History Quotes / StrawNihilist

-->-- '''SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker''', ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''

%%->'''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}''': I am life itself.\\
'''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}''': Then you are ''everything'' I hate.
%%Anyone have a source for this one?

->'''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}''': I am life itself.\\

->'''Sabertooth:''' Oh, I didn't like the killing, Wolverine. I '''loved''' the killing. And unlike you, I was always smart enough to know what I really was. We're monsters, buddy. Plain and simple. I don't dress it up with fancy names like "mutant" or "post-human"; men were born crueler than apes and we were born crueler than men. It's just the natural order of things. Charles Xavier is like a vegetarian who doesn't want to admit what his eye teeth are for. The Brotherhood are too full of themselves to admit that we're everything they hate about humankind and a little more besides.
-->-- ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen''

'''Bob''': [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre Wha... how can you say that? I mean, look at you! You're... so smart! And weird! And amazing!]] [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers How can you say you're not here for a reason? And that reason... can't be to hurt people!... It just can't!]]

->Free will is a myth. Religion is a joke.

->'''SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}''': I am life itself.\\

'''Bob''': [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers Wha... how can you say that? I mean, look at you! You're... so smart! And weird! And amazing! How can you say you're not here for a reason? And that reason... can't be to hurt people!... It just can't!]]

-->-- '''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''

->Life itself is only a vision. A dream. Nothing exists, save empty space and you. And you... are but a thought.

->Count Bleck does not care about any world! They are all meaningless. Better that I destroy them! Better yet, I shall make it as if they never existed at all!
-->-- '''[[ThirdPersonPerson Count Bleck]]''', ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario''

'''Bob''': [[TheAntiNihilist Wha... how can you say that? I mean, look at you! You're... so smart! And weird! And amazing! How can you say you're not here for a reason? And that reason... can't be to hurt people!... It just can't!]]

->I think there was probably a time when I had joy, or I experienced fleeting happiness. Or anger. Or fear. But God, it's just been ''so long'', Merle. I used to spend my days considering the nature of time and existence, and maybe that brought me joy once. But, unlike everybody else who ever thought about those questions, who ever pondered the meaning of it all, I... and you may find this hard to believe, but... ''I solved it''. I saw the fullness of Time, I pondered Eternity, and was the first person, and ''only'' person, to successfully visualize its treacherous arc. You're a [[BadassPreacher Man of the Cloth]], Merle. Certainly you've wondered, too, about what awaits our consciousness after death, or... (''pauses, laughs'') What am I saying? I've given you a first-hand experience [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist a few times in this very room]]. Perhaps for some people who think about it, there's nothing but infinite oblivion, or [[CessationOfExistence the eternal erasure of your consciousness]]. Or for some, it's eternal life in their god's glorious kingdom, or eternal cycling through all the inhabitants of their world. Any of these options, Merle, ''any of them'' - erasure or contentment or revival - any of them are fine as abstract concepts. But eternally, Merle? ''Eternally?'' You can't possibly ''conceive'' of the length of Eternity. ''I have.'' It's maddening and hopeless, but it's this burden we're all saddled with from the moment of our creation. It's a finish line that, by its very definition, will never arrive. It stretches forever and ever. It's too ambivalent to even taunt those trapped behind it. It is the ''cruel price of existence'', and it is too horrible to bear once you've seen it! Existence, Merle... ''Life,'' Merle... is ''horrible!'' To ''exist,'' to ''live,'' is ''horrible!''

->Now [[CosmicHorrorStory all my tales]] are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large... To achieve the essence of real externality, whether of time or space or dimension, one must forget that such things as organic life, [[AboveGoodAndEvil good and evil]], love and hate, and all such local attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all.

-->-- '''Literature/TheMysteriousStranger ''', ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfMarkTwain''

[[folder:Comic books]]

-->-- '''[[spoiler:Lots-o'-Huggin Bear]]''', ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''

->This is what happens when you dummies try to think! WE'RE ALL JUST ''TRASH'' WAITING TO BE ''THROWN AWAY!!'' THAT'S ALL A TOY IS!!
-->-- '''[[spoiler:Lotso]]''', ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''

->There is no God. There are no souls. All we are is meat and bones. These are certainties I learned long ago'.

'''Doctor Manhattan''': [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar The charred villages, the boys with necklaces made of human ears]]... these are part of the joke?
->'''Blake''': Hey, I never said it was a ''good'' joke. I'm just playing along with the gag.

->In the beginning, the universe was created... this made a lot of people very angry and has widely been regarded as a bad move.
-->-- ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'''s entry on the creation of the universe

None are expected, no-one cares''

->There is only one thing that is equal for all, and that is death.
-->-- '''Johan Liebert''', ''{{Manga/Monster}}''

->''"There's nothing special about being born. Not a thing. Most of the universe is just death, nothing more. In this universe of ours, the birth of a new life on some corner of our planet is nothing but a tiny, insignificant flash. Death is a normal thing. So why live?"''
-->--'''Johan Liebert''', ''{{Manga/Monster}}''

-->-- '''Misogi Kumagawa''', '''Manga/MedakaBox'''

-->-- '''[[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Rau Le Creuset]]''', speaking to [[WellIntentionedExtremist Chairman Durandal]] in Episode 29 of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny''.

'''Doctor Manhattan''': [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar The charred villages, the boys with necklaces made of human ears]]...these are part of the joke?

->"''There is no God. There are no souls. All we are is meat and bones. These are certainties I learned long ago''."
-->-- '''[[ComicBook/ThePunisher Frank Castle]]''', ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX''

->Life is meaningless! Chaos! The universe has no center! Its creator is a drooling idiot!
-->-- '''Carnage''', ''Comicbook/SpiderMan''

->'''SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}''': I am life itself.
->'''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}''': Then you are ''everything'' I hate.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

->''"You see, I've seen some truly horrible things in life, Moka. You'd be surprised [[NotSoDifferent how similar humans and monsters really are]]. How they both claim they desire peace, yet both destroy everything around them. How they both claim they can love, yet they both hurt and attack everything different. You see, it doesn't matter if you are human or a monster, a life is a life. And all lives are trash. All lives are a waste. Everything that lives only wants to live for the sake of living, and will step on anything to get its wish. Monsters, humans, they all claw at any vain attempt to live on, both killing anything that seems different or strange in fear of its own existence. There is no difference, Moka. All life is evil."''
-->-- '''Hokuto Kaneshiro''', ''FanFic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness''

->What's the point of anything? We're all gonna grow old and die. Then everypony who knows me will grow old and die, and everypony who knew them will grow old and die, and it'll be like I was never born! Equestria will fall one day like every country in the world before in history did. My town will be abandoned and be forgotten. Ponies will go extinct or evolve into a new species and forget what old ponies looked like. The sun will burn out some day an the world will get eaten up the sun or freeze. And it'll be like ponies never existed. There's no point to anything!

->All fires burn out, and the fires of friendship will turn to cinders too eventually, everything stops, dies, and turns to ashes. The more beautiful the flame, the more quickly it dies.

->''"So naïve to the ways of the world, so full of optimism and hope. I, however, have seen the world for how it truly is. Despair is the only truth in this world of lies and hypocrisy. This world is not worth the dirt we walk upon. Unless it is destroyed and remade properly, it will remain that way, a diseased mire, and everyone – humans, witches, and other creatures alike – shall continue to dance like court jesters to its incomprehensible whims. If you live long enough, you shall see it sooner or later, even if ''[[HopeCrusher I]]'' must be the one to teach you that."''

->''"I knew someone would come. I knew it not because I had planned for you to be here, or because I'm somehow in control of these grand events. No, I knew it because I hadn't planned for it. I knew it because I'm not in control. This isn't my story. I'm not the hero, but neither am I the villain. I'm just like you, in fact. Just like them. I'm a puppet. I'm just another fucking plaything for the real villains. Freedom is a joke, and choice is an illusion. In the end there's only a hoofful of ponies who can honestly say that they've ever actually had one, and most of them never even realized it. Me? I want to be one of them. I want myself to matter. But I can't ever do that unless those same forces that are pulling the strings want to let me. I am at their mercy, just like every other sucker in the whole damn universe. You know how I feel about that? I hate it."''
-->-- '''Max Cash''', ''Fanfic/HarmonyTheory''

->This is what happens when you dummies try to think! WE'RE ALL JUST '''''TRASH''''' WAITING TO BE '''''THROWN AWAY!!''''' THAT'S ALL A TOY IS!!

->You have faith. ''I'' don't.
-->-- '''William Strannix''', ''Film/UnderSiege''

->Grow up! It's "fuck your buddy, cheat on your wife, [[PhotoOpWithTheDog call your mother on Mother's Day]]." Charlie, it's all shit.
-->--'''Col. Frank Slade''', ''Film/ScentOfAWoman''

->I really should thank you for it; after all, it was your life that taught me the purpose of ''all'' life. The purpose of life is to end.
-->--- '''Smith''', ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions''

-> Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, man, but at least it's an ethos.
-->-- '''Walter''', ''Film/TheBigLebowski''

-> Take a look at the world [[CrapsackWorld - chaos]].
-->-- '''Max Denbigh''', ''Film/{{Spectre}}''

->In the beginning, the universe was created... this made a lot of people very angry and has widely been regarded as a bad move.
-->-- A ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' entry on the creation of the universe.

->''"There's only one thing that ever changes anything, and that's death. Everything else is just a lie. You can't be saved by a lie... you can't be saved at all."''

->''"Always so concerned with the human condition. It's no big mystery, man. They suffer, they die. That's what they're there for."''

->''"The true meaning of life...the actual ethical system that you should all follow...is nihilism. The world is empty. There is no point to ''anything'', and you're just gonna die. So do whatever!"''
-->-- '''Chidi''' (he gets over it), ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', "Jeremy Bearimy"

->''"Dying. Everything dying. The whole of creation was falling apart and I thought there's no point. No point to anything. Not ever."''

->'''Scully''': I hoped and prayed you were dead, you chain-smoking son of a bitch.\\
'''Cigarette-Smoking Man''': You waste your time. Ask Mulder. ''He'' knows the futility of hopes and prayers.
-->-- ''Series/TheXFiles'', "The Truth"

->''"The ontological fallacy of expecting a light at the end of the tunnel, well, that's what the preacher sells, same as a shrink. See, the preacher, he encourages your capacity for illusion. Then he tells you it's a fucking virtue. Always a buck to be had doing that, and it's such a desperate sense of entitlement, isn't it?"''
-->-- '''Det. Rustin Cohle''', ''Series/TrueDetective''

->''"Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ''ladder''. Many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but refuse. They cling to the realm, or love, or the gods… illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is. But they’ll never know this. Not until it’s too late."''

->World is what it is. We fight, we die. Wishing doesn't change that.
-->-- '''Wishverse Buffy''', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

->''"We all die in the end."''

-->--''Series/PersonOfInterest'', "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E21 Aslyum]]"

->''"Nothing can take the horror from me\\

Is a violent revolution"''
-->-- "Violent Revolution", '''Music/{{Kreator}}'''

[[folder:Tabletop games]]

-->-- '''[[http://magiccards.info/di/en/50.html Nihilistic Glee]]''', ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''

-->--The '''Absolutely Nihilism''' belief, ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade - Clanbook: Malkavian''

->The Light, the Fire, twists against Darkness. In the infinite Void, it sheds a faint and solitary glare. Sooner or later, it will consume all its tinder, sputter and go out forever.
->Campfires. Hearthfires. [[StarKilling Sunfires]]. [[GodIsDead Godfires]]. None of them last forever.
->In the beginning, there was Darkness. And when the Sun burns out, as we know it will, to that Darkness we shall return.
->All of us.
-->--''[[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade]] - Infernalism''

->Is not the only constant in the universe change? One day all this will be dust, and even the stars above us will flicker and grow dim. Your life is but a tiny candle in the darkness, and your death an afterthought, shorn of meaning by its insignificance.
->Come, little one, and [[DealWithTheDevil let me show you how your flame can burn bright]]...
-->--'''Vilitreska, Lord of the Flux,''' ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}: Warriors Of Chaos Army Book (7th edition)''

->To look upon a [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Great Unclean One]] is to gaze upon the face of decay, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation to realize]] that all things must break down, must collapse and congeal, must rot and rust and fall to ruin, that the great works of man will one day vanish from the universe, and [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the stars themselves must one day die]].
-->--''TabletopGame/{{Deathwatch}}: Mark Of The Xenos''

->''"Well, [[RobbingTheDead someone's got to clean them up]], my friends\\

'Cause he's dead as the stiffs at my feet"''

->We're superior, we are supermen\\
[[LampshadeHanging Says my Nietzsche book chapters one through ten]]\\
And as supermen, we could not get caught\\
So don't give last night a second thought\\
Let's plan next time
-->-- '''Richard''', ''Theatre/ThrillMe''

[[folder:Video games]]

->This world holds only despair! It is not worth existing!
-->-- '''Tobi''', ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm3''

->The truth is unattainable... It will always be shrouded in fog. Though you reach through the murk and the gloom to grasp something, you have no means to know it is the truth. In which case, why? What sense is there in yearning for truth?
-->-- [[spoiler:'''Shadow Teddie''']], ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''

->Maybe all the robots and {{Death Trap}}s will finish Sonic, and maybe they won't. Does it really matter in the cosmic scheme of things? We're ''all'' gonna die eventually...
-->-- '''Zor''', ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld''

->The preciousness of limited life, the beauty of death. You're intoxicated by that narcissism. It's such an incredibly human choice.
-->-- '''Wilhelm''', ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}''

->Ideals?! WHAT A LIE!!!
-->-- '''Dr. Weil''', ''VideoGame/MegaManZero''

->And what is this path, this meaning, this purpose, to which we gather the skulls of our foes? ''It is nothing.'' There is no meaning, no purpose. We murder. We kill. It is mindless savagery, this UNIVERSE is mindless. In mere hours, billions will die, innocent, guilty, strong and weak, honest and deceitful, ALL of them! They will scream, they will burn, and for no purpose but that mighty [[WarGod Khorne]] may revel in their bloodshed. And united in this void of purpose, fear, or duty… we, shall at long last, be FREE! [[CatchPhrase Blood! for the Blood God! Skulls! for the Skull Throne!]] [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Let! the galaxy!]] '''''[[OmnicidalManiac BURRRRRN!!!]]'''''
-->-- [[spoiler:'''Chapter Master Azariah Kyras''']], ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II: Retribution''

->''"All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came."''
-->--'''Ansem, Seeker of Darkness''', ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''

->Sword and crown are worthless here; I invite everybody to dance\\
Laborers, lawyers, church and gown, all make their little prance\\
This life is full of random deaths, and heaps of grief and shame\\
So few are soothed by “accident,” you want someone to blame\\
Fire, plague and strange disease,\\
Drowned, murdered, or -if you please-\\
A long fall down the basement stairs\\
None are expected, no-one cares''
-->-- '''The Walrus,''' ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns''

->''This world is a machine. [[TitleDrop A machine for pigs!]] [[OmnicidalManiac Fit only for the slaughtering of pigs!]]''
-->-- '''The Engineer''', ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs''

->''Why do flowers bloom knowing they are destined to wither? Their time of beauty is so short-lived.''
-->--'''Merlina''', ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]''

->''"This world is nothing but lies, LIES, LIES, LIES!! Allow me to show you the one truth, the truth I'd like to call DESPAIR!!"''
-->--'''Terumi Yuuki''', ''VideoGame/BlazBlue''

->''"Count Bleck does not care about any world! They are all meaningless. Better that I destroy them! Better yet, I shall make it as if they never existed at all!"''
-->--'''[[ThirdPersonPerson Count Bleck]]''', ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario''

-->-- [[TheSociopath Murkoph]], ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}''

-> I think there was probably a time when I had joy, or I experienced fleeting happiness. Or anger. Or fear. But God, it's just been ''so long'', Merle. I used to spend my days considering the nature of time and existence, and maybe that brought me joy once. But, unlike everybody else who ever thought about those questions, who ever pondered the meaning of it all, I...and you may find this hard to believe, but...''I solved it''. I saw the fullness of Time, I pondered Eternity, and was the first person, and ''only'' person, to successfully visualize its treacherous arc. You're a [[BadassPreacher Man of the Cloth]], Merle. Certainly you've wondered, too, about what awaits our consciousness after death, or... ::pauses, laughs:: What am I saying? I've given you a first-hand experience [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist a few times in this very room]]. Perhaps for some people who think about it, there's nothing but infinite oblivion, or [[CessationOfExistence the eternal erasure of your consciousness]]. Or for some, it's eternal life in their god's glorious kingdom, or eternal cycling through all the inhabitants of their world. Any of these options, Merle, ''any of them'' - erasure or contentment or revival - any of them are fine as abstract concepts. But eternally, Merle? ''Eternally?'' You can't possibly ''conceive'' of the length of Eternity. ''I have.'' It's maddening and hopeless, but it's this burden we're all saddled with from the moment of our creation. It's a finish line that, by its very definition, will never arrive. It stretches forever and ever. It's too ambivalent to even taunt those trapped behind it. It is the ''cruel price of existence'', and it is too horrible to bear once you've seen it! Existence, Merle...''Life,'' Merle...is ''horrible!'' To ''exist,'' to ''live,'' is ''horrible!''

-->-- [[spoiler: [[OmnicidalManiac The Hunger]]]], ''Podcast/TheAdventureZone''

-->-- '''[[http://tuxradar.com/content/programming-languages-melt-your-brain Programming Languages That Melt Your Brain]]'''

->When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot. I admit it! Why can't you? I mean, you're not unintelligent. You must see the reality of the situation! Do you know how many times we've come close to World War III over a flock of geese on a computer screen? Do you know what triggered the last world war? An argument over how many telegraph poles Germany owes its war debt collectors! Telegraph poles! Ha ha ha ha ha! It's all a joke! Everything everybody ever valued or struggled for... it's all a monstrous, demented gag!

-> Take a look at the world [[CrapsackWorld - chaos]]. Because people like you, paper-pushers and politicians, are too spineless to do what needs to be done - [[KnightTemplar so I made an alliance to put the power where it should be]], [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill and now you want to throw it away for the sake of democracy]], whatever the hell that is? How predictably moronic. But then isn't that what 'M' stands for - 'moron'?

-->-- '''Skull Face''', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''

[[folder:Film -- Live-action]]

[[folder:Live-action TV]]

->There's only one thing that ever changes anything, and that's death. Everything else is just a lie. You can't be saved by a lie... you can't be saved at all.

->Always so concerned with the human condition. It's no big mystery, man. They suffer, they die. That's what they're there for.
-->--'''Angelus''', ''Series/{{Angel}}''

->Dying. Everything dying. The whole of creation was falling apart and I thought there's no point. No point to anything. Not ever.

->The ontological fallacy of expecting a light at the end of the tunnel, well, that's what the preacher sells, same as a shrink. See, the preacher, he encourages your capacity for illusion. Then he tells you it's a fucking virtue. Always a buck to be had doing that, and it's such a desperate sense of entitlement, isn't it?

->Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ''ladder''. Many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but refuse. They cling to the realm, or love, or the gods… illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is. But they’ll never know this. Not until it’s too late.

-->-- '''Lotso''', ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''