Bataille, Georges

"Happiness is the illusion that distraction is peace."

"The sacred object is that which we cannot use."

"All knowledge is the knowledge of mortality."

"The wound of consciousness is also the source of all meaning."

"Love is the only religion that never lies."

"War is the extension of desire into the political realm."

"The body speaks what the mind cannot say."

"Patience is the virtue of those who have already given up."

"Strength is the ability to endure meaninglessness."

"The future is something we create by forgetting the past."

"Kindness is the last refuge of those who have failed in cruelty."

"The pursuit of success is the pursuit of a mirage."

"Adventure is the dissolution of the self in the unknown."

"Imagination is the only faculty that makes us human."

"Technology is the objectification of desire."

"A just society is one that acknowledges its own impossibility."

"Music is the language of the unconscious."

"The literary work is a wound in the fabric of meaning."

"Nature is the domain where consciousness breaks down."

"Health is the boring condition of those who are not yet sick."

"Dreams are the only place where we experience authentic freedom."

"Change is the only constant, and it is always catastrophic."

"Education is the process of teaching you not to think."

"Hope is the belief that our suffering has meaning."

"Courage is the willingness to act despite the knowledge of futility."

"Peace is the temporary exhaustion of violence."

"Motivation is the self-deception that we control our own actions."

"Inspiration is what happens when the rational mind surrenders."

"Perseverance is the persistence of the meaningless."

"Gratitude is the acknowledgment of the gifts we cannot refuse."