Quotes about confusion page 3
“Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding…”
Brian Greene (1963) American physicist
Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted
Source: Girl, Interrupted
“Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
Jack Kerouac book On the Road
Variant: I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another til I drop.
Source: On the Road
Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer
Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor
Interview All Songs Considered, NPR, May 20, 2008
Janet Jackson book True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself
Source: True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself
“I confused things with their names: that is belief.”
Jean Paul Sartre book The Words
Source: The Words
“You confuse me with something that is in you. I will not predict how you want to use me.”
Jenny Holzer (1950) American conceptual artist
“Lovers of print are simply confusing the plate for the food.”
Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist
“I had nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion”
Jack Kerouac book On the Road
Variant: I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion.
Source: On the Road
“Oooh! Stop that. When you smile at me I want all of it."
"What?" He looked confused”
Karen Marie Moning (1964) author
Source: The Dark Highlander
“Courage is confused with picking up arms and cowardness is confused with laying them down.”
Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress
Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding
“Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.”
Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
Variant: Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.
“They confused beauty with innocence and harmlessness.”
Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes
Source: City of Ashes
“If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em.”
Sherry Argov book Why Men Love Bitches
Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship
Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…
“You confuse not speaking with not listening.”
Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“Every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet
“Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.”
Henry Miller book Tropic of Capricorn
Tropic of Capricorn http://books.google.com/books?id=_HAhCxNs-QUC&lpg=PA176&q="Confusion+is+a+word+we+have+invented+for+an+order+which+is+not+understood"&pg=PA176#v=onepage (1939)
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright
Translation of Horace, Odes, Book III, ode iii.
“Now that I have you thoroughly confused, let me pause to hear your own dismayed cry.”
Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing
Source: Zen in the Art of Writing
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter
Source: Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality
“The little waiter's eyebrows wandered about his forehead in confusion.”
Douglas Adams book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Source: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer
Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration
“In any case you mustn't confuse a single failure with a final defeat.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night
Variant: Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
Source: Tender Is the Night
Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“Haters are confused admirers who can’t understand why everybody else likes you”
Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist
Variant: Haters are confused admirers who want to be like you.
Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author
Random Thoughts http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell101705.asp, Oct. 17, 2005 <br class="br">2000s
“May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
Address at the Columbia University National Bicentennial Dinner, New York City. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9906 (31 May 1954) <br class="br">1950s
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good at being short.”
Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Slays
Philip Yancey (1949) American writer
Source: Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud
Elaine Dundy (1921–2008) American journalist, actress
Source: The Dud Avocado
“You live out the confusions until they become clear.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Ishmael Beah book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Source: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Last paragraph of section III of Antidotes for fear, page 122 (see link at top of the section)
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.”
George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism
“I never confuse the cost of something with its value”
Robin Hobb book The Mad Ship
Source: The Mad Ship
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) Television journalist
The reference to Cassius is that of the character in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. Listen to an mp3 sound file http://www.otr.com/murrow_mccarthy.shtml of parts of this statement. <br class="br">See It Now (1954) <br class="br">Context: No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind as between the internal and the external threats of communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." Good night, and good luck.
“Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.”
Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…
“The complaints of the privileged are too often confused with the voice of the masses.”
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat
“I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is…the higher achievement.”
Lois McMaster Bujold book Mirror Dance
Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Mirror Dance (1994)
