Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
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
All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.
—Buddhist Teaching
Hold it the greatest sin to prefer existence to honor, and for the sake of life to lose the reasons for living.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
Being is the great explainer.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Every life is its own excuse for being.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
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
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time.
—Denis Waitley (b.1933) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence.
—B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) Indian Jurist, Social Reformer
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
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
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
It is living and ceasing to live that are imaginary solutions. Existence is elsewhere.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
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
Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing.
—Georges Gurdjieff (1877–1949) Armenian Spiritual Leader, Occultist
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 mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
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
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
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 are all born for love… . It is the principle of existence, and its only end.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson. The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the ocean immensity and change. Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes, – every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. Even the bee and ant have brought their little lessons of industry and economy.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
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
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
People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.
—Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian Short-Story Writer
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
There’s nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book.
—Carson McCullers (1917–67) American Novelist
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
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