Celia Green Quotes

The human race knows enough about thinking to prevent it.

The only important thing to realise about history is that it all took place in the last five minutes.

One of the greatest superstitions of our time is the belief that it has none.

Now if you do have a perception that any conceivable consideration may be utterly invalidated by some other consideration which you do not know, and if you are reminded of this perception constantly by the fact that things exist, certain modifications take place in the way you feel about things. These modifications have not taken place in the psychology of most people.

It is actually a principle of modern paternalism that if you want something you should be stopped from having it[…] Most foods are harmful to some people if taken in excess, and I expect the only reason that carrots are still available without a prescription is that no one has got very excited about them, or claimed that they might cure cancer.

The most exciting thing possible is actually true.

Astonishment is the only realistic emotion.

The psychology of committees is a special case of the psychology of mobs.

Lack of clarity is always a sign of dishonesty.

When someone says his conclusions are objective, he means that they are based on prejudices which many other people share.

The perception that existence exists invalidates the normal personality,as does the imminence of death.

It has never seemed to me offensive that persons should be other persons' paid servants; but that other persons should be other persons' doctors, who are able to prescribe and refuse chemicals, has always seemed to me abominable.

It is inconceivable that anything should be existing. It is not inconceivable that a lot of people should also be existing who are not interested in the fact that they exist. But it is certainly very odd.

I cannot write long books; I leave that for those who have nothing to say.

I spent a couple of years between eleven and thirteen analysing the social evaluations that were taken for granted, also acquiring a thorough scepticism about processes regarded as causal, and the consistency of the physical world, as well as the reliability of my own mental processes. By the time I was thirteen I was running out of things to think about, so starting on a run of exam-taking seemed all the more appropriate, as I was finding it difficult to make use of spare time.