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not a fighter... an adventurer. He doesn't attack, he engages; He doesn't defend, he expands; He doesn't destroy, he transforms; He doesn't reject, he explores; ....
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Tom Robbins |
1b8bf9c
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the greatest men that ever live pass away unknown. they put forth no claims for themselves, establish no schools of systems in their name. they never create or stir but just melt down into love
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Tom Robbins |
6752e33
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And it rained a screaming. And it rained a rawness. And it rained a plasma. And it rained a disorder.
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Tom Robbins |
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The ugly may be beautiful, the pretty never.
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Tom Robbins |
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The pain of love does not break hearts, it merely seasons them. The disappointed heart revives itself and grows meaty and piquant. Sorrow expands it and makes it pithy. The spirit, on the other hand, can snap like a bone and may never fully knit
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Tom Robbins |
09cba28
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Tennessee Williams once wrote, 'We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.' Yes, but oh! What a view from that upstairs window! What Tennessee failed to mention was that if we look out of that window with an itchy curiousity and a passionate eye; with a generous spirit and a capacity for delight; and yes, t..
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Tom Robbins |
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There were no mail-order catalogues in 1492. Marco Polo's journal was the wish book of Renaissance Europe. Then, Columbus sailed the ocean blue and landed in Sears' basement. Despite all the Indians on the escalator, Columbus' visit came to be known as a "discovery."
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catalogs
columbus
indians
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Tom Robbins |
0dde0e0
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Equality is not in regarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently.
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Tom Robbins |
9565358
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the extent to which a society focuses on the needs of its lowest common denominator is the extent to which that society'll be mired in mediocrity. Whereas, if we would aim the bulk of our support at the brightest, most talented, most virtuous instead, then they would have the wherewithal to solve a lot of our problems, to uplift the whole culture, enlighten it or something, so that eventually there wouldn't be so many losers and weaklings i..
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Tom Robbins |
941bfd7
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Like the Arthurian years at Camelot, the Sixties constituted a breakthrough, a fleeting moment of glory, a time when a significant little chunk of humanity briefly realised its moral potential and flirted with its neurological destiny, a collective spiritual awakening that flared brilliantly until the barbaric and mediocre impulses of the species drew tight once more the curtains of darkness.
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sixties
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Tom Robbins |
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Is that man's fate: to spend his closest hours to truth longing for a lie?
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Tom Robbins |
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Indeed, the first step toward becoming a true outlaw is the refusal to be victimized.
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Tom Robbins |
08bba9c
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On the right side-panel of the verbose and somewhat tautological box of Cheerios, it is written, If you are not satisfied with the quality and/or performance of the Cheerios in this box, send name, address, and reason for dissatisfaction--along with entire boxtop and price paid--to: General Mills, Inc., Box 200-A, Minneapolis, Minn., 55460. Your purchase price will be returned. It isn't enough that there is a defensive tone to those words, ..
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performance
satisfaction
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Tom Robbins |
45b02e1
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On their sofas of spice and feathers, the concubines also slept fretfully. In those days the Earth was still flat, and people dreamed often of falling over edges.
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inspirational
sleep
thought-provoking
writing
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Tom Robbins |
03dcee8
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Modern Romans insisted that there was only one god, a notion that struck Alobar as comically simplistic. Worse, this Semitic deity was reputed to be jealous (what was there to be jealous of if there were no other gods?), vindictive, and altogether foul-tempered. If you didn't serve the nasty fellow, the Romans would burn your house down. If you did serve him, you were called a Christian and got to burn other people's houses down.
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christianity
gods
jealousy
religion
romans
vindication
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Tom Robbins |
481e539
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In the world according to the positivist, the inspiring thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them they're sunny side up. In the world according to the existentialist, the hopeless thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them they're scrambled.
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Tom Robbins |
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Politics is for people who have a passion for changing life but lack a passion for living it.
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Tom Robbins |
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Not aimless. Not in the least. It's just that my aims are different from most. There are plenty of aimless people on the road, all right. People who hitchhike from kicks to kicks, restlessly, searching for something: looking for America, as Jack Kerouac put it, or looking for themselves, or looking for some relation between America and themselves. But I'm not looking for anything. I've something." "What is it that you've found?" "Hitchhik..
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Tom Robbins |
1d0f5de
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All Carolina folk are crazy for mayonnaise, mayonnaise is as ambrosia to them, the food of their tarheeled gods. Mayonnaise comforts them, causes the vowels to slide more musically along their slow tongues, appeasing their grease-conditioned taste buds while transporting those buds to a place higher than lard could ever hope to fly. Yellow as summer sunlight, soft as young thighs, smooth as a Baptist preacher's rant, falsely innocent as a m..
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Tom Robbins |
4b5e166
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If complexity doesn't beat you, paradox will.
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Tom Robbins |
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Every daydream that involves the past sports in its hatband a ticket to the grave.
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Tom Robbins |
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There are no such things as synonyms!" he practically shouted. "Deluge is not the same as flood."
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Tom Robbins |
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It's personal freedom, not hundred dollar bills that lights the soul's cigar.
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Tom Robbins |
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i've lived most of my entire adult life outside the law, and never have i compromised with authority. but neither have i gone out and picked fights with authority. that's stupid. they're waiting for that; they invite it; it helps keep them powerful. authority is to be ridiculed, outwitted and avoided. and its fairly easy to do all three. if you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, act lovingly; if you believe every whic..
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Tom Robbins |
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The function of the artist,' the Navajo answered, 'is to provide what life does not.
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Tom Robbins |
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You are an ignorant schoolgirl. You think civilization is a good thing.
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Tom Robbins |
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If being alive is not a virtue, then there is little virtue in virtue.
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Tom Robbins |
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Not too many years ago, the names of our perfumes bore testimony to such things. There was a popular scent called Tabu, there was Sorcery, My Sin, Vampire, Voodoo, Evening in Paris, Jungle Gardenia, Bandit, Shocking, Intimate, Love Potion, and L'Heure Bleue--The Blue Hour. Nowadays what do we find? Vanderbilt, Miss Dior, Lauren, and Armani, perfumes named after glorified tailors"--there were murmurs and gasps in the audience--"names that ev..
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Tom Robbins |
a60b4db
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Poor little babies are so afraid of pain that they spurn the myriad sweet wonders of life so that they might protect themselves from hurt. How can you respect that sort of weakness, how can you admire a human who consciously embraces the bland, the mediocre, and the safe rather than risk the suffering that disappointments can bring?
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Tom Robbins |
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Peeple of zee wurl, relax
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Tom Robbins |
3197871
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Hi." "Honey!" exclaimed Patsy. "Good to hear your voice! Listen, I oughtta go pull my robe on 'fore we commence. You caught me nekkid as a jaybird." " 'Nekkid' or 'naked,' mama?" "What's the blessed difference? Are you making Yankee fun of the way I talk? The way you used to talk?" "No, no, mama, let me tell you. Naked means you just don't have any clothes on. Nekkid means you don't have any clothes on and you're fixing to get into trouble...
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Tom Robbins |
274d288
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The clown is a creature of chaos. His appearance is an affront to our sense of dignity, his actions a mockery of our sense of order. The clown (freedom) is always being chased by the policeman (authority). Clowns are funny precisely because their shy hopes lead invariably to brief flings of (exhilarating?) disorder followed by crushing retaliation from the status quo. It delights us to watch a careless clown break taboos; it thrills us vica..
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chaos
clown
disorder
freedom
jesus
order
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Tom Robbins |
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Jerusalem was capital of southern Israel, known then as Judah. Isn't it true that there's always a rivalry between north and south? North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, Northern and Southern Ireland, Yankees and Rebels, uptown and downtown. Somebody please tell me why that is? Maybe southerners get too much sun, like Mr. Sock over there, frying his threads, and northerners don't get enough (although I hardly think northern Israel..
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jerusalem
north-vs-south
northerners
progress
rivalry
southerners
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Tom Robbins |
5603376
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Are you to be an individual, a trespasser in territory none else has had the wit or nerve to explore, or just another troublesome mosquito to be swatted by the authorities?
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Tom Robbins |
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Evidently, I'd suffered an epiphany: the subconscious realization that when it comes to coolness, nothing the human race has ever invented is more cool than a book.
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coolness
humanity-and-society
invention
literature
worldview
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Tom Robbins |
fcdc9ec
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It might be noted here that Freudian analysts of fairy tales have suggested that kissing toads and frogs is symbolized fellatio. In that regard, Princess Leigh-Cheri was, on a conscious level, innocent, although not so naive as Queen Tilli, who though fellatio was an obscure Italian opera and was annoyed that she couldn't find the score.
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Tom Robbins |
58c8c8b
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If I have been given any gift in this life, it's my ability to live simultaneously in the rational world and the world of imagination.
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inspirational
memoir
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Tom Robbins |
fc6c3eb
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Of our nine planets, Saturn is the one that looks like fun.
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Tom Robbins |
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Some families ran their own little version of the Middle East.
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Tom Robbins |
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There are apparently few limitations either of time or space on where the psyche might journey and only the customs inspector employed by our own inhibitions restricts what it might bring back when it reenters the home country of everyday consciousness.
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Tom Robbins |
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How could you be so naive as to tell a human being the truth? Men live by embedding themselves in ongoing systems of illusion. Religion. Patriotism. Economics. Fashion. That sort of thing. If you wish to gain the favor of the two-legged ilk, you must learn to fabricate as wholeheartedly as they do.
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Tom Robbins |
9e09ffb
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Larry, wouldn't it be a fine thing, a swell thing, a boon to the community of man and to all creatures great and small, if this girl's soul was as ripe and stunning as her ass.
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Tom Robbins |
889a0c0
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if we aren't learning something from a new experience, it's usually because we aren't paying attention. Or we're following the wrong libretto.
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Tom Robbins |
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To wit: actions, like sounds, divide the flow of time into beats.[...]The quality of a man's life depends on the rhyhmic structure he is able to impose upon the input and output of energy.
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life
rhythms
time
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Tom Robbins |