Human Existence Quotes - Page 2

• In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.

  Noam Chomsky

  Freedom, Hero, Democracies Have

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• There's nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book.

  Carson McCullers

  Song, Book, Addresses

  Carson McCullers (1998). “Collected Stories of Carson McCullers”, p.162, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.

  Lord Acton

  Children, Men, Greek

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.46, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.

  Simone Weil

  Danger, Trembling, Existence

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.13, Psychology Press

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• Those who devote their lives to earning a living are incapable of living a human existence.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Earning, Existence, Humans

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.134, Routledge

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• One cannot avoid a certain feeling of disgust, when one observes the actions of man displayed on the great stage of the world. Wisdom is manifested by individuals here and there; but the web of human history as a whole appears to be woven from folly and childish vanity, often, too, from puerile wickedness and love of destruction: with the result that at the end one is puzzled to know what idea to form of our species which prides itself so much on its advantages.

  Immanuel Kant

  Pride, Men, Vanity

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• To me, human existence exists on a multiple level, not just on a two-dimensional level, not just having to be identified with what you do and what you say.

  Ornette Coleman

  Two, Levels, Existence

  Interview with Michael Jarrett, www2.york.psu.edu. November 8, 1987.

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• Some pain is simply the normal grief of human existence. That is pain that I try to make room for.

  Marianne Williamson

  Pain, Grief, Trying

  "A Conversation with Marianne Williamson: Powerful pioneer in new thought and spirituality". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• Reason and Knowledge have always played a secondary, subordinate, auxiliary role in the life of peoples, and this will always be the case. A people is shaped and driven forward by an entirely different kind of force, one which commands and coerces them and the origin of which is obscure and inexplicable despite the reality of its presence.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Reality, People, Different

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• Sören Kierkegaard has another answer: human existence is possible as existence not in despair, as existence not in tragedy; it is possible as existence in faith... Faith is the belief that in God the impossible is possible, that in Him time and eternity are one, that both life and death are meaningful.

  Peter Drucker

  Meaningful, Life And Death, Tragedy

  "The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the American Condition". Book by Peter F. Drucker, 1993.

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• It is crucial that we realize the great value of human existence, the opportunity and the potential that our brief lives afford us. It is only as humans that we have the possibility of implementing changes in our lives.

  Dalai Lama

  Opportunity, Realizing, Possibility

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• If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Beautiful, Faith, Inspiration

  Pope Benedict XVI (2006). “God's Revolution: World Youth Day and Other Cologne Talks”, p.35, Ignatius Press

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• Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence.

  Anthony de Mello

  Life, Children, Learning

  "Approaching God : How to Pray". Book by Steve Brown (p. 94), 1995.

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• Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. In the divided or social state these functions are parcelled out to individuals, each of whom aims to do his stint of the joint work, whilst each other performs his.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Soldier, Joints

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Ernest Spiller, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Joseph Slater, Jean Ferguson Carr (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature, addresses, and lectures”, p.53, Harvard University Press

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• We never know we are beings till we love. And then it is we know the powers and potentialities of human existence.

  Jean Toomer

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Existence

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• Philosophy is the thoughts of men about human thinking, reasoning and imagining, and the real values in human existence.

  Charles William Eliot

  Philosophy, Real, Men

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• In the beginning of his human life man was embryonic in the world of the matrix. There he received capacity and endowment for the reality of human existence. The forces and powers necessary for this world were bestowed upon him in that limited condition. In this world he needed eyes; he received them potentially in the other. He needed ears; he obtained them there in readiness and preparation for his new existence. The powers requisite in this world were conferred upon him in the world of the matrix.

  Abdu'l-Bahá

  Book, Eye, Reality

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• Human existence is an error...it is bad today and every day it gets worse, until the worst happens.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Depressing, Errors, Today

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• Music, great music, distends the spirit, arouses profound emotions and almost naturally invites us to raise our minds and hearts to God in all situations of human existence, the joyful and the sad. Music can become prayer.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Faith, Prayer, Inspiration

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• If it is true, as I have tried to show, that love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence, then any society which excludes, relatively, the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature.

  Erich Fromm

  Life, Running, Love Is

  "The Art of Loving". Book by Erich Fromm, 1956.

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• The intellect of most persons is harnessed by innumerable wants. From the spiritual point of view, such a life is the lowest type of human existence. The highest type of human existence is free from all wants and is characterised by sufficiency or contentment.

  Meher Baba

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Views

  "Meher Baba on God-realization: The Practical Side of Self-realization".

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• The Devil's strategy for our times is to trivialize human existence and isolate us from one another while creating the delusion that the reasons are time pressures, work demands or economic anxieties.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Fear, Creating, Anxiety

  "Best of the Century" by Albert Ellis, www.psychologytoday.com. November 1, 1999.

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• I don't see gender as the most significant fact of human existence.

  Jim Harrison

  Literature, Facts, Gender

  Interview with Robert Birnbaum, themorningnews.org. June 7, 2004.

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• ‎Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Even tiny insects survive by mutual cooperation based on innate recognition of their interconnectedness. It is because our own human existence is so dependent on the help of others that our need for love lies at the very foundation of our existence. Therefore we need a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.

  Dalai Lama

  Love, Relationship, Wise

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• Gratitude is one of the chief graces of human existence and is crowned in heaven with a consciousness of unity.

  Ernest Holmes

  Gratitude, Heaven, Grace

  Ernest Holmes (2006). “The Hidden Power of the Bible”, p.171, Penguin

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