“I can’t see any authority on the horizon that’s got any answers that seem worthwhile. Most of the things that are suggested are probably detrimental to your mental health.”

—  Frank Zappa

Oui interview (1979)
Context: There’s no reason to assume that my idea of what‘s better would really be better. I resent it when other people try to inflict their ideas of betterness on me. I don’t think they know. And I can’t see any authority on the horizon that’s got any answers that seem worthwhile. Most of the things that are suggested are probably detrimental to your mental health.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I can’t see any authority on the horizon that’s got any answers that seem worthwhile. Most of the things that are sugge…" by Frank Zappa?
Frank Zappa photo
Frank Zappa 129
American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and fil… 1940–1993

Related quotes

Frank Zappa photo

“I think that people are entitled to be amused, and entertained. If they see deviations from this classical norm, it's probably good for their mental health.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Cocaine Decisions (1983) http://youtube.com/watch?v=RDEwJ2xlSXk
Context: I'll tell you what classical music is, for those of you who don't know. Classical music is this music that was written by a bunch of dead people a long time ago. And it's formula music, the same as top forty music is formula music. In order to have a piece be classical, it has to conform to academic standards that were the current norms of that day and age … I think that people are entitled to be amused, and entertained. If they see deviations from this classical norm, it's probably good for their mental health.

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Nature

Source: Nature

Gertrude Stein photo

“I just tell you and though I dont sound like it I've got plenty of sense, there aint any answer, there aint going to be any answer, there never has been any answer, that’s the answer.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Brewsie and Willie (1946), Ch. 7

Tim Powers photo

“Love isn’t in the category of normal things. Not any worthwhile kind of love, anyway.”

Tim Powers (1952) American writer

A Soul in a Bottle (p. 37)
Short fiction, The Bible Repairman and Other Stories (2011)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“A white spot is on the horizon. There it is. A terrible storm is brewing. But no one sees the write spot or has any inkling of what it might mean. But no (this would not be the most terrible situation either), no, there is one person who sees it and knows what it means-but he is a passenger. He has no authority on the ship, can take no action. … The fact that in Christendom there is visible on the horizon a white speck which means that a storm is threatening-this I knew; but, alas, I was an am only a passenger.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers XI3 B 109 p 178ff (quoted in Kierkegaard’s Way to the Truth by Gergor Malantschuk 1963 Augsburg Publishing House
1850s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1850s

Neil Gaiman photo

“It can’t make things any worse.”

Neil Gaiman book Fragile Things

“If there’s one thing that a study of history has taught us, it is that things can always get worse,” said my friend.
From A Study in Emerald
Fragile Things (2006)

“What’s your favorite place to visit?” He absently answered, “Wherever you are.”
“Bowen, five things about you can’t all be about me.”
But you’re the only good thing that I’ve got.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night

Alexander Graham Bell photo

“There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.”

Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) scientist and inventor known for his work on the telephone

Statement to a reporter a few months before he died, as quoted at Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/bellinvent.html

“Mathematics, like music and poetry, is a creation of the mind; … the primary task of the mathematician, like that of any other artist, is to extend man's mental horizon by representation and interpretation.”

Graham Sutton (1903–1977) Welsh scientist

Mathematics in Action (1954) page 1

River Phoenix photo

“I don’t see any point or any good in drugs that are as disruptive as cocaine. I never tried heroin. I tried alcohol and most of the others when I was 15, and got it out of the way—finished with the stuff.”

River Phoenix (1970–1993) American actor, musician, and activist

Quoted on page 159 of Young Hollywood http://books.google.com/books?id=yYQjAQAAIAAJ&q=%22disruptive+as+cocaine.%22&dq=%22disruptive+as+cocaine.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FANbUcuJFcG1iwKH2IFQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg by James Cameron-Wilson.

Related topics