Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Philosophy triumphs easily over past and future evils; but present evils triumph over philosophy.

Existential philosophy, poetry and art - just like sadness - were all unavoidable to a tender young man in the meat works.

The true knowledge of good and evil arouses disturbances of the mind

I wake up at night thinking about Euripides' 'Hecuba.' That to me is a story that says so much about what it is to be a human being in the middle of a world of unreliable things and people.

Well, while I'm here I'll do the work — and what's the work? To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow.

Hamlet and Victor Frankenstein are each obsessed with death. Hamlet's whole story is a philosophical preparation for death; Victor's is an intellectual refusal to accept it.

The possibility of killing one's self is a safety valve. Having it, man has no right to say life is unbearable.

Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain.

There is nothing more alluring to man than freedom of conscience, but neither is there anything more agonizing.

Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles.

One day at a time. You rise, you eat, you bathe, and you talk to the few people you can tolerate while feeling so wretched. Over time, it hurts a little less. Then a little less. And so on...Until one morning, you will awake and realize the pain is only a memory. It will always be with you, but it will eventually lack the power to cripple you.

What’s the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when anthrax bombs are popping all around you?

Who is to decide which is the grimmer sight: withered hearts, or empty skulls?

Emotional pain makes me want to isolate. Or hit back. It's very tough to rise above my natural inclinations. I'm always working on this.

I don't need drugs. Life is already tragic enough.

I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn't know I could commit suicide at any time.

Years of depression have robbed me of that—well, that give, that elasticity that everyone else calls perspective.

Some people give their problems swimming lessons instead of drowning them.

But when you are being physically and psychologically tortured, it is difficult to remove yourself from the pressingness of the moment at hand. Here's how I dealt with bullying: I cried, I hated myself, I hated my life. I didn't deal with it, I survived it, but I never dealt with it. So here are two tips from someone with lots of experience. 1: It's not about you, it has nothing to do with you, it's about the assholes doing it to you. 2: Your job is not to deal with it, your job is to survive it, which you CAN do because it WILL end. And then yes, it will get better.

Fate is trying to kill me. I miss my dog. What's a doctor going to say? You're not ill, you're mad as a muffin? They'll either lock me up or tell me to get a grip and no one will believe the truth anyway.

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell; I know right now you can't tell; But stay a while and maybe then you'll see; A different side of me

You know, those kinds of things in your life...movies you try to work out your issues, then you realize those kinds of traumatic issues just stay with you forever and they just keep reoccurring, and no matter how hard I try to get them out of my head, they just sort of stay there.

I am persuaded ... that both man and woman bear pain or sorrow, (and, for aught I know, pleasure too) best in a horizontal position.

The great law of denial belongs to the powerful forces of life, whether the case be one of coolish baked beans, or an unrequited affection.

You can't ever stop thinking something quick enough. Something that hurts always gets the knife in too fast for you to slam a lid on it and shove it away.