Nihlism Quotes

“I don’t understand how, up to now, an atheist could know there is no God and not kill himself at once. To recognize that there is no God, and not to recognize at the same time that you have become God, is an absurdity, otherwise you must necessarily kill yourself. Once you recognize it, you are king, and you will not kill yourself but will live in the chiefest glory. But one, the one who is first, must necessarily kill himself, otherwise who will begin and prove it? It is I who will necessarily kill myself in order to begin and prove it. I am still God against my will, and I am unhappy, because it is my duty to proclaim self-will. Everyone is unhappy, because everyone is afraid to proclaim self-will. That is why man has been so unhappy and poor up to now, because he was afraid to proclaim the chief point of self-will and was self-willed only on the margins, like a schoolboy. I am terribly unhappy, because I am terribly afraid. Fear is man’s curse … But I will proclaim self-will, it is my duty to believe that I do not believe. I will begin, and end, and open the door. And save. Only this one thing will save all men and in the next generation transform them physically; for in the present physical aspect, so far as I have thought, it is in no way possible for man to be without the former God. For three years I have been searching for the attribute of my divinity, and I have found it: the attribute of my divinity is—Self-will! That is all, by which I can show in the main point my insubordination and my new fearsome freedom. For it is very fearsome. I kill myself to show my insubordination and my new fearsome freedom.”

Dostoevsky, Fyodor (2010-05-06). Demons (Vintage Classics) (p. 619). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons

“The blind cosmos grinds aimlessly on from nothing to something and from something back to nothing again, neither heeding nor knowing the wishes or existence of the minds that flicker for a second now and then in the darkness.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

“He walked down the street and crossed the railroad tracks. The redness of
the evening in the glass of the buildings. Very high a small and trembling
flight of geese. Fording the last of the day in the thin air. Following the shape
of the river below. He stood above the bank of riprap. Rock and broken
paving. The slow coil of the passing water. In the coming night he thought
that men would band together in the hills. Feeding their small fires with the
deeds and the covenants and the poetry of their fathers. Documents they’d no
gift to read in a cold to loot men of their souls.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger

“...he would be returning to a world that would treat him all the same. More potential, but more loss. The university...worked to subvert him, his closest friend would turn on him. It was certain. Everything he cared about would vanish or warp into something hellbent on destroying him. The world sent its message loud and clear: he did not belong.”
― Larry Fort, Tales of the Sibling Not-So-Grim