{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life", "heading": "Quotes about meaning of life", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md", "quotes_count": 238, "authors_count": 148, "parent": { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life", "heading": "Quotes about life" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "cdec457f-e321-4ff1-aed4-89dc16e8a1a0", "slug": "later-i-came", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy/later-i-came", "text": "Later I came awake with a sudden start, remembering the fright and tension that had accompanied my foray into crime. Well, all that was gone now. I could start anew. I did not like to feel tension and fear. I wanted something else, to be human, to be caught up in something meaningful.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Wright", "slug": "richard-wright", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright" }, "book": { "title": "Black Boy", "slug": "black-boy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Wright#Black_Boy_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T14:30:04" }, { "id": "82523979-dfa4-4659-b922-488d439db467", "slug": "once-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy/once-in-the", "text": "Once, in the night, my mother called me to her bed and told me that she could not endure the pain, that she wanted to die. I held her hand and begged her to be quiet. That night I ceased to react to my mother; my feelings were frozen. I merely waited upon her, knowing that she was suffering. She remained abed ten years, gradually growing better, but never completely recovering, relapsing periodically into her paralytic state. The family had stripped itself of money to fight my mother’s illness and there was no more forthcoming. Her illness gradually became an accepted thing in the house, something that could not be stopped or helped. My mother’s suffering grew into a symbol in my mind, gathering to itself all the poverty, the ignorance, the helplessness; the painful, baffling, hunger-ridden days and hours; the restless moving, the futile seeking, the uncertainty, the fear, the dread; the meaningless pain and the endless suffering. Her life set the emotional tone of my life, colored the men and women I was to meet in the future, conditioned my relation to events that had not yet happened, determined my attitude to situations and circumstances I had yet to face. A somberness of spirit that I was never to lose settled over me during the slow years of my mother’s unrelieved suffering, a somberness that was to make me stand apart and look upon excessive joy with suspicion, that was to make me self-conscious, that was to make me keep forever on the move, as though to escape a nameless fate seeking to overtake me. At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had a conception of life that no experience would ever erase, a predilection for what was real that no argument could ever gainsay, a sense of the world that was mine and mine alone, a notion as to what life meant that no education could ever alter, a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Wright", "slug": "richard-wright", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright" }, "book": { "title": "Black Boy", "slug": "black-boy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Wright#Black_Boy_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T14:30:04" }, { "id": "385c4d99-fdb8-40ee-9ba6-01597b7e06f3", "slug": "my-view-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror/my-view-of-life", "text": "My view of life is utterly meaningless. I suppose an evil spirit has set a pair of spectacles upon my nose of which one lens is a tremendously powerful magnifying glass, the other an equally powerful reducing glass", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Søren Kierkegaard", "slug": "soren-kierkegaard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard" }, "book": { "title": "Either/Or", "slug": "eitheror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 24, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Either/Or#Diapsalmata", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:53" }, { "id": "156a1110-9f9f-4837-87f7-354c286478d6", "slug": "life-is-so-empty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror/life-is-so-empty", "text": "Life is so empty and meaningless.- We bury a man; we follow him to the grave, we throw three spadefuls of each over him; we ride out to the cemetery in a carriage, we ride home in a carriage; we take we take comfort in thinking that a long life less before us. How long is seven times ten years? Why do we not finish it at once, why do we not stay and step down into the grave with him, and draw lots to see who shall happen to be the last unhappy living being to throw the last three spadefuls of earth over the last of the dead?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Søren Kierkegaard", "slug": "soren-kierkegaard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard" }, "book": { "title": "Either/Or", "slug": "eitheror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Either/Or#Diapsalmata", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:53" }, { "id": "3f9826a5-aca0-438b-b944-79dfd58e5cca", "slug": "survival-is-worthless", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-robert-cargill/day-zero/survival-is-worthless", "text": "Survival is worthless without meaning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "C. Robert Cargill", "slug": "c-robert-cargill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-robert-cargill" }, "book": { "title": "Day Zero", "slug": "day-zero", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-robert-cargill/day-zero" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 126, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "survival", "slug": "survival", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C._Robert_Cargill#Day_Zero_(2021)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:07" }, { "id": "0c30bee8-8128-4fd5-91aa-096c08a70a0f", "slug": "my-grandfather-used", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell/the-bottom-of-the-harbor/my-grandfather-used", "text": "\"My grandfather used to like the word 'mitigate,'\" Harry said. \"He liked the sound of it, and he used it whenever he could. When he was a very old man, he often got on the subject of dying. 'You cant talk your way out,' he'd often say, 'and you can't buy your way out, and you can't shoot your way out, and the only thing that mitigates the matter in the slightest is the fact that nobody else is going to escape. Nobody — no, not one.'\" \"I know, I know,\" said Mr. Hewitt, \"but what's the purpose of it?\" \"You supported your wife, didn't you?\" asked Harry. \"You raised a family, didn't you? That's the purpose of it.\" \"That's no purpose,\" said Mr. Hewitt. \"The same thing that's going to happen to me is going to happen to them.\" \"The generations have to keep coming along,\" said Harry. \"That's all I know.\" \"You're put here, \" said Mr. Hewitt, \"and you're allowed to eat and draw breath and go back and forth a few short years, and about the time you get things in shape where you can sit down and enjoy them you wind up in a box in a hole in the ground, and as far as I can see, there's no purpose to it whatsoever.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Mitchell", "slug": "joseph-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "The Bottom Of The Harbor", "slug": "the-bottom-of-the-harbor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell/the-bottom-of-the-harbor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 240, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Mitchell_(writer)#The_Bottom_of_the_Harbor_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:49" }, { "id": "937faf53-6d28-4941-9e27-cbcb46fa735f", "slug": "i-suppose-i-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything/i-suppose-i-was", "text": "I suppose I was trying to figure out the meaning of my own existence. ...I went about it in a more indirect way: I set about trying to understand the entire Universe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Suzie Sheehy", "slug": "suzie-sheehy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy" }, "book": { "title": "The Matter of Everything", "slug": "the-matter-of-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Suzie_Sheehy#The_Matter_of_Everything_(2023)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:04" }, { "id": "5c8f307c-507f-470f-a199-216d483760eb", "slug": "suddenly-nothing-else", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything/suddenly-nothing-else", "text": "Suddenly, nothing else mattered. I wanted to know... about gravity and particles and and relativity. About stars and atoms and light and energy. Above all, I wanted to know how it was all connected and how I was connected to it. ...[I]t mattered to me as a human ...if I managed it even a little bit, I'd not have wasted this little blip of time as a conscious being. I decided to become a physicist.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Suzie Sheehy", "slug": "suzie-sheehy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy" }, "book": { "title": "The Matter of Everything", "slug": "the-matter-of-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "physics", "slug": "physics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/physics" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Suzie_Sheehy#The_Matter_of_Everything_(2023)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:04" }, { "id": "dcd73f44-3ff1-4163-b6b7-0059acfba9a0", "slug": "it-reduces-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-l-chalker/midnight-at-the-well-of-souls/it-reduces-all", "text": "“It reduces all the revolutions, the struggles, the pain, the great dreams—everything—to nonsense! It means that life is pointless!”\n\n“Not pointless,” Brazil put in suddenly. “It just means that the grand schemes are pointless. It means that you don’t make your own life pointless or useless—most people do, you know. It wouldn’t make any difference if ninety-nine percent of the people of the human race—or any other—lived or not. Except in sheer numbers their lives are dull, vegetative, and non-productive.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack L. Chalker", "slug": "jack-l-chalker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-l-chalker" }, "book": { "title": "Midnight at the Well of Souls", "slug": "midnight-at-the-well-of-souls", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-l-chalker/midnight-at-the-well-of-souls" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 283, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_L._Chalker#Midnight_at_the_Well_of_Souls_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:03" }, { "id": "76504383-5c53-4480-bd19-74fc86f4f4b6", "slug": "then-mdear-sophie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara/the-salt-eaters/then-mdear-sophie", "text": "Then M’Dear Sophie always said, “Find meaning where you’re put, Vee.” So she exhaled deeply and tried to relax and stick it out and pay attention.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Toni Cade Bambara", "slug": "toni-cade-bambara", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara" }, "book": { "title": "The Salt Eaters", "slug": "the-salt-eaters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara/the-salt-eaters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "attention", "slug": "attention", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/attention" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Toni_Cade_Bambara#The_Salt_Eaters_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:36" }, { "id": "41f8b08a-72d8-4b57-be97-305c70bbaecb", "slug": "maybe-the-true", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/annie-ernaux/happening/maybe-the-true", "text": "Maybe the true purpose of my life is for my body, my sensations and my thoughts to become writing, in other words, something intelligible and universal, causing my existence to merge into the lives and heads of other people.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Annie Ernaux", "slug": "annie-ernaux", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/annie-ernaux" }, "book": { "title": "Happening", "slug": "happening", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/annie-ernaux/happening" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 178, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Annie_Ernaux#Happening_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:21" }, { "id": "ea294643-59de-4f17-ab59-f9381025fc8b", "slug": "a-little-cinder", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise/a-little-cinder", "text": "\"A little cinder in the wind, Pablo - that's what you are.\"\n\n\"Everybody's worth something,\" Pablo said. \"I mean - everybody's life got some meaning to it. You know - there's a reason for people.\"\n\n\"No kidding? A reason for you? What is it?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" Pablo confessed. \"I ain't found out yet. But I know there is one.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert S. Stone", "slug": "robert-s-stone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone" }, "book": { "title": "A Flag for Sunrise", "slug": "a-flag-for-sunrise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 253, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Stone_(novelist)#A_Flag_for_Sunrise_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:18" }, { "id": "982105f9-b59a-4fc9-814a-a31735ede709", "slug": "the-whole-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/moving-pictures/the-whole-of-life", "text": "The whole of life is just like watching a click, he thought. Only it's as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it all out yourself from the clues.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Moving Pictures", "slug": "moving-pictures", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/moving-pictures" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 238, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moving_Pictures_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:15" }, { "id": "8cd78684-453f-4ef1-b496-c77b6e3eade9", "slug": "funny-that-when", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/pyramids/funny-that-when", "text": "Funny, that. When he was alive it had all seemed so sensible, so obvious. Now he was dead it looked a huge waste of effort. (p. 71)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Pyramids", "slug": "pyramids", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/pyramids" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pyramids_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:12" }, { "id": "76b3835c-3ff6-4abf-80ce-3415f97c8a37", "slug": "a-life-spent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/a-life-spent", "text": "A life spent shaping a world I want Jackson to inherit, not one I fear Jackson shall inherit, this strikes me as a life worth the living.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Cloud Atlas", "slug": "cloud-atlas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 508, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Pacific_Journal_of_Adam_Ewing_(Part_2)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57" }, { "id": "ddeb0d70-326a-4dba-833f-e898968afee4", "slug": "i-think-my-point", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/genevieve-cogman/the-masked-city/i-think-my-point", "text": "“I think my point holds. People want stories. You should know that more than anybody. They want their lives to have meaning. They want to be part of something greater than themselves. Even you, Miss Winters, want to be a heroic Librarian—don’t you? And if you’re going to say that people need to have the freedom to be unhappy, something that’s forced on them whether they like it or not, I would question your motivation.” She paused for a single deadly second. “Most people don’t want a brave new world. They want the story that they know.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Genevieve Cogman", "slug": "genevieve-cogman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/genevieve-cogman" }, "book": { "title": "The Masked City", "slug": "the-masked-city", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/genevieve-cogman/the-masked-city" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 217, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Genevieve_Cogman#The_Masked_City_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:52" }, { "id": "d4dcc570-d4ef-4233-bf58-25567d7872e4", "slug": "that-short-period", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/that-short-period", "text": "That short period of my life spent in the line is the only one I remember step by step – as if it moved sub specie aeternitatis. Not that I enjoyed it; I hated it. Not that I was fitted for it by temperament or ability, I was desperately unfitted; but it, somehow, had meaning, and daily life hasn't: it was part of a common endeavor, and daily life is isolated and lonely. (Ch. 17, on his service on the Western Front in World War I)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Alexander Percy", "slug": "william-alexander-percy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy" }, "book": { "title": "Lanterns On The Levee", "slug": "lanterns-on-the-levee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:50" }, { "id": "72a41718-a496-46f4-b064-361c2deee3f6", "slug": "i-never-heard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/i-never-heard", "text": "I never heard them over their juleps express a philosophy of life, and if I had it would have been incomprehensible to me, but a philosophy was implicit in all their thoughts and actions. It probably made the Southern pattern. Perhaps it is all contained in a remark of Father's when he was thinking aloud one night and I sat at his feet eavesdropping eagerly: \"I guess a man's job is to make the world a better place to live in, so far as he is able – always remembering the results will be infinitesimal – and to attend to his own soul.\" (Ch. 7)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Alexander Percy", "slug": "william-alexander-percy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy" }, "book": { "title": "Lanterns On The Levee", "slug": "lanterns-on-the-levee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:50" }, { "id": "0dd1312e-c021-4a9e-b7cd-ff89158a9818", "slug": "you-spend-your", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton/that-eye-the-sky/you-spend-your", "text": "You spend your whole life trying to work out where you fit.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tim Winton", "slug": "tim-winton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton" }, "book": { "title": "That Eye, the Sky", "slug": "that-eye-the-sky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton/that-eye-the-sky" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 25, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Winton#That_Eye,_the_Sky_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:47" }, { "id": "2c2ab241-c073-4c62-932c-1cf583bbf521", "slug": "i-can-bear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/i-can-bear", "text": "I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "1Q84", "slug": "1q84", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 546, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/1Q84#Book_2_(July-September)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:38" }, { "id": "1cd11765-57ec-4a95-b982-e7e17c5b8295", "slug": "death-the-philosopher", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-shorto/descartes-bones/death-the-philosopher", "text": "“Death,” the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote, “is not an event in life.” He meant, maybe (for it’s hard to be sure—Wittgenstein was rather titanically cryptic), that being dead is not something we actually experience and that since we aren’t conscious of a nonliving state it is literally meaningless, so instead of spending our lives worrying about the future we should look at each instant as an eternity. We should live in the moment.\n\nPerhaps this is true, and wise, but in an ordinary sense Wittgenstein was completely wrong. Death is the event in life. It is our chief organizing principle. It’s why we rush and why we dawdle, why we better up our bosses and fawn over our children, why we like both fast cars and fading flowers, why we write poetry, why sex thrills us. It’s why we wonder why we are here.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Russell Shorto", "slug": "russell-shorto", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-shorto" }, "book": { "title": "Descartes' Bones", "slug": "descartes-bones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-shorto/descartes-bones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 43, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Russell_Shorto#Descartes%E2%80%99_Bones:_A_Skeletal_History_of_the_Conflict_Between_Faith_and_Reason_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:15" }, { "id": "4880b284-9e19-4fa1-a3a5-d6ebe7db0a70", "slug": "what-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-wanderers-of-time/what-is-the", "text": "\"What is the use of life?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "The Wanderers of Time", "slug": "the-wanderers-of-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-wanderers-of-time" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 41, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Wanderers_of_Time_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:07" }, { "id": "8547fe62-d240-4539-b7a9-84ec1c7c4a28", "slug": "i-was-driving", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/julia-alvarez/homecoming/i-was-driving", "text": "I was driving down the mountain, the curves\n\nwere bad, I wasn't going slow, the day\n\nwas one of those that takes your breath away...\n\nOn hilltops, I made believe I'd take off\n\ninto the absolute, but as I swerved\n\nagain and again...\n\nand as the sun's\n\nautumnal, soporific light shone on...\n\nsomething gave in me and I let go—\n\nthis driving need to make it all mean more.\n\nIn time, I turned the wheel back to the road.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Julia Alvarez", "slug": "julia-alvarez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/julia-alvarez" }, "book": { "title": "Homecoming", "slug": "homecoming", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/julia-alvarez/homecoming" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "acceptance", "slug": "acceptance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/acceptance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julia_Alvarez#33", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:49" }, { "id": "4937c8a9-0193-44f1-a8c9-803996935530", "slug": "he-spent-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/tripmaster-monkey/he-spent-the", "text": "He spent the rest of the night looking for the plot of our ever-branching lives. A job can't be the plot of life, and not a soapy love-marriage-divorce--and hell no, not Viet Nam. (p288)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Maxine Hong Kingston", "slug": "maxine-hong-kingston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston" }, "book": { "title": "Tripmaster Monkey", "slug": "tripmaster-monkey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/tripmaster-monkey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maxine_Hong_Kingston#Tripmaster_Monkey:_His_Fake_Book_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:46" }, { "id": "9c5871bf-e74c-454c-acda-d0dc34b14b4d", "slug": "to-find-order", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/disturbing-the-peace/to-find-order", "text": "To find order in chaos - why, of course; that was what he'd wanted all his life.\n\nHe had been born for this, for finding order in chaos, and all the wasted years has been a mistake.\n\nTo find order in chaos; to find order in chaos.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Yates", "slug": "richard-yates", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates" }, "book": { "title": "Disturbing the Peace", "slug": "disturbing-the-peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/disturbing-the-peace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 130, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "chaos", "slug": "chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chaos" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Yates#Disturbing_the_Peace_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:42" }, { "id": "074bdf11-ff93-460d-b66a-5688fc8d21c0", "slug": "the-spiritual-quest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy/the-spiritual-quest", "text": "The spiritual quest begins, for most people, as a search for meaning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marilyn Ferguson", "slug": "marilyn-ferguson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson" }, "book": { "title": "The Aquarian Conspiracy", "slug": "the-aquarian-conspiracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "spirituality", "slug": "spirituality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/spirituality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marilyn_Ferguson#Chapter_Eleven,_Spiritual_Adventure:_Connection_to_the_Source", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:23" }, { "id": "3f03c01b-2967-4c78-8517-0fcb38af7576", "slug": "making-a-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy/making-a-life", "text": "Making a life, not just a living, is essential to one seeking wholeness. Our hunger turns out to be for something different, not something more. p. 323", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marilyn Ferguson", "slug": "marilyn-ferguson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson" }, "book": { "title": "The Aquarian Conspiracy", "slug": "the-aquarian-conspiracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marilyn_Ferguson#Chapter_Ten,_The_Transformation_of_Values_and_Vocation", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:22" }, { "id": "236e75f0-2470-49a6-ba74-425aa0f188a2", "slug": "you-build-up-relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/kafka-on-the-shore/you-build-up-relationships", "text": "You build up relationships like that one after another and before you know it you have meaning. The more connections, the deeper the meaning. Doesn't matter if it's eel, or rice bowls, or grilled fish, whatever. Get it?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "Kafka on the Shore", "slug": "kafka-on-the-shore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/kafka-on-the-shore" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kafka_on_the_Shore#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:18" }, { "id": "f3d5f0b2-953c-44ca-8044-78e4cddc0a5b", "slug": "nothings-worth-living", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-r-boyett/ariel/nothings-worth-living", "text": "Nothing’s worth living for if there aren’t things you think are worth dying for.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steven R. Boyett", "slug": "steven-r-boyett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-r-boyett" }, "book": { "title": "Ariel", "slug": "ariel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-r-boyett/ariel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 127, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "sacrifice", "slug": "sacrifice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sacrifice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Boyett#Ariel_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:14" }, { "id": "ec3ec356-8533-4082-bfca-894f6addcc6a", "slug": "contemplate-death-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dilgo-khyentse/the-heart-of-compassion/contemplate-death-and", "text": "Contemplate death and the sufferings of samsara, and you will not want to waste a single moment in pointless distractions and activities, such as trying to get rich, defeating your enemies, or spending your life protecting and furthering the interests of those to whom you are attached. You will only want to practice the Dharma.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dilgo Khyentse", "slug": "dilgo-khyentse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dilgo-khyentse" }, "book": { "title": "The Heart of Compassion", "slug": "the-heart-of-compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dilgo-khyentse/the-heart-of-compassion" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "Buddhism", "slug": "buddhism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/buddhism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dilgo_Khyentse#The_Heart_of_Compassion_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:13" }, { "id": "769632b5-b89a-4579-9fb3-aad7f8a840d2", "slug": "i-wanted-to-tell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/a-trace-of-memory/i-wanted-to-tell", "text": "I wanted to tell him that all lives are the same length when viewed from the foreshortened perspective of death, and that life, like music, requires no meaning but only a certain symmetry.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Keith Laumer", "slug": "keith-laumer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer" }, "book": { "title": "A Trace of Memory", "slug": "a-trace-of-memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/a-trace-of-memory" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 253, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "music", "slug": "music", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keith_Laumer#A_Trace_of_Memory_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:07" }, { "id": "54f24b04-b7de-4b01-8ea6-791f65ef3569", "slug": "her-life-except", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-mind-thing/her-life-except", "text": "Her life, except for reading, had been dull—but it had not been in vain.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Fredric Brown", "slug": "fredric-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown" }, "book": { "title": "The Mind Thing", "slug": "the-mind-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-mind-thing" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 570, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fredric_Brown#The_Mind_Thing_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:06" }, { "id": "bc4efa29-2294-4b62-9448-b255509cbe28", "slug": "im-the-smartest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-grossman/soon-i-will-be-invincible/im-the-smartest", "text": "I'm the smartest man in the world. Once I wore a cape in public, and fought battles against men who could fly, who had metal skin, who could kill you with their eyes. I fought CoreFire to a standstill, and the Super Squadron, and the Champions. Now I have to shuffle through a cafeteria line with men who tried to pass bad checks. Now I have to wonder if there will be chocolate milk in the dispenser. And whether the smartest man in the world has done the smartest thing he could with his life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Austin Grossman", "slug": "austin-grossman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-grossman" }, "book": { "title": "Soon I Will be Invincible", "slug": "soon-i-will-be-invincible", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-grossman/soon-i-will-be-invincible" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "intelligence", "slug": "intelligence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence" }, { "name": "prison", "slug": "prison", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Austin_Grossman#Soon_I_Will_Be_Invincible_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:58" }, { "id": "ad67ff14-6db7-412a-8c53-318d9f164f2c", "slug": "we-have-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/beyond-order/we-have-been", "text": "We have been telling [young people] for decades to demand what they are owed by society. We have been implying that the important meanings of their lives will be given to them because of such demands, when we should have been doing the opposite: letting them know that the meaning that sustains life in all its tragedy and disappointment is to be found in shouldering a noble burden.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jordan B. Peterson", "slug": "jordan-b-peterson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson" }, "book": { "title": "Beyond Order", "slug": "beyond-order", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/beyond-order" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 161, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#Beyond_Order_(2021)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:41" }, { "id": "436f0ec0-d801-4c0d-ae35-e787b935aec2", "slug": "there-is-a-high", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/beyond-order/there-is-a-high", "text": "There is a high goal, a mountain peak, a star that shines in the darkness, beckoning above the horizon. Its mere existence gives you hope—and that is the meaning without which you cannot live.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jordan B. Peterson", "slug": "jordan-b-peterson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson" }, "book": { "title": "Beyond Order", "slug": "beyond-order", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/beyond-order" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 133, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "purpose", "slug": "purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#Beyond_Order_(2021)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:41" }, { "id": "4a62bc7e-0ffe-47f9-889a-7822f594b631", "slug": "in-a-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-stedman/faitheist/in-a-universe", "text": "In a universe where I believe meaning and purpose are not gifted from a divine source but are instead collectively assembled by humans, learning to live alongside and love others—all others—is perhaps our greatest task.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chris Stedman", "slug": "chris-stedman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-stedman" }, "book": { "title": "Faitheist", "slug": "faitheist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-stedman/faitheist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 162, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chris_Stedman#Faitheist_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:29" }, { "id": "e1fedf64-fe5a-4dcc-93a2-17b40651163f", "slug": "ned-found-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-gavriel-kay/ysabel/ned-found-that", "text": "Ned found that if he thought about things like that too much, the accident of it all, his mind started down unsettling paths.…\n\nCould you make a pattern out of any of this? Stitch together the seeming randomness into something that had meaning? Is that what life was about, he wondered: trying to make that pattern, to have things make sense?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Guy Gavriel Kay", "slug": "guy-gavriel-kay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-gavriel-kay" }, "book": { "title": "Ysabel", "slug": "ysabel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-gavriel-kay/ysabel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 265, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Gavriel_Kay#Ysabel_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:10" }, { "id": "277785bf-a4dc-4134-aebd-59b5cc04ce78", "slug": "even-a-brief", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/the-power-of-now/even-a-brief", "text": "Even a brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn't.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "The Power of Now", "slug": "the-power-of-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/the-power-of-now" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "illness", "slug": "illness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now#Chapter_9._Beyond_Happiness_and_Unhappiness_There_Is_Peace", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:03" }, { "id": "1455792c-f5d0-4b18-adba-e2e0a3e15ade", "slug": "if-pain-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/morning-star/if-pain-is-the", "text": "If pain is the weight of being, love is the purpose.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pierce Brown", "slug": "pierce-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Morning Star", "slug": "morning-star", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/morning-star" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierce_Brown#Morning_Star_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:59" }, { "id": "44d43fb4-d210-4126-9948-28ec5d6c2684", "slug": "what-do-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/red-rising/what-do-you", "text": "\"What do you live for?\" I ask her suddenly. \"Is it for me?Is it for family and love? Or is it for some dream?\"\n\n\"It's not just some dream, Darrow. I live for the dream that my children will be born free. That they will be what they like.That they will own land their father gave them.\"\n\n\"I live for you,\" I say sadly.\n\nShe kisses my cheek. \"Then you must live for more.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pierce Brown", "slug": "pierce-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Red Rising", "slug": "red-rising", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/red-rising" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierce_Brown#Red_Rising_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:58" }, { "id": "8f72158a-4788-4f2f-8183-07175b8f657e", "slug": "i-cannot-believe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies/the-mind-of-god/i-cannot-believe", "text": "I cannot believe that our existence in this universe is a mere quirk of fate, an accident of history, an incidental blip in the great cosmic drama. Our involvement is too intimate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paul Davies", "slug": "paul-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Mind of God", "slug": "the-mind-of-god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies/the-mind-of-god" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 232, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Davies#The_Mind_of_God:_The_Scientific_Basis_for_a_Rational_World_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:56" }, { "id": "353f5b91-eec6-4988-82d1-7a7ef0127cc2", "slug": "if-definitive-proof", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel/sea-of-tranquility/if-definitive-proof", "text": "If definitive proof emerges that we’re living in a simulation, the correct response to that news will be So what. A life lived in a simulation is still a life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emily St John Mandel", "slug": "emily-st-john-mandel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel" }, "book": { "title": "Sea of Tranquility", "slug": "sea-of-tranquility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel/sea-of-tranquility" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 246, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "reality", "slug": "reality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emily_St._John_Mandel#Sea_of_Tranquility_(2022)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:51" }, { "id": "7f28cd2c-19af-4cfd-af15-fcbfc27e662d", "slug": "and-so-it-comes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm/and-so-it-comes", "text": "\"And so, it comes to pass in time, that the earth ceases for us to be a weltering chaos. We walk in the great hall of life, looking up and round reverentially. Nothing is despicable—all is meaning-full; nothing is small—all is part of a whole, whose beginning and end we know not. The life that throbs in us is a beginning and end we know not. The life that throbs in us is a pulsation from it; too mighty for our comprehension, not too small. And so, it comes to pass at last, that whereas the sky was at first a small blue rag stretched out over us, and so low that our hands might touch it, pressing down on us, it raises itself into an immeasurable blue arch over our heads, and we begin to live again.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olive Schreiner", "slug": "olive-schreiner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner" }, "book": { "title": "The Story of an African Farm", "slug": "the-story-of-an-african-farm", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olive_Schreiner#The_Story_of_an_African_Farm_(1883)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:50" }, { "id": "4f0bff68-bafe-457d-b693-a9d84dc79ed1", "slug": "there-is-a-point", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake/there-is-a-point", "text": "There is a point to love, if love itself is remembered. There is a point to the creation of beauty, because beauty will endure. All words, all thoughts, have a chance of transcending death and time. There is no heaven or hell, no afterlife, no divine creator, no great will behind the universe, no meaning beyond that revealed by our senses and our intellects.\n\nThis is a hard thing to accept. Yet there is still a point to being alive, and that makes the acceptance bearable. But the universe withholds even this bleak consolation.\n\nWithin its deepest structure, written like a curse into the very mathematics out of which it is forged, the universe contains a suicidal imperative. Vacuum itself is poised in an unstable condition. Given time—and the one certainty is that there will always be time—the vacuum instability will tip the universe into a new state of being. In that instant of uncreation, all information encoded in the present universe will be erased.\n\nNo memory of anything will endure. No single experience of any living organism will be preserved. Nothing learned or discovered or made will survive. No art, no science, no history, no deed, no kindness, no fond thought, not a single moment of human happiness.\n\nNothing will last.\n\nNothing will matter.\n\nNothing has ever mattered.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Poseidon's Wake", "slug": "poseidons-wake", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 528, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "nihilism", "slug": "nihilism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nihilism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Poseidon's_Wake_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:43" }, { "id": "1f0be5fd-5436-40d5-82c5-06e5e67aee68", "slug": "what-could-be-colder", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake/what-could-be-colder", "text": "“What could be colder than being made to feel the utter futility of existence? To know that not only is there no meaning to anything, but there never can be? That life itself is completely devoid of purpose? That nothing will be remembered? That despite our grandest efforts our boldest endeavours, nothing can or will ever be preserved? That the kindest acts are doomed to be forgotten, along with the cruelest? All loves, all hates erased from the record? Yes, what could be worse than that?”\n\n“You tell me.”\n\n“Nothing. Nothing at all in the whole of creation. And if death troubles me—which, I am pleased to say, it most certainly does—then the idea of not even being remembered, not even leaving the tiniest quantum ripple in the wake of the coming vacuum fluctuation…well, that is a great deal more than troubling. We live by our deeds, whether we are machines or people or elephants. And if our deeds are meaningless and forgotten what does that make us?”\n\n“Nothing,” Kanu answered, fiercely enough that he spoke the word aloud. “Pointless interactions between matter and energy, doomed to be erased. That’s the message, Swift. That there’s no meaning. That we don’t matter.”\n\n“No,” Swift answered with corresponding force. “We do matter. This truth does not rob us of meaning—it gives it back to us. It liberates us from the burden of posterity, from the burden of deluding ourselves that our acts have some chance of outlasting eternity. If we are kind to each other now, it’s not because we are hoping to be remembered well, to be lauded in some great accounting of things. It’s not because we want to be rewarded for our behaviour, or to be admired for the wonderful things we did during our brief span of existence. Exactly the opposite! Now that we know there is no chance of that, our deeds have no higher meaning than the context of the moment in which they occur. One decent deed, one kind gesture, enacted without thought of recompense or remembrance, performed in the full and certain knowledge that it will be forgotten, that it cannot be otherwise—that single deed refutes the entire message of the M-builders. They were wrong! There is no Terror, only enlightenment! Only liberation! And we will continue to refute their message with every gracious act, every decent thought, every human kindness—until the moment the vacuum rips.”\n\n“Just a fancy speech, Swift. That’s all it is.”\n\n“More than a speech, Kanu. A viable moral strategy for negating the M-builders’ nihilism. It’s a choice. A question of free will. Do you choose it, or reject it?”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Poseidon's Wake", "slug": "poseidons-wake", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 599, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "nihilism", "slug": "nihilism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nihilism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Poseidon's_Wake_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:43" }, { "id": "03a5abcf-dcd9-42f0-ae7f-b6cfcbd35c34", "slug": "the-world-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/blue-remembered-earth/the-world-had", "text": "The world had absorbed the dizzying lessons of modern science easily enough, hadn’t it? Reality was a trick of cognition, an illusion woven by the brain. Beneath the apparently solid skin of the world lay a fizzing unreality of quantum mechanics, playing out on a warped and surreal Salvador Dali landscape. Ghost worlds peeled away from the present with every decision. The universe itself would one day simmer down to absolute entropic stasis, the absolute and literal end of time itself. No action, no memory of an action, no trace of a memory, could endure for ever. Every human deed, from the smallest kindness to the grandest artistic achievement, was ultimately pointless.\n\nBut it wasn’t as if people went around thinking about that when they had lovers to meet, menus to choose from, birthdays to remember. The humdrum concerns of normal life trumped the miraculous every time.…And the knowledge that humanity was not alone in the universe would be as relevant to most as the knowledge that protons were built of quarks.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Blue Remembered Earth", "slug": "blue-remembered-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/blue-remembered-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 282, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Blue_Remembered_Earth_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:42" }, { "id": "139b7622-ba08-41e2-8e91-def95b066d2b", "slug": "i-guess-ill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/century-rain/i-guess-ill", "text": "I guess I’ll do what everyone else does: get on with my life and forget the big questions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Century Rain", "slug": "century-rain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/century-rain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 606, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Century_Rain_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:40" }, { "id": "aadff87b-f28b-430f-b18e-6614b9ddbc84", "slug": "i-say-we-shall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-paton/cry-the-beloved-country/i-say-we-shall", "text": "I say we shall always have native crime to fear until the native people of this country have worthy goals to work for. For it is only because they see neither purpose nor goal that they turn to drink and crime and prostitution.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alan Paton", "slug": "alan-paton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-paton" }, "book": { "title": "Cry, The Beloved Country", "slug": "cry-the-beloved-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-paton/cry-the-beloved-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "crime", "slug": "crime-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/crime-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Paton#Cry,_the_Beloved_Country,_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:29" }, { "id": "44d0758e-066b-4dd9-97cd-7d2b7e2f7ae9", "slug": "wise-men-write", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-paton/cry-the-beloved-country/wise-men-write", "text": "...Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alan Paton", "slug": "alan-paton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-paton" }, "book": { "title": "Cry, The Beloved Country", "slug": "cry-the-beloved-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-paton/cry-the-beloved-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Paton#Cry,_the_Beloved_Country,_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:29" }, { "id": "30e2e2e1-f4f7-4adf-85c5-356c9f52aaf2", "slug": "and-this-pointed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/and-this-pointed", "text": "And this pointed a profound emotion always present and sub-conscious; that this world of ours has some purpose; and if there is a purpose, there is a person. I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_IV._'The_Ethics_of_Elfland%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:13" }, { "id": "06f219f6-b38d-4e5c-9416-84ff689f8c3e", "slug": "suddenly-certain-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/at-first-sight/suddenly-certain-that", "text": "...suddenly certain that what he was doing now was the sole reason he'd been placed on this earth. To love another. To care for someone else, to help another person, to carry her worries until she was strong enough to carry them on her own. To care for someone unconditionally, for in the end that was what gave life meaning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nicholas Sparks", "slug": "nicholas-sparks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks" }, "book": { "title": "At First Sight", "slug": "at-first-sight", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/at-first-sight" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 263, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sparks#At_First_Sight_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:23" }, { "id": "f13884f5-8136-4341-a175-21a1e7f8a2d4", "slug": "was-man-indeed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/was-man-indeed", "text": "Was man indeed, as he sometimes desired to be, the growing point of the cosmical spirit, in its temporal aspect at least? Or was he one of many million growing points? Or was mankind of no more importance in the universal view than rats in a cathedral? And again, was man’s true function power, or wisdom, or love, or worship, or all of all these? Or was the idea of function, of purpose, meaningless in relation to the cosmos? These grave questions I would answer.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olaf Stapledon", "slug": "olaf-stapledon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon" }, "book": { "title": "Star Maker", "slug": "star-maker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 17, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon#Star_Maker_(1937)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:17" }, { "id": "a404d7c8-fe7f-4453-a8f4-8f88a322d90f", "slug": "t-his-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men/t-his-is-the", "text": "[T]his is the goal of all living, that the cosmos may be known, and admired, and that it may be crowned with further beauties. Nowhere and at no time, so far as we can tell, at least within our own galaxy, has the adventure reached further than in ourselves. And in us, what has been achieved is but a minute beginning. But it is a real beginning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olaf Stapledon", "slug": "olaf-stapledon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon" }, "book": { "title": "Last And First Men", "slug": "last-and-first-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 231, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon#Last_and_First_Men_(1930)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:17" }, { "id": "d8ff9971-4f5a-45a6-b9c5-3ccdd7ad09d5", "slug": "the-meaning-of-my-total", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-keyes/flowers-for-algernon/the-meaning-of-my-total", "text": "The meaning of my total existence involves knowing the possibilities of my future as well as my past, where I'm going as well as where I've been.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Keyes", "slug": "daniel-keyes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-keyes" }, "book": { "title": "Flowers For Algernon", "slug": "flowers-for-algernon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-keyes/flowers-for-algernon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Keyes#Flowers_for_Algernon_(1966)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:15" }, { "id": "d2cecf91-6f5b-47c6-9157-faa911494c9a", "slug": "i-am-afraid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-keyes/flowers-for-algernon/i-am-afraid", "text": "I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Keyes", "slug": "daniel-keyes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-keyes" }, "book": { "title": "Flowers For Algernon", "slug": "flowers-for-algernon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-keyes/flowers-for-algernon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Keyes#Flowers_for_Algernon_(1966)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:15" }, { "id": "cea5a129-d34d-4d51-b2af-6d41e0dcdbbc", "slug": "the-meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-lefebvre/critique-of-everyday-life/the-meaning-of-life", "text": "The 'meaning' of life is not to be found in anything other than that life itself. It is within it, and there is nothing beyond that. 'Meaning' cannot spill over from being; it is the direction, the movement of being, and nothing more. The 'meaning' of a proletarian's life is to be found in that life itself: in its despair, or conversely in its movement towards freedom, if the proletarian participates in the life of the proletariat, and if that life involves continuous, day-to-day action (trade-union, political...).", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henri Lefebvre", "slug": "henri-lefebvre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-lefebvre" }, "book": { "title": "Critique of Everyday Life", "slug": "critique-of-everyday-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-lefebvre/critique-of-everyday-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Lefebvre#From_Critique_of_Everyday_Life:_Volume_1_(1947/1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:09" }, { "id": "82961e6b-3652-4559-8b05-3093b3a8f703", "slug": "unlike-animals-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-greene/the-laws-of-human-nature/unlike-animals-with", "text": "Unlike animals, with their instincts to guide them past dangers, we humans have to rely upon our conscious decisions. We do the best we can when it comes to our career path and handling the inevitable setbacks in life. But in the back of our minds we can sense an overall lack of direction, as we are pulled this way and that way by our moods and by the opinions of others. How did we end up in this job, in this place? Such drifting can lead to dead ends. The way to avoid such a fate is to develop a sense of purpose, discovering our calling in life and using such knowledge to guide us in our decisions. We come to know ourselves more deeply—our tastes and inclinations. We trust ourselves, knowing which battles and detours to avoid. Even our moments of doubt, even our failures have a purpose—to toughen us up. With such energy and direction, our actions have unstoppable force.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Greene", "slug": "robert-greene", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-greene" }, "book": { "title": "The Laws of Human Nature", "slug": "the-laws-of-human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-greene/the-laws-of-human-nature" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "purpose", "slug": "purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Greene_(American_author)#The_Laws_of_Human_Nature_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:59" }, { "id": "ead84d04-dad3-4a03-89ac-bb834d1dd577", "slug": "those-people-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-scalzi/the-ghost-brigades/those-people-you", "text": "Those people you saw—the realborn—are born without a plan. They’re born because biology tells humans to make more humans; but it doesn’t consider what to do with them after that. Realborn go for years without the slightest clue what they’re going to do with themselves. From what I understand, some of them never actually figure it out. They just walk through life in a daze and then fall into their graves at the end of it. Sad. And inefficient.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Scalzi", "slug": "john-scalzi", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-scalzi" }, "book": { "title": "The Ghost Brigades", "slug": "the-ghost-brigades", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-scalzi/the-ghost-brigades" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 86, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Scalzi#The_Ghost_Brigades_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:42" }, { "id": "9874748f-8462-4dee-965f-ac190bfa9a6b", "slug": "he-stood-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/cosmopolis/he-stood-in-the", "text": "He stood in the street. There was nothing to do. He hadn't realized this could happen to him. The moment was empty of urgency and purpose. He hadn't planned on this. Where was the life he'd always led? There was nowhere he wanted to go, nothing to think about, no one waiting. How could he take a step in any direction if all directions were the same?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Don DeLillo", "slug": "don-delillo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo" }, "book": { "title": "Cosmopolis", "slug": "cosmopolis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/cosmopolis" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cosmopolis_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:35" }, { "id": "10c119b8-9b5d-4d34-b105-41482e685beb", "slug": "human-beings-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/bittersweet/human-beings-are", "text": "Human beings are a meaning-making species.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susan Cain", "slug": "susan-cain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain" }, "book": { "title": "Bittersweet", "slug": "bittersweet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/bittersweet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Cain#Bittersweet", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:32" }, { "id": "be5f9a0d-904b-4d2f-841e-6ab2806e606f", "slug": "obviously-i-believe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hubert-selby-jr/requiem-for-a-dream/obviously-i-believe", "text": "Obviously, I believe that to pursue the American Dream is not only futile but self-destructive because ultimately it destroys everything and everyone involved with it. By definition it must, because it nurtures everything except those things that are important: integrity, ethics, truth, our very heart and soul. Why? The reason is simple: because Life/life is giving, not getting.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hubert Selby Jr.", "slug": "hubert-selby-jr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hubert-selby-jr" }, "book": { "title": "Requiem for a Dream", "slug": "requiem-for-a-dream", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hubert-selby-jr/requiem-for-a-dream" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hubert_Selby_Jr.#Requiem_for_a_Dream_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:31" }, { "id": "92cf7aaa-ebb2-4237-a34b-74fe8af6b1ff", "slug": "every-society-seeks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism/every-society-seeks", "text": "Every society seeks to establish a set of meanings through which people can relate themselves to the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel A. Bell", "slug": "daniel-a-bell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell" }, "book": { "title": "The Cultural Contradictions Of Capitalism", "slug": "the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 146, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Bell#The_Cultural_Contradictions_of_Capitalism_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:13" }, { "id": "22e805a2-5ec6-46a5-a5dc-22c351293e3b", "slug": "absurd-originally-means", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-esslin/the-theatre-of-the-absurd/absurd-originally-means", "text": " \"Absurd\" originally means \"out of harmony,\" in a musical context. Hence its dictionary definition: \"out of harmony with reason or propriety; incongruous, unreasonable, illogical.\" In common usage, \"absurd\" may simply mean \"ridiculous,\" but this is not the sense in which Camus uses the word, and in which it is used when we speak of the Theatre of the Absurd. In an essay on Kafka, Ionesco defined his understanding of the term as follows: \"Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose. . . . Cut from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Martin Esslin", "slug": "martin-esslin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-esslin" }, "book": { "title": "The Theatre of the Absurd", "slug": "the-theatre-of-the-absurd", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-esslin/the-theatre-of-the-absurd" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "theatre", "slug": "theatre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theatre" }, { "name": "absurdity", "slug": "absurdity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/absurdity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Esslin#The_Theatre_of_the_Absurd_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:13" }, { "id": "b4deb8ea-6733-43a5-8cba-ada91c23dda9", "slug": "for-all-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work/for-all-his", "text": "For all his understanding of worldly concerns, when it came to fathoming the deeper meaning of his own furious activity, Sir Bob displayed the sort of laziness for which he himself had no patience in others. He appeared to have only a passing interest in the overall purpose of his financial accumulation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alain de Botton", "slug": "alain-de-botton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton" }, "book": { "title": "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work", "slug": "the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 288, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alain_de_Botton#The_Pleasures_and_Sorrows_of_Work_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:08" }, { "id": "aee5fe95-5311-4c59-8556-27effb92db9a", "slug": "the-real-issue", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work/the-real-issue", "text": "The real issue is not whether baking biscuits is meaningful, but the extent to which the activity can seem to be so after it has been continuously stretched and subdivided across five thousand lives.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alain de Botton", "slug": "alain-de-botton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton" }, "book": { "title": "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work", "slug": "the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 80, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alain_de_Botton#The_Pleasures_and_Sorrows_of_Work_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:08" }, { "id": "8836112b-042c-4370-8f45-b7c41dbc040f", "slug": "the-unremitting-division", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work/the-unremitting-division", "text": "The unremitting division of labour resulted in admirable levels of productivity. The company’s success appeared to bear out the principles of efficiency laid down at the turn of the twentieth century by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who theorized that a society would grow wealthy to the extent that its members forfeited general knowledge in favour of fostering individual ability in narrowly constricted fields. In an ideal Paretan economy, jobs would be ever more finely subdivided to allow for the accumulation of complex skills, which would then be traded among workers. … But however great the economic advantages of segmenting the elements of an afternoon’s work into a range of forty-year-long careers, there was reason to wonder about the unintended side effects of doing so. In particular, one felt tempted to ask … how meaningful the lives might feel as a result.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alain de Botton", "slug": "alain-de-botton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton" }, "book": { "title": "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work", "slug": "the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alain_de_Botton#The_Pleasures_and_Sorrows_of_Work_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:08" }, { "id": "81c0b3b4-41ea-4287-9274-21ffc3c2bfdd", "slug": "man-alone-it-seems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-gemmell/legend/man-alone-it-seems", "text": "Man alone, it seems, lives all his life in the knowledge of death. And yet there is more to life than merely waiting for death. For life to have meaning, there must be a purpose. A man must pass something on — otherwise he is useless.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Gemmell", "slug": "david-gemmell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-gemmell" }, "book": { "title": "Legend", "slug": "legend", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-gemmell/legend" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Gemmell#Legend", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:53" }, { "id": "ddb6bdd2-2636-4cbc-bdc7-0ec4eec35d72", "slug": "there-is-a-common", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/confessions-of-a-conjuror/there-is-a-common", "text": "There is a common response from people when they hear that in the absence of evidence to convince me otherwise I don’t have any particular belief in ghosts, psychic powers or an afterlife. It normally runs something along the lines of ‘So you think we just live, die and that’s it? Come on...’ There’s a clear implication there that this earthly life – the wonder of being human – is somehow worthless. That it’s cheap and disappointing enough to warrant that ‘just’ and the accompanying incredulous tone, which are usually reserved for sentences like ‘After all that it was just a little spider? Come on...’ I live, I am sure, in a fairly narrow band of life, and make an embarrassingly pitiful attempt to explore the world I find myself upon. I ache with guilt and conflict when I hear of people living as adventurers, abandoning mainstream lives and living each day with abandon. But I really hope I have a brighter vision for this life and a greater curiosity for its richness than one who can say, and mean, ‘You think we just live, die and that’s it?’", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Derren Brown", "slug": "derren-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Confessions of a Conjuror", "slug": "confessions-of-a-conjuror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/confessions-of-a-conjuror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Derren_Brown#Confessions_of_a_Conjuror_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:47" }, { "id": "1db79bd7-a710-4b54-a37d-d739d6f39caf", "slug": "the-more-money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys/the-more-money", "text": "The more money to be made gaming the financial markets, the more people would decide they were put on earth to game the financial markets – and create romantic narratives to explain to themselves why a life spent gaming the financial markets is a purposeful life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Lewis", "slug": "michael-lewis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis" }, "book": { "title": "Flash Boys", "slug": "flash-boys", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 266, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "self-deception", "slug": "self-deception-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-deception-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Lewis_(author)#Flash_Boys_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:42" }, { "id": "229b6352-5739-417a-9bb3-e0600e3072ef", "slug": "human-beings-cannot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karen-armstrong/a-history-of-god/human-beings-cannot", "text": "Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation; they will fill the vacuum by creating a new focus of meaning. The idols of fundamentalism are not good substitutes for God; if we are to create a vibrant new faith for the twenty-first century, we should, perhaps, ponder the history of God for some lessons and warnings.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Karen Armstrong", "slug": "karen-armstrong", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karen-armstrong" }, "book": { "title": "A History of God", "slug": "a-history-of-god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karen-armstrong/a-history-of-god" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong#A_History_of_God_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:31" }, { "id": "63a65228-a1c7-4315-925e-773448d1489a", "slug": "wait-foyle-commanded", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alfred-bester/the-stars-my-destination/wait-foyle-commanded", "text": "“Wait,” Foyle commanded. He looked at the beaming grin engraved in the steel robot face. “But society can be so stupid. So confused. You’ve witnessed this conference.”\n\n“Yes, sir, but you must teach, not dictate. You must teach society.”\n\n“To space-jaunte? Why? Why reach out to the stars and galaxies? What for?”\n\n“Because you’re alive, sir. You might as well ask: Why is life? Don’t ask about it. Live it.”\n\n“Quite mad,” Dagenham muttered.\n\n“But fascinating,” Y’ang-Yeovil murmured.\n\n“There’s got to be more to life than just living,” Foyle said to the robot.\n\n“Then find it for yourself, sir. Don’t ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.”\n\n“Why can’t we all move forward together?”\n\n“Because you’re all different. You’re not lemmings. Some must lead, and hope that the rest will follow.”\n\n“Who leads?”\n\n“The men who must … driven men, compelled men.”\n\n“Freak men.”\n\n“You’re all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That’s its hope and glory.”\n\n“Thank you very much.”\n\n“My pleasure, sir.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alfred Bester", "slug": "alfred-bester", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alfred-bester" }, "book": { "title": "The Stars My Destination", "slug": "the-stars-my-destination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alfred-bester/the-stars-my-destination" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 251, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Bester#The_Stars_My_Destination_(1956)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:24" }, { "id": "6ad7d30a-5879-41b6-af04-8879e12f716f", "slug": "meaning-in-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sean-b-carroll/the-big-picture/meaning-in-life", "text": "Meaning in life can’t be reduced to simplistic mottos. In some number of years I will be dead; some memory of my time here on Earth may linger, but I won’t be around to savor it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sean B. Carroll", "slug": "sean-b-carroll", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sean-b-carroll" }, "book": { "title": "The Big Picture", "slug": "the-big-picture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sean-b-carroll/the-big-picture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sean_M._Carroll#The_Big_Picture_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:55" }, { "id": "cf1678fc-de2d-4674-b781-56b1565a3f42", "slug": "im-afraid-im-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-enemy-stars/im-afraid-im-not", "text": "I’m afraid I’m not a convert or anything. I still see the same blind cosmos governed by the same blind laws. But suddenly it matters. It matters terribly, and means something. What, I haven’t figured out yet. I probably never will. But I have a reason for living, or for dying if need be. Maybe that’s the whole purpose of life: purpose itself. I can’t say. But I expect to enjoy the world a lot more.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "The Enemy Stars", "slug": "the-enemy-stars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-enemy-stars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 129, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#The_Enemy_Stars_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:44" }, { "id": "5fc647af-211d-4e25-adf1-51229d1bc380", "slug": "at-least-we-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-enemy-stars/at-least-we-can", "text": "“At least we can put a little sense into life.”\n\n“I don’t know whether we do or whether we find what was always there,” he replied. “Nor do I care greatly. To me, the important thing is that the purpose—order, beauty, spirit, whatever you want to call it—does exist.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "The Enemy Stars", "slug": "the-enemy-stars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-enemy-stars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#The_Enemy_Stars_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:44" }, { "id": "0cdd1d55-7de9-4627-827f-d6a539e1571f", "slug": "being-a-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/oathbringer/being-a-human", "text": "Being a human was about making sense of chaos, finding meaning among the random elements of the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "Oathbringer", "slug": "oathbringer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/oathbringer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 896, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Oathbringer_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:39" }, { "id": "a299a004-b4a7-4698-b264-d50a5fc70442", "slug": "the-world-rolls", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-thomson/city-of-dreadful-night/the-world-rolls", "text": "The world rolls round for ever like a mill;\n\nIt grinds out death and life and good and ill;\n\nIt has no purpose, heart or mind or will.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Thomson", "slug": "james-thomson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-thomson" }, "book": { "title": "City Of Dreadful Night", "slug": "city-of-dreadful-night", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-thomson/city-of-dreadful-night" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Thomson_(poet,_born_1834)#The_City_of_Dreadful_Night_(1870%E2%80%9374)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:27" }, { "id": "3e26daf2-906e-4dc1-bb33-98d191bce83b", "slug": "im-not-sure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cassandra-clare/city-of-ashes/im-not-sure", "text": "\"I'm not sure anyone can make Jace do anything. But I think you can remind him that he has something to live for.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cassandra Clare", "slug": "cassandra-clare", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cassandra-clare" }, "book": { "title": "City of Ashes", "slug": "city-of-ashes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cassandra-clare/city-of-ashes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cassandra_Clare#City_of_Ashes_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:00" }, { "id": "758c3e0e-7a5d-4053-8841-87059e355b6a", "slug": "i-have-tried", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-s-hall/daily-negations/i-have-tried", "text": "I have tried very hard to find meaning in what I do, but I have found instead a vast and limitless nothingness. I tried to embrace the nothingness, but it slipped through my grasp, and now there is nothing where the nothingness was. This may sound meaningful, but it isn't.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John S. Hall", "slug": "john-s-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-s-hall" }, "book": { "title": "Daily Negations", "slug": "daily-negations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-s-hall/daily-negations" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_S._Hall#Quotes_from_Daily_Negations_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:40" }, { "id": "021d693c-ef56-46f4-8bb0-ffdcb3f602ac", "slug": "jochum-had-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-bradbury/stepping-westward/jochum-had-said", "text": "Jochum had said, \"You keep asking the universe 'How ought I to live?' But it can't answer.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Malcolm Bradbury", "slug": "malcolm-bradbury", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-bradbury" }, "book": { "title": "Stepping Westward", "slug": "stepping-westward", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-bradbury/stepping-westward" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 406, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Malcolm_Bradbury#Stepping_Westward_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:37" }, { "id": "fa5305ec-12dc-42b1-b9ff-287f91fed012", "slug": "life-is-futile", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/twenty-four-hours-in-the-life-of-a-woman/life-is-futile", "text": "Life is futile unless it be directed towards a definite goal.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman", "slug": "twenty-four-hours-in-the-life-of-a-woman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/twenty-four-hours-in-the-life-of-a-woman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Twenty-Four_Hours_in_the_Life_of_a_Woman_(1927)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:30" }, { "id": "606eb279-0e0a-48e4-b3b4-b99cc538ab95", "slug": "it-is-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/it-is-never", "text": "It is never until one realizes that one means something to others that one feels there is any point or purpose in one's own existence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:28" }, { "id": "95409f4f-16af-44e9-91b0-6a3adacc2e4d", "slug": "in-its-studies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/in-alien-flesh/in-its-studies", "text": "In its studies and learned colloquy, Faz saw and felt the tales of Men. They seemed curiously convoluted, revolving about Self. What mattered most to those who loved tales was how they concluded. Yet all Men knew how each ended. Their little dreams were rounded with a sleep.\n\nSo the point of a tale was not how it ended, but what it meant. The great inspiring epic rage of Man was to find that lesson, buried in a grave.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "In Alien Flesh", "slug": "in-alien-flesh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/in-alien-flesh" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 260, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "storytelling", "slug": "storytelling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/storytelling" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#In_Alien_Flesh_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:21" }, { "id": "bca09439-06b4-4176-a57a-1e67f4d3c66b", "slug": "some-people-come", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/the-diamond-age/some-people-come", "text": "Some people come here because they are on a quest of some sort—trying to find a lost lover, let’s say, or to understand why something terrible happened in their lives, or why there is cruelty in the world, or why they aren’t satisfied with their career. Society has never been good at answering these questions — the sorts of questions you can’t just look up in a reference database.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neal Stephenson", "slug": "neal-stephenson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson" }, "book": { "title": "The Diamond Age", "slug": "the-diamond-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/the-diamond-age" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age#Part_the_Second", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:13" }, { "id": "7863d7bb-fd48-4339-86bc-f59a4741623a", "slug": "as-soon-as-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/as-soon-as-you", "text": "As soon as you rise above mere survival, the question of meaning and purpose becomes of paramount importance in your life... There is no substitute for finding true purpose.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_9,_Your_Inner_Purpose", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:04" }, { "id": "5d108af6-94cb-43e8-8319-f5409deee0a1", "slug": "the-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/the-new-earth", "text": "The new earth arises as more and more people discover that their main purpose in life is to bring the light of consciousness into this world and so use whatever they do as a vehicle for consciousness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "consciousness", "slug": "consciousness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_10,_A_New_Earth", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:04" }, { "id": "7b243969-c844-4419-847a-cdff0c3e0fe8", "slug": "in-the-modern", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/in-the-modern", "text": "In the modern world, more and more people are confused as to where they fit in, what their purpose is, and even who they are.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_4,_Role_Playing:_The_Many_Faces_of_the_Ego", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:03" }, { "id": "d76d4842-49b0-4542-a90f-adaa81422d32", "slug": "instead-of-asking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/instead-of-asking", "text": "Instead of asking \"what do I want from life?\", a more powerful question is, \"what does life want from me?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#A_New_Earth_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:01" }, { "id": "83b742b8-2de5-43d8-a7d2-a68faa42b51a", "slug": "miss-la-rue", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/the-land-that-time-forgot/miss-la-rue", "text": "Miss La Rue was very quiet, though she replied graciously enough to whatever I had to say that required reply. I asked her if she did not feel well.\n\n“Yes,” she said, “but I am depressed by the awfulness of it all. I feel of so little consequence—so small and helpless in the face of all these myriad manifestations of life stripped to the bone of its savagery and brutality. I realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life. Life seems a joke, a cruel, grim joke. You are a laughable incident or a terrifying one as you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some other form of life which crosses your path; but as a rule you are of no moment whatsoever to anything but yourself. You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave. Yes, that is our trouble—we take ourselves too seriously; but Caprona should be a sure cure for that.” She paused and laughed.\n\n“You have evolved a beautiful philosophy,” I said. “It fills such a longing in the human breast. It is full, it is satisfying, it is ennobling. What wondrous strides toward perfection the human race might have made if the first man had evolved it and it had persisted until now as the creed of humanity.”\n\n“I don’t like irony,” she said; “it indicates a small soul.”\n\n“What other sort of soul, then, would you expect from ‘a comic little figure hopping from the cradle to the grave’?” I inquired. “And what difference does it make, anyway, what you like and what you don’t like? You are here for but an instant, and you mustn’t take yourself too seriously.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Rice Burroughs", "slug": "edgar-rice-burroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs" }, "book": { "title": "The Land That Time Forgot", "slug": "the-land-that-time-forgot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/the-land-that-time-forgot" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs#The_Land_That_Time_Forgot_(1918)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:42" }, { "id": "8a33dad1-b095-48d6-bfc4-f56ea08b3d6e", "slug": "if-theres-a-singularity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark/our-mathematical-universe/if-theres-a-singularity", "text": "If there’s a singularity, would the resulting AI, or AIs, feel conscious and self-aware? Would they have an internal reality? If not, they’re for all practical purposes zombies. Of all traits that our human form of life has, I feel that consciousness is by far the most remarkable. As far as I’m concerned, it’s how our Universe gets meaning, so if our Universe gets taken over by life that lacks this trait, then it’s meaningless and just a huge waste of space.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Max Tegmark", "slug": "max-tegmark", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark" }, "book": { "title": "Our Mathematical Universe", "slug": "our-mathematical-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark/our-mathematical-universe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "technology", "slug": "technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Tegmark#Our_Mathematical_Universe:_My_Quest_for_the_Ultimate_Nature_of_Reality_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:24" }, { "id": "74672eb5-031f-43c7-b397-23efe2c6b0df", "slug": "and-i-knew", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison/invisible-man/and-i-knew", "text": "And I knew that it was better to live out one's own absurdity than to die for that of others.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ralph Ellison", "slug": "ralph-ellison", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Man", "slug": "invisible-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison/invisible-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Ellison#Invisible_Man_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:15" }, { "id": "ab3a7051-10c6-4880-9450-aa77773c8a67", "slug": "i-felt-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-safran-foer/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close/i-felt-that", "text": "I felt that night, on the stage, incredibly close to everything in the universe, but also extremely alone. I wondered, for the first time in my life, if life was worth all the work it took to live. What exactly made it worth it? What's so horrible about being dead forever, and not feeling anything, and not even dreaming? What's so great about feeling and dreaming? (p. 145)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Safran Foer", "slug": "jonathan-safran-foer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-safran-foer" }, "book": { "title": "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", "slug": "extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-safran-foer/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jonathan_Safran_Foer#Extremely_Loud_and_Incredibly_Close_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:10" }, { "id": "4384825e-b0d8-4fe8-ae4f-0ed082ff9194", "slug": "everything-comes-to-an-end", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-woman-who-died-a-lot/everything-comes-to-an-end", "text": "Everything comes to an end. A good bottle of wine, a summer’s day, a long-running sitcom, one’s life, and eventually our species. The question for many of us is not that everything will come to an end but when. And can we do anything vaguely useful until it does?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "The Woman Who Died a Lot", "slug": "the-woman-who-died-a-lot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-woman-who-died-a-lot" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 1, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "transience", "slug": "transience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#The_Woman_Who_Died_a_Lot_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:01" }, { "id": "1c3d044f-1952-421e-9ab7-1bf96bd3386e", "slug": "you-do-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/fight-club/you-do-the", "text": "You do the little job you're trained to do.\n\nPull a lever.\n\nPush a button.\n\nYou don't understand any of it, and then you just die.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Fight Club", "slug": "fight-club", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/fight-club" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(novel)#Chapter_1", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:56" }, { "id": "c46eaa2a-acb4-418e-b729-9ae29096cfa2", "slug": "had-she-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/the-amber-spyglass/had-she-thought", "text": "Had she thought there was no meaning in life, no purpose, when God had gone? Yes, she had thought that.\n\n“Well, there is now,” she said aloud, and again, louder: “There is now!”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip Pullman", "slug": "philip-pullman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman" }, "book": { "title": "The Amber Spyglass", "slug": "the-amber-spyglass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/the-amber-spyglass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Pullman#The_Amber_Spyglass_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:38" }, { "id": "475e6e1e-4906-4b35-bff8-fb339dca8c46", "slug": "everything-has-a-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/lyras-oxford/everything-has-a-meaning", "text": "Everything has a meaning, if only we could read it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip Pullman", "slug": "philip-pullman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman" }, "book": { "title": "Lyra's Oxford", "slug": "lyras-oxford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/lyras-oxford" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Pullman#Lyra's_Oxford_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:38" }, { "id": "4dc2061c-0db3-4270-813d-9dbd79ee13b9", "slug": "for-look-into", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-pollan/the-botany-of-desire/for-look-into", "text": "For look into a flower, and what do you see? Into the very heart of nature’s double nature—that is, the contending energies of creation and dissolution, the spiring toward complex form and the tidal pull away from it. Apollo and Dionysus were names the Greeks gave to these two faces of nature, and nowhere in nature is their contest as plain or as poignant as it is in the beauty of a flower and its rapid passing. There, the achievement of order against all odds and its blithe abandonment. There, the perfection of art and the blind flux of nature. There, somehow, both transcendence and necessity. Could that be it—right there, in a flower—the meaning of life?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Pollan", "slug": "michael-pollan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-pollan" }, "book": { "title": "The Botany of Desire", "slug": "the-botany-of-desire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-pollan/the-botany-of-desire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 109, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "beauty", "slug": "beauty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Pollan#The_Botany_of_Desire_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:33" }, { "id": "08a984a1-ebb1-4556-b47a-8714cbd4edcd", "slug": "but-did-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-algebraist/but-did-that", "text": "But did that mean that the urge to live was the result of some sort of illusion? Was the reality, in fact, that nothing mattered and people were fools to think that anything did? Were the choices either despair, the rejection of reason for some idiot faith, or a sort of defensive solipsism?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The Algebraist", "slug": "the-algebraist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-algebraist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 236, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "despair", "slug": "despair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_Algebraist_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:23" }, { "id": "5db2d9d8-05a6-4635-83d0-ef6285b1f4b5", "slug": "well-the-voice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata/well-the-voice", "text": "“Well,” the voice said, seemingly oblivious, “one thing that does happen when you live a long time is that you start to realise the essential futility of so much that we do, especially when you see the same patterns of behaviour repeated by succeeding generations and across different species. You see the same dreams, the same hopes, the same ambitions and aspirations, reiterated, and the same actions, the same courses and tactics and strategies, regurgitated, to the same predictable and often lamentable effects, and you start to think, So? Does it really matter? Why really are you bothering with all this? Are these not just further doomed, asinine ways of attempting to fill your vacuous, pointless existence, wedged slivered as it is between the boundless infinitudes of dark oblivion bookending its utter triviality?”\n\n“Uh-huh,” she said. “Is this a rhetorical question?”\n\n“It is a mistaken question. Meaning is everywhere. There is always meaning. Or at least all things show a disturbing tendency to have meaning ascribed to them when intelligent creatures are present. It’s just that there’s no final Meaning, with a capital M. Though the illusion that there might be is comforting for a certain class of mind.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The Hydrogen Sonata", "slug": "the-hydrogen-sonata", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 210, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_Hydrogen_Sonata_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:21" }, { "id": "68a4530d-e857-4d58-a424-0d44710f017c", "slug": "so-she-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata/so-she-said", "text": "“So,” she said, “living all this time has been to no purpose, basically.”\n\n“True, but that hardly distinguishes me from anybody else, does it?”\n\n“But shouldn’t it, or there’s no point?”\n\n“No. Living either never has any point, or is always its own point; being a naturally cheery soul, I lean toward the latter. However, just having done more of it than another person doesn’t really make much difference.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The Hydrogen Sonata", "slug": "the-hydrogen-sonata", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 210, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_Hydrogen_Sonata_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:20" }, { "id": "57498d79-6fde-415b-92aa-0d5dbbba5206", "slug": "tell-me-suit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-state-of-the-art/tell-me-suit", "text": "“Tell me, suit, don’t you wonder if it’s all worth it?’\n\n“If what’s all worth what?” it says, and I can hear that condescending tone in its voice again.\n\n“You know; living. Is it worth all the... bother?”\n\n“No.”\n\n“No?”\n\n“No, I don’t ever wonder about it.”\n\n“Why not?” I’m keeping my questions short as we walk, conserving energy and breath.\n\n“I don’t need to wonder about that. It’s not important.”\n\n“Not important?”\n\n“It’s an irrelevant question. We live; that’s enough.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The State Of The Art", "slug": "the-state-of-the-art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-state-of-the-art" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 44, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_State_of_the_Art_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:15" }, { "id": "26734517-dfe3-458a-bbd3-1922f82252c2", "slug": "it-is-a-useless", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-rizal/el-filibusterismo/it-is-a-useless", "text": "It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted in the field without becoming part of an edifice.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jose Rizal", "slug": "jose-rizal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-rizal" }, "book": { "title": "El Filibusterismo", "slug": "el-filibusterismo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-rizal/el-filibusterismo" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "idealism", "slug": "idealism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/idealism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal#El_Filibusterismo", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:14" }, { "id": "9f7b3023-bef9-46b7-b990-7fe197670678", "slug": "it-makes-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo/a-grain-of-wheat/it-makes-his", "text": "It makes his life more interesting to himself. He invents a meaning for his life, you see. Don’t we all do that? And to die fighting for freedom sounds more heroic than to die by accident.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ngugi wa Thiong'o", "slug": "ngugi-wa-thiongo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo" }, "book": { "title": "A Grain of Wheat", "slug": "a-grain-of-wheat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo/a-grain-of-wheat" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "heroism", "slug": "heroism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/heroism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ng%C5%A9g%C4%A9_wa_Thiong'o#A_Grain_of_Wheat_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:04" }, { "id": "113301ec-068b-4e8c-accb-3bcf45a6f486", "slug": "as-long-as-hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west/race-matters/as-long-as-hope", "text": "as long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive. (p15)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cornel West", "slug": "cornel-west", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west" }, "book": { "title": "Race Matters", "slug": "race-matters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west/race-matters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornel_West#Race_Matters_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:01" }, { "id": "002d70b0-ae65-480f-bda9-a5d2e7e40bc9", "slug": "now-i-understood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-golden/memoirs-of-a-geisha/now-i-understood", "text": "Now I understood the thing I´d overlooked;the point wasn´t to become a geisha but to be one. To become a geisha . . . well, that was hardly a purpose in life. But to be a geisha . . . I could see it now as a stepping-stone to something else.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur Golden", "slug": "arthur-golden", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-golden" }, "book": { "title": "Memoirs of a Geisha", "slug": "memoirs-of-a-geisha", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-golden/memoirs-of-a-geisha" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_a_Geisha_(novel)#Narrator_(Sayuri_as_an_elderly_woman)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:55" }, { "id": "2f5113cf-0271-4ebc-bbe0-f944c3507465", "slug": "there-are-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/there-are-people", "text": "There are people in every age who come early or late to a sense of the futility of the world. Some people, such as the monks of the desert, flee the entanglements of the world to rush toward eternity. But even for those who remain in the world, the approach of eternity is implacable. “The glacier knocks in the cupboard, / The desert sighs in the bed,” was W. H. Auden’s mock-prophetic forecast. He meant the desert is incipient in the human condition. Time melts away from us. Even in luxuriant weather, even in luxuriant wealth, even in luxuriant youth, we know our bodies will fail; our buildings will fall to ruin.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Darling", "slug": "darling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "transience", "slug": "transience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience" }, { "name": "eternity", "slug": "eternity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Darling:_A_Spiritual_Autobiography_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:47" }, { "id": "d349581b-4c60-481b-8d9e-5d0c96cba79f", "slug": "why-should-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet/why-should-you", "text": "'Why should you do a job anyway? What's the incentive?'\n\n'The incentive is to fight anarchy. That's all Man lives for. Reclaiming life from its natural muddle. Making patterns.'\n\n'Patterns for what?'\n\n'For the sake of patterns. To create meaning. What else is there?'\n\n'And what about the things that won't fit into your patterns?'\n\n'Discard them.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Isherwood", "slug": "christopher-isherwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood" }, "book": { "title": "Prater Violet", "slug": "prater-violet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 55, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "chaos", "slug": "chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chaos" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood#Prater_Violet_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:27" }, { "id": "ad5e026a-97d4-4561-90b1-679f90a118c8", "slug": "there-is-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet/there-is-one", "text": "There is one question which we seldom ask each other directly: it is too brutal. And yet it is the only question worth asking our fellow-travellers. What makes you go on living? Why don't you kill yourself? Why is all this bearable? What makes you bear it?\n\nCould I answer that question about myself? No. Yes. Perhaps . . . I supposed, vaguely, that it was a kind of balance, a complex of tensions. You did whatever was next on the list. A meal to be eaten. Chapter eleven to be written. The telephone rings. You go off somewhere in a taxi. There is one's job. There are amusements. There are people. There are books. There are things to be bought in shops. There is always something new. There has to be. Otherwise, the balance would be upset, the tension would break.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Isherwood", "slug": "christopher-isherwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood" }, "book": { "title": "Prater Violet", "slug": "prater-violet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 98, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "suicide", "slug": "suicide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suicide" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood#Prater_Violet_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:27" }, { "id": "53b1c7be-c27a-44cf-a4e3-2b30fb4e675a", "slug": "human-beings-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chaim-potok/the-chosen/human-beings-do-not", "text": "Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much, if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?...I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing; but the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing; but the man who lives the span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning- that, I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chaim Potok", "slug": "chaim-potok", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chaim-potok" }, "book": { "title": "The Chosen", "slug": "the-chosen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chaim-potok/the-chosen" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 217, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chaim_Potok#The_Chosen_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:07" }, { "id": "0efdf926-cb07-4942-a5e1-a9b084c70c7f", "slug": "abruptly-loerya-joined", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-power-that-preserves/abruptly-loerya-joined", "text": "Abruptly Loerya joined the probing. “And if there is no Creator? Or if the creation is untended?”\n\n“Then who is there to reproach us? We provide the meaning of our own lives. If we serve the Land purely to the furthest limit of our abilities, what more can we ask of ourselves?”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Donaldson", "slug": "stephen-donaldson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson" }, "book": { "title": "The Power That Preserves", "slug": "the-power-that-preserves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-power-that-preserves" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 48, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson#The_Power_that_Preserves_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:04" }, { "id": "8a5d3fc5-b31f-4a6b-b2d5-31660756ece8", "slug": "said-one-among", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/said-one-among", "text": "Said one among them — \"Surely not in vain\n\nMy substance of the common Earth was ta'en\n\nAnd to this Figure moulded, to be broke,\n\nOr trampled back to shapeless Earth again.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Omar Khayyam", "slug": "omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam" }, "book": { "title": "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", "slug": "rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m#FitzGerald,_Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t_of_Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m_(1859,_'68,_'72,_'79,_'89)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:01" }, { "id": "dd7e6192-fa0f-46d7-8f9d-4f3b75e2aa1f", "slug": "into-this-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/into-this-universe", "text": "Into this Universe, and why not knowing,\n\nNor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:\n\nAnd out of it, as Wind along the Waste,\n\nI know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Omar Khayyam", "slug": "omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam" }, "book": { "title": "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", "slug": "rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m#FitzGerald,_Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t_of_Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m_(1859,_'68,_'72,_'79,_'89)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:00" }, { "id": "aa4a4617-9fc7-4a86-8b4d-cc159384972d", "slug": "yesterday-this-days", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/yesterday-this-days", "text": "Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare;\n\nTo-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:\n\nDrink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:\n\nDrink! for you know not why you go, nor where.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Omar Khayyam", "slug": "omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam" }, "book": { "title": "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", "slug": "rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "alcohol", "slug": "alcohol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/alcohol" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m#FitzGerald,_Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t_of_Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m_(1859,_'68,_'72,_'79,_'89)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:00" }, { "id": "24ab010c-b725-4808-8a85-99c162ff8623", "slug": "what-without-asking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/what-without-asking", "text": "What, without asking, hither hurried whence?\n\nAnd, without asking, whither hurried hence!\n\nAnother and another Cup to drown\n\nThe Memory of this Impertinence!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Omar Khayyam", "slug": "omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam" }, "book": { "title": "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", "slug": "rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "alcohol", "slug": "alcohol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/alcohol" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m#FitzGerald,_Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t_of_Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m_(1859,_'68,_'72,_'79,_'89)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:00" }, { "id": "e2ea36c6-84c3-4b18-92a8-2a1514c04481", "slug": "you-have-to-understand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death/you-have-to-understand", "text": "You have to understand what you’re fighting for. Otherwise, you were an animal—a brave animal, maybe, but an animal all the same.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "Settling Accounts: In at the Death", "slug": "settling-accounts-in-at-the-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 530, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#Settling_Accounts:_In_at_the_Death_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:56" }, { "id": "58681b63-4f0a-4122-b113-aaddcf428ef6", "slug": "doing-something-is-expressing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/doing-something-is-expressing", "text": "Doing something is expressing our own nature. We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves. This is the fundamental teaching expressed in the forms we observe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shunryu Suzuki", "slug": "shunryu-suzuki", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki" }, "book": { "title": "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", "slug": "zen-mind-beginners-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shunryu_Suzuki#Right_Practice", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:45" }, { "id": "8359a4a4-3dca-433e-a582-0c31a7a5672b", "slug": "one-hates-to-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/jinian-star-eye/one-hates-to-think", "text": "One hates to think that all of existence is trivial.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Jinian Star-Eye", "slug": "jinian-star-eye", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/jinian-star-eye" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 24, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Jinian_Star-Eye_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:19" }, { "id": "8895c82d-0806-417f-a410-8855a7550e0d", "slug": "when-you-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini/eldest/when-you-can", "text": "When you can have anything you want by uttering a few words, the goal matters not, only the journey to it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Paolini", "slug": "christopher-paolini", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini" }, "book": { "title": "Eldest", "slug": "eldest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini/eldest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Paolini#Eldest_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:14" }, { "id": "fabedacb-5455-4c29-9a43-1e763fb22c66", "slug": "consider-we-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/consider-we-are", "text": "Consider—\n\nWe are born\n\nNot with purpose,\n\nBut with potential.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Talents", "slug": "parable-of-the-talents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 1, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Talents_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:11" }, { "id": "16725aad-61cc-4f16-8902-3296f0c9a217", "slug": "when-vision-fails", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/when-vision-fails", "text": "When vision fails\n\nDirection is lost.\n\nWhen direction is lost\n\nPurpose may be forgotten.\n\nWhen purpose if forgotten\n\nEmotion rules alone.\n\nWhen emotion rules alone,\n\nDestruction...destruction.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Talents", "slug": "parable-of-the-talents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 239, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "emotions", "slug": "emotions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Talents_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:11" }, { "id": "9eb43922-9d0c-40f7-af67-979eec25b1f6", "slug": "yori-human-purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/adulthood-rites/yori-human-purpose", "text": "“Yori, Human purpose isn’t what you say it is or what I say it is. It’s what your biology says it is—what your genes say it is.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Adulthood Rites", "slug": "adulthood-rites", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/adulthood-rites" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 501, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "evolution", "slug": "evolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evolution" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Adulthood_Rites_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:10" }, { "id": "4f31f142-b360-42d2-a47e-a39734cbd73f", "slug": "if-you-want", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norton-juster/the-phantom-tollbooth/if-you-want", "text": "If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norton Juster", "slug": "norton-juster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norton-juster" }, "book": { "title": "The Phantom Tollbooth", "slug": "the-phantom-tollbooth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norton-juster/the-phantom-tollbooth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Phantom_Tollbooth#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:40" }, { "id": "c2ded82e-f94a-4705-a960-52fa21569f31", "slug": "without-god-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rick-warren/the-purpose-driven-life/without-god-life", "text": "Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rick Warren", "slug": "rick-warren", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rick-warren" }, "book": { "title": "The Purpose Driven Life", "slug": "the-purpose-driven-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rick-warren/the-purpose-driven-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rick_Warren#The_Purpose_Driven_Life:_What_on_Earth_Am_I_Here_For%3F_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:30" }, { "id": "c839e858-31df-4389-8d1d-43aced2c6f91", "slug": "my-whole-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time/my-whole-past", "text": "My whole past life I live again in memory, and, involuntarily, I ask myself: 'why have I lived - for what purpose was I born?'... A purpose there must have been, and, surely, mine was an exalted destiny, because I feel that within my soul are powers immeasurable... But I was not able to discover that destiny, I allowed myself to be carried away by the allurements of passions, inane and ignoble. From their crucible I issued hard and cold as iron, but gone for ever was the glow of noble aspirations - the fairest flower of life. And, from that time forth, how often have I not played the part of an axe in the hands of fate! Like an implement of punishment, I have fallen upon the head of doomed victims, often without malice, always without pity... To none has my love brought happiness, because I have never sacrificed anything for the sake of those I have loved: for myself alone I have loved - for my own pleasure. I have only satisfied the strange craving of my heart, greedily draining their feelings, their tenderness, their joys, their sufferings - and I have never been able to sate myself. I am like one who, spent with hunger, falls asleep in exhaustion and sees before him sumptuous viands and sparkling wines; he devours with rapture the aerial gifts of the imagination, and his pains seem somewhat assuaged. Let him but awake: the vision vanishes - twofold hunger and despair remain!\n\nAnd tomorrow, it may be, I shall die!... And there will not be left on earth one being who has understood me completely. Some will consider me worse, others, better, than I have been in reality... Some will say: 'he was a good fellow'; others: 'a villain.' And both epithets will be false. After all this, is life worth the trouble? And yet we live - out of curiosity! We expect something new... How absurd, and yet how vexatious!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mikhail Lérmontov", "slug": "mikhail-lermontov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov" }, "book": { "title": "A Hero of Our Time", "slug": "a-hero-of-our-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mikhail_Lermontov#A_Hero_of_Our_Time_(1840%3B_rev._1841)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:25" }, { "id": "b91a09a2-9392-4050-8719-b73ada27439f", "slug": "religion-mysticism-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-wilson/the-occult/religion-mysticism-and", "text": "Religion, mysticism and magic all spring from the same basic 'feeling' about the universe: a sudden feeling of meaning, which human beings sometimes 'pick up' accidentally, as your radio might pick up some unknown station. Poets feel that we are cut off from meaning by a thick, lead wall, and that sometimes for no reason we can understand the wall seems to vanish and we are suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of the infinite interestingness of things.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Colin Wilson", "slug": "colin-wilson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-wilson" }, "book": { "title": "The Occult", "slug": "the-occult", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-wilson/the-occult" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 28, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "mysticism", "slug": "mysticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mysticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Colin_Wilson#The_Occult:_A_History_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:22" }, { "id": "af30fd85-5c25-4ec4-a487-c37f9f1b1286", "slug": "you-saved-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/shadow-puppets/you-saved-the", "text": "You saved the world. All of humanity is your progeny. And yet... it is empty, isn't it? They didn't take it away from you the way they took my work from me. But time has taken it away. It's in the past, and yet you are still alive, so what is your life for?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Shadow Puppets", "slug": "shadow-puppets", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/shadow-puppets" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shadow_Puppets#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:10" }, { "id": "253b4dc1-fbf9-4e5d-9905-a12e3a4569e7", "slug": "ah-she-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-return-of-the-native/ah-she-said", "text": "\"Ah,\" she said to herself, \"want of an object to live for—that's all is the matter with me!\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Hardy", "slug": "thomas-hardy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy" }, "book": { "title": "The Return of the Native", "slug": "the-return-of-the-native", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-return-of-the-native" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy#The_Return_of_the_Native_(1878)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:00" }, { "id": "54f21e46-4b63-4520-83a8-e8a881499b41", "slug": "i-meant-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/sourcery/i-meant-said", "text": "'I meant,' said Ipslore, bitterly, 'what is there in this world that makes living worth while?'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Sourcery", "slug": "sourcery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/sourcery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sourcery#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:53" }, { "id": "3330228e-f370-46d0-9824-62271c598a75", "slug": "she-said-meaninglessness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilynne-robinson/jack/she-said-meaninglessness", "text": "She said, \"Meaninglessness would come as a terrible blow to most people. It would be full of significance for them. So it wouldn't be meaningless. That's where I always end up. Once you ask if there is meaning, the only answer is yes. You can't get away from it.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marilynne Robinson", "slug": "marilynne-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilynne-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Jack", "slug": "jack", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilynne-robinson/jack" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marilynne_Robinson#Jack_(2020)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:43" }, { "id": "51b62f5c-9499-4bf5-ac8d-5bfe86eb7d51", "slug": "i-realized-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/things-i-didnt-know/i-realized-that", "text": "I realized that there is nothing whatever outside of the life we have; that the \"meaning of life\" is nothing other than life itself, obstinately asserting itself against emptiness and nullity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Hughes", "slug": "robert-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Things I Didn't Know", "slug": "things-i-didnt-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/things-i-didnt-know" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Hughes#Things_I_Didn't_Know_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:39" }, { "id": "d7214672-3773-466d-a633-eee20c1a07a3", "slug": "what-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/what-was-the", "text": "What was the use of money-grubbing, eating, and playing games? That was all he did or had ever done.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "E.M. Forster", "slug": "em-forster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster" }, "book": { "title": "Maurice", "slug": "maurice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "emptiness", "slug": "emptiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emptiness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maurice_(novel)#Part_Three", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:37" }, { "id": "7e656bfb-b242-450c-85db-50efab4e84b2", "slug": "so-many-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/tuesdays-with-morrie/so-many-people", "text": "\"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mitch Albom", "slug": "mitch-albom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom" }, "book": { "title": "Tuesdays with Morrie", "slug": "tuesdays-with-morrie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/tuesdays-with-morrie" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Albom#Tuesdays_with_Morrie_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:36" }, { "id": "ba6bff7a-927c-480a-b4b9-0a134b1c8bd2", "slug": "in-a-desperate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra/in-a-desperate", "text": "In a desperate attempt to give meaning to life, many turn to religion, because a struggle in the name of a faith is always a justification for some grand action, which could transform the world. ‘We are doing God’s work,’ they tell themselves. And they become devout followers, then evangelists, and finally, fanatics. They don’t understand that religion was created in order to share the mystery and to worship, not to oppress or convert others.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "Manuscript Found in Accra", "slug": "manuscript-found-in-accra", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Manuscript_Found_in_Accra_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:35" }, { "id": "a444ad5d-6374-4a6e-9820-f4624999da34", "slug": "you-know-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/tuesdays-with-morrie/you-know-what", "text": "\"You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you’ve find meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mitch Albom", "slug": "mitch-albom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom" }, "book": { "title": "Tuesdays with Morrie", "slug": "tuesdays-with-morrie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/tuesdays-with-morrie" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Albom#Tuesdays_with_Morrie_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:35" }, { "id": "89613d05-4599-4040-a317-aeb8f7875f06", "slug": "our-great-goal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra/our-great-goal", "text": "Our great goal in life is to love. The rest is silence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "Manuscript Found in Accra", "slug": "manuscript-found-in-accra", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Manuscript_Found_in_Accra_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:35" }, { "id": "24a76149-61e7-4e47-960e-46aca681ea54", "slug": "nothing-in-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra/nothing-in-this", "text": "Nothing in this world is useless in the eyes of God. Not a leaf from a tree falls, not a hair from your head, not even an insect dies because it was of no use. Everything has a reason to exist... Don’t try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough, and that makes all the difference. A life is never useless. Each soul that came down to Earth is here for a reason.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "Manuscript Found in Accra", "slug": "manuscript-found-in-accra", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "authenticity", "slug": "authenticity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Manuscript_Found_in_Accra_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:35" }, { "id": "f45feb27-ad78-4837-8f7b-4b8650035032", "slug": "to-live-is-to-experience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/to-live-is-to-experience", "text": "To live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "Aleph", "slug": "aleph", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Aleph_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:33" }, { "id": "3797e3c4-6b40-444f-b6dc-010664b87708", "slug": "many-people-ask", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-roberts/dreams-evolution-and-value-fulfillment-volume-one/many-people-ask", "text": "Many people ask, for example: What is the purpose of my life? Meaning: What am I meant to do? But the purpose of your life, and each life, is in its being. That being may include certain actions, but the acts themselves are only important in that they spring out of the essence of your life, which simply by being is bound to fulfill its purposes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Roberts", "slug": "jane-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Dreams, Evolution, and Value Fulfillment, Volume One", "slug": "dreams-evolution-and-value-fulfillment-volume-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-roberts/dreams-evolution-and-value-fulfillment-volume-one" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 225, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Roberts#Dreams,_Evolution_and_Value_Fulfillment,_Volume_One_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:15" }, { "id": "74b0f2e4-b6ae-4d9e-9e1e-12e3d9705df6", "slug": "without-consciousness-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/highway-of-eternity/without-consciousness-and", "text": "Without consciousness and intelligence, the universe would lack meaning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford D. Simak", "slug": "clifford-d-simak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak" }, "book": { "title": "Highway of Eternity", "slug": "highway-of-eternity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/highway-of-eternity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "consciousness", "slug": "consciousness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_D._Simak#Highway_of_Eternity_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:03" }, { "id": "d3f02c07-1564-4133-a6b1-5b48aeeceec8", "slug": "the-river-rolled", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/way-station/the-river-rolled", "text": "The river rolled below him and the river did not care. Nothing mattered to the river. It would take the tusk of mastodon, the skull of sabertooth, the rib cage of a man, the dead and sunken tree, the thrown rock or rifle and would swallow each of them and cover them in mud or sand and roll gurgling over them, hiding them from sight.\n\nA million years ago there had been no river here and in a million years to come there might be no river — but in a million years from now there would be, if not Man, at least a caring thing. And that was the secret of the universe, Enoch told himself — a thing that went on caring.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford D. Simak", "slug": "clifford-d-simak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak" }, "book": { "title": "Way Station", "slug": "way-station", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/way-station" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_D._Simak#Way_Station_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:00" }, { "id": "eb9a83f1-ca12-4b0c-a19e-a31722cbf564", "slug": "there-is-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/there-is-nothing", "text": "There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 126, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "survival", "slug": "survival", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl#Man's_Search_for_Meaning_(1946%3B_1959%3B_1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "c4de9fce-4a8a-48d9-878d-08b5a37bd3de", "slug": "in-some-ways", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/in-some-ways", "text": "In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice. [...] But let me make it perfectly clear that in no way is suffering necessary to find meaning. I only insist that meaning is possible even in spite of suffering--provided, certainly, that the suffering is unavoidable. If it were avoidable, however, the meaningful thing to do would be to remove its cause, be it psychological, biological or political.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "bcd9388f-5fab-4887-8a6e-99d963ad2d9f", "slug": "what-man-actually", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/what-man-actually", "text": "What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "purpose", "slug": "purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "9d043c20-c3f9-4ad2-9228-f7b67e9c96d5", "slug": "a-man-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/a-man-who", "text": "A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the \"why\" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any \"how.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "900fa3a7-09e7-48c5-a026-1dfff1fe3e9e", "slug": "if-architects-want", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/if-architects-want", "text": "If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists wish to foster their patients' mental health, they should not be afraid to create a sound amount of tension through a reorientation toward the meaning of one's life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "psychology", "slug": "psychology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/psychology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "5be47a3c-5f08-426c-860a-755041c7684e", "slug": "if-there-is-a-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/if-there-is-a-meaning", "text": "If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 67, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl#Man's_Search_for_Meaning_(1946%3B_1959%3B_1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "3e144a0a-b035-4e6c-a029-a56ee53a114d", "slug": "having-shown-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/having-shown-the", "text": "Having shown the beneficial impact of meaning orientation, I turn to the detrimental influence of that feeling of which so many patients complain today, namely the feeling of the total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives. They lack the awareness of a meaning worth living for. They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves; they are caught in that situation which I have called the \"existential vacuum\".", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 128, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "emptiness", "slug": "emptiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emptiness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "06234f3d-991a-4855-9e8c-a803da2a4ccc", "slug": "ultimately-man-should", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning/ultimately-man-should", "text": "Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Viktor Frankl", "slug": "viktor-frankl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl" }, "book": { "title": "Man's Search for Meaning", "slug": "mans-search-for-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/viktor-frankl/mans-search-for-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:57" }, { "id": "ed8d78f9-7eda-4b4e-af01-20169bc3035b", "slug": "indeed-to-be-a-hero", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-dragon-in-the-sword/indeed-to-be-a-hero", "text": "Indeed, to be a hero, forever at war, is to be in some ways always a child. The true challenge comes in making sense of one’s life, of imbuing it with purpose based on one’s own principles.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The Dragon in the Sword", "slug": "the-dragon-in-the-sword", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-dragon-in-the-sword" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 687, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Dragon_in_the_Sword_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:39" }, { "id": "88b17f5b-5b72-4d8d-9048-91d00cda39ab", "slug": "we-get-very", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men/we-get-very", "text": "We get very few of the true images in our heads […], the kind which become more and more vivid for us as if the passage of the years did not obscure their reality, but, year by year, drew off another veil to expose a meaning which we had only dimly surmised at first. Very probably the last veil will not be removed, for there are not enough years, but the brightness of the image increases and our conviction increases that the brightness is meaning, or the legend of a meaning, and without the image our lives would be nothing except an old piece of film rolled on a spool and thrown into a desk drawer among the unanswered letters.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Penn Warren", "slug": "robert-penn-warren", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren" }, "book": { "title": "All the King's Men", "slug": "all-the-kings-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_King's_Men#Chapter_3", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:58" }, { "id": "ab01ac3c-b331-4ed4-9fbc-0c55a1cd1087", "slug": "frustrated-yes-why", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sylvia-plath/the-unabridged-journals-of-sylvia-plath/frustrated-yes-why", "text": "Frustrated? Yes. Why? Because it is impossible for me to be God — or the universal woman-and-man — or anything much. I am what I feel and think and do. I want to express my being as fully as I can because I somewhere picked up the idea that I could justify my being alive that way.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sylvia Plath", "slug": "sylvia-plath", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sylvia-plath" }, "book": { "title": "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath", "slug": "the-unabridged-journals-of-sylvia-plath", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sylvia-plath/the-unabridged-journals-of-sylvia-plath" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 158, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath#The_Unabridged_Journals_of_Sylvia_Plath_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:42" }, { "id": "890f507f-4335-419f-b0e0-7fca3a0940a3", "slug": "its-not-enough", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leo-f-buscaglia/love/its-not-enough", "text": "It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leo F. Buscaglia", "slug": "leo-f-buscaglia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leo-f-buscaglia" }, "book": { "title": "Love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leo-f-buscaglia/love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Buscaglia#LOVE_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:36" }, { "id": "beeb5b89-e8a9-42de-99dd-cbf108cb42d1", "slug": "what-am-i-living", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood/what-am-i-living", "text": "“What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Margaret Atwood", "slug": "margaret-atwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood" }, "book": { "title": "The Year of the Flood", "slug": "the-year-of-the-flood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood#The_Year_of_the_Flood_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:11" }, { "id": "e3ac52d1-0e94-488b-b8b0-1a9f37fa2511", "slug": "look-gail-roark", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/look-gail-roark", "text": "\"Look, Gail.\" Roark got up, reached out, tore a thick branch off a tree, held it in both hands, one fist closed at each end; then, his wrists and knuckles tensed against the resistance, he bent the branch slowly into an arc. \"Now I can make what I want of it: a bow, a spear, a cane, a railing. That's the meaning of life.\"\n\n\"Your strength?\"\n\n\"Your work.\" He tossed the branch aside. \"The material the earth offers you and what you make of it . . . \"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 596, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:09" }, { "id": "d729ea0b-ac00-4235-8c33-c5896ba6645f", "slug": "but-in-fact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-lathe-of-heaven/but-in-fact", "text": "But in fact, isn't that man's very purpose on earth - to do things, change things, run things, make a better world?\n\nNo!\n\nWhat is his purpose, then?\n\nThings 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.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ursula K. Le Guin", "slug": "ursula-k-le-guin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin" }, "book": { "title": "The Lathe of Heaven", "slug": "the-lathe-of-heaven", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-lathe-of-heaven" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#The_Lathe_of_Heaven_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:58" }, { "id": "77120cd4-fcc5-4da0-a9bc-95f6f72fde18", "slug": "there-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-winds-twelve-quarters/there-is-not", "text": "There is not much good spending twelve hours a day in a black hole in the ground all your life long if there’s nothing there, no secret, no treasure, nothing hidden.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ursula K. Le Guin", "slug": "ursula-k-le-guin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin" }, "book": { "title": "The Wind’s Twelve Quarters", "slug": "the-winds-twelve-quarters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-winds-twelve-quarters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 212, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#The_Wind%E2%80%99s_Twelve_Quarters_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:50" }, { "id": "ffadc3dd-1f8d-4481-8a8b-1cefa5ec1eee", "slug": "forty-two-said-deep", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase/forty-two-said-deep", "text": "\"Forty-two,\" said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase", "slug": "the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_27", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:25" }, { "id": "f9c22e3c-e2ae-40e6-82c0-372708957a6e", "slug": "i-checked-it-very", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase/i-checked-it-very", "text": "\"I checked it very thoroughly,\" said the computer, \"and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is.\"\n\n\"But it was the Great Question! The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything,\" howled Loonquawl.\n\n\"Yes,\" said Deep Thought with the air of one who suffers fools gladly, \"but what actually is it?\"\n\nA slow stupefied silence crept over the men as they stared at the computer and then at each other.\n\n\"Well, you know, it's just Everything ... Everything ...\" offered Phouchg weakly.\n\n\"Exactly!\" said Deep Thought. \"So once you know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase", "slug": "the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_28", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:25" }, { "id": "068190b9-4be9-45fc-b5f8-564e3e1e62cd", "slug": "the-chances-of-finding", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase/the-chances-of-finding", "text": "\"The chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied ... Look at me: I design coastlines. I got an award for Norway.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase", "slug": "the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_30", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:25" }, { "id": "f19bb8d9-5623-4b73-bd25-daf9534d63d2", "slug": "the-deeper-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel/disturbing-the-peace/the-deeper-the", "text": "The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning — in other words, of absurdity — the more energetically meaning is sought.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Václav Havel", "slug": "vaclav-havel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel" }, "book": { "title": "Disturbing the Peace", "slug": "disturbing-the-peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel/disturbing-the-peace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "absurdity", "slug": "absurdity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/absurdity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel#Disturbing_the_Peace_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:56" }, { "id": "9b5c9efc-0564-4c96-bdf6-cb4ba0201482", "slug": "without-the-constantly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel/disturbing-the-peace/without-the-constantly", "text": "Without the constantly living and articulated experience of absurdity, there would be no reason to attempt to do something meaningful. And on the contrary, how can one experience one's own absurdity if one is not constantly seeking meaning?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Václav Havel", "slug": "vaclav-havel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel" }, "book": { "title": "Disturbing the Peace", "slug": "disturbing-the-peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel/disturbing-the-peace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 114, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "absurdity", "slug": "absurdity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/absurdity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel#Disturbing_the_Peace_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:56" }, { "id": "5bda0835-28cc-4cc5-bf62-031deb898ba9", "slug": "sometimes-i-wonder", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel/disturbing-the-peace/sometimes-i-wonder", "text": "Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren't in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Václav Havel", "slug": "vaclav-havel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel" }, "book": { "title": "Disturbing the Peace", "slug": "disturbing-the-peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vaclav-havel/disturbing-the-peace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "suicide", "slug": "suicide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suicide" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel#Disturbing_the_Peace_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:56" }, { "id": "17d1b242-09b7-4482-b53b-6c3b94d51a8e", "slug": "when-we-dont", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/from-the-corner-of-his-eye/when-we-dont", "text": "When we don't allow ourselves to hope, we don't allow ourselves to have purpose. Without purpose, without meaning, life is dark. We've no light within, and we're just living to die.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dean Koontz", "slug": "dean-koontz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz" }, "book": { "title": "From the Corner of His Eye", "slug": "from-the-corner-of-his-eye", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/from-the-corner-of-his-eye" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dean_Koontz#From_the_Corner_of_His_Eye_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:25" }, { "id": "31d66205-8192-4d8c-9e4b-f32db82238cd", "slug": "the-things-we-own", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/bridge-across-forever/the-things-we-own", "text": "The things we own, the places we live, the events of our lives: empty settings. How easy to chase after settings, and forget diamonds! The only thing that matters, at the end of a stay on earth, is how well did we love, what was the quality of our love?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Bach", "slug": "richard-bach", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach" }, "book": { "title": "Bridge Across Forever", "slug": "bridge-across-forever", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/bridge-across-forever" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Bach#The_Bridge_Across_Forever_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:19" }, { "id": "4e18058f-d089-4bc2-a06f-e3987db860d7", "slug": "here-is-a-test", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/here-is-a-test", "text": "Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Bach", "slug": "richard-bach", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach" }, "book": { "title": "Illusions", "slug": "illusions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Bach#Illusions_:_The_Adventures_of_a_Reluctant_Messiah_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:18" }, { "id": "68a05188-7bca-4ebd-9d3c-581bf6b5379d", "slug": "the-uomo-universale", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-koestler/the-sleepwalkers/the-uomo-universale", "text": "The uomo universale of the Renaissance, who was artist and craftsman, philosopher and inventor, humanist and scientist, astronomer and monk, all in one, split up into his component parts. Art lost its mythical, science its mystical inspiration; man became again deaf to the harmony of the spheres. The Philosophy of Nature became ethically neutral, and \"blind\" became the favourite adjective for the working of natural law. The space-spirit hierarchy was replaced by the space-time continuum. ...man's destiny was no longer determined from \"above\" by a super-human wisdom and will, but from \"below\" by the sub-human agencies of glands, genes, atoms, or waves of probability. ...they could determine his fate, but could provide him with no moral guidance, no values and meaning. A puppet of the Gods is a tragic figure, a puppet suspended on his chromosomes is merely grotesque.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur Koestler", "slug": "arthur-koestler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-koestler" }, "book": { "title": "The Sleepwalkers", "slug": "the-sleepwalkers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-koestler/the-sleepwalkers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Koestler#The_Sleepwalkers:_A_History_of_Man's_Changing_Vision_of_the_Universe_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:55" }, { "id": "1e401879-ad17-48f7-806c-8edbbf31ca75", "slug": "to-devote-oneself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/nightwings/to-devote-oneself", "text": "To devote oneself to vigilance when the enemy is an imaginary one is idle, and to congratulate oneself for looking long and well for a foe that is not coming is foolish and sinful. My life has been a waste.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Silverberg", "slug": "robert-silverberg", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg" }, "book": { "title": "Nightwings", "slug": "nightwings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/nightwings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Silverberg#Nightwings_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:36" }, { "id": "9f244304-7434-47fa-9580-b42096d6e5ad", "slug": "despite-these-afternoon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/despite-these-afternoon", "text": "Despite these afternoon misgivings and self-reproaches I clung to my notion, ill-defined though it was, that a serious study of any important body of human knowledge, or theory, or belief, if undertaken with a critical but not a cruel mind, would in the end yield some secret, some valuable permanent insight, into the nature of life and the true end of man.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Deptford Trilogy", "slug": "the-deptford-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Deptford_Trilogy#(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:13" }, { "id": "678c89ab-0233-4263-948b-4c36f54ad369", "slug": "a-zygote-is-a-gametes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/a-zygote-is-a-gametes", "text": "A zygote is a gamete's way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the universe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Time Enough For Love", "slug": "time-enough-for-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 245, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:01" }, { "id": "39273591-ef9f-406f-9095-bb779a5d5288", "slug": "if-there-is-a-purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/if-there-is-a-purpose", "text": "If there is a purpose in life more important than two people cooperating in making a baby, all the philosophers in history haven’t been able to find it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Time Enough For Love", "slug": "time-enough-for-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 122, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:00" }, { "id": "a3ee35ce-5c84-4c08-ab0d-91b5c46f0935", "slug": "they-knew-how", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-martian-chronicles/they-knew-how", "text": "They knew how to live with nature and get along with nature. They didn’t try too hard to be all men and no animal. That’s the mistake we made when Darwin showed up. We embraced him and Huxley and Freud, all smiles. And then we discovered that Darwin and our religions didn’t mix. Or at least we didn’t think they did, We were fools. We tried to budge Darwin and Huxley and Freud. They wouldn’t move very well. So, like idiots, we tried knocking down religion. We succeeded pretty well. We lost our faith and went around wondering what life was for. If art was no more than a frustrated outflinging of desire, if religion was no more than self-delusion, what good was life? Faith had always given us answers to all things. But it all went down the drain with Freud and Darwin. We were and still are a lost people.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ray Bradbury", "slug": "ray-bradbury", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury" }, "book": { "title": "The Martian Chronicles", "slug": "the-martian-chronicles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-martian-chronicles" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Martian_Chronicles#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:10" }, { "id": "cc1199be-a095-4d5e-814e-f0cb5d920f48", "slug": "a-man-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/proud-highway/a-man-has", "text": "A man has to BE something; he has to matter.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hunter S. Thompson", "slug": "hunter-s-thompson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson" }, "book": { "title": "Proud Highway", "slug": "proud-highway", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/proud-highway" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 118, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson#The_Proud_Highway_:_The_Fear_and_Loathing_Letters_Volume_I_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:09" }, { "id": "8a8f7ef8-dff8-460f-89a6-ad76762cceb5", "slug": "every-arrabin-desperately", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/wyst-alastor-1716/every-arrabin-desperately", "text": "Every Arrabin desperately asserts his individuality, with personal tricks and fads. A futile kind of life, no doubt, but isn’t all life futile?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "Wyst: Alastor 1716", "slug": "wyst-alastor-1716", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/wyst-alastor-1716" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 347, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#Wyst:_Alastor_1716_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:02" }, { "id": "766d9e5a-b539-4108-b5c1-dce04f3b6e94", "slug": "maybe-its-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens/maybe-its-all", "text": "Maybe it's all part of a great big ineffable plan. All of it. You, me, him, everything. Some great big test to see if what you've built all works properly, eh? You start thinking: it can't be a great cosmic game of chess, it has to be just very complicated Solitaire. And don't bother to answer. If we could understand, we wouldn't be us. Because it's all — all — \"\n\nINEFFABLE, said the figure feeding the ducks.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Good Omens", "slug": "good-omens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Good_Omens#Sunday", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:54" }, { "id": "777bab64-72fe-4e85-ac24-50543af5964a", "slug": "listen-we-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/timequake/listen-we-are", "text": "Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Timequake", "slug": "timequake", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/timequake" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 219, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Timequake#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:44" }, { "id": "b9cf9a7e-b3e5-4e5d-b38e-151d37f1ada1", "slug": "and-god-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/and-god-said", "text": "And God said, \"Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done.\" And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. \"What is the purpose of all this?\" he asked politely.\"Everything must have a purpose?” asked God.\"Certainly,\" said man.\"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,\" said God.And He went away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Cat's Cradle", "slug": "cats-cradle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cat's_Cradle#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:37" }, { "id": "ccef0796-5219-4ac9-8e69-af63e4448627", "slug": "what-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/what-is-the", "text": "\"What is the secret of life?\" I asked.\"I forget,\" said Sandra.\"Protein,\" the bartender declared. \"They found out something about protein.\"\"Yeah,\" said Sandra, \"that's it.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Cat's Cradle", "slug": "cats-cradle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cat's_Cradle#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:36" }, { "id": "b6f9fdd5-33ea-42b5-8625-90b4545714d7", "slug": "tiger-got-to-hunt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/tiger-got-to-hunt", "text": "Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;\n\nMan got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'\n\nTiger got to sleep, bird got to land;\n\nMan got to tell himself he understand.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Cat's Cradle", "slug": "cats-cradle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Cat's_Cradle_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:36" }, { "id": "82a2f7c9-dd9e-4913-81e6-ddfd39963f86", "slug": "what-froze-me-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night/what-froze-me-was", "text": "What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction. What had made me move through so many dead and pointless years was curiosity. Now even that flickered out.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Mother Night", "slug": "mother-night", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "curiosity", "slug": "curiosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Mother_Night_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:36" }, { "id": "fccdb0e6-a577-468f-9bfd-7be955bd6e55", "slug": "the-worst-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/the-worst-thing", "text": "\"The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody,\" she said, \"would be to not be used for anything by anybody.\" ... \"Thank you for using me,\" she said to Constant, \"even though I didn't want to be used by anybody.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 310, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "dc72a26e-b23b-4842-885c-7c002d01e5d7", "slug": "mankind-ignorant-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/mankind-ignorant-of-the", "text": "Mankind, ignorant of the truths that lie withing every human being, looked outward—pushed ever outward. What mankind hoped to learn in its outward push was who was actually in charge of all creation, and what all creation was all about.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 7, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "self-knowledge", "slug": "self-knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "257a53f6-ae34-43d7-9447-8540a094cf0c", "slug": "you-finally-fell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/you-finally-fell", "text": "\"You finally fell in love, I see,\" said Salo.\n\n\"Only an Earthling year ago,\" said Constant. \"It took us that long to realize that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 313, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "0125a7e1-356a-4e6d-a1bd-d8086dbd655e", "slug": "these-unhappy-agents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/these-unhappy-agents", "text": "These unhappy agents found what had already been found in abundance on Earth—a nightmare of meaningless without end. The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death.\n\nOutwardness lost, at last, its imagined attractions.\n\nOnly inwardness remained to be explored.\n\nOnly the human soul remained terra incognita.\n\nThis was the beginning of goodness and wisdom.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "soul", "slug": "soul", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "f45a3a81-fdc0-4eed-afb8-14d6d0a76b66", "slug": "why-are-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano/why-are-you", "text": "\"Why are you quitting?\"\n\n\"Sick of my job.\"\n\n\"Because what you were doing was morally bad?\" suggested the voice.\n\n\"Because it wasn't getting anybody anywhere. Because it was getting everybody nowhere.\"\n\n\"Because it was evil?\" insisted the voice.\n\n\"Because it was pointless.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Player Piano", "slug": "player-piano", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 271, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Player_Piano_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:34" }, { "id": "8554fd26-30c4-4031-a560-deddc5fa3217", "slug": "t-he-only-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/darwins-dangerous-idea/t-he-only-meaning", "text": "[T]he only meaning of life worth caring about is one that can withstand our best efforts to examine it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Dennett", "slug": "daniel-dennett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett" }, "book": { "title": "Darwin's Dangerous Idea", "slug": "darwins-dangerous-idea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/darwins-dangerous-idea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett#Darwin's_Dangerous_Idea_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:29" }, { "id": "6a96883c-c7b9-4642-bc99-176e83e61e25", "slug": "as-he-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/as-he-had", "text": "As he had so many times before, Taleswapper addressed a few silent words to God, which always came down to this question: Why do you put us to so much trouble, when it all comes to naught in the end?...And, as usual, God had nothing much to say to Taleswapper when his questioning was done.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Red Prophet", "slug": "red-prophet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card#Red_Prophet_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:12" }, { "id": "c4d7d00f-d9ed-4b29-8d29-e7bfc8563e10", "slug": "like-running-hurdles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/enchantment/like-running-hurdles", "text": "Like running hurdles. Work so hard, jump over every one, fast, high enough but no higher, because you can't afford to hang in the air. And then, when the race is over, you're dripping with sweat, either they beat you or you beat them... and then a couple of guys come out and move the hurdles out of the way. Turns out they were nothing. All that work to jump over them, but now they're gone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Enchantment", "slug": "enchantment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/enchantment" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "problems", "slug": "problems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/problems" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card#Enchantment_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:08" }, { "id": "6d8ad96b-7f15-468c-83f0-17ae6a8557ec", "slug": "these-two-enormous", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/the-marriage-of-sense-and-soul/these-two-enormous", "text": "These two enormous forces—truth and meaning—are at war in today's world. … And something sooner or later has to give.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ken Wilber", "slug": "ken-wilber", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber" }, "book": { "title": "The Marriage of Sense and Soul", "slug": "the-marriage-of-sense-and-soul", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/the-marriage-of-sense-and-soul" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber#The_Marriage_of_Sense_and_Soul_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:06" }, { "id": "2ba87f0d-4bba-4477-a069-64266f3f071f", "slug": "we-move-from", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/the-eye-of-spirit/we-move-from", "text": "We move from part to whole and back again, and in that dance of comprehension, in that amazing circle of understanding, we come alive to meaning, to value, and to vision: the very circle of understanding guides our way, weaving together the pieces, healing the fractures, mending the torn and tortured fragments, lighting the way ahead—this extraordinary movement from part to whole and back again, with healing the hallmark of each and every step, and grace the tender reward.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ken Wilber", "slug": "ken-wilber", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber" }, "book": { "title": "The Eye of Spirit", "slug": "the-eye-of-spirit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/the-eye-of-spirit" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber#The_Eye_of_Spirit:_An_Integral_Vision_for_a_World_Gone_Slightly_Mad_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:06" }, { "id": "7add4c91-1f98-43ab-a9a6-146b2b9aaaa9", "slug": "perhaps-i-am-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers/perhaps-i-am-like", "text": "Perhaps I am like Carrie Jensen, the sister of one of my hired men. She had never been out of the cornfields, and a few years ago she got despondent and said life was just the same thing over and over, and she didn't see the use of it. After she had tried to kill herself once or twice, her folks got worried and sent her over to Iowa to visit some relations. Ever since she's come back she's been perfectly cheerful, and she says she's contented to live and work in a world that's so big and interesting. She said that anything as big as the bridges over the Platte and the Missouri reconciled her. And it's what goes on in the world that reconciles me.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willa Cather", "slug": "willa-cather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather" }, "book": { "title": "O Pioneers!", "slug": "o-pioneers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/o-pioneers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "suicide", "slug": "suicide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suicide" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#O_Pioneers!_(1913)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:01" }, { "id": "d4863e27-65d8-45bc-9fdb-dda77345ca69", "slug": "why-is-a-kennaston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/the-cream-of-the-jest/why-is-a-kennaston", "text": "\"Why is a Kennaston?\" he asked himself — thus whimisically voicing a real desire to know if human beings were intended for any especial purpose. Most of us find it more comfortable, upon the whole, to stave off such queries — with a jest, a shrug, or a Scriptural quotation, as best suits personal taste; but Kennaston was \"queer\" enough to face the situation quite gravely.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Branch Cabell", "slug": "james-branch-cabell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell" }, "book": { "title": "The Cream of the Jest", "slug": "the-cream-of-the-jest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/the-cream-of-the-jest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell#The_Cream_of_the_Jest_(1917)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:49" }, { "id": "4cc65382-5ce6-4826-af1f-40f8cb4fbb0e", "slug": "people-say-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth/people-say-that", "text": "People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That's what it's all finally about.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Campbell", "slug": "joseph-campbell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell" }, "book": { "title": "The Power of Myth", "slug": "the-power-of-myth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-campbell/the-power-of-myth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell#The_Power_of_Myth_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:25" }, { "id": "4c4eb055-e691-4a92-98d8-ff2c84bc2ff2", "slug": "like-a-work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/to-the-lighthouse/like-a-work", "text": "\"Like a work of art,\" she repeated, looking from her canvas to the drawing-room steps and back again. She must rest for a moment. And, resting, looking from one to the other vaguely, the old question which transversed the sky of the soul perpetually, the vast, the general question which was apt to particularise itself at such moments as these, when she released faculties that had been on the strain, stood over her, paused over her, darkened over her. What is the meaning of life? That was all — a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one. This, that, and the other; herself and Charles Tansley and the breaking wave; Mrs. Ramsay bringing them together; Mrs. Ramsay saying, \"Life stand still here\"; Mrs. Ramsay making of the moment something permanent (as in another sphere Lily herself tried to make of the moment something permanent) — this was of the nature of a revelation. In the midst of chaos there was shape; this eternal passing and flowing (she looked at the cloud going and the leaves shaking) was struck into stability. Life stand still here, Mrs. Ramsay said. \"Mrs. Ramsay! Mrs. Ramsay!\" she repeated. She owed it all to her.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virginia Woolf", "slug": "virginia-woolf", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf" }, "book": { "title": "To the Lighthouse", "slug": "to-the-lighthouse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/to-the-lighthouse" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "miracles", "slug": "miracles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/miracles" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#To_the_Lighthouse_(1927)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:15" }, { "id": "1152adc8-3892-4392-90fd-d827f7739174", "slug": "is-there-anything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-book-of-merlyn/is-there-anything", "text": "\"Is there anything more terrible than perpetual motion, than doing and doing and doing, without a reason, without a consciousness, without a change, without an end?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "T. H. White", "slug": "t-h-white", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white" }, "book": { "title": "The Book of Merlyn", "slug": "the-book-of-merlyn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-book-of-merlyn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._H._White#The_Book_of_Merlyn_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:12" }, { "id": "f2e615fc-cc9d-4878-aac3-456a67c29431", "slug": "barefoot-conducts-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-transmigration-of-timothy-archer/barefoot-conducts-his", "text": "Barefoot conducts his seminars on his houseboat in Sausalito. It costs a hundred dollars to find out why we are on this Earth. You also get a sandwich, but I wasn't hungry that day. John Lennon had just been killed and I think I know why we are on this Earth; it's to find out that what you love the most will be taken away from you, probably due to an error in high places rather than by design.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer", "slug": "the-transmigration-of-timothy-archer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-transmigration-of-timothy-archer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 7, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "loss", "slug": "loss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loss" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Transmigration_of_Timothy_Archer_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:08" }, { "id": "044db17b-763d-4f5e-baa0-13439abdd0e7", "slug": "if-we-crave", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/if-we-crave", "text": "If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Pale Blue Dot", "slug": "pale-blue-dot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "purpose", "slug": "purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Pale_Blue_Dot:_A_Vision_of_the_Human_Future_in_Space_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:28" }, { "id": "f3588c24-d974-4cc2-9e38-848b8b632aa3", "slug": "if-we-long", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/if-we-long", "text": "If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Cosmos", "slug": "cosmos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 193, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "curiosity", "slug": "curiosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Cosmos_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:27" }, { "id": "3e4a1e0a-f5ac-49e5-8ca9-62e78db6c45a", "slug": "for-the-mystery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov/for-the-mystery", "text": "For the mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive but in finding something to live for.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Fyodor Dostoyevsky", "slug": "fyodor-dostoyevsky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky" }, "book": { "title": "The Brothers Karamazov", "slug": "the-brothers-karamazov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky#The_Brothers_Karamazov_(1879%E2%80%931880)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:24" }, { "id": "90db3ca2-1c11-43c2-a7b6-ccb69b8c5734", "slug": "it-wasnt-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-idiot/it-wasnt-the", "text": "It wasn't the New World that mattered ... Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all. But what's the use of talking! I suspect that all I'm saying now is so like the usual commonplaces that I shall certainly be taken for a lower-form schoolboy sending in his essay on \"sunrise\", or they'll say perhaps that I had something to say, but that I did not know how to \"explain\" it. But I'll add, that there is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas. But if I too have failed to convey all that has been tormenting me for the last six months, it will, anyway, be understood that I have paid very dearly for attaining my present \"last conviction.\" This is what I felt necessary, for certain objects of my own, to put forward in my \"Explanation\". However, I will continue.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Fyodor Dostoyevsky", "slug": "fyodor-dostoyevsky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky" }, "book": { "title": "The Idiot", "slug": "the-idiot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-idiot" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "ideas", "slug": "ideas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideas" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky#The_Idiot_(1868%E2%80%939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:23" }, { "id": "4e39def2-a0e6-4fb8-9a58-15c54f76855d", "slug": "and-our-latest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/smoke-and-mirrors/and-our-latest", "text": "And our latest project was Death. It's one of the hard ones—one of the big ones, too, I suspect. Possibly it may even become the attribute that's going to define the Creation for the Created: If not for Death, they'd be content to simply exist, but with Death, well, their lives will have meaning—a boundary beyond which the living cannot cross...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Smoke and Mirrors", "slug": "smoke-and-mirrors", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/smoke-and-mirrors" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 312, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman#Smoke_and_Mirrors_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:07" }, { "id": "e06bc213-9405-40a0-8e21-58464d81eb70", "slug": "what-do-we-live", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/what-do-we-live", "text": "What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? I cannot be indifferent to the troubles of a man who advised me in my trouble, and attended me in my illness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Middlemarch", "slug": "middlemarch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "helping others", "slug": "helping-others", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/helping-others" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Middlemarch_(1871-72)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:52" }, { "id": "a442bc24-e24b-49c0-b3fc-c3a3151122a2", "slug": "when-i-happen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/when-i-happen", "text": "When I happen to be busy, I never give a moment's thought to the \"meaning\" of anything, particularly of whatever it is I am doing. A proof that the secret of everything is in action and not abstention, that fatal cause of consciousness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "taking action", "slug": "taking-action", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "f9e99c05-caeb-4a34-8e99-d1951fea36c5", "slug": "i-used-to-ask", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/i-used-to-ask", "text": "I used to ask myself, over a coffin: “What good did it do the occupant to be born?,” I now put the same question about anyone alive.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "e2911e07-ed82-4bb3-aba8-e60ff91964e1", "slug": "there-is-no-object", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook/there-is-no-object", "text": "There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "A Writer's Notebook", "slug": "a-writers-notebook", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 38, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#A_Writer's_Notebook_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:29" }, { "id": "1a96e151-ce6c-4709-bd9a-9d16a38c6eab", "slug": "he-was-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/of-human-bondage/he-was-always", "text": "He was always seeking for a meaning in life, and here it seemed to him that a meaning was offered; but it was obscure and vague. He was profoundly troubled. He saw what looked like the truth as by flashes of lightning on a dark, stormy night you might see a mountain range. He seemed to see that a man need not leave his life to chance, but that his will was powerful; he seemed to see that self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion; he seemed to see that the inward life might be as manifold, as varied, as rich with experience, as the life of one who conquered realms and explored unknown lands.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "Of Human Bondage", "slug": "of-human-bondage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/of-human-bondage" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "willpower", "slug": "willpower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/willpower" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#Of_Human_Bondage_(1915)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:26" }, { "id": "cb9f326c-0713-4109-988d-4db7ceb4c3d6", "slug": "what-objection-is-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/what-objection-is-there", "text": "What objection is there in reason to there being no other purpose in the sum of things save only to exist and happen as it does exist and happen? For him who places himself outside of himself, none; but for him who lives and suffers and desires within himself — for him it is a question of life or death.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#X_:_Religion,_the_Mythology_of_the_Beyond_and_the_Apocatastasis", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:23" }, { "id": "d4b47f58-4263-402a-a02c-c316b0453285", "slug": "there-is-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/there-is-nothing", "text": "There is nothing truly real, save that which feels, suffers, pities, loves and desires, save consciousness. And we need God in order to save consciousness; not in order to think existence, but in order to live it; not in order to know the why and how of it, but in order to feel the wherefore of it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "consciousness", "slug": "consciousness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VII_:_Love,_Suffering,_Pity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "59647f6c-5bf2-44fd-b41c-bb05c2beea6f", "slug": "it-is-the-furious", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/it-is-the-furious", "text": "It is the furious longing to give finality to the Universe, to make it conscious and personal, that has brought us to believe in God, to wish that God may exist, to create God, in a word. To create Him, yes! This saying ought not to scandalize even the most devout theist. For to believe in God is, in a certain sense, to create Him, although He first creates us. It is He who is continually creating Himself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VII_:_Love,_Suffering,_Pity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "08cfbc34-4dc8-41d9-86ce-5f43326e0f4d", "slug": "the-only-way", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-only-way", "text": "The only way to give finality to the world is to give it consciousness. For where there is no consciousness there is no finality, finality presupposing a purpose. And... faith in God is based simply upon the vital need of giving finality to existence, of making it answer to a purpose. 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.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "consciousness", "slug": "consciousness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VII_:_Love,_Suffering,_Pity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "de6e2664-f12f-45da-838d-7d16bdbcebae", "slug": "yes-yes-i-see", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/yes-yes-i-see", "text": "Yes, yes, I see it all! — an enormous social activity, a mighty civilization, a profuseness of science, of art, of industry, of morality, and afterwords, when we have filled the world with industrial marvels, with great factories, with roads, museums and libraries, we shall fall exhausted at the foot of it all, and it will subsist — for whom? Was man made for science or was science made for man?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#I_:_The_Man_of_Flesh_and_Bone", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:20" }, { "id": "9ae1c631-448d-4efc-9910-50e89211879a", "slug": "little-can-be-hoped", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/little-can-be-hoped", "text": "Little can be hoped for from a ruler... who has not at some time or other been preoccupied, even if only confusedly, with the first beginning and ultimate end of all things, and above all of man, with the \"why\" of his origin and the \"wherefore\" of his destiny.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "leadership", "slug": "leadership", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/leadership" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#I_:_The_Man_of_Flesh_and_Bone", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:20" }, { "id": "af5246d4-cf70-4eb1-9a48-c35455ff7192", "slug": "as-far-as-we-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections/as-far-as-we-can", "text": "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Jung", "slug": "carl-jung", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung" }, "book": { "title": "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", "slug": "memories-dreams-reflections", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 326, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "light", "slug": "light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/light" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Jung#Memories,_Dreams,_Reflections_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:17" }, { "id": "fc8a5ea2-ba0e-40d9-be25-3b6e3f2a3677", "slug": "just-as-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/the-undiscovered-self/just-as-man", "text": "Just as man as a social being, cannot in the long run exist without a tie to the community, so the individual will never find the real justification for his existence, and his own spiritual and moral autonomy, anywhere except in an extramundane principle capable of relativizing the overpowering influence of external factors.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Jung", "slug": "carl-jung", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung" }, "book": { "title": "The Undiscovered Self", "slug": "the-undiscovered-self", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/the-undiscovered-self" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 23, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "community", "slug": "community", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community" }, { "name": "spirituality", "slug": "spirituality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/spirituality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Jung#The_Undiscovered_Self_(1958)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:16" }, { "id": "6e038ffb-ef5b-44aa-9bc1-2c9043cf60a9", "slug": "this-life-we-live", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/keep-the-aspidistra-flying/this-life-we-live", "text": "This life we live nowadays! It's not life, it's stagnation, death-in-life. Look at all these bloody houses, and the meaningless people inside them! Sometimes I think we're all corpses. Just rotting upright.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Keep the Aspidistra Flying", "slug": "keep-the-aspidistra-flying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/keep-the-aspidistra-flying" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Keep_the_Aspidistra_Flying_(1936)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:10" }, { "id": "3fc5d7f4-92dc-4148-8be1-37282a73a03f", "slug": "pathos-piety-courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/a-passage-to-india/pathos-piety-courage", "text": "Pathos, piety, courage, — they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "E.M. Forster", "slug": "em-forster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster" }, "book": { "title": "A Passage to India", "slug": "a-passage-to-india", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/a-passage-to-india" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._M._Forster#A_Passage_to_India_(1924)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:01" }, { "id": "1880ba6b-2345-4e89-8ced-d577c4a598a2", "slug": "then-make-my-boy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/a-room-with-a-view/then-make-my-boy", "text": "Then make my boy think like us. Make him realize that by the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes—a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "E.M. Forster", "slug": "em-forster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster" }, "book": { "title": "A Room with a View", "slug": "a-room-with-a-view", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/a-room-with-a-view" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._M._Forster#A_Room_with_a_View_(1908)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:00" }, { "id": "f9efb512-4c9d-4596-8265-27882dd8f71e", "slug": "this-silly-ass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-island-of-doctor-moreau/this-silly-ass", "text": "\"This silly ass of a world,\" he said; \"what a muddle it all is! I haven't had any life. I wonder when it's going to begin. Sixteen years being bullied by nurses and schoolmasters at their own sweet will; five in London grinding hard at medicine, bad food, shabby lodgings, shabby clothes, shabby vice, a blunder — I didn't know any better — and hustled off to this beastly island. Ten years here! What's it all for, Prendick? Are we bubbles blown by a baby?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "H.G. Wells", "slug": "hg-wells", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells" }, "book": { "title": "The Island of Doctor Moreau", "slug": "the-island-of-doctor-moreau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-island-of-doctor-moreau" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._G._Wells#The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau_(1896)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:56" }, { "id": "b90a1aa8-edc7-4f5c-b1f2-9136fb57ad79", "slug": "nor-love-thy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost/nor-love-thy", "text": "Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st\n\nLive well; how long or short permit to Heaven.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Milton", "slug": "john-milton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton" }, "book": { "title": "Paradise Lost", "slug": "paradise-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost#Book_XI", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:48" }, { "id": "bac0ed2d-183f-4415-9283-f2ee096a4b3c", "slug": "hadst-thou-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/sartor-resartus/hadst-thou-not", "text": "Hadst thou not Greek enough to understand thus much: The end of man is an Action, and not a Thought, though it were the noblest.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Carlyle", "slug": "thomas-carlyle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle" }, "book": { "title": "Sartor Resartus", "slug": "sartor-resartus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/sartor-resartus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle#Sartor_Resartus_(1833%E2%80%931834)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:44" }, { "id": "bec3b7da-77ab-448e-8b0e-456dcd031fd6", "slug": "human-nature-simply", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/human-nature-simply", "text": "Human nature simply cannot subsist without a hope and aim of some kind; as the sanity of the Old Testament truly said, where there is no vision the people perisheth. But it is precisely because an ideal is necessary to man that the man without ideals is in permanent danger of fanaticism.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Heretics", "slug": "heretics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)#Chapter_XX:_%22Concluding_Remarks_on_the_Importance_of_Orthodoxy%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:35" }, { "id": "58845ef1-4107-481b-9890-d206157f944d", "slug": "ultimately-a-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/ultimately-a-man", "text": "Ultimately a man cannot rejoice in anything except the nature of things. Ultimately a man can enjoy nothing except religion. Once in the world's history men did believe that the stars were dancing to the tune of their temples, and they danced as men have never danced since. With this old pagan eudaemonism the sage of the Rubaiyat has quite as little to do as he has with any Christian variety. He is no more a Bacchanal than he is a saint. Dionysus and his church was grounded on a serious joie-de-vivre like that of Walt Whitman. Dionysus made wine, not a medicine, but a sacrament. Jesus Christ also made wine, not a medicine, but a sacrament. But Omar makes it, not a sacrament, but a medicine. He feasts because life is not joyful; he revels because he is not glad. \"Drink,\" he says, \"for you know not whence you come nor why. Drink, for you know not when you go nor where. Drink, because the stars are cruel and the world as idle as a humming-top. Drink, because there is nothing worth trusting, nothing worth fighting for. Drink, because all things are lapsed in a base equality and an evil peace.\" So he stands offering us the cup in his hand. And at the high altar of Christianity stands another figure, in whose hand also is the cup of the vine. \"Drink\" he says \"for the whole world is as red as this wine, with the crimson of the love and wrath of God. Drink, for the trumpets are blowing for battle and this is the stirrup-cup. Drink, for this my blood of the new testament that is shed for you. Drink, for I know of whence you come and why. Drink, for I know of when you go and where.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Heretics", "slug": "heretics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)#Chapter_VII:_%22Omar_and_the_Sacred_Vine%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:34" }, { "id": "74c4da41-dc92-4510-9996-b3048e281979", "slug": "at-any-innocent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/at-any-innocent", "text": "At any innocent tea-table we may easily hear a man say, \"Life is not worth living.\" We regard it as we regard the statement that it is a fine day; nobody thinks that it can possibly have any serious effect on the man or on the world. And yet if that utterance were really believed, the world would stand on its head. Murderers would be given medals for saving men from life; firemen would be denounced for keeping men from death; poisons would be used as medicines; doctors would be called in when people were well; the Royal Humane Society would be rooted out like a horde of assassins. Yet we never speculate as to whether the conversational pessimist will strengthen or disorganize society; for we are convinced that theories do not matter.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Heretics", "slug": "heretics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)#Chapter_I:_%22Introductory_Remarks_on_the_Importance_of_Orthodoxy%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:33" }, { "id": "c8bf8ab2-7e62-4c95-a43a-de34c3a7a3a2", "slug": "from-the-winter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography/from-the-winter", "text": "From the winter of 1821, when I first read Bentham, and especially from the commencement of the Westminster Review, I had what might truly be called an object in life; to be a reformer of the world. My conception of my own happiness was entirely identified with this object. The personal sympathies I wished for were those of fellow labourers in this enterprise. I endeavoured to pick up as many flowers as I could by the way; but as a serious and permanent personal satisfaction to rest upon, my whole reliance was placed on this...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Stuart Mill", "slug": "john-stuart-mill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill" }, "book": { "title": "Autobiography", "slug": "autobiography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 132, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Ch._5:_A_Crisis_in_My_Mental_History._One_Stage_Onward.", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:31" }, { "id": "a856f498-39a2-4ab4-8b0a-1c0e9ca10fcc", "slug": "he-thought-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography/he-thought-human", "text": "He thought human life a poor thing at best, after the freshness of youth and of unsatisfied curiosity had gone by. This was a topic on which he did not often speak, especially, it may be supposed, in the presence of young persons: but when he did, it was with an air of settled and profound conviction. He would sometimes say, that if life were made what it might be, by good government and good education, it would be worth having: but he never spoke with anything like enthusiasm even of that possibility.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Stuart Mill", "slug": "john-stuart-mill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill" }, "book": { "title": "Autobiography", "slug": "autobiography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 48, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Ch._2:_Moral_Influences_in_Early_Youth._My_Father's_Character_and_Opinions.", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:31" }, { "id": "697d29ed-9bad-4c76-9b5b-1eed5ea15cbf", "slug": "in-this-frame", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography/in-this-frame", "text": "In this frame of mind it occurred to me to put the question directly to myself: \"Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?\" And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, \"No!\" At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. All my happiness was to have been found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Stuart Mill", "slug": "john-stuart-mill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill" }, "book": { "title": "Autobiography", "slug": "autobiography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 133, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Ch._5:_A_Crisis_in_My_Mental_History._One_Stage_Onward.", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:31" }, { "id": "33eb74eb-c8ac-4701-a4f1-11ff3d4b3891", "slug": "the-enjoyments-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography/the-enjoyments-of-life", "text": "The enjoyments of life (such was now my theory) are sufficient to make it a pleasant thing, when they are taken en passant, without being made a principal object. Once make them so, and they are immediately felt to be insufficient. They will not bear a scrutinizing examination. Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat, not happiness, but some end external to it, as the purpose of life. Let your self-consciousness, your scrutiny, your self-interrogation, exhaust themselves on that; and if otherwise fortunately circumstanced you will inhale happiness with the air you breathe, without dwelling on it or thinking about it, without either forestalling it in imagination, or putting it to flight by fatal questioning. This theory now became the basis of my philosophy of life. And I still hold to it as the best theory for all those who have but a moderate degree of sensibility and of capacity for enjoyment; that is, for the great majority of mankind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Stuart Mill", "slug": "john-stuart-mill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill" }, "book": { "title": "Autobiography", "slug": "autobiography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 142, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Ch._5:_A_Crisis_in_My_Mental_History._One_Stage_Onward.", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:31" }, { "id": "7ffe63ea-a456-4241-be1b-641a576b4088", "slug": "once-when-isaac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/once-when-isaac", "text": "Once when Isaac and I talked about old age, illness, and death, he said it wasn’t so terrible to get sick and old and to die if you’ve been part of life completing itself as a pattern. Even if you don’t make it to old age, it’s still worthwhile, there’s still pleasure in that vision of being part of the pattern of life—especially a pattern expressed in creativity and shared in love.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "I, Asimov", "slug": "i-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 562, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#I._Asimov:_A_Memoir_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:25" }, { "id": "7ca46f86-de64-44a3-bfa7-0b8a1e5be988", "slug": "without-the-interplay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun/without-the-interplay", "text": "Without the interplay of human against human, the chief interest in life is gone; most of the intellectual values are gone; most of the reason for living is gone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "The Naked Sun", "slug": "the-naked-sun", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 398, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#The_Naked_Sun_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:19" }, { "id": "9be22a9b-acbe-43c9-b7af-16470b69438d", "slug": "yet-it-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/yet-it-was", "text": "Yet it was the impression that the unknown master has set out to create, Phoenix-like, from the dying embers of a great legend. He had captured, and held for all future ages to see, that beauty whose service is the purpose of life, and it sole justification.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke" }, "book": { "title": "The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 292, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "beauty", "slug": "beauty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#The_Collected_Stories_of_Arthur_C._Clarke_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:17" }, { "id": "2700cc41-5867-4b3a-a08d-d3ae153bd08b", "slug": "si-me-preguntais", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pablo-neruda/residencia-en-la-tierra-residence-on-earth/si-me-preguntais", "text": "Si me preguntáis en dónde he estado\n\ndebo decir \"Sucede.\"\n\nDebo de hablar del suelo que oscurecen las piedras,\n\ndel río que durando se destruye:\n\nno sé sino las cosas que los pájaros pierden,\n\nel mar dejado atrás, o mi hermana llorando.\n\n¿Por qué tantas regiones, por qué un día\n\nse junta con un día? ¿Por qué una negra noche\n\nse acumula en la boca? ¿Por qué muertos?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pablo Neruda", "slug": "pablo-neruda", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pablo-neruda" }, "book": { "title": "Residencia en la Tierra / Residence on Earth", "slug": "residencia-en-la-tierra-residence-on-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pablo-neruda/residencia-en-la-tierra-residence-on-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda#Residencia_en_la_Tierra_(Residence_on_Earth)_(1933)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:14" }, { "id": "e00e303c-3f41-43bd-a9c7-45d055cfc206", "slug": "art-at-least", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/art-at-least", "text": "Art, at least, teaches us that man cannot be explained by history alone and that he also finds a reason for his existence in the order of nature.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Rebel", "slug": "the-rebel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Rebel_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:57" }, { "id": "d63c43f4-5d79-47ad-82b5-d834b191a42c", "slug": "for-the-first", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger/for-the-first", "text": "For the first time in a long time I thought about Maman. I felt as if I understood why at the end of her life she had taken a 'fiancé,' why she had played at beginning again. Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, evening was a kind of wistful respite. So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again. Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her. And I felt ready to live it all again too. As if the blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother, really — I felt I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Stranger", "slug": "the-stranger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Stranger_(1942)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:56" }, { "id": "1200865b-87ca-4782-a6c4-fd6cf34218d4", "slug": "i-dont-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger/i-dont-know", "text": "I don't know why, but something inside me snapped. I started yelling at the top of my lungs, and I insulted him and told him not to waste his prayers on me. I grabbed him by the collar of his cassock. I was pouring out on him everything that was in my heart, cries of anger and cries of joy.\n\nHe seemed so certain about everything, didn't he? And yet none of his certainties was worth one hair of a woman's head. He wasn't even sure he was alive, because he was living like a dead man. Whereas it looked as if I was the one who'd come up emptyhanded. But I was sure about me, about everything, surer than he could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death I had waiting for me. Yes, that was all I had. But at least I had as much of a hold on it as it had on me. I had been right, I was still right, I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another. I had done this and I hadn't done that. I hadn't done this thing but I had done another. And so? It was as if I had waited all this time for this moment and for the first light of this dawn to be vindicated. Nothing, nothing mattered, and I knew why. So did he. Throughout the whole absurd life I'd lived, a dark wind had been rising toward me from somewhere deep in my future, across years that were still to come, and as it passed, this wind leveled whatever was offered to me at the time, in years no more real than the ones I was living. What did other people's deaths or a mother's love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we're all elected by the same fate, me and billions of privileged people like him who also called themselves my brothers? Couldn't he see, couldn't he see that? Everybody was privileged. There were only privileged people. The others would all be condemned one day. And he would be condemned, too.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Stranger", "slug": "the-stranger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Stranger_(1942)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:56" }, { "id": "0348a872-74f2-4bec-97cc-90fecad5b863", "slug": "the-absurd-is-an-experience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/the-absurd-is-an-experience", "text": "The absurd ... is an experience to be lived through, a point of departure, the equivalent, in existence of Descartes' methodical doubt. Absurdism, like methodical doubt, has wiped the slate clean. It leaves us in a blind alley. But, like methodical doubt, it can, by returning upon itself, open up a new field of investigation, and in the process of reasoning then pursues the same course. I proclaim that I believe in nothing and that everything is absurd, but I cannot doubt the validity of my proclamation and I must at least believe in my protest. The first and only evidence that is supplied me, within the terms of the absurdist experience, is rebellion ... Rebellion is born of the spectacle of irrationality, confronted with an unjust and incomprehensible condition.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Rebel", "slug": "the-rebel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Rebel_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:56" }, { "id": "0c8043a2-7be9-4c41-b99d-0bed0c2ab4cf", "slug": "i-went-to-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-david-thoreau/walden/i-went-to-the", "text": "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to \"glorify God and enjoy him forever.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry David Thoreau", "slug": "henry-david-thoreau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-david-thoreau" }, "book": { "title": "Walden", "slug": "walden", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-david-thoreau/walden" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 104, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau#Walden_(1854)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:52" }, { "id": "9fb91a90-8ba0-4b48-bdfa-e307a02fb216", "slug": "i-came-into", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-david-thoreau/civil-disobedience/i-came-into", "text": "I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry David Thoreau", "slug": "henry-david-thoreau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-david-thoreau" }, "book": { "title": "Civil Disobedience", "slug": "civil-disobedience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-david-thoreau/civil-disobedience" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau#Civil_Disobedience_(1849)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:51" }, { "id": "b14768f1-910c-4de7-abe0-071fd659b3db", "slug": "if-there-is-some", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/if-there-is-some", "text": "If there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake, clearly this must be the good. Will not knowledge of it, then, have a great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what we should? If so, we must try, in outline at least, to determine what it is.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aristotle", "slug": "aristotle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle" }, "book": { "title": "Nicomachean Ethics", "slug": "nicomachean-ethics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aristotle#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:37" }, { "id": "1f5d6d59-35f1-4336-9ae7-567b6f872c5c", "slug": "life-seems-to-be-common", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/life-seems-to-be-common", "text": "Life seems to be common even to plants, but we are seeking what is peculiar to man. Let us exclude, therefore, the life of nutrition and growth. Next there would be a life of perception, but it also seems to be common even to the horse, the ox, and every animal. There remains, then, an active life of the element that has a rational principle; of this, one part has such a principle in the sense of being obedient to one, the other in the sense of possessing one and exercising thought. And, as \"life of the rational element\" also has two meanings, we must state that life in the sense of activity is what we mean; for this seems to be the more proper sense of the term. Now if the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle, and if we say \"so-and-so\" and \"a good so-and-so\" have a function which is the same in kind, e.g. a lyre, and a good lyre-player, and so without qualification in all cases, eminence in respect of goodness being added to the name of the function (for the function of a lyre-player is to play the lyre, and that of a good lyre-player is to do so well): if this is the case, and we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete.\n\nBut we must add \"in a complete life.\" For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aristotle", "slug": "aristotle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle" }, "book": { "title": "Nicomachean Ethics", "slug": "nicomachean-ethics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 382, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aristotle#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:37" }, { "id": "27c09278-cbb0-4b8e-bef7-fbede234ade4", "slug": "this-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman/this-is-the", "text": "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Bernard Shaw", "slug": "george-bernard-shaw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw" }, "book": { "title": "Man and Superman", "slug": "man-and-superman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw#Man_and_Superman_(1903)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:34" } ] }