Anguish
Anguish is a term used in philosophy, often as a translation from the Latin angst. It is a paramount feature of existentialist philosophy, in which anguish is often understood as the experience of an utterly free being in a world with zero absolutes (existential despair). In the theology of Kierkegaard, it refers to a being with total free will who is in a constant state of spiritual fear that his freedom will lead him to fall short of the standards that God has laid out for him.
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Famous quotes containing the word anguish:
“The Frenchman Jean-Paul ... Sartre I remember now was his last name had a dialectical mind good as a machine for cybernetics, immense in its way, he could peel a nuance like an onion, but he had no sense of evil, the anguish of God, and the possible existence of Satan.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Have you ever turned toward an intellectual in a time of authentic anguish and encountered his light appraisal, or evasion, of your grief? Or turned to him in a situation of light import only to be met with a heavy, superfluous solemnity?”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“From the very fountain of enchantment there arises a taste of bitterness to spread anguish amongst the flowers.”
—Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus)