Existential Facts Quotes

I'm a kindhearted but highly competitive pragmatist. When I seek to win something, I always make certain it's never at the expense of anything more serious than the inadequate efforts of others. ~ Jonathan Kieran

People who go out and try to be a rebel at night,
Try to make up for the fact that they settled in life. ~ Immortal Technique

A dream is nothing but a lucky idea that comes to us from the dark, all-unifying world of the psyche. What would be more natural, when we have lost ourselves amid the endless particulars and isolated details of the world's surface, than to knock at the door of dreams and inquire of them the bearings which would bring us closer to the basic facts of human existence? ~ C. G. Jung

To pursue science is not to disparage the things of the spirit. In fact, to pursue science rightly is to furnish the framework on which the spirit may rise. ~ Vannevar Bush

Did you know the following surprising facts? "Surgery has been found to be helpful in only 1 in 100 cases of low back pain. ~ Fred Amir

There is no truth to the myth that Negroes depreciate property. The fact is that most Negroes are kept out of residential neighborhoods so long that when one of us is finally sold a home, it's already depreciated. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are cases where the slave does not know his servitude and where it is necessary to bring the seed of his liberation to him from the outside: his submission is not enough to justify the tyranny which is imposed upon him. ~ Simone De Beauvoir

Edgar, do you actually think that how long a person grieves is a measure of how much they loved someone? There's no rule book that says how to do this." She laughed, bitterly. "Wouldn't that be great? No decisions to make. Everything laid right out for us. But there's no such thing. You want facts, don't you? Rules. Proof. You're like your father that way. Just because a thing can't be logged, charted, and summarized doesn't mean it isn't real. Half the time we walk around in love with the idea of a thing instead of the reality of it. But sometimes things don't turn out that way. You have to pay attentin to what's real, what's in the world. Not some imaginary alternative, as if it's a choice we could make. ~ David Wroblewski

The painter thinks in terms of form and color. The goal is not to be concerned with the reconstitution of an anecdotal fact, but with constitution of a pictorial fact. ~ Georges Braque

The fact is, the difference between peak performers and everybody else are much smaller than everybody else thinks. ~ Charles Garfield

Chasing after a guy who's not interested in you will rip the hell out of your self-respect. Better to face facts now because the longer you put it off, the harder it'll be. ~ Susan Elizabeth Phillips

And this that you call solitude is in fact a big crowd. ~ Dejan Stojanovic

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. ~ Charles Dickens

One can get closer to reality and the facts by using words, questions and answers. ~ Sandor Marai

But there is no such thing as a pure fact, innocent of interpretation. Behind every fact presented to the world - by a teacher, a writer, anyone - is a judgement. The judgement that has been made is that this fact is important, and that other facts, omitted, are not important. ~ Howard Zinn

There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and a proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. The refusal to see ourselves as we are develops a distaste for facts and cold logic. There is no hope for the frustrated in the actual and the possible. Salvation can come to them only from the miraculous, which seeps through a crack in the iron wall of inexorable reality. They ask to be deceived. What Stresemann said of the Germans is true of the frustrated in general: "They pray not only for their daily bread, but also for their daily illusion." The rule seems to be that those who find no difficulty deceiving themselves are easily deceived by others. They are easily persuaded and led. ~ Eric Hoffer

At times one wanders, doubting the facts, even when one has discovered the secrets of the good life. To be sure, my solution is not the ideal.
But when you don't like your own life, when you know that you must change lives, you don't have any choice, do you? What can one do to become
another?Impossible. One would have to cease being anyone, forget oneself for someone else, at least once.But how? Don't bear down too hard on me.
I am like that old beggar who wouldn't let go of my hand one day on a cafe terrace: Oh, sir,he said, its not just that I am no good, but you lose
track of the light.Yes, we have lost track of the light, the mornings, the holy innocence of those who forgive themselves. ~ Albert Camus

A vast army of government employees [Central, state and local government] of around 20 million are taken care by the remaining 380 million of the workforce, which also meets the extortionate and rent-seeking demands of the government employees. ~ R. Vaidyanathan

Scientific practice is above all a story-telling practice ... Biology is inherently historical, and its form of discourse is inherently narrative ... Biology as a way of knowing the world is kin to Romantic literature, with its discourse about organic form and function. Biology is the fiction appropriate to objects called organisms; biology fashions the facts "discovered" about organic beings. ~ Donna J. Haraway

The essence of being human is that, in the brief moment we exist on this spinning planet, we can love some persons and some things, in spite of the fact that time and death will ultimately claim us all. ~ Rollo May

The jury has the right to determine both the law and the facts. ~ Samuel Chase

The point of departure of the process to which we wish to contribute is the fact that war is the natural reaction of human nature in the savage state, while peace is the result of acquired characteristics. ~ Elihu Root

A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind. ~ Walter Bagehot

I'm really proud of the fact that anywhere, at any time, I can make music. A lot of people can't do that. ~ Corey Taylor

When I entered Yale, I had to face two important facts about myself. First, though I could consider myself a smart enough person - I was not quite as smart as I thought I was. Second, I did not know how to do in-depth studying. ~ Ben Carson

The lack of facts holds you back. The odds are stacked against a weak mind. ~ Kool Moe Dee

I'm an author with a penchant for research. For me the part where I'm learning new facts comes before the story I weave
to make an entertaining read. ~ Marcia Fine

Healthy introspection, without undermining oneself; it is a rare gift to venture into the unexplored depths of the self, without delusions or fictions, but with an uncorrupted gaze. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

This loss of certain movements is not due to the complete paralysis of such or such muscle, for all the muscles are able to work in other movements. It is certain combinations, certain systems of muscular contractions, that have disappeared. It is for this reason that such paralyses have often been described under the name of sys-tematised paralyses. M. Babinski, in publishing very interesting examples of these phenomena, observes that the word " systematic ' would be a better term.* He recalls that to systematise designates an act, " bring facts back to a system,"' and that systematic applies simply ~ Anonymous

Anybody who believes the surge has not succeeded, militarily, politically and in most other ways, frankly, does not know the facts on the ground. ~ John McCain

Scrubby evergreen bushes released a strong scent of resin and honey; forests of pine gave way to gentle south-facing vineyards disturbed only by the ululation of early summer cicadas. Sitting up tall on the seat, she craned around eagerly to see what plants thrived naturally.
It was a wild and romantic place, Laurent de Fayols had written, the whole island once bought as a wedding gift to his wife by a man who had made his fortune in the silver mines of Mexico. One of three small specks in the Mediterranean known as the Golden Isles, after the oranges, lemons, and grapefruit that glowed like lamps in their citrus groves.
There were few reference works in English that offered information beyond superficial facts about the island, and those she had managed to find were old. The best had been published in 1880, by a journalist called Adolphe Smith. Ellie had been struck by the loveliness of his "description of the most Southern Point of the French Riviera":


'The island is divided into seven ranges of small hills, and in the numerous valleys thus created are walks sheltered from every wind, where the umbrella pines throw their deep shade over the path and mingle their balsamic odor with the scent of the thyme, myrtle and the tamarisk. ~ Deborah Lawrenson

Because I got distracted Googling for information on the nanny murder (a good journalist always checks her facts, particularly when the primary source is Sophie, a girl who spouts gossip like she's auditioning to become the next Perez Hilton). It turns out however that Sophie was correct on all points about the murder, which isn't that comforting. ~ Sarah Alderson

Facts: Words treated as statement of actuality by those who agree with them. ~ Cheris Kramarae

Loyalty, Signor Molteni, not love. Penelope is loyal to Ulysses but we do not know how far she loved him ... and as you know people can sometimes be absolutely loyal without loving. In certain cases, in fact, loyalty is form of vengeance, of black-mail, of recovering one's self-respect. Loyalty, not love. ~ Alberto Moravia