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cac80a0 Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat. existentialism human human-condition life religion José Saramago
f26ac99 If we wish to know about a man, we ask 'what is his story--his real, inmost story?'--for each of us is a biography, a story. Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us--through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives--we are each of us unique. human-condition humanity individuality uniqueness Oliver Sacks
58116c8 "But I'm not guilty," said K. "there's been a mistake. How is it even possible for someone to be guilty? We're all human beings here, one like the other." "That is true" said the priest "but that is how the guilty speak" guilty human human-condition life mistakes priest trial Franz Kafka
5e8b9ab How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness, and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it. human-condition Toni Morrison
c150255 I looked at her, with her hair spilled out on the pillows and the warmth of her body warming mine. And I thought, god-dang, if this ain't a heck of a way to be in bed with a pretty woman. The two of you arguing about murder, and threatening each other, when you're supposed to be in love and you could be doing something pretty nice. And then I thought, well, maybe it ain't so strange after all. Maybe it's like this with most people, everyone doing pretty much the same thing except in a different way. And all the time they're holding heaven in their hands. crime-fiction human-condition love murder violence Jim Thompson
bff4f41 We are meaning-seeking creatures. Dogs, as far as we know, do not agonise about the canine condition, worry about the plight of dogs in other parts of the world, or try to see their lives from a different perspective. But human beings fall easily into despair, and from the very beginning we invented stories that enabled us to place our lives in a larger setting, that revealed an underlying pattern, and gave us a sense that, against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life had meaning and value human-condition myth mythology Karen Armstrong
362b88a Individual cultures and ideologies have their appropriate uses but none of them erase or replace the universal experiences, like love and weeping and laughter, common to all human beings. angel-art anti-racism antiracism appropriate-application coexistence common-ground cultural-boundaries cultural-demographics cultural-differences cultural-heritage cultural-literacy cultural-relativism demographics diversity ending-violent-jihad ending-war faith-in-humanity faith-in-love human-beings human-condition humanity ideologies ideology ideology-religion-war-compromise interfaith-dialogue joy joy-of-life laughter love-for-humanity multiculturalism multiculturalismo nonviolent-conflict-resolution peacism philosophy-for-millennials race-relations racial-division racial-identity social-philosophy sociological-imagination spiritual-philosophy universal universal-love universal-truths universality waging-peace weeping Aberjhani
62ce5dd Practically every fella that breaks the law has a danged good reason, to his own way of thinking, which makes every case exceptional, not just one or two. Take you, for example. crime-fiction human-condition Jim Thompson
faebe56 Civilizations grow by agreements and accomodations and accretions, not by repudiations. The rebels and the revolutionaries are only eddies, they keep the stream from getting stagnant but they get swept down and absorbed, they're a side issue. Quiet desperation is another name for the human condition. If revolutionaries would learn that they can't remodel society by day after tomorrow -- haven't the wisdom to and shouldn't be permitted to -- I'd have more respect for them ... Civilizations grow and change and decline -- they aren't remade. civilization growth human-condition humanity rebellion revolution society Wallace Stegner
60e65b1 [T]here is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men. beasts human-condition humanity men Herman Melville
9095b44 Cause nobody's the slightest idea who we are, or who we were, not even we ourselves - except, that is, in the glimmer of a moment of fair business between strangers, or the nod of knowing and agreement between friends. Other than these, we go out anonymous into the insect air and all we are is the dust of colour, brief engineerings of wings towards a glint of light on a blade of grass or a leaf in a summer dark. human-condition knowledge-of-self Ali Smith
99190c9 But even if I know what governs their trajectory, if I know the rules of the movement of things and how things are organized and how certain mutations, transformations, gestations take place, even if I know all that, I shall only have learnt how to get along after a fashion in the enormous gaol, the oppressive prison in which I am held. What a farce, what a snare, what a booby-trap. We were born cheated. For if we are not to know, if there is nothing to know, why do we have this longing to know? human-condition knowing prisons science Eugène Ionesco
6fd423b The human attitude of which classical music is the expression is always the same; it is always based on the same kind of insight into life and strives for the same kind of victory over blind chance. Classical music as gesture signifies knowledge of the tragedy of the human condition, affirmation of human destiny, courage, cheerful serenity. human-condition insights music Hermann Hesse
90023d5 [At the scene of a murder] The cats' bloodthirst was normal; it was the way God had made them. They were hunters, they killed for food and to train their young--well maybe sometimes for sport. But this violent act by some unknown human had nothing to do with hunting--for a human to brutally maim one of the own kind out of rage or sadism or greed was, to Joe and Dulcie (the cats), a shocking degradation of the human condition. To imagine that vicious abandon in a human deeply distressed Dulcie; she did not like thinking about humans that way. ethics human-condition morals murder Shirley Rousseau Murphy
752c450 And yet is not mankind itself, pushing on its blind way, driven by a dream of its greatness and its power upon the dark paths of excessive cruelty and of excessive devotion. And what is the pursuit of truth, after all? ambitious-minds ambitious-people driven fall fear fire grace haunted human-condition humanity idlesness mankind pride self-hate self-loathing self-motivated truth Joseph Conrad
a89b506 O what we ben! And what we come to! human-condition progress Russell Hoban
1805996 She knew only too well that the song was a beautiful lie. As soon as kitsch is recognized for the lie it is, it moves into the context of non-kitsch, thus losing its authoritarian power and becoming as touching as any other human weakness. For none among us is superman enough to escape kitsch completely. No matter how we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition. authoritarian beauty human human-condition kitsch lie power reveal weakness Milan Kundera
ddd5628 It's like when you find out your lover has been unfaithful: in one horrible instant everything she was to you, the whole beautiful enchantment, falls away, and you see her as she really is - mortal, machinating, tethered like everyone else to a little patch of space and time. And the worst of it is that you knew all along. human-condition infidelity love Paul Murray
f11f30d She had said he had been driven away from her by a dream,--and there was no answer one could make her--there seemed to be no forgiveness for such a transgression. And yet is not mankind itself, pushing on its blind way, driven by a dream of its greatness and its power upon the dark paths of excessive cruelty and of excessive devotion. And what is the pursuit of truth, after all? ambitious-minds ambitious-people driven fall fear fire grace haunted human-condition humanity idlesness mankind pride self-hate self-loathing self-motivated truth Joseph Conrad
b11d297 In our more arrogant moments, the sin of pride--or superbia, in Augustine's Latin formulation--takes over our personalities and shuts us off from those around us. We become dull to others when all we seek to do is assert how well things are going for us, just as friendship has a chance to grow only when we fare to share what we are afraid of and regret. The rest is merely showmanship. The flaws whose exposure we so dread, the indiscretions we know we would be mocked for, the secrets that keep our conversations with our so-called friends superficial and inert--all of these emerge as simply part of the human condition. friendship human-condition masks pride vanity Alain de Botton
2cfa372 To acknowledge God is to fully accept the sorrow of the human condition. human-condition sorrow Douglas Coupland
708baa5 "Cause nobody's the slightest idea who we are, or who we were, not even we ourselves - except, that is, in the glimmer of a moment of fair business between strangers, or the nod of knowing and agreement between friends. human-condition knowing-oneself Zadie Smith
70af45f Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. We put on display our framed photographs, our parchment diplomas, our silver-plated cups; we monogram our linen, we carve our names on trees, we scrawl them on washroom walls. It's all the same impulse. What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simply attention, of any kind we can get? At the very least we want a witness. We can't stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down. fear human-condition longing powerful sad-but-true self-conciousness Margaret Atwood
c6fc448 You see, Great Caesar. she said, this is the way in which mortals retain the power of the divine---in every earthly choice they make. 'But it's a paradox.' he said. 'Human beings are in control of everything and nothing at all.' 'Yes, she answered, her coy smile spreading joy across her lovely face. It is that simple. human-condition humanity Karen Essex
264f0b6 Feeding the family trumps conviction every time, Mary though, a basic law of the human condition. human-condition hunger starvation Karen Essex
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