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To be or not to be is not the question where transcendence is concerned. The statement of being's other, of the otherwise than being, claims to state a difference over and beyond that which separates being from nothingness — the very difference of the beyond, the difference of transcendence.

— Emmanuel Levinas

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More quotes by Emmanuel Levinas

Fear for the Other, fear for the other man's death is my fear, but is in no way an individual's taking fright.

To ignore the true God is in fact only half an evil; atheism is worth more than the piety bestowed on mythical gods.

A Religion for Adults (1957)

The peace of empires issued from war rests on war. It does not restore to the alienated beings their lost identity.

Totality and Infinity (1961)

The detour to ideality leads to coinciding with oneself, that is, to certainty, which remains the guide and guarantee of the whole spiritual adventure of being.

The ego involved in responsibility is me and no one else, me with whom one whould have liked to pair up a sister soul, from whom one would have substitution and sacrifice.

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Attribution

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