Talk:Peter Wessel Zapffe

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• Dear all of you who have come to say goodbye to the incarnation that was made available as an abode for my spiritual life. Say goodbye to the inscrutable synthesis that emerged in 1899 and kept together for 90 years, before it again disintegrated back into its inorganic elements.

  Thank you for coming, all of you, and each specifically, each with his own perspective on this that has happened, in part foreseeably and in part as a fruit of pure happenstance. This, which we partly owe gratitude and must partly consider our perfidious foe – if we imagine a governing consciousness behind it all.

  And if we do not, then we have in part been lucky in the great lottery, and in part drawn blanks or actual harm. But it often feels as though some consciousness is waiting in ambush to strike us in our vulnerable moments. In any case, we come from nothing and go to nothing and that is nothing to worry about.

  Goodbye, everyone.

  • Zapffe's eulogy, recited at his funeral, which he himself wrote.

• The human race come from nothing and go to nothing. Above that, there is nothing.

• It is said of the nihilist that ”to him, nothing is sacred”. He might reply that at least he does not sanctify the lie, the common compulsory living-lie; be it expressed as optimism about civilisation or as the falsettos and tightened throats of those who must hide the disconcerting facts to children, so these are not frightened witless even at the outset.

• Above all, we must make the reproductive question ethically relevant. A coin is turned around before it is handed to the beggar, yet a child is unflinchingly tossed into cosmic bruteness. Nobody flinches – except when saying cootchie-cootchie to the treasure in the cradle, little Hjalmar Alexander.

Possible misattributed quotes

• Jesus must have been a psychopath.
  • I've seen this quote posted in various places online, the source is probably this interview, whose first page gives the teaser quote "Jesus må ha vært en psykopat". But reading through the actual interview this phrase doesn't appear, it seems to be a paraphrase of some comments he made when asked his thoughts on Jesus: "Ja, disse Jesus-analysene; - men selv han ble narret til å tro at det førte til noe. I dag må man se på ham som en psykopat. En som tror at ved å underkaste seg en grusom død blir man gjort til kronprins i himmelen. Det er jo ganske innlysende at det handler om en gal mann. Hvis man ser annerledes på det, så er det utfra et behov om et mål for tilværelsen, forventninger og diverse sånt. Det er umulig å forestille seg at det skulle være noe realitet i hva Jesus mente om seg selv. Men han var en interessant person." Google translate gives a rough translation: "Yes, these Jesus analyzes; - but even he was tricked into believing that it led to something. Today you have to look at him as a psychopath. One who believes that by submitting to a cruel death one is made a crown prince in heaven. It's pretty obvious that it's about a crazy man. If you look at it differently, then it is based on a need for a goal for life, expectations and various things like that. It is impossible to imagine that there would be any reality in what Jesus thought about himself. But he was an interesting person." Hypnosifl (talk) 16:35, 16 June 2021 (UTC)