“The “brightness” of the 15 percent might or might not indicate a profound feeling for the causes of things; it is largely verbal and symbol-manipulating, and is almost certainly partly an obsessional device not to know and touch risky matter, just as Freud long ago pointed out that the nagging questions of small children are a substitute for asking the forbidden questions.”

—  Paul Goodman , book Growing Up Absurd

Source: Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 85.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The “brightness” of the 15 percent might or might not indicate a profound feeling for the causes of things; it is large…" by Paul Goodman?
Paul Goodman photo
Paul Goodman 47
American novelist, playwright, poet and psychotherapist 1911–1972

Related quotes

Stephen King photo

“You might question a winkle - a feeling that came to you right out of the blue - but you didn’t question knowing.”

Stephen King book Hearts in Atlantis

Source: Hearts in Atlantis

“Can they solve the problem of the nagging unanswerable question of justification and vocation? Their principle is the traditional one of classical mysticism: by “experiences” (“kicks”) to transcend the nagged and nagging self altogether and get out of one’s skin, to where no questions are asked—nor is there any articulate speech to ask them in.”

Paul Goodman book Growing Up Absurd

Source: Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 156.

Rasmus Lerdorf photo

“If eval() is the answer, you're almost certainly asking the wrong question.”

Rasmus Lerdorf (1968) Danish programmer and creator of PHP

PHP.net: eval http://php.net/eval, Anonymous comment, 2004
PHP in a Nutshell https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/php-in-a/0596100671/re47.html by Paul Hudson, 2005

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“We often have need of a profound philosophy to restore to our feelings their original state of innocence, to find our way out of the rubble of things alien to us, to begin to feel for ourselves and to speak ourselves, and I might almost say to exist ourselves. Even if my philosophy does not extend to discovering anything new, it does nevertheless possess the courage to regard as questionable what has long been thought true.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

B 49
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook B (1768-1771)

Joseph Heller photo

“There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

Frank McCourt photo

“I know that big people don't like questions from children. They can ask all the questions they like, How's school? Are you a good boy? Did you say your prayers? but if you ask them did they say their prayers you might be hit on the head.”

Frank McCourt book Angela's Ashes

Source: Angela's Ashes (1996)

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo

“Now you know I’m a reporter, so you might as well answer my question truthfully, or I’ll just keep asking it until you lose your mind. (Susan)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dark Side of the Moon

Richard Brautigan photo

“If you are thinking about something that happened a long time ago:
Somebody asked you a question and you did not know the answer.
That is my name.”

Richard Brautigan book In Watermelon Sugar

Source: In Watermelon Sugar

Carl Sagan photo

“There are no forbidden questions in science, no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed, no sacred truths.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
George W. Bush photo

“So if you happen to bump into a Democrat candidate, you might want to ask this simple question: What's your plan? If they say they want to protect the homeland, but oppose the Patriot Act, ask them this question: What's your plan? If they say they want to uncover terrorist plots, but oppose listening in on terrorist conversations, ask them this question: What's your plan? If they say they want to stop new attacks on our country, but oppose letting the CIA detain and question the terrorists who might know what those plots are, ask them this question: What's your plan? If they say they want to win the war on terror, but call for America to pull out from what al Qaeda says is the central front in this war, ask them this question: What's your plan?…The truth is, the Democrats can't answer that question. Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory. Second-guessing is not a strategy.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Remarks by the President at Missouri Victory 2006 Rally http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061103-1.html (November 3, 2006)
2000s, 2006

Related topics