Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It Quotes

“According to Sartre, we are historically prone to thinking of ourselves as objects due to the Judeo-Christian credo that God stamped us with our essence from the beginning; it is His prerogative. So to think that we are able to stamp ourselves is a sacrilege.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It

“The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.” You have to love those words “very miserable”; Schopenhauer could not be content with simply saying “unhappy” as Epicurus did.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It

“Russell believed just the opposite. He wrote, “The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected. . . . [But Philosophy] keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“[But Philosophy] keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards.” —ALBERT CAMUS, FRENCH PHILOSOPHER
(1913–1960), EXISTENTIALIST”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It

“EXCUSE ME IF I LIE DOWN ON THE COUCH FOR A SPELL, BUT I CAN never read this Camus pronouncement sitting up. Indeed, I was lying in a gutter of gloom with no stars in sight when I copied this one into my notebook, but to this day I still believe that Camus’s dictum is absolutely right and absolutely essential.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It

“Being a hedonist with a conscience can be demoralizing.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“Camus said there are three basic responses to confronting this absurdity: 1) commit suicide (life is meaningless and futile, so who needs it?); 2) take a Kierkegaardian leap of faith to a belief in God (it is just as irrational as anything else, so why not go for something really Big?); or 3) accept the absurdity of it all but carry on anyhow.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“I cannot will myself to be tall. Nor can I will myself to be Moroccan-born. But the important stuff is mine to determine, like how exactly I want to live, what I want to do with my limited time on Earth, what I am willing to die for—the qualities that fundamentally make me an individual. All of those are up for grabs. My grabs.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“Life on earth is just the dress rehearsal before the real production. You will spend far more time on the other side of death—eternity—than you will here. Earth is the staging area, the preschool, the try-out of your life in eternity. It is the practice workout before the”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“Maybe Francis Bacon had it wrong—at least in Ayer’s case. Instead of finding meaning in religion as the result of studying philosophy in depth, Ayer found that meaning by not thinking like a philosopher at all for a few divine moments.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“And therein lies a realization I had recently: Even in my darkest moments, I cannot think of my daughter’s life or my granddaughter’s life as meaningless. Their mere existence feels meaningful to me whenever I think about them. How could such vital and beautiful creatures possibly be insignificant? Yes, these are the sentimental thoughts of an old codger, but do take note, Teacher.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“First grub, then ethics.” He was implying that ethical decision-making may only be a luxury reserved for those of us who do not need to struggle simply to stay alive.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“Men do not value a good deed unless it brings a reward.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“[I]t tends to be a sort of excess of friendship, and it is felt towards a single person.” There is something charming about that phrase, an “excess of friendship.” It beautifully captures the idea of overflowing with good feelings.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected. . . . [But Philosophy] keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“Are good and evil of importance to the universe or only to man?”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“To begin, a man who aspires to this kind of personal honesty must throw off all interpretations of himself that depend on anything that supposedly transcends his life, such as a god or a soul. Man exists here in this world, so that must be his point of departure. Staying free from his psychological and intellectual inheritance will be a continual struggle for him, an ever-lurking danger.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“The idea that life’s meaning is not something to look for but something to create myself feels right to me. In fact, it seems absolutely essential.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“According to Sartre, we are historically prone to thinking of ourselves as objects due to the Judeo-Christian credo that God stamped us with our essence from the get-go; it is His prerogative. So to think that we are able to stamp ourselves is a sacrilege. But the main reason we keep ducking the responsibility of self-creation is that it is super scary. If I am the master of my fate and my fate does not turn out so well, I have no one to blame but myself.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“First, we exist, and next, we create ourselves.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“The pragmatic piece of James’s decision is that believing in a free will feels intuitive. It is fundamental to what feeling human is all about; it is basic to being an “I.” That is, right up until we find it useful or comforting to believe that uncontrollable forces determine our actions. Then we are back in “the devil made me do it” territory.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“If a person did not have free will, how could he be held accountable for the bad things he did?”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“The meaning of life is not something we look for, it is something we create. And by contemplating suicide, we can be fully present at our own creation.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“For me, the most compelling and horrifying description of an individual contemplating suicide is found in Graham Greene’s extraordinary personal essay “The Revolver in the Corner Cupboard.” Beset by unmitigated feelings of emptiness in his teenage years, Greene would steal off with his brother’s pistol to Berkhamsted Common and there play Russian roulette: He would insert a single bullet, spin the chamber, press the gun to his head, and pull the trigger. When there was only a click (and there was every time he tried it), he would experience an overwhelming feeling of happiness. “It was as if a light had been turned on . . . I felt that life contained an infinite number of possibilities.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“According to many psychologists, the happier people get, the better are their friendships, marriages, work performance, health, and income. In short, no pain, more gain.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“The critical point is that knowing we can always get higher can be a real downer. It informs us that we are never going to reach the ultimate point of happiness because there is no ultimate point of happiness.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“But Habib was overwhelmed by all his options. Why spend the night with Sophia when spending the night with Katrina might be even more sensational? Why smoke some opium when getting drunk on ouzo might be more fun? Or what about both? Time and again, I would find him on the terrace of Loulou’s taverna in a paralyzing dither. Often, I had to suppress a chuckle over his befuddling embarrassment of riches, but for Habib it was no laughing matter. Hedonism made him anxious.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live

“Aristippus urges us to actively manipulate what is in front of us in order to maximize our pleasure. Man is the architect of his own pleasure dome.”
― Daniel Klein, Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live