An Existential Life
“Someday you will die somehow and something’s gonna steal your carbon.”
—Isaac Brock (Submitted by northernpoint)
November 2010
84 posts
“I remember only forcing myself, sleeplessly, endlessly, second by second, to exist.”
— Voldemort, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Submitted by riayn)
“It is always at the beginning that wearisome things weary us. Later on, there comes the numbness of death. ‘I shall never be able to live like that.’ But it is the fact that you do live like that which enables you to accept it.”
—Albert Camus, Notebooks (December 1937)
Thank you for running this tumblr. It's brilliant and I've loved it for quite some time but I just never got around to telling you how much I love the quotes that you post. All are interesting and thought-provoking, even for the already existential individual.
xx
thank you for following.
“Existence. It can be doubted very much whether existence is a perfection or degree of reality; for it can be doubted whether existence is one of those things that can be conceived — that is, one of the parts of essence; or whether it is only a certain imaginary concept, such as that of heat and cold, which is a denomination only of our perception, not of the nature of things. Yet if we consider more accurately, [we shall see] that we conceive something more when we think that a thing A exists, than when we think that it is possible. Therefore it seems to be true that existence is a certain degree of reality; or certainly that it is some relation to degrees of reality. Existence is not a degree of reality, however; for of every degree of reality it is possible to understand the existence as well as the possibility. Existence will therefore be the superiority of the degrees of reality of one thing over the degrees of reality of an opposed thing. That is, that which is more perfect than all things mutually incompatibles exists, and conversely what exists is more perfect than the non-existent, but it is not true that existence itself is a perfection, since it is only a certain comparative relation [comparatio] of perfections among themselves.”
—Leibniz in Determinist, Theist, Idealist by Robert Merrihew Adams.
“What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under. I love those who do not know how to live, except by going under, for they are those who cross over. I love the great despisers because they are the great adorers, the arrows of longing for the other shore.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (via frenchtwist)
“Of course, there are passions, mistakes, but one must also make allowances; passions testify to enthusiasm for the cause, and to the wrong external situation in which the cause finds itself.”
—Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (New translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) (via slaphisface)
“If someone told me to write a book on morality, it would have a hundred pages and ninety-nine of them would be blank. On the last page I would write, “I recognize only one duty and that is to love.” And as far as everything else is concerned, I say no.”
—Albert Camus (via azspot)
would you mind to follow back ? your blog is awesome ! :)
this is an added on tumbleblog, I have a seperate personal blog.
“One always dies too soon—or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.”
—Jean-Paul Sartre (via sefte)
“Eternal nothingness is fine if you’re dressed for it.”
—Woody Allen (via mattheww)
“One sticks one’s finger into the soil to tell by the smell in what land one is: I stick my finger in existence — it smells of nothing. Where am I? Who am I? How came I here? What is this thing called the world? What does this world mean? Who is it that has lured me into the world? Why was I not consulted, why not made acquainted with its manners and customs instead of throwing me into the ranks, as if I had been bought by a kidnapper, a dealer in souls? How did I obtain an interest in this big enterprise they call reality? Why should I have an interest in it? Is it not a voluntary concern? And if I am to be compelled to take part in it, where is the director? I should like to make a remark to him. Is there no director? Whither shall I turn with my complaint?”
— Søren Kierkegaard, Repetition (1843), Voice: Young Man
“When the believer has faith, the absurd is not the absurd—faith transforms it, but in every weak moment it is again more or less absurd to him. The passion of faith is the only thing which masters the absurd.”
—Søren Kierkegaard, Papers, X6 B 79.
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
—
Albert Einstein
(via talkwiththedead)
