We live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups. I ask, in my writing, "What is real?" Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power, that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing. ~Philip K. Dick
#quotes #philip-k-dick #society #government #media #religion
quotistCertainly my parents were a huge influence. They always expected the most out of all of us. And expected us to do our very best. I'm thankful to them for allowing me to do what I wanted to do. ~Laurel Clark
#quotes #laurel-clark #parents #influence #thankfulness
I am having a good time doing nothing. ~Phylicia Rashad
#quotes #phylicia-rashad #happiness
Extremism can flourish only in an environment where basic governmental social responsibility for the welfare of the people is neglected. Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism. ~Benazir Bhutto
#quotes #benazir-bhutto #extremism #government #society
Nothing is more certain of destroying any good feeling that may be cherished towards us than to show distrust. To be suspected as an enemy is often enough to make a man become so; the whole matter is over, there is no farther use of guarding against it. On the contrary, confidence leads us naturally to act kindly, we are affected by the good opinion which others entertain of us, and we are not easily induced to lose it. ~Marie de Rabutin Chantal
#quotes #marquise-de-sevigne #marie-de-rabutin-chantal #feelings
I am usually called upon to play the dreary suicidal girl. ~Hope Davis
#quotes #hope-davis
The unexpected stalks a farm in big boots like a vagrant bent on havoc. Not every farmer is an inventor, but the good ones have the seeds of invention within them. Economy and efficiency move their relentless tinkering and yet the real motive often seems to be aesthetic. The mind that first designed a cutter bar is not far different from a mind that can take the intractable steel of an outsized sickle blade and make it hum in the end. The question is how to reduce the simplicity that constitutes a problem to the greater simplicity that constitutes a solution. ~Verlyn Klinkenborg
#quotes #verlyn-klinkenborg
I've always felt that music should be a normal part of the experience that surrounds people. ~Morton Gould
#quotes #morton-gould #music
It is true that traditional Christianity is losing some of its appeal among Americans, but that is a religious, not political, matter. It is worth remembering that the Jeffersonian "wall of separation" between church and state has always been intended to protect the church from the state as much as the state from the church. ~Jon Meacham
#quotes #jon-meacham #religious #christianity #politics #united-states
He is not likely to learn who is not willing to be taught; for the learner has something to do, as well as the teacher. ~Benjamin Whichcote
#quotes #benjamin-whichcote #education #teaching
"A woman doesn't want to be told she looks nice," Jude nuttered as she sat down beside maud's grave. "She wants to be told she's beautiful, sexy. That she looks outrageous. It dosen't matter if its not true." She sighed and laid the flowers against the headstone. "Because for the moment, when the words are said and the words are heard, it's perfect truth." ~Nora Roberts
#quotes #nora-roberts #beauty
Each person we meet has the potential to teach us something. ~John C. Maxwell
#quotes #john-c-maxwell #knowledge
I'm loath to use my personal life to promote what I do, but at the same time, I don't like a journalist going away with no more than you could get off Wikipedia, where most of it's invented anyway. ~Johnny Vegas
#quotes #johnny-vegas #journalism #wikipedia
He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by desire for any other woman. The fact was that they functioned well together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin. ~Steig Larsson
#quotes #steig-larsson #desire #addiction
Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty. ~Henry Ward Beecher
#quotes #henry-ward-beecher #society #law #humanity #government
Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds. ~Emile Durkheim
#quotes #emile-durkheim #society #mind
I realized that even in a world of proliferating media venues, online and in print, and on TV and on countless cable channels, the idea that I could be considered an expert on chronic knee pain was I think troubling for society, but very exciting for me. ~John Hodgman
#quotes #john-hodgman #thinking #media
"Alien" asked ground-breaking questions about eco-politics and female empowerment. "The Matrix" delved deeper into the concept of perception versus reality than perhaps any other film I know. But for some reason, we tend not to remember the significance of their writing. ~Jason Reitman
#quotes #jason-reitman #writing #movies #reality
When we accept small wonders, we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders. ~Tom Robbins
#quotes #tom-robbins #imagination #wonders
Authors are far closer to the truths enfolded in mystery than ordinary people, because of that very audacity of imagination which irritates their plodding critics. As only those who dare to make mistakes succeed greatly, only those who shake free the wings of their imagination brush, once in a way, the secrets of the great pale world. If such writers go wrong, it is not for the mere brains to tell them so ~Gertrude Atherton
#quotes #gertrude-atherton #writing #reality
I always give a lot of credit to Ronnie Dunn for making me fall in love with country music. ~Brett Eldredge
#quotes #brett-eldredge #ronnie-dunn #music
You don't run out on people; you run out on yourself. ~Truman Capote
#quotes #truman-capote #people
There is a theory that creativity arises when individuals are out of sync with their environment. To put it simply, people who fit in with their communities have insufficient motivation to risk their psyches in creating something truly new, while those who are out of sync are driven by the constant need to prove their worth. ~Gary Taubes
#quotes #gary-taubes #motivation #creativity #science
I don't pay a lot of attention, frankly, to what Barack Obama says. ~Dick Cheney
#quotes #dick-cheney #barack-obama #attention
The South African government, unlike a lot of African governments, isn't poor. ~Charlayne Hunter Gault
#quotes #charlayne-hunter-gault #government #poverty #south-africa