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
People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that drug use can lead to insights about societal truths, which may be uncomfortable for others.
Ken Kesey's quote expresses a deep skepticism about societal norms and the power of perception. It implies that when individuals alter their consciousness, particularly through substances, they may uncover uncomfortable truths about the constructs and realities that society has built. This suggests a fear among some that such revelations can lead to challenges against established norms, potentially threatening the status quo.
Themes
PerceptionTruthSocietyFabricInsight
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about drug policy, this quote could be used to highlight the relationship between consciousness and awareness.
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
Ken KeseyRead
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
Similar quotes
The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Truth is the greatest of all national possessions. A state, a people, a system which suppresses the truth or fears to publish it, deserves to collapse.
Kurt EisnerRead
Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not. The church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it's to have any meaning in this world - and stop being its apologist.
BonoRead
I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest.
Agatha ChristieRead
In the assemblies of the enlightened ones there have been many cases of mastering the Way bringing forth the heart of plants and trees; this is what awakening the mind for enlightenment is like. The fifth patriarch of Zen was once a pine-planting wayfarer; Rinzai worked on planting cedars and pines on Mount Obaku. . . . Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.
DogenRead
People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them.
Edmund BurkeRead