Tom Stoppard Quotes

I think life without spirit is in the dark, it is absurd.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

We need God, not in order to understand the why, but in order to feel and sustain the ultimate wherefore, to give a meaning to the universe.

Without philosophy man cannot know what he makes; without religion he cannot know why.

We have a world that is searching for answers, that is searching for a way back to spirituality.

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

Religion is the search for ultimate meaning.

I wouldn't say I'm a religious person, but I am definitely inclined toward asking the big questions.

Somebody once asked me if I have anything like faith, and I said I have faith in the narrative. I have a belief in a narrative that is bigger than me, that is alive and I trust will work itself out.

Life grows darker as we go on, till only one pure light is left shining on it; and that is faith. Old age, like solitude and sorrow, has its revelations.

If you want to prove that God is not dead, first prove that man is alive.

One of the underlying things I like to do in books, is just say, stop and look at this for a moment. Not that you've got to believe that Jesus was real, or not to believe in God, but the belief that it isn't just happenstance.

We're all born lost, aren't we? We're all born separated from God - over and over life makes sure to inform us of this - and yet we're all real: we have names, we have lives. We mean something. We must.

It seems to me that when confronted with the marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how. The only possible answers are religious. . . . I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life.

Quotes about Life Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, and things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art; to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

And only the enlightened can recall their former lives; for the rest of us, the memories of past existences are but glints of light, twinges of longing, passing shadows, disturbingly familiar, that are gone before they can be grasped, like the passage of that silver bird on Dhaulagiri.

Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.

…In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.

I know that I'm here - I believe that I'm here for a purpose. I believe in forces of fate.

Meditation upon the unknown Thought He thought was real meditation. No, meditation is not and cannot be On any thought. Meditation is a conscious withdrawal From the thought-world. Meditation is the place Where Reality, Divinity and Immortality Can each claim their own Perennial existence-light.

Those who have a why to live for can bear almost any how. The necessary premise is that a person is somehow more than his or her "characteristics," all the emotions, strivings, tastes, and constructions which it pleases us to call "My Life." We have grounds to hope that a Life is something more than a cloud of particles, mere facticity. Go through what is comprehensible and you conclude that only the incomprehensible gives any light.

If you don't have God in your life, you are nothing.

What is the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?

The world exists, not for what it means but for what it is. The purpose of mushrooms is to be mushrooms, wine is in order to be wine: things are precious before they are contributory. It is a false piety that walks through creation looking only for lessons which can be applied somewhere else. To be sure, God remains the greatest good; but, for all that, the world is still good in itself. Indeed, since He does not need it, its whole reason for being must lie in its own natural goodness; He has no use for it, only delight.

My friends don't understand, whether it's belonging to a country club or playing golf, or whatever a vacation is, that should make you happy. And it's like, "No, happiness is much deeper." I think people have to struggle to find things that give them purpose, the real meaning. Why am I alive? Why did God bless me with these skills or these resources? What am I to do with them? If God just lets some person be very fortunate, let's say financially, it's kind of a funny God.