I want to photograph the considerable ceremonies of our present. I want to gather them, like somebody's grandmother putting up preserves, because they will have been so beautiful.
Diane ArbusRead
I used to think consciousness itself was a virtue, so I tried to keep it all in my head at the same time: past, future, etc.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Consciousness involves awareness of time and experiences, but holding onto everything can be overwhelming.
Diane Arbus reflects on the complexity of consciousness and the struggle of trying to maintain an awareness of all experiences—past and future—simultaneously. This suggests that while being conscious and aware can be perceived as virtuous, the challenge lies in effectively processing and navigating through various thoughts and memories without becoming overwhelmed.
Themes
ConsciousnessVirtueAwarenessPastFuture
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health workshop to discuss the importance of processing thoughts effectively.
More from Diane Arbus
All quotes →I tend to think of the act of photographing, generally speaking, as an adventure. My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.
Diane ArbusRead
... I must begin at whatever pace is possible, to work on the book of my own that i vaguely keep assuming lies at the end of the rainbow. It is after all my rainbow and if I don't do it no one else will...Survival is the secret so you really can't afford to doubt yourself for long because you are all you've got. The only thing to do is to go the limit with it. Exceed.
Diane ArbusRead
Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed, and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them.
Diane ArbusRead
I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.
Diane ArbusRead
If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life. I mean people are going to say, You're crazy. Plus they're going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and that's a reasonable kind of attention to be paid.
Diane ArbusRead
Similar quotes
Texas can make it without the United States, but the United States cannot make it without Texas
Sam HoustonRead
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids Sprouting despondently at area gates.
T. S. EliotRead
If we don't stop somewhere, if we don't accept an unhappy compromise, unhappy for both sides, if we don't learn how to unhappily coexist and contain our burned sense of injustice - if we don't learn how to do that, we end up in a doomed state.
Amos OzRead
While the West has enjoyed overwhelming global power, its moral preachings have been legitimised, and in effect enforced, by that power. But as that power begins to ebb, then the morality of its actions will be the subject of growing scrutiny and challenge.
Martin JacquesRead
Upon this subject, the habits of our whole species fall into three great classes--useful labour, useless labour and idleness. Of these the first only is meritorious; and to it all the products of labour rightfully belong; but the two latter, while they exist, are heavy pensioners upon the first, robbing it of a large portion of it's just rights. The only remedy for this is to, as far as possible, drive useless labour and idleness out of existence.
Abraham LincolnRead
Everything that is happening at this moment is a result of the choices you've made in the past.
Deepak ChopraRead