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Paul Goodman Quotes

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Famous Paul Goodman Quotes

“We define boredom as the pain a person feels when he's doing nothing or something irrelevant, instead of something he wants to do but won't, can't, or doesn't dare. Boredom is acute when he knows the other thing and inhibits his action, e.g., out of politeness, embarrassment, fear of punishment or shame. Boredom is chronic if he has repressed the thought of it and no longer is aware of it. A large part of stupidity is just the chronic boredom, for a person can't learn, or be intelligent about, what he's not interested in, when his repressed thoughts are elsewhere.”

IfsKnowsWantFeelsPersonsActionPainBlessingIntelligentShameDareStupidityPunishmentBoredomElsewhereNot InterestedIrrelevantDoing NothingEmbarrassmentPolitenessRepressed
Author:Paul Goodman
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“Be patient, do nothing, cease striving. We find this advice disheartening and therefore unfeasible because we forget it is our own inflexible activity that is structuring the reality. We think that if we do not hustle, nothing will happen and we will pine away. But the reality is probably in motion and after a while we might take part in that motion. But one can't know.”

IfsThinkingKnowsRealityMightHappensForgetAdviceActivityStrivePatientCeaseFlexibleBe PatientForget ItHustleDisheartening
Book:Five years
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“God works in many ways His wonders to perform. But He's not a skillful mechanic. A man drived over a cliff and "by a miracle" he only breaks his back. It would be more divine if he were a better driver and stayed on the road.”

IfsMenWayWould BeWonderBreakDivineMiracleDriversMechanicCliffsSkillful
Book:People or personnel: decentralizing and the mixed systems ; and, Like a conquered province : the moral ambiguity of America
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“An awkward consequence of heightening experience when one is inexperienced, of self-transcendence when one has not much world to lose, is that afterward one cannot be sure that one was somewhere or had newly experienced anything. If you aren't much in the world, how do you know you are "out of this world"?”

IfsKnowsWorldSelfLosesThis WorldConsequenceDo You KnowAwkwardTranscendence
Book:Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society
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“In our truly remarkable an unexampled civil peace, where there are rarely fist fights; where no one is born, is gravely ill, or dies; where meat is eaten but no one sees an animal slaughtered; where scores of millions of cars, trains, elevators, and airplanes go their scheduled way and there is rarely a crash; where an immense production proceeds in orderly efficiency and the shelves are duly clears and nevertheless none of this come to joy or tragic grief or any other final good it is not surprising if there are explosions.”

IfsWayJoyDiesFightingBornAnimalGriefMillionsCarTrainFinalsIllProductionsMeatScoreRemarkableTragicSurprisingAirplaneImmenseCrashEfficiencyNeverthelessShelvesFistsExplosionsOrderlyElevators
Book:Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society
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