The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. Albert Camus
Can one be a saint if God does not exist? That is the only concrete problem I know of today. Albert Camus
People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about. Anton Chekhov
The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us. Quentin Crisp
Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem he has to solve. Erich Fromm
We don’t exist unless we are deeply and sensually in touch with that which can be touched but not known. D H Lawrence
The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line. H L Mencken
To exist is to change; to change is to mature; to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. Henri Bergson
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary. William of Occam, ‘Occam’s Razor’ attributed
I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’m gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. Arthur Schopenhauer
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream? Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within a Dream
We are biological creatures. We are born, we live, we die. There is no transcendent purpose to existence. At best we are creatures of reason, and by using reason we can cure ourselves of emotional excess. Purged of both hope and fear, we find courage in the face of helplessness, insignificance and uncertainty. Jonathan Sacks
Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence. Franz Kafka
Winston Smith: Does Big Brother exist?
O’Brien: Of course he exists.
Winston Smith: Does he exist like you or me?
O’Brien: You do not exist. George Orwell, 1984
All that makes existence valuable to anyone depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people. John Stuart Mill
You’re just floating through your entire existence. The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman 2013 starring Shia LaBeouf & Evan Rachel Wood & Mads Mikkelsen & Til Schweiger & Rupert Grint & Aubrey Plaza & James Buckley & Ion Caramitru & Vincent D’Onofrio & Melissa Leon et al, director Fredrik Bond, mother to son
I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That’s why I’m trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning. Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
But he is only stunned by the unvanquishable difficulty of his existence. Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
Everything that has existed, lingers in the Eternity. Agatha Christie
It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be joined to the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world should be created, and that it should not be created, etc; that original sin should be, and that it should not be. Blaise Pascal, Pensees
If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is. Blaise Pascal
I could not possibly exist with the nature I actually have, that is, one endowed with the idea of God, unless there really is a God; the very God, I mean, of whom I have an idea. Rene Descartes
I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain. Rene Descartes
I doubt therefore I think; I think therefore I am. [Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum] Rene Descartes
It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us. Peter de Vries, The Mackerel Plaza, 1958
To resist is to exist. Palestine wall message