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Existence Quotes

Browse 6829 quotes about Existence.

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Existence Quotes

“In retrospect, the past seems not one existence with a continuous flow of years and events that follow each other in logical sequence, but a life periodically dividing into entirely separate compartments. Change of surroundings, interests, pursuits, has made it seem actually more like different incarnations.”

YearsMadeDifferentSeemsPastInterestExistenceEventsReflectionFlowPursuitMade ItLogicalSurroundingsSequenceIncarnationRetrospectDividing
Book:The Fabric of Memory
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“A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaningless of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated not by conferring upon them an absolute truth or by remedying the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing them from their ineffectual selves and it does this by enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.”

DoeMadeSelfWholeIndividualExistenceSocietyMovementPromiseOffersAnxietyMassAbuseDifficultyAbsolutesFollowingDoctrineCuresMiserableCorporateRisingMeaninglessFrustratedRefugeAbsorbingAbsolute TruthTrue Believer
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“A race that is solely dependent upon another for economic existence sooner or later dies. As we have in the past been living upon the mercies shown by others, and by the chances obtainable, and have suffered there from, so we will in the future suffer if an effort is not made now to adjust our own affairs.”

IfsMadePastSufferingDiesChanceEffortRaceExistenceEconomicMercyAffairDependentSooner Or Later
Book:The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans
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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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“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 breakdown of Plato's philosophy is made apparent in the fact that he could not trust to gradual improvements in education to bring about a better society which should then improve education, and so on indefinitely. Correct education could not come into existence until an ideal state existed, and after that education would be devoted simply to its conservation. For the existence of this state he was obliged to trust to some happy accident by which philosophic wisdom should happen to coincide with possession of ruling power in the state.”

ShouldMadeStatesPhilosophyFactsHappensWould BeExistenceIdealsPossessionAccidentsImprovementDevotedConservationPlatoRulingObligedBreakdownPhilosophicPlato SHappy Accidents
Author:John Dewey
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“Locke had illegitimately selected those parts of man he needed for his social contract and suppressed all the rest, a theoretically unsatisfactory procedure and a practically costly one. The bourgeois is the measure of the price paid, he who most of all cannot afford to look to his real self, who denies the existence of the thinly boarded-over basement in him, who is most made over for the purposes of a society that does not even promise him perfection or salvation but merely buys him off.”

MenLooksDoeMadeRealSelfPurposeSocialExistenceNeededPromisePerfectionPaidSalvationDenyContractsProceduresBourgeoisSelectedBasementsReal SelfSocial Contract
Book:Closing of the American Mind
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“It is not unreasonable to assume that the works of God, their existence and preceding non-existence, are the result of His wisdom, but we are unable to understand many of the ways of His Wisdom in His works. On this principle the whole Law of Moses is based; it begins with this principle: "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen. i. 31); and it ends with this principle: "The Rock, perfect is His work" (Deut. xxxii. 4). Note it.”

WayMadeEndsWholeLawPerfectResultsExistencePrinciplesSawsRocksAssumingNotesVery GoodMosesUnreasonableNon Existence
Book:The Guide for the Perplexed
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“The university is well structured, well tooled, to turn out people with all the sharp edges worn off, the well-rounded person. The university is well equipped to produce that sort of person, and this means that the best among the people who enter must for four years wander aimlessly much of the time questioning why they are on campus at all, doubting whether there is any point in what they are doing, and looking toward a very bleak existence afterward in a game in which all of the rules have been made up, which one cannot really amend.”

PeopleYearsWellsMeanPersonsHas BeensMadeTurnsGamesExistenceDoubtFourProduceUniversityEdgesWanderFour YearsQuestioningWornCampusBleakWell RoundedSharp EdgesQuestioning Why
Author:Mario Savio
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“Even the Atheists... readily acknowledge it for an indubitable truth, that there must be something... which was never made or produced - and which therefore is the cause of those other things that are made, something... whose existence must needs be necessary... Wherefore all the question now is, what is this... self-existent thing, which is the cause of all other things that are made.”

NeedsMadeSelfCausesExistenceAtheismAtheistAcknowledge
Author:Ralph Cudworth
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“Someone in the society has to deal with the reality that there are finite resources and we're making trade-offs, and be explicit about that. When the car companies were found to have a memo that actually said, "This safety feature costs X and saved Y lives," the very existence of that memo was considered damning. Or when you made it reimbursable for a doctor to ask, "Do you want heroic care at the end-of-life," that was a death panel. No, it wasn't a death panel! It was asking somebody to make a decision.”

WantMadeSaidEndsRealityCareAsksFoundDecisionDealsExistenceCompanyCarCostResourcesDoctorsAskingSafetyTradeSavedMade ItFeaturesHeroicFiniteEnd Of LifeExplicitTrade OffsMemos
Author:Bill Gates
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“A tower of illusion, all of it, made of illusory bricks and full of holes. If life were made up only of imporant things, it really would be a dangerous house of glass, scarcely to be handled carelessly. But everyday life was exactly like the headlines. And so everybody, knowing the meaninglessness of existence, sets the centre of his compass at his own home.”

IfsMadeHomeWould BeHouseExistenceKnowingDangerousIllusionEverydayGlassesHolesTowersEveryday LifeCentreBricksCompassHeadlinesIllusoryMeaninglessness
Book:The Woman in the Dunes
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“For better or worse, we are the Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit. Millions of people toil in the shadow of the law we make, and much of their livelihood is made possible by the existence of intellectual property rights. But much of their livelihood - and much of the vibrancy of our culture - also depends on the existence of other intangible rights: The right to draw ideas from a rich and varied public domain, and the right to mock, for profit as well as fun, the cultural icons of our time.”

PeopleWellsMadeIdeasLawCultureFunExistenceMillionsRichRightsDependsIntellectualDrawsShadowHollywoodCourtPropertyProfitAppealsOur TimeToilDomainIconsMockProperty RightsCircuitsLivelihoodIntangibleIntellectual PropertyVibrancyPublic Domain
Author:Alex Kozinski
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“Plain experience and common sense inform us that no abstract Person can have made us as we are without also wishing to delete us and start over (Gen. 8:21; Zeph. 1:2). Therefore, the existence of cruel and arbitrary nature, together with the universality of human sin, prevents us from beginning the theological enterprise with any concept of God that is distinct from revelation. All theologies of a cosmic harmonic principle shipwreck on the truths of tragedy, catastrophe, and injustice.”

HumansPersonsMadeTogetherWishSinCommonExistencePrinciplesConceptsTragedyInjusticeTheologyCommon SenseAbstractRevelationsEnterpriseCosmicCatastropheArbitraryStarting OverTheologicalShipwreckUniversality
Author:Paul F. M. Zahl
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“Missionary work is a manifestation of our spiritual identity and heritage. We were foreordained in the premortal existence and born into mortality to fulfill the covenant and promise God made to Abraham. We are here upon the earth at this time to magnify the priesthood and to preach the gospel. That is who we are, and that is why we are here - today and always.”

MadeTodayEarthSpiritualBornExistenceIdentityPromiseManifestationWho We AreMortalityHeritageMissionaryCovenantAbrahamPriesthoodMissionary WorkWhy We Are Here
Author:David A. Bednar
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“Myth was regarded as primary; it was concerned with what was thought to be timeless and constant in our existence. Myth looked back to the origins of life, to the foundations of culture, and to the deepest levels of the human mind. Myth was not concerned with practical matters, but with meaning. Unless we find some significance in our lives, we mortal men and women fall very easily into despair. The mythos of a society provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives; it directed their attention to the eternal and the universal.”

PeopleMenMindHumansMadeMatterFallCultureLevelsExistenceAttentionOur LivesAtheismDespairEternalMen And WomenConcernedUniversalFoundationConstantPositive AtheismMythPracticalsMortalsPrimariesSignificanceHuman MindTimelessDay To DayDay LifeOrigin Of LifeDay To Day Life
Book:The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism
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“All deductions having been made, democracy has done less harm, and more good, than any other form of government. It gave to human existence a zest and camaraderie that outweighed its pitfalls and defects. It gave to thought and science and enterprise the freedom essential to their operation and growth. It broke down the walls of privilege and class, and in each generation it raised up ability from every rank and place.”

HumansMadeDoneGovernmentFormGrowthAbilityExistenceClassDemocracyGenerationsWallEssentialsRaisedPrivilegeHarmBrokeOperationsEnterpriseDefectsHuman ExistenceForms Of GovernmentDemocracies HaveDeductionsCamaraderieZestPitfalls
Book:The Lessons of History
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“We made love. How pedestrian the words look-trite, worn, practically featureless with use-but how can one better describe that which happens when it happens? That creation? That magic blending? I might say we became figures in a mesmerized dance before the rocking talisman of the moon, starting slow, so slow... a pair of feathers drifting through clear liquid substance of sky... gradually accelerating, faster and faster and finally into photon existence of pure light... as my whole straining body burst like fluid electricity into hers.”

LooksMadeWholeUseBodyLightMightHappensSexExistenceClearMagicSkyFiguresCreationPureMoonStartingFasterSubstancePairsWornElectricityFeathersFluidLiquidDriftingPedestriansTalismansPhotonsMesmerized
Author:Ken Kesey
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“It was a truism that all civilizations were basically neurotic until they made contact with everybody else and found their place within the ever-changing meta-civilisation of other beings, because, until then, during the stage when they honestly believed they might be entirely alone in existence, all solo societies were possessed of both an inflated sense of their own importance and a kind of existential terror at the sheer scale and apparent emptiness of the universe.”

KindMadeMightUniverseFoundExistenceStageCivilizationImportanceTerrorHonestlyScalesContactEmptinessPossessedExistentialSheerSoloNeuroticCivilisationTruism
Author:Iain Banks
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“Now the myths represent the Gods themselves and the goodness of the Gods subject always to the distinction of the speakable and the unspeakable, the revealed and the unrevealed, that which is clear and that which is hidden: since, just as the Gods have made the goods of sense common to all, but those of intellect only to the wise, so the myths state the existence of Gods to all, but who and what they are only to those who can understand.”

MadeStatesCommonExistenceClearWiseSubjectsGoodnessIntellectMythDistinctionGoodsUnspeakableExistence Of God
Author:Sallust
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“The soul sins therefore because, while aiming at good, it makes mistakes about the good, because it is not primary essence. And we see many things done by the Gods to prevent it from making mistakes and to heal it when it has made them. Arts and sciences, curses and prayers, sacrifices and initiations, laws and constitutions, judgments and punishments, all came into existence for the sake of preventing souls from sinning; and when they are gone forth from the body, Gods and spirits of purification cleanse them of their sins.”

ArtMadeSoulDoneBodyLawSpiritPrayerSinExistenceMistakeGoneSacrificeJudgmentEssenceConstitutionSakePunishmentHealPrimariesCurseMaking MistakesThings DonePreventingArt And ScienceInitiationPurificationSinning
Author:Sallust
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“God then makes people whom he puts right in the middle of all this loaded creation. Commanding them to care for creation, to manage it, to lovingly use it, to creatively order it... They are environmentalists. Being deeply connected with their environment is who they are. For them to be anything else or to deny their divine responsibility to care for all that God has made would be to deny something that is at the core of their existence. This is why litter and pollution are spiritual issues.”

PeopleMadeUseWould BeCareSpiritualOrderExistenceResponsibilityIssuesEnvironmentMiddleCreationDivineEnvironmentalDenyConnectedCoreManagePollutionLoadedEnvironmentalist
Author:Rob Bell
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“Bored with obvious reality, I find my fascination in transforming it into a subjective point of view. Without touching my subject I want to come to the moment when, through pure concentration of seeing, the composed picture becomes more made than taken. Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself - less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive - less prose, more poetry.”

WantMadeMomentsRealitySpeakViewsExistenceCreativeTakenSeeingSubjectsPureObviousPoint Of ViewBoredProseConcentrationJustifyTouchingSubjectiveFascinationTransformingInformativeCaption
Author:Ernst Haas
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“You and I are infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices. Some of these choices are made consciously, while others are made unconsciously. But the best way to understand and maximize the use of karmic law is to become consciously aware of the choices we make every moment.”

WayMadeMomentsUseLawChoicesExistenceFieldsPossibilityInfiniteAccessBest WayMakersInfinity
Book:The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
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“In the Ramtops village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away - until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone's life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence.”

WorldBelieveMadeRealDiesCausesExistenceExampleWindWineFinishedWoundsCoreClockVillageCropsRippleMorris
Author:Terry Pratchett
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