Scarlett Thomas Quotes

The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.

What the meaning of human life may be I don't know: I incline to suspect that it has none.

HAMM: We're not beginning to... to... mean something? CLOV: Mean something! You and I, mean something! (Brief laugh.) Ah that's a good one!

Every kid goes to school full of questions about meaning. You know, 'What's my place in the universe? What does it mean to be a human being? What are human beings?' Existing courses cannot help you answer those questions. They can't even help you ask them.

My search not only failed, but I convinced myself that all those who had searched like myself had failed also, and come like me to the despairing conviction that the only absolute knowledge man can possess is this—that life is without a meaning.

The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes no sense to say that life has no meaning.

Our conviction that the world is meaningless is due in part to the fact (discussed in a later paragraph) that the philosophy of meaningless lends itself very effectively to furthering the ends of political and erotic passion; in part to a genuine intellectual error - the error of identifying the world of science, a world from which all meaning has deliberately been excluded, with ultimate reality.

The great question of philosophy remains: If life is meaningless, what can be done about alphabet soup?

If life is so meaningless, then why are we always bringing it up?

The concept of absurdity is something I'm attracted to.

Since all life is futility, then the decision to exist must be the most irrational of all.

The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live - moreover, the only one.

Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning.

When I was young I read 'L'Etranger' by Camus, and it made me aware of the strangeness of life.

In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.

By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing.

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.

The universe is chaotic and meaningless, and it's good to laugh about it. That's my stance on life, actually. Some people go through life grinding their teeth, suffering and banging their head against the wall. I'm glad that's not the reaction that occurs in me.

The meaningless absurdity of life is the only incontestable knowledge accessible to man.

I searched all areas of knowledge, and not only did I fail to find anything, but I was convinced that all those who had explored as I did had also come up with nothing. Not only had they found nothing, but they had clearly acknowledged the same thing that had brought me to despair: the only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.

I asked: 'What is the meaning of my life, beyond time, cause, and space?' And I replied to quite another question: 'What is the meaning of my life within time, cause, and space?' With the result that, after long efforts of thought, the answer I reached was: 'None'.

These big questions: Who are we? Where are we? What are we doing here? They never ask that in the mainstream. They just leave that to religions to divert people off into rigid belief systems.

One joins the movement in a valueless world, Choosing it, till both hurler and the hurled, One moves as well, always toward, toward.

In the end, the art of hunger can be described as an existential art. It is a way of looking death in the face, and by death I mean death as we live it today: without God, without hope of salvation. Death as the abrupt and absurd end of life

Meaning is man-created. And because you constantly look for meaning, you start to feel meaninglessness.