The Light of Meaning
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.
— Jung
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.. in Rouen when I was young she had seen me dancing naked on barrels; I assiduously practiced all the vices, my life is a constant carnival, etc. With low heels, hair pulled, I look like a patroness, an institution teacher (in the worst sense the right gives this word), a boy scout leader. I spend my existence between books or at a coffee table, all brains. Nothing stops us from reconciling the two portraits. The essential thing is to present myself as abnormal.
The fact is, I’m a writer: a female writer isn’t a housewife who writes, but someone whose entire existence is conditioned by writing. It’s a life that’s worth any other: it has its motives, its order, its purposes that can be judged as extravagant only if nothing is understood about it.
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Force of Things, 1963
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The man who has progressed through being a sinner to being a saint has progressed from one illusion to another.
— Krishnamurti
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… American philosopher William James describes the experience from laughing-gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew…
