Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Josie Long

Quote by Josie Long

Work

Because I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Josie Long
Josie Long

Josie Long is a British comedian, born on April 17, 1982. She is known for her unique humor style and profound self-reflection, often performing on television, radio, and stage. Long's comedy pieces usually revolve around personal experiences, particularly challenges related to family, love, and career. more

You May Also Like

“I consulted a trauma expert who travels to communities devastated by natural disasters. When she meets with suffering people, she often asks this question, “Where are you feeling the pain in your body?” She wants to know if they want to talk about their emotions or if they need to talk about what’s happening physically to them. I used this advice when I recently met with a grieving friend. I wasn’t sure what to ask her, so I sat with her, cried, and then asked, “How are you feeling the grieving in your body?” She loved the question. Nobody had ever asked her this, and she wanted to talk about all the trembling and nausea she was feeling.”

“Many of us want one of the other events: we want to be part of a political revolution, a scientific discovery, an artistic innovation, and - because our society tells us that this is the event that in the end makes up for all our misery - we want to fall deeply in love and stay so. Suffering, in turn, is not an event that any of us want. Unfortunately, it is probably the one that many of us are more likely to experience than any of the others. As tempting as it is to try to offer a more sanguine conclusion to the distilliation of ideas that this book has attempted to accomplish, I cannot end on a polite lie. I know that if falling in love is an event, losing that love is no less so.”

“And when the rush fades, we are left hollow, staring at the wreckage of who we were. The mirror reveals no rebel, no hero, only a shadow of a self we barely remember. Still, we return. The cycle repeats, not because we do not see the cost, but because the void terrifies us more. Better the burn, than the weight of the fall.”

“Not all deceptions are palatable. Untruths are too easy to come by, too quickly exploded, too cheap and ephemeral to give lasting comfort. Mundus vult decipi, but there is a hierarchy of deceptions. Near the bottom of the ladder is journalism: a steady stream of irresponsible distortions that most people find refreshing although on the morning after, or at least within a week, it will be stale and flat. On a higher level we find fictions that men eagerly believe, regardless of the evidence, because they gratify some wish. Near the top of the ladder we encounter curious mixtures of untruth and truth that exert a lasting fascination on the intellectual community.”