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Meaninglessness Quotes

Browse 135 quotes about Meaninglessness.

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Meaninglessness Quotes

“There was an enjoyment to being alive, he felt, that because of an underlying meaninglessness–like how a person alone for too long cannot feel comfortable when with others; cannot neglect that underlying the feeling of belongingness is the certainty, really, of loneliness, and nothingness, and so experiences life in that hurried, worthless way one experiences a mistake–he could no longer get at.”

WayFeelsPersonsLongFeelingsFeltMistakeAliveLonelinessComfortableCertaintyEnjoymentNeglectNothingnessWorthlessMeaninglessness
Author:Tao Lin
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“We’re going to die and not even know. We’ll never know, and all this meaninglessness will just go on and on and on. And we won’t any longer be witnesses to it. We won’t have even that little bit of power to give meaning to it in our minds. We’ll just be gone, dead, dead, dead, without ever knowing!”

KnowsGivingMindLittlesDiesBitsGoneKnowingGoes OnLittle BitWitnessMeaninglessness
Book:The Complete Vampire Chronicles 12-Book Bundle
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“You wear nice clothes, you seek respect, you make a lot of money, but what's the point? It's all pointless. Of course, this kind of meaninglessness might suit this crappy nation. But, you see, we still have emotions like joy and happiness, right? They may not mount to much. But they fill up our emptiness. That's the only explanation I have.”

KindMayStillsMightJoyCoursesNationsEmotionNiceClothesSuitsExplanationEmptinessLots Of MoneyPointlessJoy And HappinessMeaninglessnessNice Clothes
Author:Koushun Takami
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“When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.”

IfsWantWritingStillsCharacterUsedWaterTeachCreativeModernStudentsDrinkGlassesCreative WritingWant SomethingModern LifeParalyzedMeaninglessnessDrink Water
Book:Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
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“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”

LifePlayDeathSoundWalksStageTomorrowWalkingTalesIdiotThemeExistentialismLife And DeathPaceAphorismFurySonnetCreepsTrekkingFutilityStrollingLife DeathSaunteringCatharsisMeaninglessnessRomeo And Juliet PlayFull LifeStages Of LifeMacbeth PlayFrettingMost MemorableFuture TimeLady MacbethImportant MacbethStage PlayMacbeth KeyMacbeth ConflictMacbeth ThemeMetaphors Of LifeSlings And ArrowsPoor LifeSignifyingMacbeth MotifDarkness In MacbethPace Of LifeMacbeth EssayBrevity Of LifeFutility Of LifeStruttingPlay Life
Author:William Shakespeare
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“Regarding mutual tolerance: It is negative in one sense, but positive in another. It absolutely forbids us to be forward in pronouncing on the meaninglessness of forms of existence other than our own; and it commands us to tolerate, respect, and indulge those whom we see harmlessly interested and happy in their own ways, however unintelligible these may be to us. Hands off.”

WayMayHandsHappinessFormExistenceRespectNegativeToleranceCommandMutualTolerateIndulgeMeaninglessness
Author:William James
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“The Nigerian storyteller Ben Okri says that ‘In a fractured age, when cynicism is god, here is a possible heresy: we live by stories, we also live in them. One way or another we are living the stories planted in us early or along the way, or we are also living the stories we planted — knowingly or unknowingly — in ourselves. We live stories that either give our lives meaning or negate it with meaninglessness. If we change the stories we live by, quite possibly we change our lives.’”

IfsWayGivingStoriesAgeOur LivesOne WayMeaning Of LifeLive ByCynicismStorytellerHeresyLife MeansMeaninglessness
Author:Ben Okri
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“For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

PhilosophyPoliticalCertainDoubtEconomicEvolutionMoralityInstrumentsLiberationNo DoubtEconomic SystemsMeaninglessnessCreationism
Book:Complete Essays: 1936-1938
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“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption ... For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneous liberation from a certain political and economic system, and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

WorldReasonPhilosophyAblePoliticalCertainDoubtEconomicMoralityDifficultyInstrumentsLiberationMotiveAssumptionNo DoubtSatisfyingEconomic SystemsMeaninglessnessSimultaneous
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“The power of our Muse lies in her meaninglessness. Even the style can turn one into a slave if one does not run away from it, and then one is doomed to repeat oneself. The only thing that counts is curiosity. For me personally, this is what creativity is about. It will express itself less in the fear of doing the same thing over again than in the desire not to go where one has already been.”

IfsDoeRunningLyingDesireTurnsCreativityStyleSlaveCuriosityOneselfRepeatsRunning AwayDoomedMuseMeaninglessness
Author:Gueorgui Pinkhassov
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“More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. I speak, by the way, not with any sense of futility, but with a panicky conviction of the absolute meaninglessness of existence which could easily be misinterpreted as pessimism. It is not. It is merely a healthy concern for the predicament of modern man.”

MenWayFacesSpeakExistencePathModernMankindPrayingHealthyDespairConcernAbsolutesConvictionPessimismHopelessnessExtinctionFutilityCrossroadsModern ManPredicamentsMeaninglessnessMisinterpreted
Author:Woody Allen
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