Even as a junkie I stayed true [to vegetarianism] - 'I shall have heroin, but I shan't have a hamburger.' What a sexy little paradox.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the paradox of maintaining personal values amid self-destructive behavior.
Russell Brand's quote reflects the complexity of personal choices and values. Even while grappling with addiction, he remained committed to his vegetarianism, illustrating that one can hold onto certain beliefs or principles—even while engaging in conflicting behaviors. The term 'sexy little paradox' emphasizes the intrigue and irony of such a situation, hinting at the struggle between desires and personal ethics.
In practice
In a discussion about maintaining principles during challenging times.
Perhaps if we could popularise through the techniques of branding and consumerism, a different idea, a different narrative, perhaps the world can change. After all it changes constantly and incessantly, it's just the perceptions that we have are governed by people with self-interest and are not inalignment with the health and safety of us as individuals or as a planet.
Say I feel all sad and self-indulgent, then get stung by a wasp, my misery feels quite abstract and I long just to be in spiritual pain once more - 'damn you tiny assassin, clad in yellow and black, how I crave my former innocence where melancholy was my only trial'.
I've never had a sustained period of medication for mental illness when I've not been on other drugs as well. It's just not something that I particularly feel I need. I know that I have dramatically changing moods, and I know sometimes I feel really depressed, but I think that's just life. I don't think of it as, "Ah, this is mental illness," more as, "Today, life makes me feel very sad." I know I also get unnaturally high levels of energy and quickness of thought, but I'm able to utilize that.
I know that's the sort of thing people say and I really hate it when people say the sort of things people say. I always think, 'You don't mean that, you just think it sounds good.
Im happy to be a part of the conversation, if more young people are talking about fracking instead of twerking were heading in the right direction. The people that govern us dont want an active population who are politically engaged, they want passive consumers distracted by the spectacle of which I accept I am a part.
When I was poor and I complained about inequality they said I was bitter. Now I'm rich and I complain about inequality they say I'm a hypocrite. I'm starting to think they just don't want to talk about inequality.
Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich.
The greatest wisdom is to make the enjoyment of the present the supreme object of life; because that is the only reality, all else being merely the play of thought. On the other hand, such a course might just as well be called the greatest folly: for that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes utterly, like a dream, can never be worth a serious effort.
The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.
They were still all beautiful and there was still enchantment and wonder, but she had crossed a line and now the fairy tale was green with corruption and evil.
People couldn't become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively wicked.
We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.