“… there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.”

—  Joyce Carol Oates

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "… there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always th…" by Joyce Carol Oates?
Joyce Carol Oates photo
Joyce Carol Oates 89
American author 1938

Related quotes

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël photo

“Beauty is one in the universe, and, whatever form it assumes, it always arouses a religious feeling in the hearts of mankind.”

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne

Bk. 8, ch. 2
Corinne (1807)

Joyce Carol Oates photo

“And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author
Prevale photo

“While the whole world is attracted and distracted by unnecessary criticism, music writes history.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Mentre il mondo intero è attratto e distratto da critiche inutili, la musica scrive la storia.
Source: prevale.net

Dave Sim photo

“[A]n attractive lie is always going to be more popular than a hard truth.”

Dave Sim (1956) Canadian cartoonist, creator of Cerebus

No. 11, p. 27
Following Cerebus (2004-)

P. J. O'Rourke photo

“Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum.”

P. J. O'Rourke book Parliament of Whores

Parliament of Whores (1991)
Context: Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadows about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.

“Prayer may just be the most powerful tool mankind has.”
~Blink”

Ted Dekker (1962) American writer
Auguste Rodin photo

“But to-day, mankind believes itself able to do without Art. It does not wish to meditate, to contemplate, to dream; it wishes to enjoy physically. The heights and the depths of truth are indifferent to it; it is content to satisfy its bodily appetites. Mankind to-day is brutish — it is not the stuff of which artists are made.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

Source: Art, 1912, Preface, p. 8

“I think that the West is the most powerful reality in the history of this country. It's always had a power, a presence, an attraction that differentiated it from the rest of the United States. Whether the West was a place to be conquered, or the West as it is today, a place to be protected and nurtured. It is the regenerative force of America.”

J. S. Holliday (1924–2006) American historian

The West (1996)

Thomas Paine photo

“The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Earliest citation to Paine appears to be in "Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism Vol. XXIV" https://books.google.com/books?id=ITYfh67DKncC&pg=RA11-PA33&lpg=RA11-PA33&dq=The+trade+of+governing+has+always+been+monopolized+by+the+most+ignorant+and+the+most+rascally+individuals+of+mankind.&source=bl&ots=8DHXw2Ix1C&sig=ACfU3U3Bk_9QoyDZh_LDcoEB83cEaDWTcQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjp3I6MqOXxAhW2KVkFHfEsDb0Q6AEwBXoECBEQAw#v=onepage&q=The%20trade%20of%20governing%20has%20always%20been%20monopolized%20by%20the%20most%20ignorant%20and%20the%20most%20rascally%20individuals%20of%20mankind.&f=false. Not found in any of his works.
Misattributed

Related topics