John Ashbery Quotes

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.

It was the ghost of rationality itself ... This is the ghost of normal everyday assumptions which declares that the ultimate purpose of life, which is to keep alive, is impossible, but that this is the ultimate purpose of life anyway, so that great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why. One lives longer in order that he may live longer. There is no other purpose. That is what the ghost says.

And I wonder if there is really any point to what I'm doing, or what I'm supposed to make of a world where a man can get rich playing "let's pretend

Nothing makes sense, why should I?

Everything in the world is gloriously meaningless.

Man's progress is but a gradual discovery that his questions have no meaning.

Life may be not only meaningless but absurd.

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

At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

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

It even feels absurd to be writing or singing a song at all - in the context of actual death, being alive feels absurd.

Life is tragic and absurd, and none of it has any purpose at all.

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.

We start off with high hopes, then we bottle it. We realise that we’re all going to die, without really finding out the big answers. We develop all those long-winded ideas which just interpret the reality of our lives in different ways, without really extending our body of worthwhile knowledge, about the big things, the real things. Basically, we live a short disappointing life; and then we die. We fill up our lives with shite, things like careers and relationships to delude ourselves that it isn’t all totally pointless.

Human life is inexplicable, and still without meaning: a fool may decide its fate.

Why should anything happen when everything has happened?

We all have appointments with the past.

The past is more than a memory.

I hate to think that all my current experiences will someday become stories with no point.

It's easy to get depressed and think, "Well, what's the point?" But it's the same as, "Well, we're all going to die, so what's the point in brushing my teeth or even saying hello to anyone or obeying traffic lights." You can do that, but that's certainly not going to take you anywhere.

But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.

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

I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it.

Futility is the defining characteristic of life.