I believe that obstinacy, or the dread of control and discipline, arises not so much from self-willedness, as from a conscious defect of voluntary power; as foolhardiness is not seldom the disguise of conscious timidity.
The last time I was in Chile, I was hypnotized by a friend who is studying to be a curandero, a healer, who led me back through several incarnations. It wasn't easy to return to the present, however, since my friend hadn't reached that part of the course, but the experiment was well worth the effort because I discovered that in former lives I was not Genghis Khan, as my mother believes. I've been so thoroughly incorporated into the California culture that I practice meditation and go to a therapist, even though I always set a trap: during my meditation I invent stories to keep from being bored, and in therapy I invent stories to keep from boring the psychologist.
Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded.
I think I'll have a large order of prognosis negative.
When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers I kind of wanted to be a vampire.
To what shall the character of utility be ascribed, if not to that which is a source of pleasure?
I'm a father. It isn't just my life any more. I don't want my kid finding bottles in the house or seeing his father completely smashed.
This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole...
Do not therefore allow yourself to be led astray by the specious good nature of such an institution as that of twin beds.
It is the silliest, the most treacherous, the most dangerous in the world. Shame and anathema to him who conceived it.
Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.