#existentialism

What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be. ↗

— Jean-Paul Sartre

#existentialism

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 mechanism by which the individual persuades himself to take over the external sanctions because he has no fundamental assurance that his own choices have any sanction of their own ↗

— Rollo May

#existentialism #morality #existentialism

Nobody's happy. What's happy? Happiness is over when the lights come on." The older woman poured herself a glass of sangria. "Screw that," she said quietly. "What?" "Screw that. Wash your mouth out. Who taught you that half-assed existential drivel? ↗

— Armistead Maupin

#existentialism

This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving -- and to act, to strive. This is what it is to be human: to reach forever beyond your grasp. This is what it is to be human: to live forever or die trying. This is what it is to be human: to perpetually ask the unanswerable questions, in the hope that the asking of them will somehow hasten the day when they will be answered. This is what it is to be human: to strive in the face of the certainty of failure. This is what it is to be human: to persist. ↗

— Spider Robinson

#soider-robinson #existentialism

I took a test in Existentialism. I left all the answers blank and got 100. ↗

— Woody Allen

#humor #uncertainty #humor

wop-bop-a-lu-bop... a-lop-bam-boom! ↗

— R.W. Penniman

#existentialism #inspirational #little-richard #inspirational

Man is born unto the trouble as the sparks fly upwards.' In other words suffering is germane to our existence; indeed, how without it, should we be able to 'fly upwards ↗

— Andrei Tarkovsky

#existentialism #inspirational #suffering #inspirational

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 there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it. ↗

— Simone de Beauvoir

#existentialism #philosophers #men

Il n'y a de réalité que dans l'action. (There is no reality except in action.) ↗

— Jean-Paul Sartre

#existentialism #handeln #inspirational #philosophy #reality

Life’s easy. It’s living it that’s difficult. ↗

— Mike Sasso

#insightful #inspirational #life #oblique #obvious