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Timothy Leary

43 quotes

“We always have urged people: Don't take LSD unless you are very well prepared, unless you are specifically prepared to go out of your mind. Don't take it unless you have someone that's very experienced with you to guide you through it. And don't take it unless you are ready to have your perspective on yourself and your life radically changed, because you're gonna be a different person, and you should be ready to face this possibility.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: CBC Documentary: How To Go Out of Your Mind: The LSD Crisis (1966)
“People use the word "natural" … What is natural to me is these botanical species which interact directly with the nervous system. What I consider artificial is four years at Harvard, and the Bible, and Saint Patrick's cathedral, and the sunday school teachings.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LSD: Methods of Control (1966)
“Art's certainly made a lot of money, and got on a lot of shows — he got himself into the Nixon White House riding on the death of his daughter. And I think that's ghoulish! That's ghoulish.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a Stanley Siegel interview (c. 1977), with phone commentary by Art Linkletter who blamed his daughter's death on her involvement with LSD.
“I declare that The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Shout! (1981) by Philip Norman, p. 365; and in An Encyclopedia of Quotations about Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 303
“If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Changing My Mind, Among Others (1982)
“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Third and Possibly the Best 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (1987) by Robert Byrne, #40
“We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. They are a hundred times better educated than their grandparents, and ten times more sophisticated. There has never been such an open-minded group. The problem is that no one is giving them anything fresh. They've got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by David Sheff in Rolling Stone Twentieth Anniversary Issue (1987)
“Think for yourself and question authority.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Timothy Leary's track on Sound Bites from the Counter Culture (1989)
“That’s the left wing of the CIA debating the right wing of the CIA.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Discussing CNN’s Crossfire as quoted in Rolling Stone (14 December 1989)
“I have always considered myself, when I learned what the word meant, I've always considered myself a Pagan.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At the Neo-Pagan Starwood Festival (July 1991), recorded on Timothy Leary Live at Starwood (2001) by the Association for Consciousness Exploration
“The universe is an intelligence test”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977) by Robert Anton Wilson, p. 170
“Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities — the political, the religious, the educational authorities — who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing — forming in our minds — their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How to Operate Your Brain (1994), a guided meditation spoken by Timothy Leary and set to music.
“I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chaos and Cyber Culture (1994)
“He's basically a romantic comedian. …. He was a government agent entering our bedroom at midnight. We had every right to shoot him. But I've never owned a weapon in my life, and I have no intention of owning a weapon, although I was a master sharpshooter at West Point on both the Garand, the Springfield rifle and the machine-gun. I was a howitzer expert. I know how to operate these lethal gadgets but I have never had and never will have a gun around.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commenting on G. Gordon Liddy‎‎'s 1994 remarks on shooting intruding ATF agents, and a 1966 raid by Liddy in which Leary had been arrested, in "Timothy Leary Revisited" a 1995 interview, in Paul Krassner's Impolite Inte…
“Monotheism is the primitive religion which centers human consciousness on Hive Authority. There is One God and His Name is _______ (substitute Hive-Label). If there is only One God then there is no choice, no option, no selection of reality. There is only Submission or Heresy. The word Islam means "submission". The basic posture of Christianity is kneeling. Thy will be done.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Intelligence Agents (1996)
“Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. The Christians say "you are a sinner", and you better just zip up your trousers and give the money to the pope and we'll give you a room up in the hotel in the sky.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Timothy Leary's Last Trip (1997)
“We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the twenty-first century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the dark ages of the 1960s. On this space colony we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Castalia Institute in Millbrook, New York; quoted in Storming Heaven : LSD and the American Dream (1998) by Jay Stevens, p. 208
“You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Office Yoga : Simple Stretches for Busy People (2000) by Darrin Zeer, p. 52
“In the information age, you don't teach philosophy as they did after feudalism. You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today he'd have a talk show.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Best Advice Ever for Teachers (2001) by Charles McGuire and Diana Abitz, p. 57
“At one point consciousness-altering devices like the microscope and telescope were criminalized for exactly the same reasons that psychedelic plants were banned in later years. They allow us to peer into bits and zones of Chaos.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia : How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings (2005), by Rob Brezsny, p. 8
“Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Still Casting Shadows : A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History (2006) by B. Clay Shannon, p. 376
“I've left specific instructions that I do not want to be brought back during a Republican administration.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On being brought back to life, during the period in which he considered putting his body into cryonic suspension, as quoted in The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Republicans (2006) by Martin Higgins, p. 130
“Seven million people I turned on, and only one hundred thousand have come by to thank me.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Don Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club (2010), p. 202
“Giger’s work disturbs us, spooks us, because of its enormous evolutionary time span. It shows us, all too clearly, where we come from and where we are going.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An enormous amount of energy from every fiber of your body is released under LSD — especially sexual energy. There is no question that LSD is the most powerful aphrodisiac ever discovered by man.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only abuse of drugs is the control of drugs by other people. ...The only control is self-control.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I feel or believe or experience is my business, and what I do is all our businesses; and reward or punish me according to whether I play the game well — ethically and rightly — or unethically.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's one uneasy borderline between what is external and what is internal, and this borderline is defined exactly by the sense organs and the skin and the introduction of external things within my own body. Consciousness is altered by physical events and physical objects, which impinge upon my sense organs, or which I introduce into my body. Now the name traditionally given to external objects or processes which change you internally is sacrament. Sacraments are the visible and tangible techniques for bringing you close to your own divinity.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The language of God is not English or Latin; the language of God is cellular and molecular.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anything that affects your senses … is your business. If you want to kill yourself through nicotine or cyanide, it's your business.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That intermediate manifestation of the divine process which we call the DNA code has spent the last 2 billion years making this planet a Garden of Eden. An intricate web has been woven, a delicate fabric of chemical-electrical-seed-tissue=organism=species. A dancing, joyous harmony of energy transactions is rooted in the 12 inches of topsoil which covers the rock”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences. When the individual's behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to "drop out," "turn on," and "tune in." This period of robotization is called the Kali Yuga, the Age of Strife and Empire...”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Actions which are conscious expressions of the turn-on, tune-in, drop-out rhythm are religious. The wise person devotes his life exclusively to the religious search — for therein is found the only ecstasy, the only meaning. Anything else is a competitive quarrel over (or Hollywood-love sharing of) studio props.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Drugs Are the Religion of the People — The Only Hope is Dope”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are serious about your religion, if you really wish to commit yourself to the spiritual quest, you must learn how to use psychochemicals. Drugs are the religion of the twenty-first century. Pursuing the religious life today without using psychedelic drugs is like studying astronomy with the naked eye because that's how they did it in the first century A.D., and besides telescopes are unnatural.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My advice to people today is as follows: If you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“John asked what he could do to help my campaign for governor. "Write a campaign song," I replied. "Okay," said John, "what's the theme?" "Our campaign slogan is Come together, join the party.'" "Great title," said John. He grabbed his guitar and started improvising.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To describe externals, you become a scientist. To describe experience, you become an artist. The old distinction between artists and scientists must vanish. Every time we teach a child correct usage of an external symbol, we must spend as much time teaching him how to fission and reassemble external grammar to communicate the internal. The training of artists and creative performers can be a straightforward, almost mechanical process. When you teach someone how to perform creatively (ie, associate dead symbols in new combinations), you expand his potential for experiencing more widely and richly.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Changing My Mind, Among Others : Lifetime Writings (1982), p. 76; also in Change Your Brain (2000), p. 72
“Turn on" meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. "Tune in" meant interact harmoniously with the world around you — externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. Drop out suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. "Drop Out" meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean "Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Flashbacks (1983)
“A psychedelic experience is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of space-time dimensions, and of the ego or identity. Such experiences of enlarged consciousness can occur in a variety of ways: sensory deprivation, yoga exercises, disciplined meditation, religious or aesthetic ecstasies, or spontaneously. Most recently they have become available to anyone through the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, etc. Of course, the drug does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as a chemical key — it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Psychedelic Experience (1995)
“The Tibetan Book of the Dead is ostensibly a book describing the experiences to be expected at the moment of death, during an intermediate phase lasting forty-nine (seven times seven) days, and during rebirth into another bodily frame. This however is merely the exoteric framework which the Tibetan Buddhists used to cloak their mystical teachings. … The esoteric meaning, as it has been interpreted in this manual, is that it is death and rebirth of the ego that is described, not of the body. Lama Govinda indicates this clearly in his introduction when he writes: "It is a book for the living as well as the dying." The book's esoteric meaning is often concealed beneath many layers of symbolism. It was not intended for general reading. It was designed to be understood only by one who was to be initiated personally by a guru into the Buddhist mystical doctrines, into the pre-mortem-death-rebirth experience. These doctrines have been kept a closely guarded secret for many centuries, for fear that naive or careless application would do harm.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Psychedelic Experience (1964), p. 12
“While sitting in my prison cell, I was astonished to hear the local rock station play a new song by the Beatles entitled "Come Together." Although the new version was certainly a musical and lyrical improvement on my campaign song, I was a bit miffed that Lennon had passed me over this way. (I must explain that even the most good-natured persons tend to be a bit touchy about social neglect while in prison). When I sent a mild protest to John, he replied with typical Lennon charm and wit: that he was a tailor and I was a customer who had ordered a suit and never returned. So he sold it to someone else.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source