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b8fee32 Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone's life. Be the light that helps others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance. light learning meaning inspiration inspirational-quotes life-quotes life wisdom inspirational meaningful-life goals-in-life living-life light-and-darkness giving meaning-of-life meaningful wise goals learn Roy T. Bennett
4eb5225 The best things in life make you sweaty. philosophical life love inspirational puberty meaning-of-life purpose Edgar Allan Poe
8cbda4a "In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness. And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely. "Everything must have a purpose?" asked God. "Certainly," said man. "Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God. And He went away." meaning-of-life purpose Kurt Vonnegut
d8e760b Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them. rules-of-life meaning-of-life math Mark Haddon
b8bf2a4 It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters, positive-living money kindness spirit compassion self-awareness spirituality happiness life love philosophy wisdom inspirational purposeful-living happy-life attention oneness purpose-in-life positive-attitude purpose-of-life meaning-of-life self-discovery perspective meditation purpose revelation peace respect Amit Ray
97a22c8 I have learned that you can go anywhere you want to go and do anything you want to do and buy all the things that you want to buy and meet all the people that you want to meet and learn all the things that you desire to learn and if you do all these things but are not madly in love: you have still not begun to live. passion inspiration inspirational-life inspirational-quotes living life love inspirational inspirational-love meaning-of-life C. JoyBell C.
0ab6b31 About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough--and even miraculous enough if you insist--I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about? Depending on my mood, I sometimes but not always refrain from pointing out what a breathtakingly insulting and patronizing question this is. (It is on a par with the equally subtle inquiry: Since you don't believe in our god, what stops you from stealing and lying and raping and killing to your heart's content?) Just as the answer to the latter question is: self-respect and the desire for the respect of others--while in the meantime it is precisely those who think they have divine permission who are truly capable of any atrocity--so the answer to the first question falls into two parts. A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless' except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities... but there, there. Enough. existence morality faith religion god life secular-ethics supernaturalism meaning-of-life debate existentialism ethics materialism naturalism atheism respect self-respect Christopher Hitchens
046f3e8 Life is problems. Living is solving problems. truth meaning-of-life Raymond E. Feist
df82952 Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and wilfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia. The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us. death happiness moment-of-being tom-stoppard utopias meaning-of-life Tom Stoppard
ffe18f4 Beyond work and love, I would add two other ingredients that give meaning to life. First, to fulfill whatever talents we are born with. However blessed we are by fate with different abilities and strengths, we should try to develop them to the fullest, rather than allow them to atrophy and decay. We all know individuals who did not fulfill the promise they showed in childhood. Many of them became haunted by the image of what they might have become. Instead of blaming fate, I think we should accept ourselves as we are and try to fulfill whatever dreams are within our capability science inspirational meaning-of-life Michio Kaku
4aef01f To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. fulfillment meaning-of-life Robert Louis Stevenson
225b307 Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well? life plato unexamined-life socrates meaning-of-life Kurt Vonnegut
fc046a6 I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I've got. meaning-of-life Hermann Hesse
2519c41 Not only is there often a right and wrong, but what goes around does come around, Karma exists, chickens do come home to roost, and as my mother, Phyllis, liked to say, "There is always a day of reckoning." The good among the great understand that every choice we make adds to the strength or weakness of our spirits--ourselves, or to use an old fashioned word for the same idea, our souls. That is every human's life work: to construct an identity bit by bit, to walk a path step by step, to live a life that is worthy of something higher, lighter, more fulfilling, and maybe even everlasting. psychology-spirituality karma meaning inspiration inspirational-quotes identity life-lessons inspirational ethical fulfillment personal-development meaning-of-life ethics psychology Donald Van de Mark
2d7ee33 There are powers far beyond us, plans far beyond what we could have ever thought of, visions far more vast than what we can ever see on our own with our own eyes, there are horizons long gone beyond our own horizons. This is courage- to throw away what is our own that is limited and to thrust ourselves into the hands of these higher powers- God and Destiny.To do this is to abide in the realm of the eternal, to walk in the path of the everlasting to follow in the footprints of God and demi-gods. The hardest part for man is the letting go. For some reason, he thinks himself big enough to know and to see what's good for him. But in the letting go........is found freedom. In the letting go........ is found the flight! flying-spirit letting-go inspiration inspirational-life inspirational-quotes living destiny god life truth inspirational footprints flying meaning-of-life belief C. JoyBell C.
9d7ddeb The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is...42! meaning-of-life Douglas Adams
da39a3e nature quailty freedom goodness choice beauty inspiration science darkness motivational hope intelligence life inspirational marie-lu intimate american-dream dedication watchmen meaning-of-life order hardship pure harmony evil Terry Pratchett
fd35997 Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase. purpose-of-life meaning-of-life Michael Crichton
519e9fe Everything ends, and Everything matters inspirational meaning-of-life Ron Currie Jr.
6a75b18 The clear awareness of having been born into a losing struggle need not lead one into despair. I do not especially the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on--only henceforth in my absence. (It's the second of those thoughts: the edition of the newspaper that will come out on the day after I have gone, that is the more distressing.) Much more horrible, though, would be the announcement that the party was continuing forever, and that I was forbidden to leave. Whether it was a hellishly bad party or a party that was perfectly heavenly in every respect, the moment that it became eternal and compulsory would be the precise moment that it began to pall. heaven death life obituary meaning-of-life eternal-life atheism despair hell Christopher Hitchens
432dfdb Oh, gentlemen, perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I've never been able to start or finish anything. Granted, granted I'm a babbler, a harmless, irksome babbler, as we all are. But what's to be done if the sole and express purpose of every intelligent man is babble--that is, a deliberate pouring from empty into void. philosophical-musings meaning-of-life thinking searching Fyodor Dostoyevsky
589e879 Philosophers can debate the meaning of life, but you need a Lord who can declare the meaning of life. love philosophy meaning-of-life Max Lucado
6380a03 We modern human beings are looking at life, trying to make some sense of it; observing a 'reality' that often seems to be unfolding in a foreign tongue--only we've all been issued the wrong librettos. For a text, we're given the Bible. Or the Talmud or the Koran. We're given Time magazine, and Reader's Digest, daily papers, and the six o'clock news; we're given schoolbooks, sitcoms, and revisionist histories; we're given psychological counseling, cults, workshops, advertisements, sales pitches, and authoritative pronouncements by pundits, sold-out scientists, political activists, and heads of state. Unfortunately, none of these translations bears more than a faint resemblance to what is transpiring in the true theater of existence, and most of them are dangerously misleading. We're attempting to comprehend the spiraling intricacies of a magnificently complex tragicomedy with librettos that describe the barrom melodramas or kindergarten skits. And when's the last time you heard anybody bitch about it to the management? reality religion life truth meaning-of-life fact Tom Robbins
2604d4f "Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?" "I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is." humor computers meaning-of-life Douglas Adams
7da8b67 "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already in the ages before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after." religion philosophy under-the-sun meaning-of-life Anonymous
2285a7f Art--the meaning of the pattern of our common actions in reality. The cloth-of-gold that hides behind the sackcloth of reality, forced out by the pain of human memory. pain meaning reality meaning-of-life Lawrence Durrell
0d8795e Because, as I would always tell myself so many years later, lying here in my bed: You can't start out again in life, that's a carriage ride you only take once, but with a book in your hand, no matter how confusing and perplexing it might be, once you've finished it, you can always go back to the beginning; if you like, you can read it through again, in order to figure out what you couldn't understand before, in order to understand life, isn't that so, Fatma? meaning-of-life Orhan Pamuk
0b80066 All I wanted and all Neal wanted and all anybody wanted was some kind of penetration into the heart of things where, like in a womb, we could curl up and sleep the ecstatic sleep that Burroughs was experiencing with a good big mainline shot of M. and advertising executives in NY were experiencing with twelve Scotch & Sodas in Stouffers before they made the drunkard's train to Westchester---but without hangovers. meaning-of-life Jack Kerouac
9400eb3 In every life there are events that reshape one's sense of existence. Afterward, all is different and the past is dimmed. meaning-of-life nihilism Annie Proulx
94a7a16 I don't know what understanding myself is. I don't look inside. I don't believe I exist behind myself. understanding seeing personality existence nature reality personae pantheism feeling clarity meaning-of-life paganism self Alberto Caeiro
22d9fbe To sit and contemplate - to remember the faces of women without desire, to be pleased by the great deeds of men without envy, to be everything and everywhere in sympathy and yet content to remain where and what you are. meaning-of-life Virginia Woolf
dd29c71 My joy is that there is no such world at all, but that the substance of life is in everyone! There is no reason to be troubled because we are absurd, is there? For we really are: we are absurd, frivolous, we have bad habits, we're bored, we don't know how to look around ourselves, we don't know how to understand, we are all like this, all of us, you, and I, and everyone! And you aren't offended by my telling you straight to your faces that you are absurd? There is the basic stuff of life in your, isn't there? You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, we can't understand everything at once, we can't begin with perfection! To reach perfection there must first be much we do not understand. And if we understand too quickly we will probably not understand very well. I tell this to you who have been able to understand so much and - do not understand.' p. 577 absurdity ridiculousness understanding-life meaning-of-life Fyodor Dostoyevsky
c7dfa5b If 'dead' matter has reared up this curious landscape of fiddling crickets, song sparrows, and wondering men, it must be plain even to the most devoted materialists that the matter of which he speaks contains amazing, if not dreadful, powers, and may not impossibly be, as Thomas Hardy has suggested, 'but one mask of many worn by the Great Face behind. meaning meaning-of-life Loren Eiseley
f9d35f3 Love is a connection with another person, either through birth or through something else that I cannot even explain. It is often just an attraction at first. But it goes far deeper than that. It is a determination to care for the other person no matter what and to allow oneself to be cared for in return. It is a commitment to make the other happy and to be happy oneself. It is not possessive, but neither is it a victim. And it does not always bring happiness. Often it brings a great deal of pain, especially when the beloved is suffering and one feels impotent to comfort. It is what life is all about. It is openness and trust and vulnerability. meaning-of-life Mary Balogh
69f47f5 Lat at nigh have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were mean to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't pain, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is. dream dreams meant-to-be meaning-of-life resistance Steven Pressfield
9cf7a83 Human beings have their great chance in the novel. meaning meaning-of-life E.M. Forster
3a8c7fb "We all have gifts and talents. When we cultivate those gifts and share them with the world, we create a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. Squandering our gifts brings distress to our lives. As it turns out, it's not merely benign or "too bad" if we don't use the gifts that we've been given; we pay for it with our emotional and physical well-being. When we don't use our talents to cultivate meaningful work, we struggle. We feel disconnected and weighed down by feelings of emptiness, frustration, resentment, shame, disappointment, fear, and even grief." meaning-of-life well-being gift purpose talent Brené Brown
1be80d1 You know what's wrong with scientific power?... It's a form of inherited wealth... Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual Guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline. Now, what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to his with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of the getting the power changes you so that you won't abuse it. But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step... There is no discipline... no mastery: old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature... A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife. The person who kills is the person who has no discipline, no restraint, and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special. And that is the kind of power that science fosters, and permits. science life meaning-of-life Michael Crichton
6c57759 No lifetime is long enough for those who wish to create, Raul. Or for those who simply wish to understand themselves and their lives. It is, perhaps, the curse of being human, but also a blessing. death meaning-of-life Dan Simmons
aeb84ed "Seja como for, as pessoas dedicadas a religiao nao querem reconhecer a realidade que contradiz o seu conto de fadas. Se realmente vivermos num universo sem Deus, elas perdem o emprego. O fluxo de dinheiro estagna. Por outro lado, ha pessoas que escolhem viver a sua vida de uma forma completamente egocentrica e homicida. Essas sentem que, se nada importa e elas podem fazer o que querem sem sofrer consequeencias, vao faze-lo. Mas tambem podemos ver as coisas de outra maneira: estamos nos e os outros todos, vivos e num barco salva-vidas, e temos de fazer as coisas da maneira mais decente possivel para nos e para eles. A mim parece-me que esta seria uma forma de viver muito mais morale "crista": reconhecermos a terrivel verdade da existencia humana e, perante isso, ainda escolhermos ser humanos decentes em vez de nos iludirmos sobre a existencia de uma qualquer recompensa paradisiaca ou um qualquer castigo infernal. Parecia-me uma atitude muito mais nobre. Se ha recompensa, castigo ou qualquer tipo de pagamento e agimos bem, entao nao estamos a fazer por razoes muito nobres - os chamados principios cristaos. E como os bombistas suicidas que agem alegadamente de acordo com principios religiosos ou nacionais bastante nobres quando, na verdade, as suas familias recebem uma recompensa em dinheiro e congratulam-se com um legado heroico - ja para nao falar da promessa de virgens para os perpetradores, embora me passe completamente ao lado como e que alguem prefere um grupo de virgens a uma mulher altamente experiente." humor inspirational meaning-of-life Woody Allen
b31c32f She wants to have her notebooks so that the flimsy framework of events, as she has constructed them in her school notebook, will be provided with walls and become a house she can live in. Because if the tottering structure of her memories collapses like a clumsily pitched tent, all that Tamina will be left with is the present, that invisible point, that nothingness moving slowly toward death. philosophy czech meaning-of-life existentialism novel memory Milan Kundera
9b32798 Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent mutual regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it. religion meaning-of-life science-fiction existentialism ethics prophecy mythology Frank Herbert
2e61010 "Life is more than great sex and a nice car." "Well, yeah. But not a lot more." sex life meaning-of-life cars Jennifer Crusie
f7bffa4 "You certainly remember this scene from dozens of films: a boy and a girl are running hand in hand in a beautiful spring (or summer) landscape. Running, running, running and laughing. By laughing the two runners are proclaiming to the whole world, to audiences in all the movie theaters: "We're happy, we're glad to be in the world, we're in agreement with being!" It's a silly scene, a cliche, but it expresses a basic human attitude: serious laughter, laughter "beyond joking." All churches, all underwear manufacturers, all generals, all political parties, are in agreement about that kind of laughter, and all of them rush to put the image of the two laughing runners on the billboards advertising their religion, their products, their ideology, their nation, their sex, their dishwashing powder." -- laughter happiness philosophy czech kitsch meaning-of-life existentialism novel Milan Kundera
142fcd1 I have come here not to find answers, but to find a way to live in a world without any. life-answers meaning-of-life Sue Monk Kidd
1c1ee03 How can those who possess all knowledge, which must include knowledge of life that is worth living, be interested in using knowledge only for the insignificant aim of making money? meaning-of-life Rebecca Goldstein
bc426f9 People always want something more than immediate joy or that deeper sense called happiness. This is one of the secrets by which we shape the fulfillment of our designs. The something more assumes amplified power with people who cannot give it a name or who (most often the case) do not even suspect its existence. Most people only react unconsciously to such hidden forces. Thus, we have only to call a calculated something more into existence, define it and give it shape, then people will follow. meaning happiness something-greater unconscious meaning-of-life zeitgeist purpose mythology Frank Herbert
09f6c0e At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had a conception of life that no experience would ever erase, a predilection for what was real that no argument could ever gainsay, a sense of the world that was mine and mine alone, a notion as to what life meant that no education could ever alter, a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering. meaning life meaning-of-life Richard Wright
ea5341f I do not live when I loose belief in the existence of God. I should long ago have killed myself had I not had a dim hope of finding Him. I live really live only when I feel him and seek Him suicide god meaning-of-life Leo Tolstoy
22170ad I vot, to, chto ia davno podozreval, - bessmyslennost' mira, - stalo mne ochevidno. Ia pochuvstvoval vdrug neveroiatnuiu svobodu, - vot ona-to i byla znakom bessmyslennosti. meaning-of-life Vladimir Nabokov
afc6704 We had a project on this trip back to the solar system, and that project was a labor of love. It absorbed all our operations entirely. It gave a meaning to our existence. And this is a very great gift; this, in the end, is what we think love gives, which is to say meaning. Because there is no very obvious meaning to be found in the universe, as far as we can tell. But a consciousness that cannot discern a meaning in existence is in trouble, very deep trouble, for at that point there is no organizing principle, no end to the halting problems, no reason to live, no love to be found. No: meaning is the hard problem. meaning-of-life purpose Kim Stanley Robinson
4410667 Do not weep. Being is enough. There, that is all. I am done... meaning-of-life Alan Moore
d208ebe I thought of the fate of Descartes' famous formulation: man as 'master and proprietor of nature.' Having brought off miracles in science and technology, this 'master and proprietor' is suddenly realizing that he owns nothing and is master neither of nature (it is vanishing, little by little, from the planet), nor of History (it has escaped him), nor of himself (he is led by the irrational forces of his soul). But if God is gone and man is no longer master, then who is master? The planet is moving through the void without any master. There it is, the unbearable lightness of being. history nature humanity destiny god self-determinism modern meaning-of-life end-of-history existentialism Milan Kundera
28473ee Wine is like many of the fine experiences in life which take time and experience to extract their full pleasure and meaning. life meaning-of-life wine pleasure Douglas Preston
2ae0c10 He had sprung from a rigid Puritan stock, and had been brought up to think much more intently of the duties of this life than of its privileges and pleasures. pleasures-of-life puritan meaning-of-life focus Henry James
7adbd9b I wasn't getting better. I was getting worse. I did not go to the doctor because I didn't want pills. If this was going to kill me then let me be killed by it. If this was the rest of my life I could not live. meaning-of-life Jeanette Winterson
b9a7abd Men's lives are short . The hard man and his cruelties will be Cursed behind his back and mocked in death. But one whose heart and ways are kind - of him strangers will bear report to the whole wide world, and distant men will praise him. - Penelope in Robert Fitzgerald trans. THE ODYSSEY (364) kindness success penelope meaning-of-life legacy remembrance respect Robert Fitzgerald
f85103b "There are five people you meet in heaven," the Blue Man suddenly said. "Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on Earth." Eddie looked confused. "People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless. "This is the greatest gift God can give you: To understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for." enlightenment death god life wisdom explanation meaning-of-life peace knowledge power life-after-death Mitch Albom
8abaca1 You know what's wrong with scientific power?... It's a form of inherited wealth... Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual Guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline. Now, what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the power changes you so that you won't abuse it. But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step... There is no discipline... no mastery: old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature... A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife. The person who kills is the person who has no discipline, no restraint, and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special. And that is the kind of power that science fosters, and permits. responsibility science life meaning-of-life hard-work experience Michael Crichton
50cba7e In every remark he found a meaning, but not always the true meaning, and his life, though vivid, was largely a dream. spirituality meaning-of-life E.M. Forster
9e433ba When you win, the rules change, and you find you've lost meaning life meaning-of-life David Mitchell
a9e5966 In the purifying sweep of atheism human beings lost all special value. The numb misery of the horse was matched by that of the farmer; the once-green ferny lives crushed into coal's fossiliferous strata were no more anonymous and obliterated than Clarence's own life would soon be, in a wink of earth's tremendous time. Without Biblical blessing the physical universe became sherry horrible and disgusting. All fleshy acts became vile, rather than merely some. The reality of men slaying lambs and cattle, fish and fowl to sustain their own bodies took on an aspect of grisly comedy--the blood-soaked selfishness of a cosmic mayhem. religion meaning-of-life John Updike
8496e9f What the soul is after is - the highest feeling of love you can imagine. This is the soul's desire. This is its purpose. The soul is after the feeling. Not the knowledge, but the feeling. It already has the knowledge, but knowledge is conceptual. Feeling is experiential. The soul wants to feel itself, and thus to know itself in its own experience. The highest feeling is the experience of unity with All That Is. This is the great return to Truth for which the soul yearns. This is the feeling of perfect love. spirituality spiritual why-am-i-here why-we-are-alive why-we-are-here purple purpose-of-life meaning-of-life soul Neale Donald Walsch
82b8ced There seemed no answer. He wasn't resigned to anything, he hadn't accepted or adjusted to the life he'd been forced into. Yet here he was, eight months after the plague's last victim, nine since he's spoken to another human being, ten since Virginia had died. Here he was with no future and a virtually hopeless present. Still plodding on. Instinct? Or was he just stupid? Too unimaginative to destroy himself? Why hadn't he done it in the beginning when he was in the very depths? What had impelled him to enclose the house, install a freezer, a generator, an electric stove, a water tank, build a hothouse, a workbench, burn down the houses on each side of his, collect records and books and mountains of canned supplies, even - it was fantastic when you thought about it - even put a fancy mural on the wall? Was the life force something more than words, a tangible, mind-controlling potency? Was nature somehow, in him, maintaining its spark against its own encroachments? He closed his eyes. Why think, why reason? There was no answer. His continuance was an accident and an attendant bovinity. He was just too dumb to end it all, and that was about the size of it. suicide nature life life-force meaning-of-life survive reasoning purpose survival instinct thought Richard Matheson
9b28ecc "The insistent drums were an unwelcome reminder of the existence of another world, wholly autonomous, with its own necessities and patterns. The message they were beating out, over and over, was for her; it was saying, not precisely that she did not exist but rather that it did not matter whether she existed or not, that her presence was of no consequence to the rest of the cosmos. It was a sensation that suddenly paralyzed her with dread. There had never been any question of her "mattering"; it went without saying that she mattered, because she was important to herself. But what was the part of her to which she mattered?" drums observer subjectivity meaning-of-life message the-other existentialism Paul Bowles
de8861c And if ever I'm reduced to looking for a meaning to my life, you never can tell, it's in that old mess I'll stick my nose to begin with, the mess of that poor old uniparous whore and myself the last of my foul brood, neither man nor beast. meaning-of-life mother Samuel Beckett
9a8fbfd Science provides us with the methods we need to discover the truth. However it is only by developing wisdom through spirituality that provides the force we need to generate meaning in our lives. meaning spirituality science wisdome meaning-of-life Ray Mancini
b665af6 A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. meaning meaning-of-life Chaim Potok
3ffa308 "He looked down at the books. There was a long silence. Then he raised his eyes and directed his gaze at Gershon, and Gershon did not look away. "I will tell you, Loran what is of importance is not that there may be nothing. We have always acknowledged that as a possibility. What is important is that if indeed there is nothing, then we should be prepared to make something out of the one thing we have left to us -- ourselves. I do not know what else to tell you, Loran. No one is in possession of all wisdom. No one." Gershon sat in silence, looking at Nathan Malkuson." wisdom meaning-of-life self-reliance Chaim Potok
3565aa2 Why are we here? To remember, and re-create, Who You Are. [...] You use life to create your Self as Who You Are, and Who You've Always Wanted to Be. inner-being why-are-we-here purpose-of-life meaning-of-life true-self purpose Neale Donald Walsch
26984ba "No respecter of evidence has ever found the least clue as to what life is all about, and what people should do with it. Oh, there have been lots of brilliant guesses. But honest, educated people have to identify with them as such--as guesses. What are guesses worth? Scientifically and legally, they are not worth doodley-squat. As the saying goes: "Your guess is as good as mine." The guesses we like best, as with so many things we like best, were taught to us in childhood--by people who loved us and wished us well. We are reluctant to criticize those guesses. It is an ultimate act of rudeness to find fault with anything which is given to us in a spirit of love. So a modern, secular education is often painful. By its very nature, it invites us to question the wisdom of the ones we love. Too bad. I have said that one guess is as good as another, but that is only roughly so. Some guesses are crueler than others--which is to say, harder on human beings, and on other animals as well. The belief that God wants heretics burned to death is a case in point. Some guesses are more suicidal than others. The belief that a true lover of God is immune to the bites of copperheads and rattlesnakes is a case in point. Some guesses are greedier and more egocentric than others. Belief in the divine right of kings and presidents is a case in point. Those are all discredited guesses. But it is reasonable to suppose that other bad guesses are poisoning our lives today. A good education in skepticism can help us to discover those bad guesses, and to destroy them with mockery and contempt. Most of them were made by honest, decent people who had no way of knowing what we know, or what we can find out, if we want to. We have one hell of a lot of good information about our bodies, about our planet, and the universe--about our past. We don't have to guess as much as the old folks did. Bertrand Russell declared that, in case he met God, he would say to Him, "Sir, you did not give us enough information." I would add to that, "All the same, Sir, I'm not persuaded that we did the best we could with the information we had. Toward the end there, anyway, we had tons of information." secular-education life wisdom theories meaning-of-life skepticism Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
dffe172 The will to matter is at least as important as the will to believe. significance meaning-of-life Rebecca Goldstein
fe41048 What is God's desire? I desire first to know and experience Myself, in all My glory - to know Who I Am. Before I invented you - and all the worlds of the universe - it was impossible for Me to do so. Second, I desire that you shall know and experience Who You Really Are, through the power I have given you to create and experience yourself in whatever way you choose. Third, I desire for the whole life process to be an experience of constant joy, continuous creation, neverending expansion, and total fulfillment in each moment. why-are-you-alive why-are-you-here why-we-are-here why-we-live purpose-in-life purpose-of-life meaning-of-life god-s-will purpose Neale Donald Walsch
fc55f0c Za da s'zdadete detsa, p'rvo triabva da ste izgradili sebe si. V protiven sluchai shche se stremite da imate detsa, za da zadovolite zhivotinskite si nuzhdi, zaradi samotata si ili za da zap'lnite prazninata v sebe si. Zadachata vi kato roditel ne e da s'zdadete oshche edin Iozef kato vas, a neshcho po-v'zvisheno. Zadachata vi e da s'zdadete tvorets. ... Brak't ne triabva da e zatvor, a gradina, v koiato se otglezhda neshcho po-visshe. meaning-of-life Irvin D. Yalom
6f84f5e "Soul work [is] [...] seeking to realize (make "real") Who You Truly Are. You can create Who You Are over and over again. Indeed, you do - every day. As things now stand, you do not always come up with the same answer, however. Given an identical outer experience, on day one you may choose to be patient, loving and kind in relationship to it. On day two you may choose to be angry, ugly and sad. The Master is one who always comes up with the same answer - and that answer is always the highest choice. In this the Master is imminently predictable. Conversely, the student is completely unpredictable. One can tell how one is doing on the road to mastery by simply noticing how predictably one makes the highest choice in responding or reacting to any situation." enlightenment purposeful-living soul-work who-you-really-are journey-of-life purpose-of-life meaning-of-life self-discovery purpose Neale Donald Walsch
6bd852d That those who aim at happiness for happiness's sake often fail to find it, whereas others find happiness in pursuing altogether different goals, has been called 'the paradox of hedonism'. It is not, of course, a logical paradox but a claim about the way in which we come to be happy. Like other generalizations on this subject, it lacks empirical confirmation. Yet it matches our everyday observations and is consistent with our nature as evolved, purposive beings. Human beings survive and reproduce themselves through purposive action. We obtain happiness and fulfillment by working towards and achieving our goals. In evolutionary terms, we could say that happiness functions as an internal reward for our achievements. Subjectively, we regard achieving the goal (or progressing towards it) as a reason for happiness. Our own happiness, therefore, is a by-product of aiming at something else and is not to be obtained by setting our sights on happiness alone. inspirational meaning-of-life Peter Singer
a184cec Death is a terrifying experience... It threatens, with its corrosive power, our possibility of living a humane life. There are two kinds of experiences that can protect those---those able to turn to them---from the terror of the danger of death. One is the certainty of truth, the continuous awakening toward the understanding of the 'ineluctable need for truth,' without which a good life is not possible. The other is the resolute and profound illusion that life has meaning and that the meaning of life is found in performing good deeds. existence meaning life truth meaning-of-life Ricardo Piglia
4ff3975 Demnitatea e fara pret, omul incepe prin a ceda in lucrurile marune si sfarseste pierzand tot sensul vietii. meaning-of-life José Saramago
45bdb89 "Longfellow smiled. "A great part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, my dear Lowell, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory." life meaning-of-life Matthew Pearl
01d3af5 I don't claim to know an over-arching 'Meaning of Life,' but I do operate under the understanding that life should not be lived under the pretense that it is simply a test propagated by an invisible, intangible, Creator-God. And it should not be spent identifying with religious traditions and organized groups that, historically, have been at the root of a tremendous amount of oppression and violence. live-life-to-its-fullest meaning-of-life test David G. McAfee
ffdde12 I get down on my knees every mornin' an' give eternal thanks for the existence of girls in a otherwise pointless universe. giving-thanks pointlessness meaning-of-life girls Garth Ennis
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