“People know what they want because they know what other people want.”
“We are often unable to tell people what they need to know because they want to know something else.”
Source: Lilith (1895), Chapter 9
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George MacDonald 127
Scottish journalist, novelist 1824–1905Related quotes
1880s, 1880, Letter to Theo (Cuesmes, July 1880)
Context: People are often unable to do anything, imprisoned as they are in I don't know what kind of terrible, terrible, oh such terrible cage.
I do know that there is a release, the belated release. A justly or unjustly ruined reputation, poverty, disastrous circumstances, misfortune, they all turn you into a prisoner. You cannot always tell what keeps you confined, what immures you, what seems to bury you, and yet you can feel those elusive bars, railings, walls. Is all this illusion, imagination? I don't think so. And then one asks: My God! will it be for long, will it be for ever, will it be for eternity?
“Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?”
Source: The Angel Experiment
“Government leaders are amazing. So often it seems they are the last to know what the people want.”
Source: Radical Middle (2004), Chapter 12, "Bring Back the Draft, for Everyone This Time," p. 133.