The Mearns Quotes & Sayings

As I was sitting in my chair,
I knew the bottom wasn't there,
Nor legs nor back, but I just sat,
Ignoring little things like that. — Hughes Mearns

Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better. — Levon Helm

In our hearts we know that with a different fate, we, too, could be in the ranks of the dispossessed, stripped of our identities and belonging nowhere. The refugee becomes a sinister symbol of what can quickly happen once personhood is denied and people are transformed into disposable units of contemptible impediments to the greed or power-mongering of others. — Dave Mearns

Susan Carol had arrived at the stadium with Bobby Kelleher and Tamara Mearns — John Feinstein

Her streak of independence, which had first brought her to this unfriendly city, was in studied defiance of her smothering appetite for security. If she gave in to those loving appeals she knew she would take root in domestic soil and not look up and out again for another year. In which time, what adventures might have passed her by? — Clive Barker

Self-acceptance should not be confused with an over-vaulting aggrandisement of self over others. That individual's exaggerated positive view of self relies upon a comparison with others - they sustain their own positive self-view, relatively, by maintaining a negative view of others. — Dave Mearns

Writing is an outward expression of instinctive insight that must be summoned from the vastly deep of our mysterious selves. Therefore, it cannot be taught; indeed, it cannot even be summoned; it can only be permitted. — William Hughes Mearns

What is shared in common is infinitely more significant than what apparently divides. — Dave Mearns

No man can be psychologically castrated without his co-operation! — Eda LeShan

You take off your clothes and you're in bed with somebody, and that is indeed where whatever you've concealed, your particularity, whatever it may be, however encrypted, is going to be found out, and that's what all the shyness is all about and what everybody fears. — Philip Roth

Criticism hurts most because it comes from another person and abuse is most damaging when it comes from someone who should love us. — Dave Mearns

The way to make the giving a free vote safe for a totalitarian capitalist regime is simple - make all political parties the same! — Dave Mearns

Waking is no different than sleeping if all you do is dream. — Marty Rubin

Lizzie Darbury won't do," Vivian said. "She never understands Harry's jokes. She just stares at him as if he's a bit touched in the head and doesn't laugh." "And that's important," Louisa said. "Men do hate it when we don't find them amusing. Especially Harry. It quite upsets him. — Laura Lee Guhrke

Poetry is when you talk to yourself. — William Hughes Mearns

Making movies can be a creative exciting project for director and rest of staff. — Philip Kaufman

All signs were pointing upward; his wheel was revolving skyward. — John Kennedy Toole

You have something to say. Something of your very own. Try to say it. Don't be ashamed of any real thought or feeling you have. Don't undervalue it. Don't let the fear of others prevent you from saying it ... You have something to say, something that no one else in the world has said in just your way of saying it. — William Hughes Mearns

The counsellor who never reads a novel or never opens a book of poetry is neglecting an important resource for empathic development. — Dave Mearns

Part of the discipline of the person-centred approach is not to make assumptions about the client's appropriate process, but to follow the process laid out by the client. — Dave Mearns

The ordinariness of living to be old is too novel a thing to appreciate. — Ronald Blythe

People were surprised in the 1990s when multinationals began to contribute heavily to New Labour, favoured even above the Conservative Party. But this move of Labour to New Labour was much more important to capitalism than simply having one party to support, for if you can have both big parties you have achieved the ultimate switch from a capitalist democracy to a totalitarian capitalist democracy, such as was accomplished in the USA many years previously. — Dave Mearns

STEPAN: Innocence? Yes, maybe I know what that means. But I prefer to shut my eyes to it - and to shut others' eyes to it, for the time being - so that one day it may have a world-wide meaning. KALIAYEV: Well, you must feel very sure that day is coming if you repudiate everything that makes life worth living today, on its account. STEPAN: I am certain that that day is coming. KALIAYEV: No, you can't be as sure as that. ... Before it can be known which of us, you or I, is right, perhaps three generations will have to be sacrificed; there will have been bloody wars, and no less bloody revolutions. And by the time that all this blood has dried off the earth, you and I will long since have turned to dust. — Albert Camus

Development is not about learning how to counsel but about becoming the kind of person who can counsel. — Dave Mearns

As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wan't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh I wish he'd go away! — William Hughes Mearns

I've got four women in my house - my wife and my three daughters - and I tell you what, it's pretty scary. I keep my head down and if we're out shopping I try and look in a man's shop while they make their minds up. — Ian Holloway

Xander, it's a good thing you weren't some sort of Cossack general, back in the day. You get that tone of voice, that look on your face, and I'm not kidding ... even I would follow you into hell. — Amy Lane