No one's ever dared come out and say it before, but there's not a man among us that doesn't think it, that doesn't feel just as you do about her and the whole business - feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul.
Ken KeseyRead
Anesthetized time; nothing moves and everything is at once.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Kesey reflects on the nature of time and existence, suggesting a moment of stillness where everything converges.
This quote by Ken Kesey evokes a profound meditation on the experience of time in a state of anesthetization where the usual passage of time is altered, creating a surreal moment where all experiences and events seem to be present simultaneously. It captures the tension between the relentless forward movement of time and the stillness of perception, inviting us to consider how we occupy our moments and the weight of existence in those fleeting fragments.
Themes
TimeExistenceStillnessPerceptionMoment
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on existentialism, one might refer to this quote to illustrate the concept of time perception.
More from Ken Kesey
All quotes βHis whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can't lift, something everybody knows he can't lift. But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it.
Ken KeseyRead
You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you.
Ken KeseyRead
But I remember one thing:_x000D_ _x000D_ it wasn't me that started acting deaf;_x000D_ _x000D_ it was people that first started acting like_x000D_ _x000D_ I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all
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The job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
Ken KeseyRead
If this glorious birth to death hassle is the only hassle we are ever to have ..if our grand exhilarating fight of life is such a tragically short little scrap anyway,compared to the eons of rounds before and after-then why should one want to relinquish even a few precious seconds of it?
Ken KeseyRead
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