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Existence Quotes

Browse 6829 quotes about Existence.

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Existence Quotes

“Money is not an invention of the state. It is not the product of a legislative act. Even the sanction of political authority is not necessary for its existence. Certain commodities came to be money quite naturally, as the result of economic relationships that were independent of the power of the state.”

StatesGovernmentPoliticalCertainResultsMoneyExistencePowerEconomicProductsAuthorityEconomicsIndependentInventionCommodityLegislationSanctions
Author:Carl Menger
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“Memories seem to surface in no particular order, with no time attached. Yesterday can seem as distant as last year. My life now consists of fragments where some are so blinding in their intensity that they make everything else indistinguishable. It feels as if my existence was extinguished in a flash, and afterwards my universe became incomprehensible. I want to remember everything. But perhaps I need to give it more time. Allow myself some rest. Distance myself a little, to see if I can make out a pattern. And face the truth about what is really there.”

IfsWantNeedsGivingFeelsYearsLittlesI CanSeemsLastsRememberFacesOrderUniverseMemoriesExistenceParticularDistancePatternsSurfaceYesterdayMore TimeIntensityFlashLast YearFragmentsMake OutRemembers EverythingFacing The TruthDistance Myself
Author:Linda Olsson
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“Not only is suicide a sin, it is the sin. It is the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an interest in existence; the refusal to take the oath of loyalty to life. The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men. As far as he is concerned he wipes out the world.”

MenWorldEvilInterestSinExistenceHe ManConcernedUltimateAbsolutesSuicideLoyaltyWipeRefusalOath
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“The woman who fights against her father still has the possibility of leading an instinctive, feminine existence, because she rejects only what is alien to her. But when she fights against the mother she may, at the risk of injury to her instincts, attain to greater consciousness, because in repudiating the mother she repudiates all that is obscure, instinctive, ambiguous, and unconscious in her own nature.”

MayStillsMotherFightingFatherExistenceConsciousnessGreaterRiskPossibilityInstinctAliensUnconsciousInjuryRejectsFeminineObscureAmbiguousMemories Dreams Reflections
Book:The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
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“Just as man as a social being, cannot in the long run exist without a tie to the community, so the individual will never find the real justification for his existence, and his own spiritual and moral autonomy, anywhere except in an extramundane principle capable of relativizing the overpowering influence of external factors.”

MenLongRealRunningSpiritualIndividualSocialCommunityExistenceMoralPrinciplesInfluenceCapableFactorsTiesJustificationLong RunsAutonomyMemories Dreams ReflectionsOverpoweringSocial Being
Book:The Undiscovered Self
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“Dogs invite us not only to share their joy but also to live in the moment, where we are neither proceeding from nor moving toward, where the enchantment of the past and future cannot distract us, where a freedom from practical desire and a cessation of our usual ceaseless action allows us to recognize the truth of our existence, the reality of our world and purpose--if we dare.”

IfsWorldMomentsRealityActionPastMovingJoyDesirePurposeExistenceShareDogDarePracticalsOur WorldInvitesUsualLive In The MomentEnchantmentProceeding
Book:The Odd Thomas Series 7-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd
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“What shall I compare it to, this fantastic thing I call my Mind? To a waste-paper basket, to a sieve choked with sediment, or to a barrel full of floating froth and refuse? No, what it is really most like is a spider's web, insecurely hung on leaves and twigs, quivering in every wind, and sprinkled with dewdrops and dead flies. And at its centre, pondering forever the Problem of Existence, sits motionless the spider-like and uncanny Soul.”

MindSoulProblemExistenceForeverWindWastePaperRefuseFantasticCompareHungCentreFloatingSpidersPonderingBasketsBarrelsUncannyTwigs
Book:An Anthology
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“No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America.”

MenWantBodyAmericaGivenWishBlackExistenceConditionsTalentColorEqualAppearanceProofExhibitsBrethrenOwing
Book:Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts
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“Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does it appear that the happiest lot of terrestrial existence can set us above the want of this general blessing; or that life, when the gifts of nature and of fortune are accumulated upon it, would not still be wretched, were it not elevated and delighted by the expectation of some new possession, of some enjoyment yet behind, by which the wish shall at last be satisfied, and the heart filled up to its utmost extent.”

WantHeartDoeStillsLastsWishBehindsExistencePovertyConditionsComfortBlessingExpectationsFilledMiseryFortunePossessionSatisfiedEnjoymentSicknessWretchedDelightedCaptivityFilled UpHeart Filled
Book:The Beauties of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous : to which are Now Added, Biographical Anecdotes of the Doctor, Selected from the Works of Mrs. Piozzi, His Life, Recently Published by Mr. Boswell, and Other Authentic Testimonies : Also His Will, and the Sermon He Wrote for the Late Doctor Dodd
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“The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed by the great philosopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised.”

ShouldFirstsMayEyeImaginationExistenceDoubtStudentsTruth IsDegreesFoundationRaisedDefeatPhilosopherFranceEnterpriseRemoveProbabilityEmbarrassmentObjectionsEndeavourIntricatePinnacleRetardSolid FoundationGreat Philosophers
Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
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“A person is not a democrat thanks to his ignorance of literature and the arts, nor an elitist because he or she has cultivated them. The possession of knowledge makes for unjust power over others only if used for that very purpose: a physician or lawyer or clergyman can exploit or humiliate others, or he can be a humanitarian and a benefactor. In any case, it is absurd to conjure up behind anybody who exploits his educated status the existence of an "elite" scheming to oppress the rest of us.”

IfsPersonsArtUsedPurposeLiteratureBehindsExistenceCasesIgnoranceDemocratPossessionHumanitarianLawyerAbsurdEducatedThanksElitesPhysiciansUnjustExploitsElitistHumiliateClergymenBenefactorsPower Over Others
Author:Jacques Barzun
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“Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the audience; that all his efforts, however strenuous or glamorous, be made in the service of the composer's meaning - the music itself, which, after all, is the whole reason for the conductor's existence.”

MadeReasonWholeEffortExistenceAudienceHumbleChiefsComposerRequirementsGlamorousBe HumbleConductor
Author:Leonard Bernstein
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“[My father] impressed upon me from the first, that the manner in which the world came into existence was a subject on which nothing was known: that the question, "Who made me?" cannot be answered, because we have no experience or authentic information from which to answer it; and that any answer only throws the difficulty a step further back, since the question immediately presents itself, "Who made God?”

WorldFirstsMadeFatherAnswersExistenceKnownStepsSubjectsInformationDifficultyImpressed
Book:Autobiography John Stuart Mill: Top Biography
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“The birth of a new fact is always a wonderful thing to experience. It's dualistically called a "discovery" because of the presumption that it has an existence independent of anyone's awareness of it. When it comes along, it always has, at first, a low value. Then, depending on the value-looseness of the observer and the potential quality of the fact, its value increases, either slowly or rapidly, or the value wanes and the fact disappears.”

FirstsFactsValuesExistenceQualityWonderfulAwarenessBirthLowsDiscoveryIncreaseIndependentDisappearWonderful ThingsObserversPresumptionLooseness
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“The Text is plural. Which is not simply to say that it has several meanings, but that it accomplishes the very plural of meaning: an irreducible (and not merely an acceptable) plural. The Text is not a co-existence of meanings but a passage, an overcrossing; thus it answers not to an interpretation, even a liberal one, but to an explosion, a dissemination.”

AnswersExistenceAccomplishInterpretationPassagesAcceptableExplosionsDissemination
Author:Roland Barthes
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“I am a strange compound of weakness and resolution! However, if I must suffer, I will endeavour to suffer in silence. There is certainly a great defect in my mind my wayward heart creates its own misery Why I am made thus I cannot tell; and, till I can form some idea of the whole of my existence, I must be content to weep and dance like a child long for a toy, and be tired of it as soon as I get it.”

IfsMindHeartChildrenLongMadeI CanIdeasWholeFormSufferingExistenceSilenceStrangeWeaknessTiredMiseryResolutionToysDefectsCompoundsEndeavour
Author:Mary Wollstonecraft
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“The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by denying reality - to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square a circle.”

WorldNeedsTryingPhilosophyFactsRealityExistenceTheoryApproachWesternIntellectCirclesAbstractDividedSquaresEvidentPropositionsDoubtedOutside World
Author:Bruce Lee
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“When I was a boy, I choked on a piece of candy outside the kitchen window for a few minutes while watching my parents making dinner. I thought I was going to die, but I didn't want to scare them. Our existence was so separate, a dying and a doing well, an outside and an inside. Trey Moody's poems hover in that cold, wet, refrigerator-lit place between the dying and the doing well, the outside and the inside. His poems are the thoughts of the person you love who is always standing behind you, slowly and silently suffocating. But they're not afraid to say hello, and please, and I'm scared.”

WantWellsPersonsDiesParentBehindsExistenceBoysPiecesMinutesDyingColdPleaseStandingWindowScaredDinnerKitchenScareNot AfraidWetHelloCandyLitBehind YouRefrigeratorsMoodySuffocating
Author:Zachary Schomburg
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“This is the pleasantest part of life. Oblivion throws her light coverlet over our infancy; and, soon after we are out of the cradle we forget how soundly we had been slumbering, and how delightful were our dreams. Toil and pleasure contend for us almost the instant we rise from it: and weariness follows whichever has carried us away. We stop awhile, look around us, wonder to find we have completed the circle of existence, fold our arms, and fall asleep again.”

LooksDreamLightFallForgetPleasureExistenceWonderArmsCirclesInstantToilDelightfulOur DreamsOblivionFoldsCradleParts Of LifeInfancyWeariness
Book:Pericles and Aspasia
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“Inequalities of wealth, unjustly established, have assuredly injured the nation in which they exist during their establishment; and, unjustly directed, they injure it yet more during their existence. But inequalities of wealth justly established, benefit the nation in the course of their establishment; and, nobly used, aid it yet more by their existence.”

UsedCoursesNationsWealthExistenceBenefitsAidsInequalityEstablishmentInjured
Book:Unto this Last
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“Our feelings probably are not less strong at fifty than they were ten or fifteen years before; but they have changed their objects, and dwell on far different prospects. At five-and-thirty a man thinks of what his own existence is; when the maturity of age has grown into its autumn, he is wrapt up in that of others. The loss of wife or child then becomes more deplorable, as being impossible to repair; for no fresh connection can give us back the companion of our earlier years, nor a "new-sprung race" compensate for that, whose career we hoped to see run.”

ThinkingMenGivingYearsChildrenDifferentFeelingsRunningAgeStrongLossRaceExistenceCareersFiveWifeImpossibleObjectsChangedTenConnectionsMaturityThirtyFiftyAutumnCompanionFifteenProspectsFifteen YearsSprung
Book:Lodore
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“Childhood is the world of miracle or of magic: it is as if creation rose luminously out of the night, all new and fresh and astonishing. Childhood is over the moment things are no longer astonishing. When the world gives you a feeling of "déjà vu," when you are used to existence, you become an adult.”

IfsWorldInspirationalGivingChildrenMomentsFeelingsUsedNightExistenceMagicChildhoodCreationAdultsMiracleRoseAstonishingMagic Of Childhood
Author:Eugene Ionesco
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“Most of the avoidable suffering in life springs from our attempts to escape the unavoidable suffering inherent in the fragmentary nature of our present existence. We expect immortal satisfactions from mortal conditions, and lasting and perfect happiness in the midst of universal change. To encourage this expectation, to persuade mankind that the ideal is realizable in this world, after a few preliminary changes in external conditions, is the distinguishing mark of all charlatans, whether in thought or action.”

WorldActionSufferingPerfectExistenceConditionsMankindThis WorldSpringExpectationsIdealsUniversalMarkSatisfactionMortalsImmortalMidstLastingInherentCharlatansPerfect HappinessSufferings In Life
Book:The Poisoned Crown
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“Man passes; he knows that he is dust; nothing is more evident than his frailty. If he should for a single moment forget it, what a chorus of voices would recall it to him! And yet, in the drop of existence which he absorbs, he takes in ages through memory and ages through presentiment. In the moments as they pass, he dimly sees eternity, and more than this, he possesses it by anticipation.”

IfsKnowsMenShouldMomentsAgeVoiceMemoriesForgetExistenceEternityDustAnticipationRecallsEvidentForget ItChorusSingle MomFrailty
Author:Charles Wagner
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“The white race is the cancer of human history; it is the white race and it alone — its ideologies and inventions — which eradicates autonomous civilizations wherever it spreads, which has upset the ecological balance of the planet, which now threatens the very existence of life itself.”

HumansWhiteRaceExistencePlanetsBalanceCivilizationCancerSpreadIdeologyUpsetHuman HistoryEcologicalAutonomousWhite RaceExistence Of LifeEcological Balance
Author:Susan Sontag
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“What misery to live in this world! We are like men whose enemies are at the door, who must not lay aside their arms, even while sleeping or eating, and are always in dread lest the foe should enter the fortress by some breach in the walls. O my Lord and my all! How canst thou wish us to prize such a wretched existence?”

MenWorldLifeShouldWishSleepExistenceLordEnemyDoorsThis WorldWallArmsEatingLaysMiseryPrizeDreadFoeWretchedBreachFortresses
Book:The Interior Castle, or the Mansions
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