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The bomb reveals the dreadful and total contingency of human existence. Existentialism is the philosophy of the atomic age.

— William Barrett Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

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Philosophy

More quotes by William Barrett

Heidegger's philosophy is neither atheism nor theism, but a description of the world from which God is absent.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

Faith can no more be described to a thoroughly rational mind than the idea of colors can be conveyed to a blind man.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

Of all the non-European philosophers, William James probably best deserves to be an Existentialist.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

A recognition of limits, of boundaries, may be the only thing that prevents power from dizzy collapse.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

That existence has meaning, finally, only as the liberty to say No, and by saying No to create a world.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

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