MeaningS of L
ife


Using Philosophy in
Everyday Life

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THE MEANING OF OUR LIVES
Meaning of life

Love gives meaning to our lives – as do friendship or art or faith in God. These are factors of happiness, of inner peace, of feelings of harmony, allowing meaning to our existence.

But there is the other side. There is the cruelty of life, the pain, the evil, not to talk of death. They are the hidden tigers, ambushed and ready to attack the imprudent, to use an image present in the Holy Buddhist Scriptures.

And it is between these two pendulums - the positive, the one that gives happiness and meaning, and the negative - that our lives are lived. And when we meditate about all that, we arrive at a diverse and disagreeing set of thoughts about the meaning and purpose of life.

This site is about these thoughts…


Poetic reflexions about the brevity of our lives
Meaning of life

Insignificant mortals, who are as leaves are, and now flourish and grow warm with life, and feed on what the ground gives, but then again fade away and are dead.
Homer, Century IX b.C., Greek poet, Iliad

To see more:
Life is Short

 

Speculations on our place on the Universe
Meaning of life

When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been alloted to me?
B. Pascal, 1623-1662, French philosopher, physic and mathematician, Thoughts

To see more:
Man and the Universe



Speculations on the purpose and meaning of life
Meaning of life

What is the purpose of life? I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy.
Dalai Lama, Tibetan political and spiritual leader, Voices from the Heart 

To see more:
Is life meaningful?
Science and meaning



Thoughts about love and friendship in our lives
Meaning of life

At our mother breast, we tasted not only milk but also love – just enough love to know that it was the only thing that could ever satisfy us and that we will miss it forever.
Compte-Sponville, French philosopher, A short treatise on the great virtues

To see more:
Life and Friendship
Life and Love



Philosophy of life thoughts 
Meaning of life

Therefore don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day's own evil is sufficient.
Bible, Matthew, 6:34

To see more:
Philosophies of life
Poems about life



Sarcastic and well humoured thoughts
Meaning of life

I see the better, and approve. But I follow the worst.
Ovidius, 43-17 a.C, roman writer, Metamorphoses 

To see more:
Humour about life and life meaning



T
houghts connected to science
Meaning of life

We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment.
Richard Dawkins, English biologist, The Selfish Gene

To see more:
Science and meaning of life
Man and the Universe



Thoughts about the importance of wisdom
Meaning of life

The wise man has the sun and the moon by his side. He grasps the universe under the arm. He blends everything into a harmonious whole, cast aside whatever is confused or obscured, and regards the humble and the honourable.
Tchuang-Tseu, Chinese philosopher, III b. C., Book of Tchuang-Tseu 

To see more:
Philosophies of life
Happiness



Thoughts about the cruelty of life, pain and death
Meaning of life

Nature separates beings, after having surrounded them by love. It divides them, and demands that they still love each other.
G. Leopardi, 1798-1837, Italian writer, Poésis, Le Coucher de la Lune

To see more:
Life is Pain
Death
Life after Death

Quotes about life - Existential Thought



Thoughts about what we are in the Cosmos
Meaning of life

We, sons of the water, earth and sun, are no more than small straw, foetus of the cosmic diaspora, scraps of solar existence, insignificant sprouts of the earth’s existence.
E. Morin, French philosopher and sociologist, Method V

To see more:
Man and the Universe
Science and meaning of life

 

Thoughts about who we are
Meaning of life

However sage anyone is, he is, after all, but a man.
Montaigne, 1533-1592, French writer, Essais     

To see more:
Human beings and human condition



Positive and negative thoughts about the meaning of life

There may be trouble ahead,
But while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance,
Let’s face the music and dance.
Irving Berlin, 1888-1989, American songwriter, Follow the Fleet   

To see more:
Philosophies of life
Happiness
Life is short
Life is pain
Life is a dream
Humour about life
Life quotes - Existential thought



Thoughts about the illusion present on our lives
Meaning of life

Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?
Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1802-1890, English poet, The Higher Pantheism.

To see more:
Life is dream



Thoughts about old age and youth
Meaning of life

There will be a day when you, that now are escaping from love, will see yourself old and deserted, condemned to drag through the nights alone, in your frozen bedstead. Because of you will not anymore grow nocturnal disputes, wishing to force your door, nor will you have scattered roses, by morning, at your threshold.
Ovidius, 43-17 a.C, roman writer, Metamorphoses 

To see more:
The life best years



Thoughts about death

Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the animal goes downward to the earth?
Bible, Ecclesiastes, 3:21

To see more:
Death
Life after Death


Other sites:
Sites


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QUOTES AND COMMENTS OF THE WEEK


Quotes & Comments 
22 April - 30 April

 

Quotes

Hate is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is an eternal law
Pali Tripitaka


We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools»
Martin Luther King.

«
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend»
Martin Luther King.

Frustrated love turns itself into hate, easily
Edgar Morin.

Love is an adventure that puts itself at risk to illusion and to falsehood, and to finish tragically.
Edgar Morin.


Comments

Defrauded love

Love is the supreme good. «There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved», sustained George Sand. «Only the soul that loves is happy», said Goethe.  And Maturama: «We, human beings, are animals depending on love».

Even hate can be defeated by love: «Hate is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is an eternal law», says the Pali Tripitaka. «We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools»; «Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend», also considered Martin Luther King.

And yet, capriciously, love can also be a source of hate. Defrauded love is jealous and dangerous. «Frustrated love turns itself into hate, easily», states Morin. Defrauded love is the cause of thousands of violent, passionate crimes. «Love is an adventure that puts itself at risk to illusion and to falsehood, and to finish tragically», also states Morin.   

On another level, some forms of religious and political love are also a source of crime and hate. In the Middle Ages, love of God fed multiple religious persecutions, and much carnage. Millions of men and women died in wars of fratricide, or perished at the stake in the Inquisition and persecutions. And the present wave of terrorism, as many twentieth century political movements – with all the love it involves of political and religious projects and ideas – is also a demonstration that against all the odds, some sorts of love can be a source of evil and hate.


                                         Eduardo Reisinho

                            

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