Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Infinite Resignation:
“A crying baby is the purest expression of the inanity of being human.”
“Two kinds of pessimism: “The end is near” and “Will this never end?”
“The indifference of the everyday gets the better of us all.”
“Pessimism is the night-side of thought, a melodrama of the futility of the brain, a lyricism written in the graveyard of philosophy.”
“The last word of philosophy is loneliness.”
“What is repulsive about children - all children - is not that they are not yet adults, but that they are already adults - whining, self-absorbed, demanding attention, unable to care for themselves, throwing tantrums when things don't go their way. Far from what we tell ourselves, children are the most concise expressions of humanity. At least children are unaware of this.”
“A bit of philosophizing leads to a wonderment of life. A lot of philosophizing leads to a contempt of it.”
“There are times when I feel that the only real aptitude of our species is that we can ruin anything.”
“Human culture: a kind of incessant ringing in the ears.”
“One senses that for Schopenhauer, the world does exist, and it’s horrible, and there’s not much one can do about it.”
“It matters to me little whether they're on the Mongolian steppe, the deserts of West Africa, the Australian Outback, the marshlands of Southeast Asia... I can't escape the feeling of nausea...And this is just the tip of the iceberg - the ongoing spectacle of humans blissfully ignorant, boisterous, over-confident, scheming, and talking big about their dominion overthe world - a suffocating, self-absorbed, vacuous place called the wrold-for-us - to say nothing of how human culture has legitimized the most horrific actions against itself, a sickening and banal drama of the exchange of bodies, the breeding of spe ies, the struggle for power, prosperity and prestige. It just keeps going on and on, no matter how many films or TV shows imagine -like a myth - the disappearance of the human.”
“[T]he pinnacle of humanity lies in its ability to be disgusted with itself. What really separates us from other forms of life is our ability to detest our kind, to recognize the stupidity of being human. I spite, therefore I am.”
“Consciousness is nothing more, he writes, than “a flash of lightning between two eternities of darkness.”
“There is no surer sign of pessimism than an overly-optimistic person.”
“One who has ceased being irritated by others, but who remains a misanthrope.”
“Happiness is the feeling you have just before something goes wrong.”
“When solutions produce problems, when thought flounders in the absence of order, unity, and purpose, when healthy skepticism turns into pathological sarcasm – this is usually when pessimism enters the fray.”
“Whenever it occurs, however it occurs, pessimism has but one effect: it introduces humility into thought. It undermines the innumerable, self-aggrandizing postures that constitute the human being. Pessimism is the humility of the species that has named itself, thought furtively stumbling upon its own limitations on black wings of futility.”
“Voltaire once described optimism as “a cruel philosophy with a consoling name,” which immediately suggests what pessimism might be: a consoling philosophy with a cruel name.”
“Leopardi: “True misanthropes are not found in isolation but among people, for it is practical experience in life, not philosophy, that makes us hate.”
“An hour of contemplation is preferable to a lifetime of ambition, though neither produces tangible results.”
“How is it possible to feel nothing but unmitigated spite for so many different kinds of people?”
“[T]he devastating possibility that "wasting time" and "passing time" amount to the same thing.”
“Contrary to what the great works of literature tell us, living in the modern city is neither heroic nor tragic - nor even comedic. It's simply pedantic.”
“Are you a pessimist?” “On my better days…”
“Happiness in other people makes me suspicious.”
“Bartleby’s paradox: acceptance through refusal.”
“A saying from the Desert Fathers reads: “It is frightening to die, it is even more perilous to live a long life.” If only pessimism had the devotion of the ascetics.”
“It is often said that the more spiritual a person becomes, the more unassuming they are. Eventually, they vanish entirely.”
“A philosopher – Shestov I think – once noted that, since philosophy deals with the most difficult and important issues concerning existence, philosophers think themselves the most important people. He then notes: “A bank clerk, who is always handing money out, might just as well consider himself a millionaire.”
