Gnostic Quotes
What’s the meaning of life? Aphorisms, maxims and quotations expressing the paradoxical essence of gnosticism.
Earth
'The Earth is an object lesson for the apprentice gods. "If you really screw up," they get told, "you'll make something like Earth." - Carl Sagan, Contact
"A deaf, dumb and blind idiot could have made a better world than this." - Tenessee Williams, interview, Esquire, September 1971
"…that a God like Jehovah should have created this [...]
Ecstasy
"Art is the communication of ecstasy." - P.D. Ouspensky, A New Model of the Universe
"If a dervish remained in a state of ecstasy,
He would be fragmented in both worlds." - Saadi of Shiraz, "The Danger of Ecstasy," from Idries Shah’s The Way of the Sufi, p.99, pub. A.D. 1968
"A man may be in an [...]
Emerson
"The dice of god are always loaded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation, pub. 1841
"There is a crack in everything God has made." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation, pub. 1841
"A man is a god in ruins." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, pub. 1836
"Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool." - Ralph [...]
End of the Universe
"There is an ancient legend which warns that, should we ever learn our true origin, our universe will instantly be destroyed." - Len Wein
"Assembling the maximum amount of information on the universe can put an end to the world. As in the fable of the nine billion names of God: when, thanks [...]
Enemy
"My only enemy is right-wing religious fundamentalism." - Clinton per Marquez, Jerusalem Post 3/28/99
"It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head." - Sally Kempton
Energy Body
"There is..a sense in which the body is not real; but that body that is not real is the false body of the separate self, the reality-ego. That false body must be cast off… The human body is not a thing, or substance…but a continous creation… The human body is an energy system… which [...]
Energy Snake
"If you don't like your own character there may be a new one ready-made and waiting for you. The snake sheds its skin with impunity, relying on the same nature which you rely on." - unknown
"The form of the movement of biological energy is that of a slow undulation, reminiscent of the [...]
Enslaved
"Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery." - Andy Warhol
"Optimism and humor are the grease and glue of life. Without both of them we would never have survived our captivity." - Philip Butler
Error
"The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one [...]
Escape
"Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole." - William S. Burroughs
"The Earth is the cradle of the mind - but one cannot eternally live in a cradle." - Konstantin [...]
Ethics
"I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it." - Albert Einstein
"The only possible ETHIC is to do what one wants to do." - William S. Burroughs
Every
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after one grows up." - Pablo Picasso
"Everybody's an artist. Everybody's God. It's just that they're inhibited." - Yoko Ono, Interview with Abram Deswaan for Dutch TV, Oct 1968
"Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're [...]
Evil
"There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless." - W. Somerset Maugham
"Evil is a moral entity and not a created one, an eternal and not a perishable entity: it existed [...]
Evolution
"Evolution has developed man to such a high degree that he builds zoos to keep his ancestors in cages." - Unknown
Exile
"In a universe suddenly divested of illusion and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land." - Albert Camus
Existence
"It took hundreds of years and thousands of lives, but the Universe finally taught me it's one and only lesson. Existence is worthless." - Howard Weinstein
"The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as [...]
Experiment
"I didn't think; I experimented." - Wilhelm Roentgen
"That which we call sin in others is experiment for us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Eyes
"My eyes are an ocean in which my dreams are reflected." - Anna M. Uhlich
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again." - Sylvia Plath
"A penny will hide the biggest star in the Universe if you hold it close [...]
