Original Quotes

[A Defrocked Academic]

[FONT="]I have grown as a plant that reached towards the darkness, not the light. [/FONT]
[/quote] [quote]Books are just canned people.[/quote] [quote]On one hand, the deck was stacked against me. On the other hand, I stacked it myself.[/quote][quote]How enchanting were the toys of childhood, simulacra of the tools of adults! Then we grow, the real article is thrust into our hands – our moment has arrived – and we feel nothing.[/quote] [quote]
[FONT="]The fact that something is hard does not make it meaningful.[/FONT]

Your body does not have your best interests in mind.

When we consider the suffering that accompanies the beginning and end of our lives, as well as the chaos and iniquity that drives the living world, it looks like philosophical pessimism has a lot going for it in terms of its essential veracity. You have to work pretty hard to keep any other world view going in light of the facts of existence. It is rare to hear of anyone taking a sunnier view of life as they get older and wiser, and the themes that crop up time and again in what is considered the acme of world literature boil down to “Man is a fool and life is a bum deal”.

When they said man is a thinking reed, they got the “thinking” part wrong.

Less talk, less action!

”If something good does not happen soon, I’ll make an end of it”, he said. He was promptly hit by a bus, sparing him the trouble.

[FONT="]It is worth keeping in mind that – with the exception of the tentacled apparitions –we are in fact living in Lovecraft’s universe. It is not “the love that moves the sun and the other stars” as in Dante’s theocentric vision of the cosmos. Rather, it is indeed the case that the planets “roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge, or purpose, or name”. The world is a cold machine that grinds us up – seldom with any malice, because malice would entail recognizing that we even exist.

But our readiness (depending on your personal convictions as to the nature of the universe) to accept statements such as “The world is a cold machine that grinds us up” hints at a fundamental flaw in cosmic indifferentism – our congenital inability to conceive of anything – once we accept that there is a “something” – as being truly mindless and indifferent. Statements like the Zappfian “Nature has given us cognitive powers that lead to outsized suffering” may seem like attempts at affirming the uncaring nature of the universe. But they can also be interpreted as inadvertent conjurings of bad guys to be held responsible. If we get down to brass tacks there are no such things as “nature” or “the world”. These are reifications born of a human mind that cannot help but to conceptualize complex bunches of stuff in terms of discrete entities complete with goals and intentions analogous to those of human beings. Saying that nature does not care is like saying the color green doesn’t like what’s on TV right now – it falsely implies that there is an individuated entity called “nature” that has the ability to care or not care about something.

Being made as we are made (to borrow Ligotti’s words), we have no choice but to view the facts of existence in our image, conjuring up monstrous entities like “the world”. But we are not really made as we are made. Rather, we are become as we are become. There is no vast, malicious entity called “nature”, no Will-to-live, no Azathoth, no Nethescurial, no blind watchmaker to whom we can turn to have our grievances redressed. There is only a bunch of stuff that happened. And here we are.[/FONT]

 

[DarkView]

"In the construction of some great machine, and assuming you had the power, you wouldn't desire to make the parts of it self-aware; it would not even occur to you unless your mind was particularly bent on causing the most exquisitely sadistic suffering. What could be worse than to know your nature and that your purpose is to serve the machine alone? You are not unique or irreplaceable, for once the machine has worn you out, another part will take your place, and another will replace that one, and so on. Your only legitimate hope would be that the machine itself would fail and die. So, yes, a million times yes, I hope with all within me that we are the product of indifference and not a knowing mind."

 

[ToALonelyPeace]

Just because a thing can speak does not mean it understand you.

 

[A Defrocked Academic]

Whenever I first experience a particular emotion, or hear a new and especially moving piece of music, I lament that this sensation, too, is used up, and that a small piece of the world that was still fresh and undiscovered is now lost to me. If I had my way I would blot out all I know and all I have ever known, for being capable and knowledgeable is a small thing indeed compared to glorious inexperience. Yet I know I need not trouble myself with such desires, for that final blotting out will surely come.

There comes a time in all our lives when good things stop happening. For some, this coincides with leaving the womb. Others are spared until their final lonely years or hours. Still, that time is there, waiting for all of us – unless we consider death itself a good thing.

A unique characteristic of the adult mind is its capacity for simultaneous terror and boredom. There you are, smiling blandly at strangers while feeling like you are being crushed in a vice.

[FONT=&quot]

Some people think the world is full of problems and solutions. Some people have confused the world with a textbook on arithmetic.

The best way to have money is not to spend it. Does the same thing apply to life?

The victories are always hollow, but the defeats are real.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to get drunk. At least it will make things worse.

To paraphrase a certain author of supernatural horror fiction, no one has returned from the worst kinds of physical and mental pain to tell the rest of humanity what they are like.

Solitude is the best companion, water the best wine, silence the best music.

It's hard to improve on nothing.

[/FONT]

 

[A Defrocked Academic]

"[FONT=&quot]It may be that you were not made for this world. But perhaps you were not made for any world?"[/FONT]

 

[A Defrocked Academic]

We are all in the gutter, and most of us have had our eyes plucked out.

The verdict of the ages: ‘Life sucks.’ A gentler take: ‘Life is a mystery. Plus it sucks.’

[FONT=&quot]

They say the key to success is knowing what NOT to do. Now consider the maternity ward. Row upon row of little red-faced failures, screaming away.

[/FONT]

 

[ToALonelyPeace]

"The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death."

Diogenes of Sinope

 

[A Defrocked Academic]

Surely they would never go so far as to … oh.

Joy is always going, but misery is its own destination.

We are all time travelers stranded in the wrong future.

 

[ToALonelyPeace]

What fatality has led me to this road? My own practicality dooms me to a slow spiritual death, all for the sake of familiarity. I have no courage to abandon anything. Partly because I know all things are equally worthless to me once I achieve them.

 

[Robin Davies]

"The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death."

Diogenes of Sinope

Maybe I'm missing something but that makes no sense to me at all.

 

[ToALonelyPeace]

"The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death."

Diogenes of Sinope

Maybe I'm missing something but that makes no sense to me at all.

I think it means both:
1. Those with strong and high principles will pursue the hardest road, which is one of total destitution.
2. He is taking a jab at the nobles who think they are living life inside palaces. True wealth, learning and pleasure are found outside on the road.

 

[Robin Davies]

"The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death."

Diogenes of Sinope

Maybe I'm missing something but that makes no sense to me at all.

I think it means both:
1. Those with strong and high principles will pursue the hardest road, which is one of total destitution.
2. He is taking a jab at the nobles who think they are living life inside palaces. True wealth, learning and pleasure are found outside on the road.

It still seems oddly worded. Poverty and hardship can teach one certain things and death may be a blessing in certain specific circumstances but why "esteem" ignorance? Ignorance may be 'bliss' in certain situations but surely if one seeks poverty and hardship (and avoids pleasure) one should not be ignorant of unpleasant facts.

 

[cannibal cop]

Ignorance may be 'bliss' in certain situations but surely if one seeks poverty and hardship (and avoids pleasure) one should not be ignorant of unpleasant facts.

The understanding of facts you're talking about comes from life experience, not through formal teachings, which is likely what he means by "learning". By "ignorance" he most likely means a lack of formal or institutional education, but may also mean an ignorance of worldly, cultural matters, social fashions, politics and the like.

In any case, it also strikes me as something of a deliberately nonsensical statement. Perhaps the true message is that a genuine cynic understands that no such people exist. "Pleasure" in particular means different things to different people, and those who claim to value poverty, hardship, and death above it likely do so because this pleases them.

 

[Knygathin]

Zorba travels by ferry to Crete, along with his newfound friend the bookish wannabe writer Basil.

Zorba all excited: "LOOK!!, a DOLPHIN!!!"
Basil indifferent: "Yes."
Zorba looks at him: "WHAT KIND OF A MAN ARE YOU!? DON'T YOU EVEN LIKE DOLPHINS!!?"

 

[Cronopio]

"The human heart is an abyss, and most of the time our bridges are too frail."

--Cronopio

 

[Cronopio]

"It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master."

--David Foster Wallace, This Is Water