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Existence Quotes

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Existence Quotes

“We have learned that beneath the surface of an ordinary everyday normal casual conscious existence there lies a vast dynamic world of impulse and dream, a hinterland of energy which has an independent existence of its own and laws of its own: laws which motivate all our thoughts and our actions.”

WorldDreamActionLawLyingEnergyExistenceNormalOrdinaryConsciousIndependentEverydaySurfaceImpulseOur ThoughtsOur ActionsCasualBeneath The Surface
Book:The Dramatic Imagination: Reflections and Speculations on the Art of the Theatre, Reissue
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“The thought of the novelist lies not in the remarks of his characters or even in their introspection but in the plight he has invented for his characters - in the juxtaposition of those characters and in the lifelike ramifications of the ensemble they make: their density, their substantiality, their lived existence actualized in all its nuanced particulars, is in fact his thought metabolized.”

CharacterFactsLyingExistenceNovelistsIntrospectionRemarksEnsemblePlightDensityJuxtapositionRamifications
Author:Philip Roth
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“But deepest of all illusory Appearances, for hiding Wonder, as for many other ends, are your two grand fundamental world-enveloping Appearances, SPACE and TIME. These, as spun and woven for us from before Birth itself, to clothe our celestial ME for dwelling here, and yet to blind it, lie all-embracing, as the universal canvas, or warp and woof, whereby all minor Illusions, in this Phantasm Existence, weave and paint themselves. In vain, while here on Earth, shall you endeavor to strip them off; you can, at best, but rend them asunder for moments, and look through.”

WorldLooksTwoEndsMomentsEarthLyingSpaceExistenceWonderBirthIllusionUniversalFundamentalsBlindPaintAppearanceVainEndeavorHidingMinorsCanvasTime And SpaceDwellingCelestialWovenIllusorySpunWarp
Book:Carlyle Reader
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“If my interlocutor desires to convince me that Jupiter has inhabitants, and that his description of them is accurate, it is for him to bring forward evidence in support of his contention. The burden of proof evidently lies on him; it is not for me to prove that no such beings exist before my non-belief is justified, but for him to prove that they do exist before my belief can be fairly claimed. Similarly, it is for the affirmer of God's existence to bring evidence in support of his affirmation; the burden of proof lies on him.”

IfsLyingDesireBeliefExistenceSupportAtheismProveEvidenceBurdenPositive AtheismProofConvinceDescriptionAccurateAffirmationJustifiedContentionJupiterBurden Of Proof
Book:The Origins of Theosophy (Routledge Revivals): Annie Besant - The Atheist Years
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“But the solution to the riddle of life and space and time lies outside space and time. For, as it should be abundantly clear by now, nothing inside a frame can state, or even ask, anything about that frame. The solution, then, is not the finding of an answer to the riddle of existence, but the realization that there is no riddle. This is the essence of the beautiful, almost Zen Buddhist closing sentences of the Tracticus: "For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed. The riddle does not exist."”

ShouldDoeStatesBeautifulLyingAsksSpaceAnswersExistenceClearAtheismFindingsSolutionsEssenceSentencesRealizationBuddhistTime And SpaceClosingRiddleZen Buddhist
Book:Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes
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“When we see the many grave-stones which have fallen in, which have been defaced by the footsteps of the congregation, which lie buried under the ruins of the churches, that have themselves crumbled together over them; we may fancy the life after death to be as a second life, into which man enters in the figure, or the picture or the inscription, and lives longer there than when he was really alive. But this figure also, this second existence, dies out too, sooner or later. Time will not allow himself to be cheated of his rights with the monuments of men or with themselves.”

MenMayHas BeensTogetherLyingDiesChurchExistenceAliveRightsFiguresHe ManStonesGravesRuinsFallenFancyBuriedSooner Or LaterLong LifeMonumentAfter DeathFootstepsCheatedCongregationLife After DeathInscriptions
Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“Civilization, that great fraud of our times, has promised man that by complicating his existence it would multiply his pleasures. ... Civilization has promised man freedom, at the cost of giving up everything dear to him, which it arrogantly treated as lies and fantasies. ... Hour by hour needs increase and are nearly always unsatisfied, peopling the earth with discontented rebels. The superfluous has become a necessity and luxuries indispensable.”

MenNeedsGivingEarthLyingHoursPleasureExistenceFantasyCivilizationCostGiving UpIncreaseDearTreatedLuxuryOur TimeFraudRebelIndispensableSuperfluousUnsatisfied
Author:Isabelle Eberhardt
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“When I think of God, when I think of him as existent, and when I believe him to be existent, my idea of him neither increases nordiminishes. But as it is certain there is a great difference betwixt the simple conception of the existence of an object, and the belief of it, and as this difference lies not in the parts or composition of the idea which we conceive; it follows, that it must lie in the manner in which we conceive it.”

ThinkingBelieveIdeasGodLyingCertainBeliefI BelieveDifferencesSimpleExistenceObjectsIncreaseConceptionCompositionBelief In God
Book:A Treatise of Human Nature
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“But if a peaceful world is beyond politics it is also beyond religions as these presently exist. A change is needed in every phase of human life. This lies mainly in recognition that the micro phase, the particular or national traditions, must find their context and fulfillment in the macro phase, the global or panhuman phase of human existence.”

IfsWorldHumansLyingPeaceExistenceParticularNeededTraditionPeacefulRecognitionHuman LifeFulfillmentPhasesHuman ExistencePeaceful WorldMacro
Book:Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community
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“We have seemingly been divided, limited, because of our ignorance; and we have become as it were the little Mrs. so - and - so and Mr. so - and - so. But all nature is giving this delusion the lie every moment. I am not that little man or little woman cut off from all else; I am the one universal existence. The soul in its own majesty is rising up every moment and declaring its own intrinsic Divinity.”

MenGivingLittlesSoulMomentsMotivationalLyingExistenceCuttingIgnoranceUniversalRisingDivinityDelusionDividedMajestyDeclaringLittle ManLittle WomenRising Up
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“The misery that oppresses you lies not in your profession but in yourself! What man in the world would not find his situation intolerable if he chooses a craft, an art, indeed any form of life, without experiencing an inner calling? Whoever is born with a talent, or to a talent, must surely find in that the most pleasing of occupations! Everything on this earth has its difficult sides! Only some inner drive - pleasure, love - can help us overcome obstacles, prepare a path, and lift as out of the narrow circle in which others tread out their anguished, miserable existences!”

IfsMenWorldArtHelpingEarthFormLyingDifficultSidesBornPleasureExistenceSituationPathTalentCallingOvercomingMiseryObstaclesProfessionCirclesCraftsMiserableLiftsOccupationPleasure Love
Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“As soon as science has emerged from its initial stages, theoretical advances are no longer achieved merely by a process of arrangement. Guided by empirical data, the investigator rather develops a system of thought which, in general, is built up logically from a small number of fundamental assumptions, the so-called axioms. We call such a system of thought a theory. The theory finds the justification for its existence in the fact that it correlates a large number of single observations, and it is just here that the 'truth' of the theory lies.”

FactsLyingProcessNumbersExistenceStageTheoryBuiltFundamentalsObservationDataAssumptionJustificationArrangementsInitialsTheoreticalLarge NumbersAxiomsSmall NumbersInvestigators
Author:Albert Einstein
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“Yes, I know, we are merely empty forms of matter, but we are indeed sublime in having invented God and our soul. So sublime, my friend, that I want to gaze upon matter, fully conscious that it exists, and yet launching itself madly into Dream, despite its knowledge that Dream has no existence, extolling the Soul and all the divine impressions of that kind which have collected within us from the beginning of time and proclaiming, in the face of the Void which is truth, these glorious lies!”

KnowsWantKindSoulMatterDreamFacesFormLyingExistenceDivineConsciousMy FriendsEmptyImpressionDespiteGloriousVoidSublimeLaunchingProclaiming
Author:Stephane Mallarme
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“Men do not live by truth alone; they also need lies: those that they invent freely, not those that are imposed on them; those that appear as they are, not smuggled in beneath the clothes of history. Fiction enriches their existence, completes them and, fleetingly, compensates them for this tragic condition which is our lot: always to desire and dream more than we can actually achieve.”

MenNeedsDreamLyingDesireExistenceFictionAchieveConditionsClothesTragicLive By
Book:Making Waves: Essays
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