Life and Existence

It is precisely facts that do not exist, only interpretations .

When Zarathustra was alone he spoke thus to his heart: “Could it be possible? This old saint in the forest has not yet heard anything of this, that God is dead! ”

Ich lehre euch den Übermenschen. Der Mensch ist Etwas, das überwunden werden soll .

Gott ist tot: aber so wie die Art der Menschen ist, wird es vielleicht noch Jahrtausende lang Höhlen geben, in denen man seinen Schatten zeigt.—Und wir—wir müssen auch noch seinen Schatten besiegen!

I have gone marking the atlas of your body with crosses of fire.

The only compliment he ever paid her was You sweat less than any fat girl I know.

Worse, to have lived without even attempting to lay claim to one’s portion of the earth; to have lived and died as one has been born, unnecessary and unaccommodated.

Worse, to have lived without even attempting to lay claim to one’s portion of the earth; to have lived and died as one has been born, unnecessary and unaccommodated.

Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.

Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.

Like so many aging college people, Pnin had long since ceased to notice the existence of students on the campus.

I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.

Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

The number of portraits one saw of [Emperor Franz Joseph] was almost as great as the number of inhabitants of his realms. . . . Believing in his existence was rather like seeing certain stars although they ceased to exist thousands of years ago.

The number of portraits one saw of [Emperor Franz Joseph] was almost as great as the number of inhabitants of his realms. . . . Believing in his existence was rather like seeing certain stars although they ceased to exist thousands of years ago.

There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument.

Thus anything whatsoever may become the subject of a novel, provided only that it happens in this mundane life and not in some fairyland beyond our human ken.

When a man goes out of the room, he leaves everything in it behind. . . . When a woman goes out she carries everything that happened in the room along with her.

I know what every colored woman in this country is doing. . . . Dying. Just like me. But the difference is they dying like a stump. Me, I’m going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world.

I know what every colored woman in this country is doing. . . . Dying. Just like me. But the difference is they dying like a stump. Me, I’m going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world.

When Abraham Lincoln was murdered

[ Drawing his beard aside before placing his head on the block :] This hath not offended the king.

Oh! ever thus, from childhood’s hour,