
“And, like the great damned souls, I shall always feel that thinking is worth more than living.”
Source: The Book of Disquiet
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning
“And, like the great damned souls, I shall always feel that thinking is worth more than living.”
Source: The Book of Disquiet
Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933), p. 69
Context: The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.
This is My God: The Jewish Way of Life (1959)
In notes to Anita Pollitzer, Abiquiu, New Mexico, (after February, 1968); as quoted in The Complete Correspondence of Georgia O’Keeffe & Anita Pollitzer, ed. Clive Giboire, Touchstone Books, Simon & Schuster Inc., New York, 1990, p. 324
1960s
Source: The Anti-Christ/Ecce Homo/Twilight of the Idols/Other Writings
Dichoso el árbol, que es apenas sensitivo,
y más la piedra dura porque esa ya no siente,
pues no hay dolor más grande que el dolor de ser vivo,
ni mayor pesadumbre que la vida consciente.
Cantos de vida y esperanza (1901), "Lo fatal" ("Fatalism")
Quoted in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 305.
Christopher Langton, as quoted by John Horgan, The End of Science (1996) p. 201.