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Existentialism Quotes

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Existentialism Quotes

“Every true faith is infallible. It performs what the believing person hopes to find in it. But it does not offer the least support for the establishing of an objective truth. Here the ways of men divide. If you want to achieve peace of mind and happiness, have faith. If you want to be a disciple of truth, then search.”

IfsMenWayWantMindBelievePersonsDoeSupportAchieveOffersObjectivesExistentialismPeace Of MindDividesHave FaithDiscipleInfallibleTrue FaithObjective Truth
Book:Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche
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“One fast move or I'm gone,' I realize, gone the way of the last three years of drunken hopelessness which is a physical and spiritual and metaphysical hopelessness you can't learn in school no matter how many books on existentialism or pessimisn you read, or how many jugs of vision-producing Ayahuasca drink, or Mescaline take, or Peyote goop up with -”

WayYearsBookMatterSchoolLastsSpiritualMovingThreeRealizingVisionGoneDrinkExistentialismThree YearsMetaphysicalHopelessnessAyahuascaJugsPeyote
Author:Jack Kerouac
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“In life man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem harsh to someone who has not made a success of his life. But on the other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and that dreams, expectations and hopes only serve to define a man as a broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations.”

PeopleMenMayMadeHelpingDreamHandsRealitySeemsDoubtBrokenDrawsExpectationsCommitNo DoubtExistentialismHarshPortraitsBroken Dreams
Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
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“Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldNeedsWellsRealPhilosophyFactsTodayDesireIndividualGoalExistenceKnownRiskIgnoranceWeaknessInfiniteRemainsDimensionsGuaranteesExistentialismImmenseReal LoveCatastropheRevoltStaggeringDensityCertitudeCollectivity
Author:Simone de Beauvoir
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“We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, and the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, are transitory and will soon disappear. When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something last longer than we do.”

KnowsHeartLastsLawArtistOrderFallFlowerDisappearGrievingExistentialismThinkerAgain And AgainFear Of DeathInstabilityTransitorySalvageGreat Dance
Book:Narcissus and Goldmund: A Novel
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“We start off with high hopes, then we bottle it. We realise that we’re all going to die, without really finding out the big answers. We develop all those long-winded ideas which just interpret the reality of our lives in different ways, without really extending our body of worthwhile knowledge, about the big things, the real things. Basically, we live a short disappointing life; and then we die. We fill up our lives with shite, things like careers and relationships to delude ourselves that it isn’t all totally pointless.”

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Author:Irvine Welsh
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“I have crossed the seas, I have left cities behind me, and I have followed the source of rivers towards their source or plunged into forests, always making for other cities. I have had women, I have fought with men ; and I could never turn back any more than a record can spin in reverse. And all that was leading me where ? To this very moment.”

MenMomentsTurnsLeftCitiesBehindsRecordsSeaSourceRiversForestsExistentialismReverseLeading MeNauseaExistentialist
Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
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“Life's a freaking mess. In fact, I'm going to tell Sarah we need to start a new philosophical movement: messessentialism instead of existentialism: For those who revel in the essential mess that is life. Because Gram's right, there's not one truth ever, just a bunch of stories, all going on at once, in our heads, in our hearts, all getting in the way of each other. It's all a beautiful calamitous mess. It's like the day Mr. James took us into the woods and cried triumphantly, "That's it! That's it!" to the dizzying cacophony of soloing instruments trying to make music together. That is it.”

WayNeedsTryingHeartFactsStoriesTogetherBeautifulMovementEssentialsPhilosophicalInstrumentsWoodsBunchMessExistentialismCriedCacophony
Author:Jandy Nelson
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“Indeed, compulsive and rigid moralism arises in given persons precisely as the result of a lack of sense of being. Rigid moralism is a compensatory mechanism by which the individual persuades himself to take over the external sanctions because he has no fundamental assurance that his own choices have any sanction of their own”

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Book:Existence
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“A freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied. And it is not true that the recognition of the freedom of others limits my own freedom: to be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future; the existence of others as a freedom defines my situation and is even the condition of my own freedom. I am oppressed if I am thrown into prison, but not if I am kept from throwing my neighbor into prison.”

IfsAbleGivenMy OwnExistenceSituationConditionsLimitsPrisonNeighborRecognitionExistentialismThrownThrowingDeniedExistentialOppressedYou Like It
Book:The Ethics of Ambiguity
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“As long as there have been men and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition, but as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it.”

MenLongHas BeensFeltConditionsPhilosopherExistentialismMaskTragicExistentialAmbiguity
Book:The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of Existentialism
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