“The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.”
Leo Tolstoy book A Confession
Source: Confession (1882), Ch. 5, translated by David Patterson, 1983
Source: A Confession
“The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.”
Leo Tolstoy book A Confession
Source: Confession (1882), Ch. 5, translated by David Patterson, 1983
Source: A Confession
Walter Terence Stace (1886–1967) British civil servant, educator and philosopher.
p.7-6.
“The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning.”
Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor
Quoted in Halliwell's Filmgoer's and Video Viewer's Companion (1988), p. 403. Seems that this sentence first appeared in an 1968 Playboy Interview "Stanley Kubrick on Mortality, the Fear of Flying, and the Purpose of Existence: 1968 Playboy Interview" http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/07/26/stanley-kubrick-playboy-interview/ <br class="br">Context: The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Source: "Einstein's Reply to Criticisms" (1949), The World As I See It (1949)
Context: What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.
Hyman George Rickover (1900–1986) United States admiral
Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life (1974)
Context: Life is not meaningless for the man who considers certain actions wrong simply because they are wrong, whether or not they violate the law. This kind of moral code gives a person a focus, a basis on which to conduct himself. Certainly there is a temptation to let go of morals in order to do the expedient thing. But there is also a tremendous power in standing by what is right. Principle and accomplishment need not be incompatible.
A common thread moves through all the principles I have discussed: It is the desire to improve oneself and one's surroundings by actively participating in life. Too many succumb to the emotional preference of the comfortable solution instead of the difficult one. It is easy to do nothing. And to do nothing is also an act; an act of indifference or cowardice.
A person must prepare himself intellectually and professionally and then use his powers to their fullest extent.
Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990) Norwegian philosopher, mountaineer, and author
Source: The Last Messiah (1933), To Be a Human Being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4m6vvaY-Wo&t=1110s (1989–90)
Jacques Delors (1925) French economist and politician
L'Unité d'un Homme (November 1994), quoted in The Times (21 November 1994), p. 11
President of the European Commission