The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence Quotes

“Michel de Montaigne wrote, “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“In truth, no matter what we think we know, we are probably wrong, and no matter what anyone else thinks they know, they are probably wrong. No one knows what’s going on in any fundamental sense.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“We live in a culture that makes idealism its goal and a world that makes idealism impossible.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“In the dirt of life, it is up to us to plant the seeds, watch the flowers grow, and enjoy their beauty, even in spite of the fact that we know that they will die.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“In other words, the experience and effects of concrete knowledge can be fleeting, but the wonder found in the spirit of the unknown can be constant and enduring.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“In truth, no matter what we think we know, we are probably wrong, and no matter what anyone else thinks they know, they are probably wrong. No one knows what’s going on in any fundamental sense. Nothing about this life is simple or clear, and from the perspective of the stars, nothing down here on earth—including us—matters all that much to anything beyond itself. Paradoxically, in this, we find great opportunity for wisdom, humility, exploration, and profound experience in our lives. “Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough,” said renowned theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. In even the most common and mundane things, there is complexity and strangeness. We don’t even know why we sleep or dream. We don’t know how most of our brain works or what consciousness is. We don’t know if time is real in any physical sense. We don’t know what gravity is or why it is. We don’t know if there are infinite other universes or dimensions around us. We don’t know why energy or matter even came to be in the first place—or why it was followed by a perfect sequence of colliding, combining, exploding, and emerging, all to put us here, right now, able to ask why. At the base of almost everything, the resulting truth is this: we don’t know. When we disregard this unknowingness, we can easily become disinterested, uninspired, and worn out of this life. We can put great stress on things that perhaps don’t matter all that much and neglect experiences and things that do. We can feel the pressure and anxiety of chasing perfection and certainty, which do not exist. We should look to the universe often, not solely for answers but for perspective; for a helpful adjustment and an aerial consideration of our daily life. With this practice, the little things in life become more striking, the mistakes and the annoyances become less significant, the calm comes more easily, and the everyday activities of our lives that we so often view as wasteful and tedious reveal themselves to be wonderfully strange and curious parts of our existence that we should make effort to ponder and appreciate as often as we can. As if to say, I’d love to marvel at and enjoy this work of art I’ve created, the universe gave itself humanity. “Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence,” said twentieth-century American-British philosopher Alan Watts. What a shame it would be to waste this experience by failing to appreciate the glory and magnificence found in the unknown. We must try to remember as often as we can that the unknown permeates everything. Its wonder is always above us, below us, around us, and inside us, whenever we need”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Despite the chaos, uncertainties, and hardships, we want to go on, we want to endure, we want to see what we can do, overcome, and experience in the face of it all. In this, we find the hopeful spirit and strength of humankind. We find the optimism in the pessimism.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“We must try to remember as often as we can that the unknown permeates everything. Its wonder is always above us, below us, around us, and inside us, whenever we need it.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“As if to say, I’d love to marvel at and enjoy this work of art I’ve created, the universe gave itself humanity. “Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence,” said twentieth-century American-British philosopher Alan Watts. What a shame it would be to waste this experience by failing to appreciate the glory and magnificence found in the unknown.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“In truth, no matter what we think we know, we are probably wrong, and no matter what anyone else thinks they know, they are probably wrong. No one knows what’s going on in any fundamental sense. Nothing about this life is simple or clear, and from the perspective of the stars, nothing down here on earth—including us—matters all that much to anything beyond itself.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness,” wrote Blaise Pascal.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“We recognize that affecting a small thing in the past can dramatically change the present, but yet, we rarely think about the way in which affecting a small thing in the present can dramatically change the future. Right”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence,” said twentieth-century American-British philosopher Alan Watts.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“For Nietzsche, when referring to amor fati, he is arguably talking generally about the loving of one’s life. Understanding the nuance in Nietzsche’s use of the term love is important—it suggests more than a stoic acceptance, and instead, it connotes an almost enthusiastic and total adoration. It is a sentiment against the tendency to regret, to assume one could have retained more control over the outcomes and conditions of one’s reality, to have done differently, to have known any better, to have found that an existence void of particular negatives would have ultimately netted more positives. And instead, it is a declaration of love and embrace of all of life exactly how it is, with all the good and the bad, the success and the failure, the satisfaction and the pain. Nietzsche described it in this way: My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it . . . but love it.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Life is in fact inevitable suffering, and so, it is not a matter of if, but for what? “The meaninglessness of suffering, not suffering itself, was the curse that lay over mankind so far,” Nietzsche wrote.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“What makes the sad song that I listen to when I’m in my worst of moods work is that it validates my feelings and transmutes them rather than denies them. I have found that this process of admitting and validating rather than denying is fundamental to the process of philosophy, meaning, and truth.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“we must live not as if we are one of the ones who will live into old age, but rather, one of the ones who might not.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“the harder one tries, the harder one flails, the more entrenched one becomes.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“We are but collections of constantly changing interactions between the world and our thoughts, and thus, the idea of a fixed, independent, identifiable self is a delusion.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“the temporal horizon of age, and the finite, terminal nature of existence,”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“To give up on life entirely would be like refusing to play a game because we lose sometimes, as if the game would even be worth playing if we knew we were going to win every time we played.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“We should look to the universe often, not solely for answers but for perspective; for a helpful adjustment and an aerial consideration of our daily life.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough,” said renowned theoretical physicist Richard Feynman.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Essential to Taoism is living according to the Tao. Put more simply, it is living in accordance with nature. Lao Tzu suggests that one can accomplish this by accepting the fluctuation of everything and giving up rigid judgments, attachments, expectations, and our efforts to control our lives. In doing so, one becomes more closely intertwined with the natural order of things, taking on a sort of fluid, intuitive, and harmonious relationship with the natural world.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“Central to Taoism is the idea that everything is in a continual state of flux, ceaselessly changing and adapting. Thus, no single idea or thing is to be attached to. Nothing is to be forced in or out of place. All is to be permitted to run its natural course, subject to the one, constant, unchanging truth: everything changes.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“To give up on life entirely would be like refusing to play a game because we lose sometimes, as if the game would even be worth playing if we knew we were going to win every time we played. There is courage in facing the realities of pessimism and there is strength to be formed in its name. We must be pessimistic about life’s conditions in order to face their realities, but we must also be optimistic about our ability to face their realities and form strength, meaning, and experience through them.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“cosmologist Carl Sagan said, “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

“The crux of Kafka’s work seems to be the tension created by this confrontation with the absurd—a conflict in which a character’s efforts, reasoning, and sense of the world are met with an inescapable senselessness. The Kafkaesque quality is found in the characters’ impossible struggles to make sense of what’s happening to them and how to resolve their situations, wherein success is both impossible and, in the end, ultimately pointless. And yet, they try anyway.”
― Robert Pantano, The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think