“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”

— Joseph Campbell

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Joseph Campbell 140

American mythologist, writer and lecturer 1904–1987

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“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning

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“With enigmatic clarity, Life gives us a different answer each time we ask her the same question.”

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“"What is the meaning of life?" This question has no answer except in the history of how it came to be asked. There is no answer because words have meaning, not life or persons or the universe itself. Our search for certainty rests in our attempts at understanding the history of all individual selves and all civilizations. Beyond that, there is only awe.”

Julian Jaynes (1920–1997) American psychologist

As quoted in LIFE magazine (December 1988) http://www.humancondition.info/Beyond/ScienceReligion.html

“Each new generation asks – What is the meaning of life? A more fertile way of putting the question would be – Why does man need a meaning to life?”

Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990) Norwegian philosopher, mountaineer, and author

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“People search for the meaning of life, but this is the easy question: we are born into a world that presents us with many millennia of collected knowledge and information, and all our predecessors ask of us is that we not waste our brief life ignoring the past only to rediscover or reinvent its lessons badly.”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

" Knowledge and Information http://naggum.no/erik/knowledge.html".

“To believe in a God means to understand the question about the meaning of life.
To believe in a God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter.
To believe in God means to see that life has a meaning.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

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“What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

"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.

“Life is full of questions, and we are free to ask them, to understand, occasionally, that we are not going to get an answer, or at least not the answer we expect, and then we are called to move on. But I believe that God encourages us to ask questions.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

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“Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

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Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.

Love is a friendship set to music.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”

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Joseph Campbell 140

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