Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

The fact we exist merely means we exist. That's all it means.

Life is a prize, but to live doesn't mean you're alive

The greatest mystery of existence is existence itself.

The purpose of life is life.

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

Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.

There is a certain sense in which I would say the universe has a purpose. It's not there by chance.

I don't think there is a hidden purpose to the universe that you have to puzzle out.

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

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.

The thing that is incredible is life itself. Why should we be here in this sun-illuminated universe? Why should there be green earth under our feet?

Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?

Being is the great explainer.

I don't know how one should live - but I know that one should live.

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.

It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period

If nothing had any meaning, you would be right. But there is something that still has a meaning.

Does a being who requires meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?

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.

Life's objective is life itself.

I pray for meaning. I pray for the limits of reality to become clear. For a world – and a type of being – that makes sense. I pray for a life after death that is not like this life. I pray for the end of mystery. What would a life be like with all the mysteries solved? If there were no questions, there’d be no stories. If there were no stories, there’d be no language. If there was no language there’d be no . . . What?

Philosophy asks the simple question: What is it all about?

The meaning of life is to get meaning for life.

Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is.