Futility Of Life Quotes

• It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Death, Play

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• Since all life is futility, then the decision to exist must be the most irrational of all.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Decision, Life Is, Irrational

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• Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right. As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established.

  George Carlin

  Dust, Trying, Next

  George Carlin (2002). “Napalm & Silly Putty”, Hyperion

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• Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop-offs at tedium and counter productivity.

  Erma Bombeck

  Memorable, Terrorism, Oblivion

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• To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Death

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.

  T. S. Eliot

  Life, Success, Coffee

  "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" l. 51 (1917)

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• Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow.

  William Shakespeare

  Play, Life And Death, Lady Macbeth

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being.

  Albert Einstein

  Men, Thinking, Covered Up

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• The thought that really crushes us is the thought of the futility of life of which death is the visible manifestation.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Crush, Life And Death, Manifestation

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• Playing the game I have learned the meaning of humility. It has given me an understanding of futility of the human effort.

  Abba Eban

  Humility, Golf, Games

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• Futility is the defining characteristic of life.

  Stephen R. Donaldson

  Defining, Characteristics, Futility

  Stephen R. Donaldson (2012). “Lord Foul's Bane”, p.20, Del Rey

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• This is a man with an old face, always old... There was pathos, in his face, and in his eyes. The early weariness; and sometimes tears in his eyes, Which he let slip unconsciously on his cheek, Or brushed away with an unconcerned hand. There were tears for human suffering, or for a glance Into the vast futility of life, Which he had seen from the first, being old When he was born.

  Edgar Lee Masters

  Eye, Men, Hands

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• Life itself was only futility, vain words, a squabble of cap and bells.

  Michel Foucault

  Bells, Vain, Caps

  Michel Foucault (2013). “Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason”, p.16, Vintage

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• Very few of the people who accentuate the futility of life remark the futility of themselves. Perhaps they think that in proclaiming the evil of living they somehow salvage their own worth from the ruin - but they don't, even you and I.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Thinking, Evil, People

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2016). “The Beautiful and Damned: American Literature”, p.287, VM eBooks

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• Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

  William Shakespeare

  Time, Lady Macbeth, Pace

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• Worry compounds the futility of being trapped on a dead-end street. Thinking opens new avenues.

  Cullen Hightower

  Moving Forward, Thinking, Worry

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• When I was still a rather precocious young man, I already realized most vividly the futility of the hopes and aspirations that most men pursue throughout their lives.

  Albert Einstein

  Men, Young, Aspiration

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• A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of laughter more terrible than any sadness-a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.

  Jack London

  Dog, Laughter, Sadness

  Jack London (1992). “The Call of the Wild and White Fang”, p.71, Wordsworth Editions

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• I used to tweet, but it's an act of futility. You're not really making any impact, and if you find yourself in a mood when you wanna be a bit controversial and you post something, you suddenly realise, 'Oh my God!' because you've opened yourself up to a bunch of criticism from strangers.

  Sylvester Stallone

  Impact, Finding Yourself, Criticism

  9 Copy quote

• Married life had taught Toran the futility of arguing with a female in a dark-brown mood.

  Isaac Asimov

  Marriage, Dark, Taught

  "Married life had taught Toran the futility of arguing with a female in a dark-brown mood".

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• Life, it is true, can be grasped in all its confused futility merely by opening one's eyes and sitting passively, a spectator on the stands of history - but to understand the social processes and conflicts, the interplay between individual and group, even the physicality of human experience, we have need of small-scale models.

  Will Self

  Confused, Eye, Groups

  "You may now turn over your papers" by Geoff Dyer, Mary Midgley and Will Self, www.theguardian.com. September 24, 2010.

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• It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild. (Ch.1)

  Jack London

  Laughing, Effort, Savages

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