Existence Quotes - Page 17

• He has been trying to sing Love into existence again And he has failed

  Margaret Atwood

  Trying, Has Beens

  Margaret Atwood (2012). “Selected Poems II: 1976 - 1986”, p.125, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• the longer I live, the more necessary it seems to me to endure, to copy the whole dictation of existence to the end, for it might be that only the last sentence contains that small, perhaps inconspicuous word through which all laboriously learned and not understood orients itself toward glorious sense.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Might, Lasts, Ends

  Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1960.

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• You're so kind, Kazuhiko. That's what I like about you." I like you, too. I love you so much." If he weren't so inarticulate, Kazuhiko could have said so much more. How much her expression, her gentle manner, her pure untainted soul meant to him. How important, in short, her existence was to him. But he wasn't able to put into words. He was only a third-year student in junior high, and worst yet, composition was one of his worst subjects.

  Koushun Takami

  I Like You, Love You, Expression

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• in addition to the conditions under which life is given to man on earth, and partly out of them, men constantly create their own, self-made conditions, which, their human origins notwithstanding, possess the same conditioning power as natural things. whatever touches or enters into a sustained relationship with human life immediately assumes the character of a condition of human existence. this is why men, no matter what they do, are always conditioned beings. whatever enters the human world of its own accord or is drawn into it by human effort becomes part of the human condition.

  Hannah Arendt

  Character, Men, Self

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• This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.War is god.

  Cormac McCarthy

  War, Games, Unity

  Cormac McCarthy (2015). “Blood Meridian: Picador Classic”, p.263, Pan Macmillan

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• If God is the Creator of all things and evil is a thing, then God is the Creator of evil and He is to be blamed for its existence. No, evil is not a thing but a wrong choice, or the damage done by a wrong choice. Evil is no more a positive thing than blindness is, but it is just as real.

  Peter Kreeft

  Real, Evil, Choices

  Peter Kreeft (1988). “Fundamentals of the Faith: Essays in Christian Apologetics”, p.55, Ignatius Press

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• The threads of circumstance that lead to tomorrow are so tenuous that all the fussing and worrying about decisions is futile compared to the pure randomness of existence.

  Nick Bantock

  Worry, Decision, Tomorrow

  Nick Bantock (2000). “The artful dodger: images & reflections”, Chronicle Books Llc

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• Balm of the summer night, balm of the ordinary, imperial joy and sorrow of human existence, the dreamed as well as the lived— what could be dearer than this, given the closeness of death?

  Louise Glück

  Summer, Night, Joy

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• When he painted a road, the roadmakers were there in his imagination, when he painted the turned earth of a ploughed field, the gesture of the blade turning the earth was included in his own act. Whenever he looked he saw the labour of existence; and this labour, recognised as such, was what constituted reality for him. (On Vincent Van Gogh)

  John Berger

  Reality, Imagination, Earth

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• You’re pretty sharp, Clive. Do you believe in God?” Clive smiled. “I don’t know, should I?” Actually, approaching the matter from a purely logical perspective, yes. All the evidence points to the existence of a creator. The single greatest body of evidence is the dismal failure of man’s desperate attempts to come up with a reasonable alternative, beginning with evolution. I’ve always looked at the universe and seen a creator as plainly as most people who look at the ocean see water.

  Ted Dekker

  Believe, Ocean, Men

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• Through this atmosphere of torrid splendor moved wan beings as richly upholstered as the furniture, beings without definite pursuits or permanent relations, who drifted on a languid tide of curiosity... Somewhere behind them, in the background of their lives there was doubtless a real past, yet they had no more real existence than the poet's shades in limbo.

  Edith Wharton

  Real, Past, Atmosphere

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• The only way to show a true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God’s existence.

  Karen Armstrong

  Way, Shows

  "A History of God". Book by Karen Armstrong, 1993.

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• Anybody who has had a great treasure has always led a precarious existence.

  John Wyndham

  Treasure, Precarious

  John Wyndham (1951). “The Day of the Triffids”, Fawcett

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• Assessing existence while failing to embrace the insights of modern physics would be like wrestling in the dark with an unknown opponent.

  Brian Greene

  Wrestling, Dark, Would Be

  Brian Greene (2007). “The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality”, p.5, Vintage

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• The way of peace is a soul journey. . . . If you can live from the level of your soul, you are doing something very special. The important thing is how much consciousness you add to the whole of human existence, for that is how eternity expresses itself, like a lamp shining through the window of eternity.

  Deepak Chopra

  Spiritual, Journey, Shining

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• I believe in the transformative power of cinema. It is only through this shared dream-experience that we can transcend the oppressive minutiae of daily existence and find some spiritual connection in the deeper reality of our mutual desire.

  Daniel Clowes

  Dream, Spiritual, Believe

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• It's true: Everyone needs a reason to stay alive -- someone who justifies your existence. Someone who loves you. Not beyond all reason. Just loves you. Even just shows an interest. Even someone who doesn't exist, or isn't yours. No, no! They don't even have to love you! They just have to be there to love! Target for your arrows. Magnetic Pole to drag on your compass needle and stop it spinning and tell you where you're heading and...Someone to soak up all the yearning. That's what I think.

  Geraldine McCaughrean

  Love You, Thinking, Arrows

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• The moon looks wonderful in this warm evening light, just as a candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning. Light within light...It seems to me to be a metaphor for the human soul, the singular light within that great general light of existence.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Beautiful, Morning, Moon

  Marilynne Robinson (2004). “Gilead: A Novel”, p.119, Macmillan

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• I scarcely remember counting upon happiness—I look not for it if it be not in the present hour—nothing startles me beyond the moment. The setting sun will always set me to rights, or if a sparrow come before my Window I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel.

  John Keats

  Rights, Looks, Sparrows

  John Keats (2015). “John Keats - The Man Behind The Lyrics: Life, letters, and literary remains: Complete Letters and Two Extensive Biographies of one of the most beloved English Romantic poets”, p.584, e-artnow

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• Across town, over in the East Village, the graffiti was calling for the rich to be eaten, imprisoned, or taxed out of existence. Though it sometimes seemed like a nice idea, I hoped the revolution would not take place during my lifetime. I didn't want the rich to go away until I could at least briefly join their ranks.

  David Sedaris

  Nice, Ideas, Going Away

  David Sedaris (2000). “Me talk pretty one day”

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• So she had to satisfy herself with the idea of love - loving the loving of things whose existence she didn't care at all about. Love itself became the object of her love. She loved herself in love, she loved loving love, as love loves loving, and was able, in that way, to reconcile herself with a world that fell so short of what she would have hoped for. It was not the world that was the great and saving lie, but her willingness to make it beautiful and fair, to live a once-removed life, in a world once-removed from the one in which everyone else seemed to exist.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Love, Beautiful, Lying

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• There are friends with whom we share neither interests nor any particular experiences, friends with whom we never correspond, whom we seldom meet and then only by chance, but whose existence nonetheless has for us a special if uncanny meaning. For me the Eiffel Tower is just such a friend, and not merely because it happens to be the symbol of a city, for Paris leaves me neither hot nor cold. I first became aware of this attachment of mine when reading in the paper about plans for its demolition, the mere thought of which filled me with alarm.

  Stanislaw Lem

  Reading, Attachment, Cities

  Stanislaw Lem (1984). “The Chain of Chance”, p.136, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Socrates called himself a midwife of ideas. A great book is often such a midwife, delivering to full existence what has been coiled like an embryo in the dark, silent depths of the brain.

  Clifton Fadiman

  Book, Dark, Ideas

  Clifton Fadiman (1988). “The lifetime reading plan”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Long, Effort, Littles

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892). “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, p.55

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• More than honor, more than life, I love thee." What do you say when a man whose entire existence had been his honor offers to give it up for you? You say the only thing you can. More than any crown or throne or title, I love thee," I said. "more than any power in faerie, I love thee.

  Laurell K. Hamilton

  Men, Giving, Honor

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