“Jesus never said anything about absurdity, and he never indicated for one flash of time that he was aware of the preposterousness of his theory about himself.”
Sons Come and Go, Mothers Hang in Forever (1976)
Context: Jesus never said anything about absurdity, and he never indicated for one flash of time that he was aware of the preposterousness of his theory about himself. And he didn't even try to make the theory understandable in terms of the reality and experience of the rest of us. For if everybody else is also not what Jesus said he was, what good is what he said?
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William Saroyan 190
American writer 1908–1981Related quotes
'Speer Checks Out'
Essays and reviews, Glued to the Box (1983)

Writing in 1968, as quoted in "An open letter to DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz" https://web.archive.org/web/20150630102356/http://spectator.org/articles/63244/will-democrats-apologize-slavery-and-segregation (25 June 2015), by Jeffrey Lord, The American Spectator

On Freedom (1958)
Context: The true Enlightenment thinker, the true rationalist, never wants to talk anyone into anything. No, he does not even want to convince; all the time he is aware that he may be wrong. Above all, he values the intellectual independence of others too highly to want to convince them in important matters. He would much rather invite contradiction, preferably in the form of rational and disciplined criticism. He seeks not to convince but to arouse — to challenge others to form free opinions.

“A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.”
Book I, Ch. 38. Of Solitude
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Source: What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches

“Marcello Dell'Utri is right: Mangano was a hero, because he never invented anything about me.”
Statement during a television show on La7 (9 April 2008)
2007