I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life.
Timothy LearyRead
What do you think deja vu is for?". Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes taking chances in interactions with strangers, suggesting that every encounter is significant.
Timothy Leary's quote highlights the importance of engaging with others, particularly strangers, as each person has a valuable contribution to make in our lives. It suggests that coincidences are not truly random, but rather meaningful events that can lead to new connections and insights if we are open to them. Our instincts can guide us in these interactions, encouraging us to break social norms and extend ourselves to learn and grow from the experiences that arise from unexpected conversations.
Themes
Deja VuConversationStrangersConnectionsTrustInstincts
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a motivational speech about networking and social interactions.
More from Timothy Leary
All quotes →Think for yourself and question authority.
Timothy LearyRead
There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third.
Timothy LearyRead
The brain is not a blind, reactive machine, but a complex, sensitive biocomputer that we can program. And if we don't take the responsibility for programming it, then it will be programmed unwittingly by accident or by the social environnement.
Timothy LearyRead
My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.
Timothy LearyRead
The danger of psychedelic drugs, the danger of mind-opening, the danger of consciousness expansion, the danger of inner discovery is a danger to the establishment.
Timothy LearyRead
Similar quotes
It's only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous.
Ian MckellenRead
A change of environment is the traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely.
Vladimir NabokovRead
Everybody who flashed the signs of loyalty he took to be loyal. Everybody who flashed the signs of intelligence he took to be intelligent. And so he had failed to see into his daughter, failed to see into his wife, failed to see into his one and only mistress—probably had never even begun to see into himself
Philip RothRead
She and I just don't see eye to eye together. She's a square. She keeps telling me that I'm too interested in chess, that I should get friends outside of chess, you can't make a living from chess, that I should finish high school and all that nonsense. She keeps in my hair and I don't like people in my hair, you know, so I had to get rid of her.
Bobby FischerRead
When people are speaking, they require our undivided attention. We focus on them; we listen very carefully. We listen to the spoken words and the unspoken messages. This means looking directly at the person, eyes connected; we forget we have a watch, just focusing for that moment on that person.
Frances HesselbeinRead
Every relationship, every situation is part of a divinely created and highly specific curriculum for your soul growth
Marianne WilliamsonRead