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Why are there beings at all, and why not rather nothing? That is the question.

— Martin Heidegger What is Metaphysics? (1929)

Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts? Das ist die Frage.

Original text (German)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Cf. Gottfried Leibniz, De rerum originatione radicali (1697)ː "cur aliquid potius extiterit quam nihil."

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The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.

In order to remain silent Da-sein must have something to say.

Being and Time (1927)

Language is the house of the truth of Being.

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Enjoyment of the work consists in participation in the creative state of the artist.

Nietzsche (1961)

Existential analytics [the object of the book] decides nothing about the existence of God, about human freedom and the immortality of the soul.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Martin Heidegger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.