Humans may or may not have cosmic significance and if they do it will be by hitching a ride on the objective centrality of knowledge in the cosmic scheme of things.

A toothache or a violent passion is not necessarily diminished by our knowledge of its causes its character its importance or insignificance.

Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly over time gain in political significance.

I'm so intrigued by women throughout history where the significance of what they were representing at that time is obscured by the fact a man saved them or they were prostitutes.

History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.

I've been quite fascinated by the relative insignificance of human existence the shortness of life. We might as well be a letter in a word in a sentence on a page in a book in a library in a city in one country in this enormous universe! And that kind of fear and insignificance has kept me awake at night.

We give a lot of others significance in our lives even when they don't deserve it. It doesn't matter if they're family or if you've known them forever. If they're not good for you they've got to go.

This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy.

Progress is measured by richness and intensity of experience - by a wider and deeper apprehension of the significance and scope of human existence.

We are biological creatures. We are born we live we die. There is no transcendent purpose to existence. At best we are creatures of reason and by using reason we can cure ourselves of emotional excess. Purged of both hope and fear we find courage in the face of helplessness insignificance and uncertainty.