Home > Work > Infinite Resignation: On Pessimism
41 " But the truth is that I am a pessimist… except when writing about pessimism. I’ve managed to make pessimism a form of therapy. "
― Eugene Thacker , Infinite Resignation: On Pessimism
42 " Afraid to be happy. Content to be sad. "
43 " Enthusiasm as a form of depression. "
44 " Consciousness is nothing more, he writes, than “a flash of lightning between two eternities of darkness. "
45 " We Philosophers. Eager to help, trained to be ineffectual. "
46 " Signs of the Times. It is more important to be seen than to exist. "
47 " Everything does work out in the end, one way or another. "
48 " The only philosophy worth pursuing is the one that poses questions without answers. Anything less is hubris. But this can never be proved – by definition. "
49 " Prospect Park, Sunday afternoon. To feel claustrophobia even in “nature. "
50 " An argument for or against suicide? One lives, in spite of life. "
51 " 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. "
52 " 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. "
53 " Inexhaustible indifference. "
54 " How are you?” “Good–” “Give it time… "
55 " Things should be good, I tell myself, but they’re, well, not-so-good. Nothing seems to make sense – and it should (shouldn’t it?). Granted, things weren’t exactly perfect before, but now they’re definitely worse (…or so it seems). And this on top of the simplest of things: having to live a life. "
56 " Happiness” is the feeling you have just before something goes wrong. "
57 " Bartleby’s paradox: acceptance through refusal. "
58 " Young enough to keep trying, old enough to know better. "
59 " Happiness in other people makes me suspicious. "
60 " Happiness in myself makes me apprehensive. "