“There's no end to the absurd things people will do trying to make life mean something.”
Source: Birdy
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William Wharton2
American author 1925–2008Related quotes
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist
Václav Havel book Disturbing the Peace
Source: Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 5 : The Politics of Hope, p. 114
“The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) French author and journalist
Review of Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, published in the newspaper Alger Républicain (20 October 1938), p. 5; also quoted in Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd (2002) by Avi Sagi, p. 43
Context: It is the failing of a certain literature to believe that life is tragic because it is wretched.
Life can be magnificent and overwhelming — that is its whole tragedy. Without beauty, love, or danger it would be almost easy to live. And M. Sartre's hero does not perhaps give us the real meaning of his anguish when he insists on those aspects of man he finds repugnant, instead of basing his reasons for despair on certain of man's signs of greatness.
The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning. This is a truth nearly all great minds have taken as their starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but the consequences and rules of action drawn from it.
Peter C. Newman (1929) Canadian journalist
Source: Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales Of People, Passion and Power
Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist
Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Fire Book
Context: The "mountain-sea" spirit means that it is bad to repeat the same thing several times when fighting the enemy. There may be no help but to do something twice, but do not try it a third time. If you once make an attack and fail, there is little chance of success if you use the same approach again.
“Out of ugly, I think the most important thing to do in life is to make something beautiful.”
Johnny Weir (1984) figure skater
Source: Behind The Spangles, Weir Is A Man In Full, Trey Graham, National Public Radio, 2010-02-26 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124121023&ft=1&f=1008, ; In response to gibes from Quebec sports announcers
Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America
Source: 1980s, Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987), p. 59
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
Letter Two (5 April 1903)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast
Patheos, Anti-theist Answers to Christian Questions http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2015/11/22/anti-theist-answers-to-christian-questions/ (November 22, 2015)