We are all born for love… . It is the principle of existence, and its only end.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
The potentiality of perfection outweighs actual contradictions… Existence in itself is here to prove that it cannot be an evil.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved”. Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.
—Henri Nouwen (1932–96) Dutch Catholic Theologian, Writer
We don’t exist unless we are deeply and sensually in touch with that which can be touched but not known.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and pure and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author
Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
I can, therefore I am.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
It is living and ceasing to live that are imaginary solutions. Existence is elsewhere.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
The fact of God is necessary for the fact of man. Think God away and man has no ground of existence.
—A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) American Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Editor
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
It’s not the ‘be or not to be’ which is of any question. It’s the ‘be and not to be’ which has to be digested.
—Hans Taeger
The ego exists because we go on pedalling desire, because we go on striving to get something, because we go on jumping ahead of ourselves.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
—Lu Xun (1881–1936) Chinese Writer
Being is the great explainer.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
Nothing exists except by virtue of a disequilibrium, an injustice. All existence is a theft paid for by other existences; no life flowers except on a cemetery.
—Remy de Gourmont (1858–1915) French Critic, Novelist
Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
We spend our lives talking about this mystery. Our life.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
The existence of inherent limits of experience in no way settles the question about the subordination of facts of the human world to our knowledge of matter.
—Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911) German Philosopher, Historian
Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one’s death, one dies one’s life.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters