"Death is a terrible provocation. It appears almost everywhere, presenting a stern but effective scale for both values and ethical standards."

Peter Wessel Zapffe Philosophy See all quotes by Peter Wessel Zapffe →

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“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.”

“I myself am no longer very much afflicted by the thought of my own death. The synthesis, Peter Wessel Zapffe, did not originate until 1899. It was spared from immediate participation in the horrors of the previous years, and it will not miss what awaits mankind at the end of its vertiginous madness.”

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

“Death is the most certain and the most uncertain event there is.”

“The View from Mount Zapffe" by Gisle R. Tangenes, in Philosophy Now, Issue 45:”

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

Resonant Thoughts

"Every culture, or subculture, is defined by a set of common values, that is, generally agreed upon preferences. Without a core of common values a culture cannot exist, and we classify society into cul…"

— Kenneth Boulding

Economics1910–1993

#society

"The human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral. A prospective risk going from 10,000,000 deaths to 100,000,000 deaths do…"

— Eliezer Yudkowsky

Literature1979

#death

"Inevitably in this century we will have open borders. We are seeing it in Europe already. The movement of peoples across the globe will mean that borders are almost going to become irrelevant by the e…"

— John McDonnell

Politics1951

#books