#existence

There is no fixed physical reality, no single perception of the world, just numerous ways of interpreting world views as dictated by one's nervous system and the specific environment of our planetary existence. ↗

— Deepak Chopra

#environment #existence #fixed #interpreting #just

If man limits himself to a satisfied animal existence, and asks from life only what such an existence can give, the higher values of life at once disappear. ↗

— Christopher Dawson

#asks #disappear #existence #give #higher

There is a serious, immediate and extraordinarily grave threat to the continued existence of this country. ↗

— James Forrestal

#country #existence #extraordinarily #grave #grave threat

Imagine a land where people are afraid of dragons. It is a reasonable fear: dragons possess a number of qualities that make being afraid of them a very commendable response. Things like their terrible size, their ability to spout fire, or to crack boulders into splinters with their massive talons. In fact, the only terrifying quality that dragons do not possess is that of existence. Now, the people of this land know about dragons because their leaders have warned them about them. They tell stories about cruel dragons with razor teeth and fiery breath. They recount legends of dragons hunting by night on silent wings. In short, the leaders make sure that the people believe in all the qualities of dragons, including that key quality of existence. And then they control the people — when they need to — with their fear of dragons. The people pay a dragon-slaying tax … everyone stays indoors after dark to avoid being snatched by swooping claws … and nobody ever strays out of bounds for fear of being eaten well and truly up. Perhaps somebody will wonder if dragons aren’t, after all, fictitious because — despite their size — nobody seems to have actually seen one. And so it is necessary from time to time to provide evidence: a burnt tree or two, a splintered rock, the mysterious absence of a villager. The population is controlled by the dragons in its collective mind. It’s contrived superstition, and it is possible because the people do not know enough about the way the world works to know that dragons do not exist. ↗

— David Whiteland

#dragons #existence #faith #ignorance #superstition

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence. ↗

— Franz Kafka

#existence #infinite #means #point #random

The existence is a tremendous curiosity, with in the course of the years, the discovery of yourself in your inmost evolutions. With the age you feel better than you are, what you represent. Which means a little at the planet's scale. ↗

— Jacky Ickx

#better #course #curiosity #discovery #evolutions

I firmly believe that the mission of religion in the 21st century must be to contribute concretely to the peaceful coexistence of humankind. ↗

— Daisaku Ikeda

#believe #century #coexistence #contribute #firmly

Like their personal lives, women's history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others. ↗

— Elizabeth Janeway

#beings #demands #efforts #existence #fragmented

Evolutionary biologists are not content merely to explain how variation occurs within limits, however. They aspire to answer a much broader question-which is how complex organisms like birds, and flowers, and human beings came into existence in the first place. ↗

— Phillip E. Johnson

#aspire #beings #biologists #birds #broader

My existence is about making movies, so I've just got to rock and roll with the punches. You want to make movies on telephones, I'm there. ↗

— Abel Ferrara

#existence #got #i #just #make