that awaits you! Not mapping stars and studying nebula, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence."
35
"I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence."
34
"On embarking to return we could perceive no sign of One Tree Island; and as we swept down towards the sea the leafy top of a tree seen in the clear water under the boat was the only evidence of its existence; though a few hours ago it had formed so prominent an object."
33
"And the existence is tedious, anyway; it is a senseless, dirty business, this life."
33
"The philosopher proves that the philosopher exists. The poet merely enjoys existence."
32
"Existence is a party. You join after its started and you leave before its finished."
32
"Everything must justify its existence before the judgment seat of Reason, or give up existence."
32
"Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way."
32
"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves."
31
"Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence."
31
"As the existence of a corps of professors of mathematics is peculiar to our navy, as well as an apparent, perhaps a real, anomaly, some account of it may be of interest."
31
"We have overcome the notion that mathematical truths have an existence independent and apart from our own minds. It is even strange to us that such a notion could ever have existed."
31
"Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or non-existence of Rules A, A1 or A2."
31
"Whatever things may have been in their origin, they are what they are, both in themselves and in regard to their indications respecting other beings or influences the existence of which may be implied in theirs."
31
"Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking."
31
"The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him."
31
"Non-thinking is an act of annihilation, a wish to negate existence, an attempt to wipe out reality. But existence exists; reality is not to be wiped out, it will merely wipe out the wiper. By refusing to say 'It is,' you are refusing to say 'I am.' By suspending your judgment, you are negating your person. When a man declares: 'Who am I to know?'- he is declaring: 'Who am I to live?"
31
"Our experiments not only proved the existence of a nervous apparatus in the above-mentioned glands, but also disclosed some facts clearly showing the participation of these nerves in normal activity."
31
"Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all."
31
"One has to take a somewhat bold and dangerous line with this existence: especially as, whatever happens, we are bound to lose it."
30
"I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence."
30
"But if one doesn't really exist, one wonders why..." she hesitated."Why one makes such a fuss about things," Anthony suggested. "All that howling and hurrahing and gnashing of teeth. About the adventures of a self that isn't really a self-just the result of a lot of accidents. And of course," he went on, "once you start wondering, you see at once that there is no reason for making such a fuss. And then you don't make a fuss-that is, if you're sensible. Like me," he added, smiling."
30
"If this was the true self it was marvelous and what's more it seemed never to change but always to pick up from the last stop, to continue in the same vein, a vein I had struck when I was a child and went down in the street for the first time alone and there frozen into the dirty ice of the gutter lay a dead cat, the first time I had looked at death and grasped it. From that moment I knew what it was to be isolated: every object, every living thing and every dead thing led its independent existence. My thoughts too led to an independent existence."
29
"Embryos think with each stage of their development that they have now reached the only condition that really suits them. This, they say, must certainly be their last, inasmuch as its close will be so great a shock that nothing can survive it. Every change is a shock; every shock is a pro tanto death. What we call death is only a shock great enough to destroy our power to recognize a past and a present as resembling one another."
29
"One cannot legislate problems out of existence. It has been tried."
28
"Lightness and weightiness are both linked to a philosophy of life. They are choices in life. Heaviness can be the embodiment of a sense of responsibility, the expression of maturity, the result of profound meditation or the emanation of a search for meaning in life. Weightiness, however, may also lead to a feeling of oppression, when it is felt as a burden, an unbearable burden. Then time has come to let loose and things can finally lose their gravity. ['The unbearable heaviness of being']"
28
"When we are, love is not.When we are not, love is."
28
bottom of page