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Celia Green
53 quotes
“On the face of it there is something rather strange about human psychology. Human beings live in a state of mind called sanity, on a small planet in space. They are not quite sure whether the space around them is infinite or not, either way it is unthinkable. If they think about time, they find that it is inconceivable that it had a beginning. It is also inconceivable that it did not have a beginning. Thoughts of this kind are not disturbing to sanity, which is obviously a remarkable phenomenon that deserves more recognition.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only the impossible is worth attempting. In everything else one is sure to fail.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact that something is far-fetched is no reason why it should not be true; it cannot be as far-fetched as the fact that something exists.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Astonishment is the only realistic emotion.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People accept their limitations so as to prevent themselves from wanting anything they might get.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is inconceivable that anything should be existing. It is not inconceivable that a lot of people should also be existing who are not interested in the fact that they exist. But it is certainly very odd.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The remarkable thing about the human mind is its range of limitations.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human race has to be bad at psychology; if it were not, it would understand why it is bad at everything else.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When someone says his conclusions are objective, he means that they are based on prejudices which many other people share.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The psychology of committees is a special case of the psychology of mobs.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Society expresses its sympathy for the geniuses of the past to distract attention from the fact that it has no intention of being sympathetic to the geniuses of the present.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In an autocracy, one person has his way; in an aristocracy a few people have their way; in a democracy, no one has his way.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Democracy: everyone should have an equal opportunity to obstruct everybody else.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When people talk about 'the sanctity of the individual' they mean 'the sanctity of the statistical norm'.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In an unenlightened society some people are forced to play degrading social roles; in an enlightened society, everyone is.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Society is everybody's way of punishing one another because they daren't take it out on the universe.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Social justice' - the expression of universal hatred.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Society is a self-regulating mechanism for preventing the fulfilment of its members.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human nature: vindictiveness lightly coated with dishonesty.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human race believes in not taking its problems seriously enough to solve them.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People having religions is an insult to the universe.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People have been marrying and bringing up children for centuries now. Nothing has ever come of it.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The object of the educational system is to make the child feel suitably guilty for the harm that has been done to him.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education by the State is a contradiction in terms. Intellectual development is only possible to those who have seen through society.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is lucky to escape with his life.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is scandalous is not that stupid people should sometimes inherit private incomes; but that clever people should sometimes not.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human race knows enough about thinking to prevent it.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the greatest superstitions of our time is the belief that it has none.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That society exists to frustrate the individual may be seen from its attitude to work. It is only morally acceptable if you do not want to do it. If you want to, it becomes a personal pleasure.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lack of clarity is always a sign of dishonesty.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is superfluous to be humble on one's own behalf; so many people are willing to do it for one.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only important thing to realise about history is that it all took place in the last five minutes.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot write long books; I leave that for those who have nothing to say.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The perception that existence exists invalidates the normal personality,as does the imminence of death.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now if anyone were reminded about the inconceivable by the fact of existence at all constantly, he would sooner or later have the perception that there may be inconceivable considerations which are inconceivably more important than any conceivable consideration could be.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now if you do have a perception that any conceivable consideration may be utterly invalidated by some other consideration which you do not know, and if you are reminded of this perception constantly by the fact that things exist, certain modifications take place in the way you feel about things. These modifications have not taken place in the psychology of most people.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Young people wonder how the adult world can be so boring. The secret is that it is not boring to adults because they have learned to enjoy simple things like covert malice at one another's expense. This is why they talk so much about the value of human understanding and sympathy - it has a certain rarity value in their world.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Children need admiration rather than affection.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Progress towards sanity is achieved by abandoning first the desire for omnipotence and then that for exceptional achievement.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the universe there is room for an infinite series of beginnings.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have long had a theory that the popularity of Christianity has always depended on its appeal to the sadism of its adherents. The exceptional should be crucified, saith Society; and somehow everyone suspects (in spite of all arguments to the contrary) that if there is a God, he may be exceptional in some way. So the figure of Christ crucified becomes the figure of the dangerous exceptional alien—suitably defeated. 'Only a suffering God can help', said Bonhoeffer, licking his lips.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most exciting thing possible is actually true.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What appear to be the most valuable aspects of the theoretical physics we have are the mathematical descriptions which enable us to predict events. These equations are, we would argue, the only realities we can be certain of in physics; any other ways we have of thinking about the situation are visual aids or mnemonics which make it easier for beings with our sort of macroscopic experience to use and remember the equations.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is actually a principle of modern paternalism that if you want something you should be stopped from having it[…] Most foods are harmful to some people if taken in excess, and I expect the only reason that carrots are still available without a prescription is that no one has got very excited about them, or claimed that they might cure cancer.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is easier to make people appear equally stupid than to make them equally clever, so teaching methods are adopted which make it practically impossible for anyone to learn anything.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I spent a couple of years between eleven and thirteen analysing the social evaluations that were taken for granted, also acquiring a thorough scepticism about processes regarded as causal, and the consistency of the physical world, as well as the reliability of my own mental processes. By the time I was thirteen I was running out of things to think about, so starting on a run of exam-taking seemed all the more appropriate, as I was finding it difficult to make use of spare time.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is when the commercial factor enters into the situation that the possibility of genuine individual liberty arises.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has never seemed to me offensive that persons should be other persons' paid servants; but that other persons should be other persons' doctors, who are able to prescribe and refuse chemicals, has always seemed to me abominable.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Couched, of course, in tones of the utmost friendliness and benevolence, they unite in regretting that he [Somerset Maugham] was able to fulfil his own wishes.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source