Time Bites Quotes

“A Nasrudin 'joke' may at first seem unfunny, or pointless, but will after study change and begin to reveal itself: you have uncovered the first level of meaning, and will soon observe your thought patterns shift as you watch them; you will have made the first crack in the wall of assumptions, the conditioned thinking (designated 'The Old Villain') which imprisons each and every one of us, the worst of which is to think that the visible world is all there is, that a man's or a mouse's view of life is the true one.”
― Doris Lessing, Time Bites: Views and Reviews

“Is it being said too often how much we in the West have suffered because of the long wars between Islam and Christianity, leaving us biased and with gaps in our information? I think not.”
― Doris Lessing, Time Bites: Views and Reviews

“Arthur Deikman's prime and particular contribution, apart from drawing attention to the problem, was to point out how much cultish behaviour goes on unrecognised, in, for instance, business life or in apparently harmless organisations, religious or philanthropic. It is useful to ask oneself the question: do I feel superior because I belong to - whatever it is? Do I look down on people outside? Perhaps the most easily seen feature of a cult s that: WE are better than THEM. It is salutary to recognise how often in a day we feel disapproval or superiority, matching ourselves with 'outsiders'...”
― Doris Lessing, Time Bites: Views and Reviews

“To hold in one’s mind that a central transforming force is always at work in the world - the force of evolution itself - enables one to see that a person may be learning while not knowing he is doing so.”
― Doris Lessing, Time Bites: Views and Reviews

“We need a shape for the tale. A beginning, a middle and an end.”
― Doris Lessing, Time Bites: Views and Reviews