A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life.

— Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

…there is no more reason to believe ideas are evolving towards some ultimate truth than there is to think that organisms are evolving towards some ultimate being.

— Philip Stokes, Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers

Zeus intended that man, notwithstanding the evils oppressing him, should continue to live and not rid himself of life, but keep on making himself miserable. For this purpose, he bestowed hope upon man: it is, in truth, the greatest of evils for it lengthens the ordeal of man

— Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human

Comparative analysis suggests there is a direct relation however between the level of violence employed in a bureaucratic system, and the level of absurdity and ignorance it is seen to produce.

— David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules

The problem is that carbon emissions are a classic public goods game, also known as a Tragedy of the Commons. People benefit from everyone else’s sacrifices and suffer from their own, so everyone has an incentive to be a free rider and let everyone else make the sacrifice, and everyone suffers.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now