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Existential Quotes

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Existential Quotes

“Every day people sleep, wake up, work, and eat according to the established set of rules we call time. In other words, we set our lives by the clock. Human beings went through the trouble of inventing rules that imposed limits on their lives, boxing them up into hours, days, and years. And then they invented clocks to make time’s rule over us even more precise. The fact that we have these rules means that we’ve given up some of our freedom. And yet we’ve surrounded ourselves with reminders of that loss of freedom - by hanging clocks on walls and dotting them around our houses. And as if that weren’t enough, we make sure that there’s a clock wherever we go, no matter what we’re doing. We’ve even felt the need to wrap our bodies up in time by going so far as to wrap it around our wrists.”

PhilosophyTimeFreedomHuman NatureReflectionRoutineExistentialModern LifeSocial CommentaryCritique Of Society
Book:If Cats Disappeared from the World
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“College students’ bizarre actions are incomprehensible until scrutinized under the lens that they are simply defying their mortality. A person learns how to live by contemplating death, because when a person faces death, it strips everything superfluous away, revealing the sterling qualities of life. University students newly freed from parental restraints desire to ascertain the essence of their life, but they lack the maturity and life experiences meaningfully to contemplate the weighty subjects of life and death. Realizing their immaturity and resultant angst, collegiate students act recklessly in order to loudly proclaim that they do not care if fate demands that they die will, when in fact they are terrified of both living and dying.”

StudentsCollegeMortalityExistentialCollege StudentsExistential AngstLiving And DyingExistential Anguish
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“As we destabilize the planetary systems we rely on for survival, the strain on our planet mirrors that in societies. These imbalances reinforce each other, amplifying the challenges.”

Climate ChangeResilienceSustainabilityExistentialForesightFutures ThinkingLongtermism
Book:The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption: Volume I - Reframing and Navigating Disruption
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“It's fun to think that one day our great, great grandchildren may get that much closer to understanding what the hell creation is doing here in the first place, and glimpsing the underlying structure and nature of matter itself. Hopefully they won't live with the same existential horrors we all quietly face today in our own lives. There is a kind of bravery to our condition, I reckon: brought into being without an explanation, in a potentially infinite and apparently dead universe, and expected to just get on with it as though nothing strange is going on. Well it fucking is. And it's all right to have a meltdown about the whole affair from time to time, faced with the pressures of modern existence, trying to be a good human and a good worker and a good son/daughter/parent, trying to be a good citizen, trying to be wise without condescension but uninhibited without recklessness, trying to just muddle through without making any silly decisions, trying to align with the correct political opinions, trying to stay thin, trying to be attractive, trying to be smart, trying to find the ideal partner, trying to stay financially secure, trying to just find some modest corner of meaning and belonging and sanity to go and sit in, and all the while living on the edge of dying forever. We're all in the same strange boat, grappling with the same strange condition. But it isn't quite so scary if we all do it together. So let's do it together.”

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Book:The Prince of Milk
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“C10 (sau colindătorii regelui - din studentie) pe scara laterală seara ne adunăm mulți treptele reci de ciment ne primesc ca pe colindătorii regelui avem vin fiert și uscături chitara portocalie se deformează lungă la lumânări mai tragem din țigară, ronțăim sticks-uri și biscuiți sărați fericirea gâdilă arterele cu unghii birmaneze un etaj mai jos, la ușa "Mr. Blues- Don't Disturb" putregaiul gustos al jazzului mângâie degetele de la picioare păcătuim cu gândul atârnat de balustradă mai târziu sârbii vin să cânte cu noi blonzi ca zeii de țară bombardată zgâriem varul cu unghiile, nu știm ce să le spunem ne-aduc napolitane cu fructe și ciocolată în staniol verde a doua seară iar ne adunăm pe scara laterală cu vin fiert și uscături tot noi... bătrânii rockeri grei în coada chitării la miezonoptică.”

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Book:Orbul de la Cină
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“The night sky shouldn't be so dark," Peter had told her. "If the universe is endless, then starlight should fill all the empty spaces. Light doesn't stop until it hits a surface - so why the dark spaces? From where we stand on Earth, all we should see is light." "Maybe the universe isn't limitless, then," Alice had said. "Or the universe is expanding," Peter had said. "And the stars are too young, and all that distant light is still stretching to reach us. And until it does, the night lies dark.”

PhilosophyScienceWonderReflectionCuriosityAstronomyExistentialLight And DarknessNight SkyCosmic Perspective
Book:Katabasis
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“Do you know, do you know that mankind can still continue to live without the Englishman, can continue without Germany, can continue all too well without the Russian, can continue without science, can continue without bread - it is only without beauty that we cannot continue, for there will be nothing at all to do in the world! That's where the whole secret lies, that's where the whole of history lies! Science itself would not last a minute without beauty - do you know about that, you who are laughing now? - it would turn into loutishness, you wouldn't even be able to invent the nail!”

ArtPhilosophyScienceHumanityCultureBeautyEmotionalExistentialIntrospectionLiterary
Book:Demons
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“In a way,” Ava said, “we hardly know ourselves. Our senses are limited, our brains are biased, and our instruments are imprecise. Even all of visible matter is just a tiny fraction of what exists. Think about dark matter and dark energy. Think about all the hypotheses that haven’t been tested or can’t be tested in our lifetimes. Our bodies of knowledge are not only incomplete. They’re changing with every approximation, with every rigorous study. The more we learn, the more mysteries arise in the universe. To me, that’s the greatest realization. Discovering how insignificantly small we are in the cosmos while knowing we’re the cosmos too. We are what we’re looking for. We believe we’re so separate from everything, but we’re all connected in this moment, changing, always changing, but never capable enough to realize the immensity of existence itself. Our mammalian brains will never comprehend our interconnection to everything. We’re waves in an ocean and we don’t truly understand how deep that ocean can go.”

ScienceUniverseKnowledgeHumilityExistentialHypothesisInterconnection
Book:Father in My Name
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“L’algèbre s’applique aux nuages ; l’irradiation de l’astre profite à la rose; aucun penseur n’oserait dire que le parfum de l’aubépine est inutile aux constellations. Qui donc peut calculer le trajet d’une molécule? Que savons-nous si des créations de monde ne sont point déterminées par des chutes de grains de sable? Qui donc connaît les flux et les reflux réciproques de l’infiniment grand et de l’infiniment petit, le retentissement des causes dans les précipices de l’être et les avalanches de la création? […] Tous les oiseaux qui volent ont à la patte le fil de l’infini. […] Dans les vastes échanges cosmiques, la vie universelle va et vient en quantités inconnues, roulant tout dans l’invisible mystère des effluves, […] rattachant le vol d’un insecte au mouvement de la terre, subordonnant, qui sait? ne fût-ce que par l’identité de la loi, l’évolution de la comète dans le firmament au tournoiement de l’infusoire dans la goutte d’eau. Machine faite d’esprit. Engrenage énorme dont le premier moteur est le moucheron et dont la dernière roue est le zodiaque.”

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Book:Les Misérables
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“The very act of doubting our reality indicates a flicker of suspicion, a seed of uncertainty germinating in our subconscious. Perhaps this nagging sense of unease, this wondering if something isn’t altogether as it should be, is a clue, a whisper from the wellspring of our being that there’s more to this existence than meets the eye.”

MindRealityConsciousnessDoubtAwarenessPerceptionIllusionExistentialMayaMatrix
Book:Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality
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“I don't know what makes us want to keep on living, what makes us desperately hold on to anything that will allow us to remain on this earth just a little longer despite the pain that comes with it, but I do know that, whatever it is, selfishness resides at its core; selfishness is its black, dangerous heart.”

PhilosophyPainDarknessHuman NatureSurvivalLife And DeathExistentialIntrospectiveEmotional StruggleRaw Honesty
Book:The Devil Takes You Home
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“Nothing Man by Stewart Stafford I return to plague night's wanderers, Dark hours and thoughts personified, Driven by this scorching crusade, Agitation flooding my skewed brain. Many have tried to kill me and failed, They think material weapons can work, I am immaterial and absorb punishment; An elemental fire they cannot extinguish. No targets are off limits to me, I fear, Aye, I am an equal opportunities predator, Praying for my victims as I prey upon them, Then am I consumed, at one with darkness. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

PoetryDarknessHorrorPsychologicalExistentialSupernaturalGothicPersonificationDark PoetryAntihero
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“I stretch out to touch Nyame's muzzle eagerly, and the energy doesn't withdraw. I let her know she's going to be alone again. But then I see pictures of shamans in trances and dancers in drum circles and children sleeping and I know she's never been alone. She's never NEEDED us. There have always been those who transcend, and traversing is just one way to walk between worlds. I don't think she'll miss me, that's too limited a way of thinking, but she makes me feel like she's noticed me, and I am grateful for that too.”

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Book:The Space Between Worlds
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“I always had an existential crisis, trying to figure out ‘what does it all mean?’ I came to the conclusion that if we can advance the knowledge of the world, if we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness, then, we’re better able to ask the right questions and become more enlightened. That’s the only way to move forward.”

IfsWorldWayTryingMeanDoeAbleMovingAsksConsciousnessFiguresCrisisScalesMoving ForwardConclusionEnlightenedExistentialScopeRight QuestionsExistential CrisisKnowledge Of The World
Author:Elon Musk
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“I went to school, and I remember that you had to do these tests to find out what set you're in - how clever you are. I put down "Kit Harington," and they looked at me like I was completely stupid, and they said, "No, you're Christopher Harington, I'm afraid." It was only then I learnt my actual name. That was kind of a bizarre existential crisis for an 11-year-old to have, but in the end I always stuck with Kit, because I felt that's who I was. I'm not really a "Chris."”

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Author:Kit Harington
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“Existential psychotherapy is the movement which, although standing on one side on the scientific analysis owed chiefly to the genius of Freud , also brings back into the picture the understanding of man on the deeper and broader level man as the being who is human. It is based on the assumption that it is possible to have a science of man which does not fragmentize man and destroy his humanity at the same moment as it studies him. It unites science and ontology .”

MenHumansDoeMomentsHumanityUnderstandingSidesLevelsStudyMovementGeniusStandingDeeperAnalysisAssumptionExistentialPsychotherapyOntology
Book:Existence
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“Michael [Jackson] reconstructed his face and deconstructed the African features into a spooky European geography of fleshly possibilities, and yet what we couldn't deny, that even as his face got whiter and whiter his music got Blacker and Blacker. His soul got more deeply rooted in the existential agony and the profound social grief that Black people are heir to.”

PeopleSoulFacesSocialBlackGriefPossibilityProfoundDenyFeaturesBlack PeopleRootedAgonyExistentialGeographyHeirsSpooky
Author:Michael Eric Dyson
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