“We thought we were being mature when we were only being safe. We imagined we were being responsible but were only being cowardly. What we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them.”
Source: The Sense of an Ending
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Julian Barnes 77
English writer 1946Related quotes
“Of course, at the time, we thought we were being farcical.”
New York Magazine interview http://nymag.com/news/politics/22322/ (16 October 2006)
Context: Language has always been important in politics, but language is incredibly important to the present political struggle. Because if you can establish an atmosphere in which information doesn't mean anything, then there is no objective reality. The first show we did, a year ago, was our thesis statement: What you wish to be true is all that matters, regardless of the facts. Of course, at the time, we thought we were being farcical.
The toxic baby https://www.ted.com/talks/tyrone_hayes_penelope_jagessar_chaffer_the_toxic_baby (December 2010)
“I thought we were celebrating being richer and cleverer than everyone else!”
Variant: To us — richer and cleverer than everyone else!
Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora
“Human beings are social animals. We were social before we were human.”
Source: The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress (1981), Chapter 1, The Origins Of Altruism, p. 3
The Transgender Community Needs to Reestablish Its Voice (2005)
Interview with USA Today, "Mankind Must Find a New Self Awareness", Dan Neuharth and Miles White, December 14, 1982