#existence

According to the concept of transformational evolution, first clearly articulated by Lamarck, evolution consists of the gradual transformation of organisms from one condition of existence to another. ↗

— Ernst Mayr

#another #articulated #clearly #concept #condition

When I was a kid and the carnival would come to the shopping centre, I'd go down and talk to all the people running the rides. I like that whole lifestyle, moving from town to town in a nomadic existence. ↗

— Randy Quaid

#centre #come #down #existence #go

A child's mind is its living room; it's is going to be residing there for the rest of its earthly existence. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#earthly #existence #going #living #living room

There are stories still in existence that I wrote when I was five. However, I did not get published until I was seven. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#existence #five #get #however #i

I know that some endeavor to throw the mantle of romance over the subject and treat woman like some ideal existence, not liable to the ills of life. Let those deal in fancy who have nothing better to deal in; we have to do with sober, sad realities, with stubborn facts. ↗

— Ernestine Rose

#deal #endeavor #existence #facts #fancy

Dualists hold that body and soul are separate entities and that the soul will continue beyond the existence of the physical body. ↗

— Michael Shermer

#body #continue #entities #existence #hold

Because there is nothing here than invites us to cherish unhappy lovers. Nothing is more vain than to die for love. What we ought to do is live. ↗

— Albert Camus

#existence #love #death

But the point is, now, at this moment, or any moment, we're only cross-sections of our real selves. What we really are is the whole stretch of ourselves, all our time, and when we come to the end of this life, all those selves, all our time, will be us - the real you, the real me. And then perhaps we'll find ourselves in another time, which is only another kind of dream. ↗

— J.B. Priestley

#existence #time #dreams

About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough—and even miraculous enough if you insist—I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about? Depending on my mood, I sometimes but not always refrain from pointing out what a breathtakingly insulting and patronizing question this is. (It is on a par with the equally subtle inquiry: Since you don't believe in our god, what stops you from stealing and lying and raping and killing to your heart's content?) Just as the answer to the latter question is: self-respect and the desire for the respect of others—while in the meantime it is precisely those who think they have divine permission who are truly capable of any atrocity—so the answer to the first question falls into two parts. A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless' except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities… but there, there. Enough. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#atheism #debate #ethics #existence #existentialism

What gave you this idea of an imperfect god?' 'I don't know. It seems quite feasible to me. That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not a redemption, who saves nothing, fulfills no purpose--a god who simply is. ↗

— Stanisław Lem

#existence #existentialism #god #humanity #imperfection