15073765 Quotes & Sayings

collectivity, on the other hand, is the place of what the seventeenth-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal calls "divertissement," an untranslatable word which roughly means "distraction" or "diversion": It is the escape from life's problems, and also its invitations, into activities that in ultimate terms are meaningless. It is a constant turning to superficial actions as a way to avoid facing the true realities of human life. The soap operas and situation comedies easily become an addiction. They take the place of the "bread and circuses" of ancient Rome. There was plenty wrong with Roman society and the Roman emperors offered the diversion of food and entertainment to make people forget the banality and meaninglessness of the lives they lived. Our society does much the same and has ever so much more in the way of sophisticated tools for doing so. — William H. Shannon

The minority of one generation is usually the majority of the next. — Gertrude Atherton

Suffering is not blessed because it is suffering but because it is [Christ's]. Suffering is not the context that explains the cross; the cross is the context that explains suffering. — Peter Kreeft

Horror stories have always worked on film. It's where they work. That's where vampires and ghosts and UFOs are real. They're not particularly real in life, but they're real on the screen. It's the communal aspect of movie-watching. — John Carpenter

I saw George Bush at a benefit concert actually waving at Stevie Wonder. Someone had to tell him 'he can't see you'. — Anne Robinson

There's only so many times you can read how ugly you are and how much people hate you. — Lizzy Caplan

I've never written an autobiographical novel in my life. I've never touched upon my life. I've never written a single scene that I can say took place. — Bret Easton Ellis

Please do not understand me too quickly. — Andre Gide