Death

'Man is the only being that knows death; all others become old, but with a consciousness wholly limited to the moment which must seem to them eternal'.

Spengler, O. The decline of the West.

Waking existence

'A system consists of truths, a history rests on facts. (...) Hence for the one, the necessity of the mathematical, and for the other, the necessity of the tragic. (...)
In the actuality of waking existence, both worlds, that of scrutiny and that of acceptance (Hingebung), are interwoven, just as in a Brabant tapestry warp and woof together effect the picture'

Spengler, O. The decline of the West.

Destiny

'I feel myself driven towards an end that I do not know. As soon as I shall have reached it, as soon as I shall become unnecessary, an atom will suffice to shatter me. Till then, not all the forces of mankind can do anything against me'

Napoleon

We don't understand

‘Yes, I have (…) experienced all this to be so: that is to say, that the upright and the wise, with their activities, are in the hands of God. We do not understand either love or hate, where we are concerned, both of them are futile. And for all of us is reserved a common fate, for the upright and for the wicked, for the good and for the bad; whether we are ritually pure or not, whether we offer sacrifice or not: it is the same for the good and for the sinner, for someone who takes a vow, as for someone who fears to do so. This is another evil among those occurring under the sun: that there should be the same fate for everyone. The human heart, however, is full of wickedness; folly lurks in our hearts throughout our lives, until we end among the dead. But there is hope for someone still linked to the rest of the living: better be a live dog than a dead lion. The living are at least aware that they are going to die, but the dead know nothing whatever. No more wages for them, since their memory is forgotten. Their love, their hate, their jealousy, have perished long since, and they will never have any further part in what goes on under the sun. So, eat your bread in joy, drink your wine with a glad heart, since God has already approved your actions. At all times, dress in white and keep your head well scented.’

Ecclesiastes : 9, 1-8

Money

'Money is now quite beyond human control. Governments do not control their country's money, though they like to pretend they do. True, there are some immensely wealthy individuals and international corporations whose actions briefly van have some noticeable effects on the world economy, but there is no one individual or corporation who can claim to understand, much less direct, the universal, changing patterns of money and its effects'

D.Rowe. 1997. The real meaning of money. London: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Unduly wise

'In my futile life, I have seen everything:
the upright person perishing in uprightness
and the wicked person surviving in wickedness.
Do not be upright to excess
and do not make yourself unduly wise:
why should you destroy yourself?'

Ecclesiastes: 7, 15-16

Fear

'The price of peace, probably the only thing that can make humanity abandon its longstanding desire to try its hand at the game of war, is, unfortunately, fear'

Crevelt, M. van. 2008. The culture of war. New York: Ballantine books, 289