“We are often unable to tell people what they need to know because they want to know something else.”

—  George MacDonald, book Lilith

Source: Lilith (1895), Chapter 9

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 "We are often unable to tell people what they need to know because they want to know something else." by George MacDonald?
George MacDonald photo
George MacDonald127
Scottish journalist, novelist 1824–1905

Related quotes

Theodor W. Adorno photo

“People know what they want because they know what other people want.”

Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society

Walker Percy photo

“Fiction doesn’t tell us something we don’t know, it tells us something we know but don’t know that we know.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“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.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

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?

Ayuel Monykuch photo

“Be private and stay low-key, remember there is no need to tell the crowds more than they need to know. Because they can't mess with what they don't know.”

Ayuel Monykuch (1997) South Sudanese Entrepreneur

Alastair Reynolds photo

““But at least you cared. At least you were ready to do something.”
“This little mess,” Auger said, “is all because of people who were ready to do something. People like me, who always know when they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Maybe what we need is a few less of us.””

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 36 (pp. 565-566)

James Patterson photo

“Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Aung San Suu Kyi photo

“Government leaders are amazing. So often it seems they are the last to know what the people want.”

Aung San Suu Kyi (1945) State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy

Mark Satin photo

“We need mandatory national service so we will all take part in performing the collective tasks we know are ours. We need mandatory national service because duty and honor are as necessary to us as oxygen and water. That's what I was trying to tell the Army in my application to the JAG corps at the age of 52. And that's what the radical middle needs to tell the American people.”

Mark Satin (1946) American political theorist, author, and newsletter publisher

Source: Radical Middle (2004), Chapter 12, "Bring Back the Draft, for Everyone This Time," p. 133.

Toni Morrison photo

“People say to write about what you know. I'm here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don't know anything. So write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Charles Bukowski photo

“Beauty is nothing, beauty won’t stay. You don’t know how lucky you are to be ugly, because if people like you, you know it’s for something else.”

Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness

Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness

Related topics