To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
E.E. Cummings
Big brother isn’t watching. He’s singing and dancing. He’s pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you’re awake. He’s making sure you’re always distracted. He’s making sure you’re fully absorbed. He’s making sure your imagination withers, until it’s as useful as your appendix. He’s making sure your attention is always filled.
And this being fed, it’s worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what’s in your mind. With everyone’s imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat.
Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby
Too often what are called “educated” people are simply people who have been sheltered from reality for years in ivy-covered buildings. Those whose whole careers have been spent in ivy-covered buildings, insulated by tenure, can remain adolescents on into their golden retirement years.
Thomas Sowell
Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you set up a life you don’t need to escape from.
Seth Godin
Do not confuse peace of mind with spaced-out insensitivity. A truly peaceful mind is very sensitive, very aware.
Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama
Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.
Aldous Huxley, The Art of Seeing
But whatever is repressed returns later, and often in disguise, to claim its due.
Roberto Assagioli
We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us.
Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Bloom
Your handwriting. The way you walk. Which china pattern you choose. It’s all giving you away. Everything you do shows your hand. Everything is a self-portrait. Everything is a diary.
Chuck Palahniuk, Diary
Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power — not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.
Bell Hooks
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