Existential Quotes

227 quotes by 151 authors

This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving -- and to act, to strive.… — Spider Robinson
There can be no stronger proof of the impoverishment of our contemporary culture than the popular - though profoundly mistaken - definition of myth as… — Rollo May
Indeed, compulsive and rigid moralism arises in given persons precisely as the result of a lack of sense of being. Rigid moralism is a compensatory… — Rollo May
No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse. — Friedrich Nietzsche
the best existential analysis of the human condition leads directly into the problems of God and faith — Ernest Becker
The desire for a strong faith is not the proof of a strong faith, rather the opposite. If one has it one may permit oneself… — Friedrich Nietzsche
One must have at least a readiness to love the other person, broadly speaking, if one is to be able to understand him. — Rollo May
When we are dealing with human beings, no truth has reality by itself; it is always dependent upon the reality of the immediate relationship. — Rollo May
There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that… — Albert Camus
Artistic symbols and myths speak out of the primordial, preconscious realm of the mind which is powerful and chaotic. Both symbol and myth are ways… — Rollo May
Today, however, we are having a hard time living because we are so bent on outwitting death. — Simone de Beauvoir
man is free, in so far as he has the power of contradicting himself and his essential nature. Man is free even from his freedom;… — Paul Tillich
A freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied. And it is not true that the recognition of the freedom of others… — Simone de Beauvoir
Good art wounds as well as delights. It must, because our defenses against the truth are wound so tightly around us. But as art chips… — Rollo May
The misfortune is that although everyone must come to [death], each experiences the adventure in solitude. We never left Maman during those last days... and… — Simone de Beauvoir
One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil. — Friedrich Nietzsche
It is interesting to note how many of the great scientific discoveries begin as myths. — Rollo May
All modern philosophizing is political, policed by governments, churches, academics, custom, fashion, and human cowardice, all off which limit it to a fake learnedness. — Friedrich Nietzsche
As long as there have been men and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition, but as long as… — Simone de Beauvoir
I mistrust all systematizers and avoid them. the will to a system is a lack of integrity. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Who Wrote These Existential Quotes

151 authors contributed a total of 227 Existential Quotes, led by these top contributors: