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Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey Quotes

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Famous Ken Kesey Quotes

“The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer, but they think they have. So they stop thinking. But 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.”

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Author:Ken Kesey
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“I lay in bed the night before the fishing trip and thought it over, about my being deaf, about the years of not letting on I heard what was said, and I wonder if I can ever act any other way again. But I remembered one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.”

PeopleIfsWayYearsFirstsSaidI CanNightActingWonderOne ThingHeardBedLaysDumbRememberedFishingSay AnythingDeaf
Author:Ken Kesey
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“I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”

IfsThinkingMindLongStillsHardHappensTruthGuySilenceClearHappenedPleaseSilentHorribleAwfulFlewCuckoosMind ThinkingClear MindsOne Flew Over The Cuckoo's NestRanting And Raving
Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition
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“But if the strength ain't real, I recall thinking the very last thing that day, before I finally passed out, then the weakness sure enough is. Weakness is true and real. I used to accuse the kid of faking his weakness. But faking proves the weakness is real. Or you wouldn't be so weak as to fake it. No, you can't ever fake being weak. You can only fake being strong. . .”

IfsThinkingRealEnoughKidsLastsUsedStrongProveWeaknessWeakNotionFakeRecalls
Book:Sometimes a Great Notion
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“She asked if we were calm enough for her to take off the cuffs, and McMurphy nodded. He had slumped over with his head hung and his elbows between his knees and looked completely exhausted--it hadn't occurred to me that it was just as hard for him to stand straight as it was for me.”

IfsHardEnoughCalmKneesHungExhaustedElbowsCuffsMcmurphy
Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition
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“I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it's so evil ? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it ? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWayWantMindBelieveLittlesRealityMightTogetherGuyEvilI BelieveDoorsDrugScareNew WaysWant UAcidPsychedelicNew ThoughtAdventLsd
Author:Ken Kesey
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