Anguish

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:

    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)

    Journey to Gethsemane, go and feel the tempter’s power;
    Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch the anguish of this hour;
    Do not hide or turn away: learn from Jesus how to pray.
    James Montgomery (1771–1854)

    This is the man who classified the bits
    Of his friends’ hells into a pigeonhole—
    He hung each disparate anguish on the spits
    Parboiled and roasted in his own withering soul.
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)