Peter Wessel Zapffe quotes

Peter Wessel Zapffe was a Norwegian philosopher, author, and mountaineer, renowned for his work on existentialism and pessimism. His writings explored the limitations of human consciousness and the tragic aspects of existence. He remains influential in discussions on the human condition and philosophical pessimism. Here are 15 of his quotes:

Man is a tragic animal. Not because of his smallness, but because he is too well endowed. Man has longings and spiritual demands that reality cannot fulfill. We have expectations of a just and moral world. Man requires meaning in a meaningless world. (Peter Wessel Zapffe)

In accordance with my conception of life, I have chosen not to bring children into the world. A coin is examined, and only after careful deliberation, given to a beggar, whereas a child is flung out into the cosmic brutality without hesitation.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

The immediate facts are what we must relate to. Darkness and light, beginning and end.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

The seed of a metaphysical or religious defeat is in us all. For the honest questioner, however, who doesn't seek refuge in some faith or fantasy, there will never be an answer.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

We come from an inconceivable nothingness. We stay a while in something which seems equally inconceivable, only to vanish again into the inconceivable nothingness.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

If one regards life and death as natural processes, the metaphysical dread vanishes, and one obtains "peace of mind."

Peter Wessel Zapffe

Mankind ought to end its existence of its own will.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

Each new generation asks – What is the meaning of life? A more fertile way of putting the question would be – Why does man need a meaning to life?

Peter Wessel Zapffe

To bear children into this world is like carrying wood into a burning house.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

Nobody has ever managed to explain what it is they are longing after in religion, but it is quite clear what they are trying to escape from – this earthly vale of tears, one's untenable existential situation. (Peter Wessel Zapffe)

Why, then, has mankind not long ago gone extinct during great epidemics of madness? Why do only a fairly minor number of individuals perish because they fail to endure the strain of living - because cognition gives them more than they can carry? Cultural history, as well as observation of ourselves and others, allow the following answer: Most people learn to save themselves by artificially limiting the content of consciousness.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

I myself am no longer very much afflicted by the thought of my own death. The synthesis, Peter Wessel Zapffe, did not originate until 1899. It was spared from immediate participation in the horrors of the previous years, and it will not miss what awaits mankind at the end of its vertiginous madness.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

Death is the most certain and the most uncertain event there is.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

Death is a terrible provocation. It appears almost everywhere, presenting a stern but effective scale for both values and ethical standards.

Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe - Image

Occupation: Norwegian Philosopher
Born: December 18, 1899
Died: October 12, 1990
Quotes count: 15
Wikipedia: Peter Wessel Zapffe

Related authors

Thomas Ligotti 38

American Author

Arthur Schopenhauer 353

German Philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche 855

German Philosopher

David Benatar 2

Professor

Emil Cioran 580

French Philosopher

Sigmund Freud 233

Austrian Neurologist

Thomas Bernhard 25

Austrian Playwright

Edgar Allan Poe 205

American Writer

Jorge Luis Borges 237

Argentine Writer

William S. Burroughs 189

American Novelist