Create Yours

Top 25 Peter Wessel Zapffe Quotes (2025 Update)

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “To bear children into this world is like carrying wood to a burning house.”

1. “To bear children into this world is like carrying wood to a burning house.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “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.”

2. “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

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “As long as humankind recklessly proceeds in the fateful delusion of being biologically fated for triumph, nothing essential will change.”

3. “As long as humankind recklessly proceeds in the fateful delusion of being biologically fated for triumph, nothing essential will change.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “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.”

4. “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

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “A coin is turned around before it is handed to the beggar, yet a child is unflinchingly tossed into cosmic bruteness.”

5. “A coin is turned around before it is handed to the beggar, yet a child is unflinchingly tossed into cosmic bruteness.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “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.”

6. “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

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “We come from an inconceivable nothingness. We stay a while in something which seems equally inconceivable, only to vanish again into the inconceivable nothingness.”

7. “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

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Know yourselves- be infertile and let the earth be silent after ye.”

8. “Know yourselves- be infertile and let the earth be silent after ye.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Jesus must have been a psychopath.”

9. “Jesus must have been a psychopath.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “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?”

10. “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

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “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.”

11. “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

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “For me, a desert island is no tragedy, neither is a deserted planet.”

12. “For me, a desert island is no tragedy, neither is a deserted planet.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Man beholds the earth, and it is breathing like a great lung; whenever it exhales, delightful life swarms from all its pores and reaches out toward the sun, but when it inhales, a moan of rupture passes through the multitude, and corpses whip the ground like bouts of hail.”

13. “Man beholds the earth, and it is breathing like a great lung; whenever it exhales, delightful life swarms from all its pores and reaches out toward the sun, but when it inhales, a moan of rupture passes through the multitude, and corpses whip the ground like bouts of hail.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Mankind ought to end its existence of its own will.”

14. “Mankind ought to end its existence of its own will.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “The more a human being in his worldview approaches the goal, the hegemony of love in a moral universe, the more has he become slipshod in the light of intellectual honesty.”

15. “The more a human being in his worldview approaches the goal, the hegemony of love in a moral universe, the more has he become slipshod in the light of intellectual honesty.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “If one regards life and death as natural processes, the metaphysical dread vanishes, and one obtains peace of mind.”

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

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “The immediate facts are what we must relate to. Darkness and light, beginning and end.”

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

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “The human yearning is not merely marked by a ‘striving toward’, but equally by an ’escape from.”

18. “The human yearning is not merely marked by a ‘striving toward’, but equally by an ’escape from.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “He is mighty in the near world, but curses his might as purchased with his harmony of soul, his innocence, his inner peace in life’s embrace.”

19. “He is mighty in the near world, but curses his might as purchased with his harmony of soul, his innocence, his inner peace in life’s embrace.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “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.”

20. “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

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Man is the ultimate tragic being, because he has learned enough about the Earth to realise the Earth would be better off without the presence of humankind.”

21. “Man is the ultimate tragic being, because he has learned enough about the Earth to realise the Earth would be better off without the presence of humankind.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Det er tre ting en mand vil ha for sig selv, og det tredie er soveposen.”

22. “Det er tre ting en mand vil ha for sig selv, og det tredie er soveposen.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “He is the universe’s helpless captive, kept to fall into nameless possibilities.”

23. “He is the universe’s helpless captive, kept to fall into nameless possibilities.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “The modern barbarity of ‘saving’ the suicidal is based on a hairraising misapprehension of the nature of existence.”

24. “The modern barbarity of ‘saving’ the suicidal is based on a hairraising misapprehension of the nature of existence.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “No future triumph or metamorphosis can justify the pitiful blighting of a human being against his will.”

25. “No future triumph or metamorphosis can justify the pitiful blighting of a human being against his will.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Despite his new eyes, man was still rooted in matter, his soul spun into it and subordinated to its blind laws. And yet he could see matter as a stranger, compare himself to all phenomena, see through and locate his vital processes. He comes to nature as an unbidden guest, in vain extending his arms to beg conciliation with his maker: Nature answers no more, it preformed a miracle with man, but later did not know him.”

26. “Despite his new eyes, man was still rooted in matter, his soul spun into it and subordinated to its blind laws. And yet he could see matter as a stranger, compare himself to all phenomena, see through and locate his vital processes. He comes to nature as an unbidden guest, in vain extending his arms to beg conciliation with his maker: Nature answers no more, it preformed a miracle with man, but later did not know him.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Peter Wessel Zapffe Quote: “Life had overshot its target, blowing itself apart. A species had been armed too heavily – by spirit made almighty without, but equally a menace to its own well-being.”

27. “Life had overshot its target, blowing itself apart. A species had been armed too heavily – by spirit made almighty without, but equally a menace to its own well-being.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 25 Peter Wessel Zapffe Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.