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Existence Quotes
"I don't need anyone to rectify my existence. The most profound relationship we will ever have is the one with ourselves."
49
"I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence."
49
"The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has been in existence for most of this century."
47
"Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality."
47
"Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking."
46
"Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value."
46
"I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence."
45
"One has to take a somewhat bold and dangerous line with this existence: especially as, whatever happens, we are bound to lose it."
45
"And the existence is tedious, anyway; it is a senseless, dirty business, this life."
45
"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."
45
"If it has a name or a description it has or will exist at some point in time."
45
"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."
44
"The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him."
44
"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?"
44
"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."
44
"Life - whatever else it is - is short maybe even if we're not always so glad to be here, it's our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open."
44
"That is the exploration that awaits you! Not mapping stars and studying nebula, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence."
43
"Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way."
43
"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."
43
"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."
43
"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."
42
"The philosopher proves that the philosopher exists. The poet merely enjoys existence."
42
"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."
42
"Everything must justify its existence before the judgment seat of Reason, or give up existence."
42
"I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence."
42
"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."
42
"Existence is a party. You join after its started and you leave before its finished."
41
"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."
40
"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."
40
"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."
40
"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']"
40
"When we are, love is not.When we are not, love is."
40
"Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence."
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