Born Quote by Naomi Wolf

Existentialist philosophy recognizes the existence of the individual as the real purpose of human life. The recognition is basically atheistic and it encourages the…

— Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

Existentialism is the kind of philosophy that makes for legendary children.

— Norman Mailer

From the very beginning, existentialism defined itself as a philosophy of ambiguity.

— Simone de Beauvoir

“Mma Ramotswe had listened to a World Service broadcast on her radio one day which had simply taken her breath away. It was about…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Existentialism is a 'movement' which like all such movements has a flabby periphery and a hard center. That center is the thought of Heidegger.”

— Leo Strauss

It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the…

— Viktor E. Frankl

The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems,…

— Walter Kaufmann

“When all is said and done, this Existentialist precept resonates with me more than any other philosophy of life I know. The idea that…

— Daniel Klein

“To the horror of those who can genuinely claim to have suffered from its effects, alienation has proved a highly profitable commodity in the…

— Martin Jay

“Existentialist literature provides a more satisfactory account of the persistence of feminine narcissism. Simone de Beauvoir makes use of the existentialist conception of 'situation'…

— Sandra Lee Bartky

French intellectual life has, in my opinion, been turned into something cheap and meretricious by the 'star' system. It is like Hollywood. Thus we…

— Noam Chomsky

“The existential attitude is one of involvement in contrast to a merely theoretical or detached attitude. “Existential” in this sense can be defined as…

— Paul Tillich