Martin Esslin Quotes

• The Theatre of the Absurd is a theatrical embodiment and manifestation of existentialism. It is part reality and part nightmare

  Martin Esslin

  Reality, Theatre, Embodiment

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• The dignity of man lies in his ability to face reality in all its meaninglessness.

  Martin Esslin

  Lying, Reality, Men

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• Today, when death and old age are increasingly concealed behind euphemisms and comforting baby talk, and life is threatened with being smothered in the mass consumption of hypnotic mechanized vulgarity, the need to confront man with the reality of his situation is greater than ever. For the dignity of man lies in his ability to face reality in all its senselessness; to accept it freely, without fear, without illusions - and to laugh at it.

  Martin Esslin

  Baby, Lying, Reality

  Martin Esslin (2009). “The Theatre of the Absurd”, p.429, Vintage

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• The Theatre of the Absurd ... can be seen as the reflection of what seems to be the attitude most genuinely representative of our own time.  The hallmark of this attitude is its sense that the certitudes and unshakable basic assumptions of former ages have been swept away, that they have been tested and found wanting, that they have been discredited as cheap and somewhat childish illusions.

  Martin Esslin

  Attitude, Reflection, Age

  "The Theatre of the Absurd". Book by Martin Esslin, 1961.

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• The Theatre of the Absurd has renounced arguing about the absurdity of the human condition; it merely presents it in being - that is, in terms of concrete stage images. This is the difference between the approach of the philosopher and that of the poet; the difference, to take an example from another sphere, between the idea of God in the works of Thomas Aquinas or Spinoza and the intuition of God in those of St. John of the Cross or Meister Eckhart - the difference between theory and experience.

  Martin Esslin

  Ideas, Differences, Intuition

  Martin Esslin (2009). “The Theatre of the Absurd”, p.25, Vintage

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• There is a lot of dignity in having the ability to confront the inconsequence of reality.

  Martin Esslin

  Reality, Dignity, Ability

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• It has been rightly said that what a critic wants to understand he must, at one time, have deeply loved, even if only for a fleeting moment.

  Martin Esslin

  Fleeting, Want, Moments

  Martin Esslin (2009). “The Theatre of the Absurd”, p.16, Vintage

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