“Being or nothing, that is the question. Ascending, descending, coming, going, a man does so much that in the end he disappears.”

— Raymond Queneau , book Zazie in the Metro

Source: Zazie in the Metro

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Being or nothing, that is the question. Ascending, descending, coming, going, a man does so much that in the end he dis…" by Raymond Queneau?

Raymond Queneau photo

Raymond Queneau 2

French poet 1903–1976

Related quotes

“Where are we going? Do not ask! Ascend, descend. There is no beginning and no end.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: Where are we going? Do not ask! Ascend, descend. There is no beginning and no end. Only this present moment exists, full of bitterness, full of sweetness, and I rejoice in it all.

“The Superior Man has nothing to compete for. But if he must compete, he does it in an archery match, wherein he ascends to his position, bowing in deference. Descending, he drinks (or has [the winner] drink) the ritual cup.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Bowing is a courtesy for the host who invites him as well drinking a cup.
Source: The Analects, Chapter III

“It is the process that is godliness, not so much the end result. A godly man will involve himself in the process of being godly. For godliness is not so much a place we are going as it is the going itself.”

Donald Miller (1971) American writer

Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000, Harvest House Publishers)

“Is the object of his thought lofty in its character, so is he. Is it low, so is he. We rise or fall, we ascend or descend, according to our ideals.”

William H. Crogman (1841–1931) American classical philologist

Source: Talks for the Times (1896), "The Importance of Correct Ideals" (1892), p. 273

“As he had so many times before, Taleswapper addressed a few silent words to God, which always came down to this question: Why do you put us to so much trouble, when it all comes to naught in the end?…And, as usual, God had nothing much to say to Taleswapper when his questioning was done.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 15.

“The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.”

Léon Blum (1872–1950) French politician

“The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

“Catholicity seized on man… and the mystics, transcending all, taught him to ascend on high with the wings of contemplation the Ladder of Jacob composed of brilliant stones, by which God descends to Earth and man ascends to Heaven, till Earth and Heaven, and God and man, burning together in a conflagration of infinite charity, are transmuted into one.”

Juan Donoso Cortés (1809–1853) Spanish author, political theorist and diplomat

Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism (1879)

“A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

1783, p. 500
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
Source: The Life of Johnson, Vol 4

“Of nothing comes nothing: springs rise not above
Their source in the far-hidden heart of the mountains:
Whence then have descended the Wisdom and Love
That in man leap to light in intelligent fountains?”

John Townsend Trowbridge (1827–1916) American author

The missing Leaf.

Related topics