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Philosophers have long asked what it means to live well in a world where everything we love can be lost. Their answers are sometimes surprising and often consoling.
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Kierkegaard observed that life is understood backwards but lived forwards. Camus discovered an “invincible summer” within himself in the depth of winter. Spinoza noticed that a painful emotion loosens its grip once we see it clearly — an insight modern psychology has confirmed.
These short lines are offered as companions for thinking, not as answers.
See also our collection of Stoic wisdom, which gathers the ancient philosophers who wrote most directly about grief.
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
— Friedrich NietzscheLife can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
— Søren KierkegaardLanguage has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.
— Paul TillichIn the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
— Albert CamusLet us show our feeling for lost friends not by lamenting them, but by remembering them.
— After EpicurusWhere death is, I am not; where I am, death is not.
— After EpicurusEmotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
— Baruch SpinozaHe who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
— Michel de MontaigneAct as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
— William JamesThe only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
— Alan Watts
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