Jacques Lacan Quotes

I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing.

All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.

Why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever?

Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?

The greatest mystery of existence is existence itself.

Nihilism has no substance. There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist. Everything is something. Nothing is nothing.

The choice is: the Universe...or nothing.

As I understand it, a universe is a ... well, a totality. A universe is everything that is, as far as the inside of the thing.

Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

The desire not to be anything is the desire not to be.

There is no separation between being and the manifested world, between the manifested and the unmanifested. But the unmanifested is so much vaster, deeper, and greater than what happens in the manifested.

A thing that has no value does not exist.

All things of the world are born of being; being is born of nonbeing.

If there is existence, there must be non-existence. And if there was a time when nothing existed, there must have been a time before that - when even nothing did not exist. Suddenly, when nothing came into existence, could one really say whether it belonged to the category of existence or non-existence?

The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.

Time is the backdrop of our lives and the very fabric of the cosmos.

Well, what I don't get is why do we exist? I don't mean how, but why.' I watched the fireflies of his thoughts orbit his head. He said, 'we exist because we exist. . .we could imagine all sorts of universes like this one, but this is the one that happened.

The universe is real, but you can't see it. You have to imagine it.

One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature. When one feels such pleasure in non-existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.

We are actually fourth dimensional beings in a third dimensional body inhabiting a second dimensional world!

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.

I hope Let Me In doesn't encourage it! I mean, vampires might be real! Honestly, I don't know. It's like saying aliens are real. I don't know. We are so tiny in the spectrum of the universe, we're a speck of dust compared to some galaxies, and so who knows what's out there? We barely even know our own - we know more about space than we know about our own sea.

We ought to be grateful that the Universe out there knows no smile.

The universe is not made up of atoms; it’s made up of tiny stories.

If ever there were a time there was nothing, there would be nothing now.