Existence Quotes

It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the “merely-personal,” from an existence which is dominated by wishes, hopes and primitive feelings.

It is good to be a cynic—it is better to be a contented cat — and it is best not to exist at all.

In default of any other proof, the thumb would convince me of the existence of a God.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter –  for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself… Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.

Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.

As human beings, our only sensible scale of values is one based on lessening the agony of existence.

And there is the fallacy of existence: the idea that one would be happy forever and aye with a given situation or series of accomplishments.

After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who writes dirty words in a public toilet to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do.