Quotes about existence
page 73

Bruce Friedrich on Protein Alternatives and the Good Food Institute https://hearthisidea.com/episodes/bruce, Interview on the Hear This Idea podcast, 2021

Animals

“The album was the creation of a space where all of the different lives I’ve led. My life has been really divided and this was a place where I could finally gather them all up and they would be in one place. So that my professional life and personal life exist together.”

Thao Nguyen (1984) American singer-songwriter

On the message of her music album Temple in "DIVA chats to Thao Nguyen all about her new record, coming out to the world and Zoom music video magic" in Diva (29 May 2020) https://divamag.co.uk/2020/05/29/music-an-interview-with-thao-nguyen/

Personality, Life

“Truth is the raison d’être for man’s existence; it constitutes our grandeur and reveals to us our smallness.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 34, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual life, Truth

Truth

“If we must love God, and love him more than ourselves and our neighbor, it is because love exists before us and because we are issued from it; we love by virtue of our very existence.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2005, Stations of Wisdom, World Wisdom, 94, 978-0-94153218-1]
God, Reverential fear and love

God, Love

“Divine anthropomorphism responds to human theomorphism: if God can manifest Himself in human modalities, it is because man is "made in the image of God", and this is the very reason for man’s existence and for the cosmic miracle that he is.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2008, Christianity / Islam, World Wisdom, 105-106, 978-1-933316-49-9]
God, Outline

God

“That anything should exist at all does seem to me a matter for the deepest awe. But whether other people feel this sort of awe, and whether they or I ought to is another question. I think we ought to.”

J. J. C. Smart (1920–2012) Australian philosopher and academic

The Existence of God, Church Quarterly Review, 156(319): 194 (1955).
Other quotes

Question, People, Thinking, Feeling

“The world is unfathomable. And so are we, and so is every being that exists in this world.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

World

“Creating industry on the Moon and Mars and in space with asteroids is not rocket science; it is industrial engineering where we need to adapt existing technologies to a new environment.”

Sheyene Gerardi Venezuelan actor and model

[Sheyene Institute Founder`s Letter, http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=38c46884-5abc-491a-89aa-c9bb0b71195c]

Science

“In many ways an artistic nature unfits a man for practical existence.”

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer

A Lodging for the Night.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)

Way, Nature

“When I close my eyes, a strange thought comes to my mind. Who am I, what is my existence, this question comes again and again in my mind, I start looking for answers to my questions, time starts passing through me, then somewhere a golden ray starts appearing, when I see that ray I feel relaxed, slowly my eyes open, when I start getting answers to my questions.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Appearance, Time, Question, Feeling

“When I fall Short of Words, My existence becomes speechless, searches for words passing here and there, in the hope that they may be found. When I ask someone to know about my words, it tells me the place of their mind, maybe some people are angry with me, who often do not mention me even once in their words.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Search, People, Hope

“When the moon is absent, the night started feeling restless, kept looking for the moon here and there behind the clouds. The lack of moonlight began to disturb all the stars, losing its existence even its stars started disappearing, then everyone would have spent the night without the moon.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Night, Star, Feeling

“The supermodels all have skeletal bodies . . . the very existence of their bodies expresses an attitude: the disdain for men. The more men like a certain part of their bodies, the less they want to grow that part. Fashion is such an attitude.”

Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian

Source: "The Art of Telling the Truth: Chinese Female Stand-up Comedians" in World Literature Today https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/culture/art-telling-truth-chinese-female-stand-comedians-ping-zhu (1 February 2021)

Fashion, Parting, Men

“No one doubts that biological universals exist. We must sleep, eat, and grow older, and we are not about to give up procreation; almost all our social institutions are influenced by these imperatives.”

Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm

Source: An Urchin in the Storm (1987) "Genes on the Brain", p. 113

Sleep, Universe

“The best event can happen in your life is to make a person fall in love with your strengths.. and above all with your defects, which make your existence unique.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Il miglior evento che possa accadere nella tua vita è far innamorare una persona dei tuoi pregi.. e soprattutto dei tuoi difetti, che rendono unica la tua esistenza.
Source: prevale.net

Personality, Life, Love

“That enthusiasm exists because the French people do not want to die. It is there because there is hope.”

Éric Zemmour (1958) French essayist

Source: Eric Zemmour: "If I don't run, it will be seen as desertion, as treason" https://palnws.be/2021/09/eric-zemmour-als-ik-me-geen-kandidaat-zou-stellen-zal-het-worden-gezien-als-desertie-als-verraad/ Context: I am aware of the enthusiasm that my potential Presidential candidacy can evoke.

People, Hope

“Paid leave should be a national right, rather than a patchwork option limited to those whose employers have policies in place, or those who live in one of the few states where a leave program exists”

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (1981) American former actress and member by marriage of the British royal family

Source: In a letter to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi " Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, urges Schumer and Pelosi to pass federal paid family leave https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/21/politics/meghan-duchess-of-sussex-paid-family-leave/index.html" (October 21, 2021)

“Unwind my riddle.
Cruel as hawks the hours fly;
Wounded men seldom come home to die;
The hard waves see an arm flung high;
Scorn hits strong because of a lie;
Yet there exists a mystic tie.
Unwind my riddle.”

Stephen Crane (1871–1900) American novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist

Source: Epigraph in " The Clan of No Name http://web.archive.org/20040803101258/www.geocities.com/stephen_crane_us/clannoname.html" (1899); published in the anthology Wounds in the Rain (1900)

Home, Strong, Lie, Flying

“When National Socialism has ruled long enough, it will no longer be possible to conceive of a form of life different from ours.
In the long run, National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Source: 11-12 July 1941, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944

Religion, Life

“A religion with an ever-growing line of enlightened masters, such as exists in the dharma traditions, is less likely to become fossilized into institutional dogma and therefore more difficult to control.”

Rajiv Malhotra book Being Different

Source: Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism (2011)

Religion

“But if the assailant, without troubling himself about the existence of the Army awaiting his attack in a defensive position, advances with his main body by another line in pursuit of his object, then he 'passes by the position,' and if he can do this with impunity, and really does it, he will immediately enforce the abandonment of the position, consequently put an end to its usefulness.”

Carl von Clausewitz book On War

Source: On War (1832), Book 6, Chapter 1.

“There was a time when evilness did not exist, and there will be a time when it will no more exist, whereas there was no time when virtue did not exist, and there will be no time when it will not exist. For the germs of virtue are impossible to destroy.”

Evagrius Ponticus (345–399) Christian monk

Kephalaia Gnostika 1.40

Time, Evil

“A successful story for me exist in a moral universe, not one where goodness always triumph, because that would be false but one with an inherent awareness of goodness”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

https://www.instagram.com/p/CV2h2BKKhl0/?utm_medium=copy_link The Best Short Stories(2021)

Success, Universe, Falseness

“Creative writing programmes are not very necessary. They just exist so that people like us can make a living.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

On Money and wealth
Source: https://sheleadsafrica.org/20-powerful-chimamanda-adichie-quotes-for-todays-boss-women/

People

“In making our blue-print of the coming new world, it will be advisable for us to proceed without the slightest regard... for what is apparently possible or for existing conditions, so that present habits of thought and inhibiting fears do not hamper our vision in any way.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

Way, World, Fear

“The secret which will solve this impasse is that true independence and individuality can only successfully exist in group form!”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Introduction p. I - XII

Secret

“Finally, we will outline the progressive work already everywhere in existence, so that we may know where and how to dedicate our new strength.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Introduction p. I - XII

“To the oft-repeated question "If Jesus resurrected His physical body why is He not visible here among us?" we would say that Jesus overcame the sins that caused our original fall from the perfect body of the Adamic man to the diseased and dying body in which the race is now existing.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

Perfection, Disease, Question

“There are those who can prove that plans and ideals for a united world and a well organized Brotherhood of Men have existed for hundreds of years and have come to nothing. These are the ones who say “Human nature cannot change!” There are others who declare that we are living through a momentous epoch in history which is ushering in stupendous changes and the possibility for real world unity and a new and better civilization.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter I, Secrets Behind History

History, Nature, Men, World

“Ends and purposes, whether they exist as conscious or subconscious tendencies, form the wrap and woof of our conscious experience.”

Muhammad Iqbál (1877–1938) Urdu poet and leader of the Pakistan Movement

Source: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Reconstruction_of_Religious_Thought/uCh14nl09jkC?hl=en (1930), p. 42

“The genome is littered, one might almost say clogged, with the equivalent of computer viruses, selfish, parasitic stretches of letters which exist for the pure and simple reason that they are good at getting themselves duplicated. We are full of digital chain letters and warnings about marmalade.”

Matt Ridley book Genome

Source: Genome (1999), Chapter 8 “Self-Interest” (p. 127)

Selfishness

“In the absence of more consumers, capital finds ways to get existing consumers to consume more. Indeed, the dominant story for the past few hundred years: the growth rate of material use has always significantly outstripped the growth rate of the population.”

Jason Hickel (1982) author

Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (2021)
Source: Rise of the Juggernaut, pp. 111-112

Past, Way

“The day will come when all nations amidst which the Jews are dwelling will have to raise the question of their wholesale expulsion, a question which will be one of life or death, good health or chronic disease, peaceful existence or perpetual social fever.”

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Hungarian romantic composer and virtuoso pianist

Source: As quoted in Col. E. N. Sanctuary’s Are These Things So?, p. 278.

Health, Disease, Peace, Question

“[J]ustification of power must be the central problem. For it is through this problem alone that freedom and equality—or... justice—can be projected into the social and political reality... But to fascism the problem does not even exist except as a ridiculous relic of "Jewish liberalism."”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1930s- 1950s, The End of Economic Man (1939), p. 15

Justice, Freedom, Problem, Reality

“Queer people exist. Choosing not to accept them is not an option.”

Dan Howell (1991) British video blogger and radio personality

Source: Basically I'm Gay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrwMja_VoM0, 13 June, 2019

People

“Can we grasp that there is more than enough land surface, capable of restoration, to support and feed in comfort a larger population than now exists on this globe?”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

Support

“Everything may exist for a short while—even justice. But the true state of the universe is anarchy. It is the mortal’s tragedy that he can never accept this.”

Michael Moorcock book The Knight of the Swords

Source: Book 3, Chapter 6 “The God Feasters” (p. 139), Corum, The Knight of the Swords (1971)

Justice, Universe

“If you don not come to repent your existence,
You'll never approach the circle of gnostics and drunkards
Unless in other's eyes you become an infidel,
In the creed of lovers, you'll never be Muslim.”

Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr (967–1049) poet

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 98

Lovers

“The Nation belongs to everyone, not one or two specific people. The problems exist because we don't talk to each other and resolve them together. The problems arise from 'bloodthirstiness.'”

Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–2016) King of Thailand

A television broadcast of King Bhumibol Adulyadej to Suchinda and Chamlong. (20 May 1992)
Source: [th:พระราชดำรัสพระราชทานแก่พลเอก สุจินดา คราประยูร และพลตรี จำลอง ศรีเมือง วันพุธที่ ๒๐ พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๓๕, A royal address given to General Suchinda Kraprayoon and Major General Chamlong Srimuang on Wednesday, 20 May 1992, th, http://kanchanapisek.or.th/speeches/1992/0520.th.html, 1999, 2013-12-07, Golden Jubilee Network]
Context: People can lose their minds when they resort to violence. Eventually, they don't know why they fight each other and what the problems they need to resolve are. They merely know that they must overcome each other and they must be the only winner. This no way leads to victory, but only danger. There will only be losers, only the losers. Those who confront each other will all be the losers. And the loser of the losers will be the Nation.... For what purpose are you telling yourself that you're the winner when you're standing upon the ruins and debris?

People, Problem

“In all my novels… I deal with the many problems and prejudices which exist for Black people in Britain today.”

Buchi Emecheta (1944–2017) author

Source: On her major themes in “Interview with Buchi Emecheta” http://www.emeagwali.com/nigeria/biography/buchi-emecheta-voice-09jul96.html (Philip Emeagwali)

People, Problem

“Freedom does not exist partially, if I don't have the freedom of opinion or expression regarding whoever, then there's certainly no actual freedom”

Angelo Vulpini (2003) Venezuelan recording artist

Source: Posted on @angelovulpini, Instagram (June 3, 2019)

Freedom

“The travesty exists only because reliance upon abstraction has made reality incomprehensible to you.”

Jack Vance book The Gray Prince

Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]), Chapter 16 (p. 159)

Reality

“Every animal has a particular purpose on the planet. We may not like some of those purposes, but they're all necessary for us to exist.”

Jack Hanna (1947) American zoologist

Source: Jack Hanna Interview: Inside the Mind and Heart of the Animal Kingdom's Best Friend https://smashinginterviews.com/interviews/newsmakers/jack-hanna-interview-inside-the-mind-and-heart-of-the-animal-kingdoms-best-friend (4 May 2014)

Animals

“Few desire to know the truth of what is happening in our state’s abortion clinics. All of the outrage, all of the noise is directed at one thing: silencing the uncomfortable truth. It’s either willful ignorance or a decision to partner with the abortion industry. When I started in public office, I was intellectually pro-life, but now I have come to see that the life issue is truly the issue of our time. The depth of evil that exists to protect this lie prevents the states from protecting children. How we determine the answer to this issue is what will determine where our nation will end up. Unless the truth prevails, abortion will destroy us as a nation.”

Phill Kline (1959) American politician

Source: Ask the Attorney: An Interview with Former Kansas Attorney General and Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline http://lifelegalgiving.com/ask-the-attorney-an-interview-with-former-kansas-attorney-general-and-johnson-county-district-attorney-phill-kline/ (1 August 2009)

Decision, Life, Silence, Children

“Can any modern fox-hunter honestly say that his hunting is done with the legitimate object of getting rid of a noxious animal in the quickest way? It is nothing of the kind. It is plain that instead of men hunting with any object of getting rid of foxes, the fox exists simply for the purpose of being hunted. But for the practice of hunting, the fox would long ago have been as extinct in England as his cousin the wolf.”

Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) English historian (1823-1892)

Source: 'The Morality of Field Sports', The Fortnightly Review (October 1869), quoted in E. A. Freeman, The Morality of Field Sports (1874), p. 18

Wolf, Way, Animals, Men

“In exile one is nothing but a ghost ... I ceased to exist when I went into exile.”

Reinaldo Arenas (1943–1990) Cuban poet/novelist/playwright

Source: From Arenas’ work Before Night Falls (as quoted in “On Exile and the Longing for Home: Cuban Writer Reinaldo Arenas” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/on-exile-and-the-longing-_b_4451017; 2014 Feb 18)

“The reality is; there is something which exist but what that something is; remains a question. Either because we are not capable to reveal it yet or because with time and movement it changes itself and has no truth in it. But what’s the reason for its existence without having or revealing any truth, that’s the evidence we need to find.”

Zaman Ali (1993) Pakistani philosopher

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11085116-the-reality-is-there-is-something-which-exist-but-what

Truth, Change, Time, Question

“The combination of rising inflation, energy crisis and COVID epidemic makes this (2021) the most difficult year for our citizens since our country came to existence.”

Petr Fiala (1964) Leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS)

Source: Petr Fiala (2022) cited in " New Czech centre-right government wins confidence vote in parliament https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2022/01/14/new-czech-centre-right-government-wins-confidence-vote-in-parliament" on The Star, 14 January 2022.

Country

“I’ll argue to the death against stupid legislation, but some rules exist for a reason.”

Alastair Reynolds book On the Steel Breeze

Source: On the Steel Breeze (2013), Chapter 5 (p. 43)

Stupidity, Death

“Possibly, the most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize something that should not exist.”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

Source: Said while giving tour of Starbase to Tim Dodd, July 30, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t705r8ICkRw

Optimism, Error

“The good relations that must always exist between neighboring countries will be restored.”

Eduardo de Castro (1907–1955) Filipino actor and film director

Source: Eduardo de Castro (2021) cited in " Melilla Authorities Hope for Reopening of Borders With Morocco in 2022 https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2021/12/346225/melilla-authorities-hope-for-reopening-of-borders-with-morocco-in-2022" on Morocco World News, 27 December 2021. Context: border opening between Melilla and Morocco after COVID-19 lockdown

Country

“The motivations and methodologies might differ, but both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe. There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe.”

Chris Impey (1956) astronomer

Source: Vatican Observatory examines theological implications of finding alien life https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17651/vatican-observatory-examines-theological-implications-of-finding-alien-life (10 November 2009)

Universe, Motivation, Science, Understanding

“When American schooling stopped being primary for mental development and character training,.. it became a training ground to supply the existing economy with a particular kind of labor and customers that it needed. One buried byproduct of this shift was to sabotage free market principles. Because by conditioning children to what is, instead of what could be, it heavily subsidized existed commerce and social political dispositions.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Source: “A Different Kind of Teacher: Nobody can educate you except yourself,” C-SPAN (January 5, 2001) https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4653000/educate-yourself

Training, Children, School

“A time came when the Catholics, having long relied on force, were compelled to appeal to opinion. That which had been defiantly acknowledged and defended required to be ingeniously explained away. The same motive which had justified the murder now prompted the lie. Men shrank from the conviction that the rulers and restorers of their Church had been murderers and abetters of murder, and that so much infamy had been coupled with so much zeal. They feared to say that the most monstrous of crimes had been solemnly approved at Rome, lest they should devote the Papacy to the execration of mankind. A swarm of facts were invented to meet the difficulty: The victims were insignificant in number; they were slain for no reason connected with religion; the Pope believed in the existence of the plot; the plot was a reality; the medal is fictitious; the massacre was a feint concerted with the Protestants themselves; the Pope rejoiced only when he heard that it was over. These things were repeated so often that they have been sometimes believed; and men have fallen into this way of speaking whose sincerity was unimpeachable, and who were not shaken in their religion by the errors or the vices of Popes. Möhler was pre-eminently such a man. In his lectures on the history of the Church, which were published only last year, he said that the Catholics, as such, took no part in the massacre; that no cardinal, bishop, or priest shared in the councils that prepared it; that Charles informed the Pope that a conspiracy had been discovered; and that Gregory made his thanksgiving only because the King's life was saved. Such things will cease to be written when men perceive that truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Source: 1860s, The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew (1869)

Sincerity, Life, Men, Truth

“How can Christian theology truly speak of the hope of Jesus Christ, unless that hope begins and ends with the liberation of the poor in the social existence in which theology takes shape? In America this means that there can be no talk about hope in the Christian sense unless it is talk about the freedom of black, red, and brown people.”

James H. Cone (1938–2018) American theologian

Source: God of the Oppressed (1975, 1997), p. 128 (1975 edition)

Freedom, People, Hope, Christ

“This is the dialectic of Christian thought: God enters into the social context of human existence and appropriates the ideas and actions of the oppressed as his own. When this event of liberation occurs in thought and praxis, the words and actions of the oppressed become the Word and Action of God. They no longer belong to the oppressed. Indeed, the word of the oppressed becomes God’s Word insofar as the former recognize it not as their own but as given to them through divine grace.”

James H. Cone (1938–2018) American theologian

Source: God of the Oppressed (1975, 1997), p. 98-99 (1975 edition)

God, Idea

“To destroy wonder and mystery, is to destroy the only elements that make existence tolerable.”

Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) American author

Quoted in The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith (1979)

“Very little is 100% true or 100% untrue – most beliefs exist on a spectrum of probability. Therefore, learning to think in terms of probabilities instead of absolutes may be one of the most effective upgrades to your thinking.”

Unknown author

Learning, Thinking

“Sometimes, regarding God, my insignificance, inferiority and powerlessness don't sit well with me but it is at this moment I appreciate it, my existence even more.”

- Goa

God

“Why stay in Chicago; what did the town have to justify its existence? One decent boulevard, one decent suburb to the north, priced for the rich, two universities and a lake. As for the rest, endless miles of depressing, dirty streets. The town was one big stockyard.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (p. 261)
Short fiction, The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein (1999)

Universe

“Ageing is an extraordinary process... If you are pining for youth I think it produces a stereotypical old man because you only live in memory, you live in a place that doesn’t exist … I think ageing is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person that you always should have been.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

quoted by Aaron Hicklin in "David Bowie: An Obituary" https://www.out.com/music/2016/1/11/david-bowie-obituary

Personality, Youth, Age, Memory

“Being able to exist in a place where light and dark meet is actually not a recipe for unhappiness. It is a recipe for a deeper kind of happiness.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bastian, Jonathan (host). "Bittersweet: Susan Cain on the joy of sweet sorrow". KCRW.com (Los Angeles). May 21, 2022.

Light, Happiness

“The rights of children, then, as individuals, begin while yet they are in fetal life. Children do not come into existence by any will or consent of their own.”

Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) American suffragist

In a speech "Children--Their Rights and Privileges" that led to Victoria Woodhull's election as President of the American Association of Spiritualists at their Eighth National Convention on its second day, Wednesday, September 13, 1871, at Troy, New York

Children, Life

“This attraction to exploration, to the unknown, to great journeys, great conquests, has always existed in the human spirit, even in very crude conditions, .... very backward conditions.”

Ricardo Galvão (1947) Brazilian physicist and engineer

“Absolute Evil exists. As kids we geriatrics learned all about it, and no damn social worker had better come along and blame “evil” on “conditions.””

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Evil is a force in the universe, a force using any weakness it finds to do its dirt; and with Evil, Hell is just a sideline.
Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 134

Learning, Evil

“Our existence is nearly a biological impossibility.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“The inevitable only exists through lack of intervention.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“When you forgive, somewhere you sacrifice a part of your own existence, your respect, your dignity, yourself.”

Om Swami (1979) Indian mystic

A Million Thoughts (2016)

Forgiveness, Parting

“It is not only an intellectual proposal, but connection with a divine life that helps to overcome our weaknesses and the darkness of our lives, to rise the summit where we see the Lord, where we see Him glorious and risen and we are filled with joy, where we find the meaning of our existence.”

Antonio Arregui Yarza (1939) Catholic archbishop

The Church in Ecuador officially launches the National Mission: “The Church is in need of a good house-cleaning.” http://www.fides.org/en/news/24075-AMERICA_ECUADOR_The_Church_in_Ecuador_officially_launches_the_National_Mission_The_Church_is_in_need_of_a_good_house_cleaning (28 April 2009)

Help, Joy, Life

“Faults invariably exist among the good, and merit among faults.”

Witness Lee (1905–1997) Chinese Christian preacher

Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9

“If you continue investigating, you will find that there is nothing anywhere, not even a single atom, that has a verifiable existence.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones (1992)

“... there may be a crucial difference between thinking that it would have been better if the world had never come into existence, and thinking that we may take it upon ourselves to destroy the life that already exists.”

Jamie Mayerfeld American political scientist

"The Moral Asymmetry of Happiness and Suffering", pp. 159-160
Suffering and Moral Responsibility (1999)

Thinking, World, Life

“I suggest that you use your mind to think about things, rather than to think of them. You want to be adding value... not simply reminding yourself they exist.”

David Allen book Getting Things Done

Source: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001), Ch. 11

Thinking

“For things which are worthy of God will prove the existence of God. We maintain that God must first be known from nature, and afterwards authenticated by instruction: from nature by His works; by instruction, through His revealed announcements.”

Tertullian (155–220) Christian theologian

Variant translation: We conclude that God is known first through Nature, and then again, more particularly, by doctrine; by Nature in His works, and by doctrine in His revealed word. Book I, Chapter XVIII.—Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the Vouchers Both of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation. This was quoted by Galileo in his defense of natural sciences. Galileo Galilei: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615 https://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN242/duchess.html Against Marcion https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0312.htm Original: (la) Digna enim deo probabunt deum. Nos definimus deum primo natura cognoscendum, deinde doctrina recognoscendum, natura ex operibus, doctrina ex praedicationibus.

God, Nature

“In a clan society, every kind of human relationship turns on your honor within the clan; outside it, there is nothing—you are excluded from any kind of meaningful existence.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969) Dutch feminist, author

Source: 2010s, Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010), Chapter 11, “School and Sexuality” (p. 152)

“Looking over the past two decades, we see close ties between gender-related attitudes and political ideology. A law seems to exist that sexism and heterosexism almost always travel alongside reactionary types of nationalism.”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (2017)

Travel, Law, Past

“Kisses and sex illuminate existence.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Baci e sesso illuminano l'esistenza.

Sex, Kiss

“One could not overshoot a planet’s carrying capacity without disaster following—that was what Earth’s history since the nineteenth century existed to prove.”

Kim Stanley Robinson (1952) American science fiction writer

Source: Blue Mars (1996), Chapter 12, “It Goes So Fast” (p. 621)

History

“Whether you deserve something was never in question. You deserve it all. That is given in your very existence. The universe wants you to succeed and wants you to experience abundance, freedom and joy. It is simply not the kind of universe that treats you as if you are incapable of creating those things yourself. And this means that it loves you more than you want it to sometimes!”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Source: tealswan.com/quotes

Freedom, Universe, Question, Joy

“The history of national defense and building with untold sweat and bloods has forged a Vietnam's vitality, a distinct cultural identity, a resilient internal strength for development, and a capability to adapt herself to the times and harmoniously co-exist with other nations in the world.”

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (1949) Prime Minister of Vietnam

"Deputy Pm Nguyen Tan Dung Speaks At John Hopkins University" https://vietnamembassy-usa.org/relations/deputy-pm-nguyen-tan-dung-speaks-john-hopkins-university (10 December 2021)

History, World, Time

“It is time for everyone finally to realize that sustainable development is not only necessary for maintaining the existing security systems at the global, regional and national levels, but is also an objective condition for the existence and development of our entire civilization.”

Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine

Speech at the 49th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1994)

Time

“Today only the person who no longer believes in a happy ending, only he who has consciously renounced it, is able to live. A happy century does not exist; but there are moments of happiness, and there is freedom in the moment.”

Ernst Jünger book The Glass Bees

The Glass Bees (1957)

Freedom, Personality, Happiness

“Nothing can exist without ceasing to exist as the present exists only once in a lifetime.
The essence of life is the eternity of change experienced, perceived and affected by and from the consciousness of matter transpiring from the energy of life’s creations directed towards its true love(desires)”

Boukabyegga

Change, Love, Life

“What created by a human mind, can be solved by another human mind. From this point of view does not exist and cannot exist unsolved problems in any area of science.”

Yuri Knorozov (1922–1999) Soviet and Russian mesoamericanist (1922-1999)

Profile of Yuri Knorozov http://cemyk.org/pages/en/yuri-knorosov.php

Problem, Science

“I feel like every role you take, there's a part of you that obviously feels like you can do it. I don't know if perfect is the right word because I don't believe in perfection. I don't think it exists.”

Mila Kunis (1983) American actress

"Mila Kunis Interview BLACK SWAN" in Collider https://collider.com/mila-kunis-interview-black-swan/ (23 November 20100

Perfection, Thinking, Feeling, Parting

“It is not true that exist useless people. Exist bad people: they are harmful to mood, work, body and psyche. People who if they didn't exist, the world would be a better place.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Non è vero che esistono persone inutili. Esistono persone cattive: sono dannose all'umore, al lavoro, al corpo e alla psiche. Persone che se non esistessero, il mondo sarebbe un posto migliore.
Source: prevale.net

People, World, Mood

“A wise man can never be disappointed of whatever happens. It is only a change that makes things good and bad. And life is meant for change every second to keep the standard of existence.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Disappointment, Life, Change

“Your existence emanates an intense light that illuminates everything around me. Your smile: contagious and spontaneous, gives me harmony and vitality. Your essence is a work of art.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La tua esistenza emana una luce intensa che illumina tutto ciò che mi circonda. Il tuo sorriso: contagioso e spontaneo, mi dona armonia e vitalità. La tua essenza è un'opera d'arte.
Source: prevale.net

Light, Smile, Art

“Surely, our deeds are the everlasting shadows of our existence. No one has enough power to battle the future of this shadows. And I pray our leaders learn of this.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Future, Learning

“With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and moon were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou — Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.”

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) English novelist and poet

No Coward Soul Is Mine (1846)

Universe, Change, Sun, Art

Quotes about existence page 73

Quotes about existence
page 73