Martin Heidegger Quotes

Understanding of being is itself a determination of being of Da-sein.

Being is only Being for Dasein.

We have the notion that we exist but we have no way to prove it. 'I am' is the closest foundation we can get.

We do not say: Being is, time is, but rather: there is Being and there is time.

This characteristic of Dasein's being this "that it is" is veiled in its "whence" and "whither.

In order to remain silent Da-sein must have something to say.

Consciousness is a being the nature of which is to be conscious of the nothingness of its being.

The For-itself, in fact, is nothing but the pure nihilation of the In-itself; it is like a hole of being at the heart of Being.

Man exists, turns up, appears on the scene and only afterwards, defines himself

There is no frontier between being and appearing.

The world is... the natural setting of, and field for, all my thoughts and all my explicit perceptions. Truth does not inhabit only the inner man, or more accurately, there is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself.

Existence precedes and rules essence.

To think Being itself explicitly requires disregarding Being to the extent that it is only grounded and interpreted in terms of beings and for beings as their ground, as in all metaphysics.

The German language speaks Being, while all the others merely speak of Being.

I think, therefore I am.

The two basic topics which fascinate me are 'What is reality?' and 'What constitutes the authentic human being?'

We Can Only Exist By Taking Our Minds Off The Fact That We Exist

Nothing determines me from outside, not because nothing acts upon me, but, on the contrary, because I am from the start outside myself and open to the world.

Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.

My thought is me: that's why I can't stop. I exist because I think… and I can't stop myself from thinking. At this very moment - it's frightful - if I exist, it is because I am horrified at existing. I am the one who pulls myself from the nothingness to which I aspire.

It is inconceivable that anything should be existing. It is not inconceivable that a lot of people should also be existing who are not interested in the fact that they exist. But it is certainly very odd.

The average, vague understanding of being can be permeated by traditional theories and opinions about being in such a way that these theories, as the sources of the prevailing understanding, remain hidden.

Nothingness haunts Being.

No one thought up being. He who thinks he has, step forward.

"To be is to do," says the existentialist. "One only becomes real (human) at the point of action."