Sofie > Sofie's Quotes

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.”
― John Barth

“Every artist joins a conversation that's been going on for generations, even millennia, before he or she joins the scene.”
― John Barth

“My dear fellow,' Burlingame said, 'we sit here on a blind rock careening through space; we are all of us rushing headlong to the grave. Think you the worms will care, when anon they make a meal of you, whether you spent your moment sighing wigless in your chamber, or sacked the golden towns of Montezuma? Lookee, the day's nigh spent; 'tis gone careening into time forever. Not a tale's length past we lined our bowels with dinner, and already they growl for more. We are dying men, Ebenezer: i'faith, there's time for naught but bold resolves!”
― John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor

“not every boy thrown to the wolves becomes a hero.”
― John Barth

“Self knowledge is always bad news.”
― John Barth, Giles Goat-Boy

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
― Anatole France

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”
― Anatole France, Works of Anatole France

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”
― Anatole France

“Stupidity is far more dangerous than evil, for evil takes a break from time to time, stupidity does not.”
― Anatole France

“There are forces, Lucius, infinitely more powerful than reason and science."
" What are they?" asked Cotta.
"Ignorance and folly," replied Aristaeus.”
― Anatole France, Thaïs

“John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
― Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress

“If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature.”
― Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress

“Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.”
― Ronald Wright

“Every person must choose how much truth he can stand.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept

“Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept

“Only the wounded healer can truly heal. (97)”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Lying on the Couch

“I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

“I do not like to work with patients who are in love. Perhaps it is because of envy—I, too, crave enchantment. Perhaps it is because love and psychotherapy are fundamentally incompatible. The good therapist fights darkness and seeks illumination, while romantic love is sustained by mystery and crumbles upon inspection. I hate to be love’s executioner.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner

“That was the first important discovery I made about Betty: she was desperately isolated, and she survived this isolation only by virtue of the sustaining myth that her intimate life was being lived elsewhere. Her friends, her circle of acquaintances, were not here, but elsewhere, in New York, in Texas, in the past. In fact, everything of importance was elsewhere. It was at this time that I first began to suspect that for Betty there was no “here” there.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner

“If one is to learn to live with the dead, one must first learn to live with the living!”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

“though the fact, the physicality, of death destroys us, the idea of death may save us.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner

“The more the therapist is able to tolerate the anxiety of not knowing, the less need there is for the therapist to embrace orthodoxy.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner

“Decision invariably involves renunciation: for every yes there must be a no, each decision eliminating or killing other options (the root of the word decide means “slay,” as in homicide or suicide).”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

“That just seems to be the way we’re built.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

“I always imagined that you might write something about me. I wanted to leave an imprint on your life. I don’t want to be “just another patient”. I wanted to be “special”. I want to be something, anything. I feel like nothing, no one. If I left an imprint on your life, maybe I would be someone, someone you wouldn’t forget. I’d exist then. (Marge’s letter to Yalom)”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy