Braginsky Survey Quotes & Sayings

Isolation, anchoring, distraction, and sublimation are among the wiles we use to keep ourselves from dispelling every illusion that keeps us up and running. Without this cognitive double-dealing, we would be exposed for what we are. It would be like looking into a mirror and for a moment seeing the skull inside our skin looking back at us with its sardonic smile. And beneath the skull - only blackness, nothing. Someone is there, so we feel, and yet no one is there - the uncanny paradox, all the horror in a glimpse. A little piece of our world has been peeled back, and underneath is creaking desolation - a carnival where all the rides are moving but no patrons occupy the seats. We are missing from the world we have made for ourselves. Maybe if we could resolutely gaze wide-eyed at our lives we would come to know what we really are. But that would stop the showy attraction we are inclined to think will run forever.8 — Thomas Ligotti

We are all insane. But how do you distinguish sanity from insanity, how do you diagnose abnormality in this new world? — Francesca Lia Block

There was a stricken conscience of public guilt and we all felt that we had been wrong, that something was wrong with that building which we had accepted or the tragedy never would have happened. Moved by this sense of stricken guilt, we banded ourselves together to find a way by law to prevent this kind of disaster. — Frances Perkins

One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals. — Michael Korda

I want to be great, or nothing. I won't be a commonplace dauber, so I don't intend to try any more. — Louisa May Alcott

I love watching Samuel L. Jackson do anything, but for me, Gary Oldman is the grandmaster of the game. — Joel Kinnaman

Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life. — Dogen

Meet every person with the assumption that they are your equal. — Julian Burnside

I grew up with a deep belief that wherever our troops fought, they were on the side of the angels. — Jane Fonda

Coveting, pouting, or tearing others down does not elevate your standing, nor does demeaning someone else improve your self-image. — Jeffrey R. Holland