Quotes about confusion
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“My smile faded, and I suddenly felt confused. My heart leapt in my chest. "Why would you do that for me?"

"What wouldn't I do for you?”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Shadow Heir

Smile, Heart

“Brian Andreas Promise #1:
Promises to Myself #1: I will tell the truth unless I get confused & I think I could get in real trouble if someone found out, in which case, I will lie as convincingly as possible for as long as I feel the need.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Truth, Lie, Feeling, Thinking

“I have noticed that teachers get exciting confused with boring a lot.”

Sara Pennypacker (1951) American children's writer (pseudonym)

Source: The Talented Clementine

Teachers

“If you can't convince them, confuse them.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Funny

“This is my social face,” he said lightly. “Don’t confuse it with the animal beneath.”

Elizabeth Hoyt (1970) American writer

Source: Notorious Pleasures

Animals

“Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 1, Ch. 3 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Men

“Aren't fairy godmothers supposed to be nice and make you feel better about yourself?

… No, you're confusing fairy godmothers with sales clerks.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Fair Godmother

Feeling

“May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Way, Evil, Housing, Funny

“In the world we live in, what weand what weare like Siamese twins, inseparable, existing in a state of confusion.”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

World

“And there I was, 225 pounds, perpetually lost and confused, short legs, ape-like upper body, all chest, no neck, head too large, blurred eyes, hair uncombed, 6 feet of geek, waiting for her.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Waiting

“You could put your confusion and upset and worries into whatever book you were reading. You could sort of set them down in there, and you could come out with your head on a little straighter. I don't why stories worked that way, but they did.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Story of Us

Books, Way, Reading

“Feeling in love (or lust) and fear feel a lot alike. They both give you that anxious butterfly feeling in your stomach, a sense of excitement, and a general unease physically and mentally. It's easy to confuse love with fear.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy

Love, Fear, Feeling, Sense

“if you’re making sense, you’ve just unmade confusion.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Darkfever

Sense

“You look confused," said Adrian.
I shook my head and sighed. "I think I'm just overthinking things."
He nodded solemnly. "That's why I try to never do it.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Thinking

“It's all very confusing. I think I'm very honest and candid, but I'm also proud of how honest and candid I am -- so where does that put me?”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Thinking

“The girl is infectious human waste, and she's confused and afraid to commit to the wrong thing and so she won't commit to anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Girl

“There's something else there as well, something entirely her own. An ability to look into the confusing mess of life and see things for what they are.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Life

“Never confuse faith, or belief — of any kind — with something even remotely intellectual.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), ch. 9

Faith

“Internet users, that blue screen of death you were looking at this morning? That's the sky. If you're still confused, look it up on Wikipedia tomorrow.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Death

“I am not breaking my rules,' I snapped, hating that I'd ended up on the advice-recieving end of things, jumping from Dear Remy to Confused in Cincinnati all in one summer.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Hate, Summer

“It's easy to confuse a woman for a philosophy”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Source: On Beauty

“Had she been in town, the two of them would have spent most of the day together, and she didn't want that. Then again, deep down, it was exactly what she wanted, leaving her more confused that she'd been in years.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Source: True Believer

“An ability to look into the confusing mess of life and see things for what they are.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Variant: Look into the confusing mess of life and see things for what they really are.
Source: Mockingjay

Life

“Love easily confuses us because it is always in flux between illusion and substance, between memory and wish, between contentment and need.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Love, Memory, For Him, For Boyfriend

“I would rather be confused for 10 minutes than bored for 5 seconds.”

Russell T. Davies (1963) Screenwriter, former executive producer of Doctor Who

“Here we are - despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route - at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.”

Julia Glass book Three Junes

Source: Three Junes

“I tried to look confused, which is one of my most convincing expressions.”

Rick Riordan book The Crown of Ptolemy

Source: The Crown of Ptolemy

“If you don't want to have sex, I don't want to talk about our feelings."
He scrubbed his hand through his hair, looking confused. "Well, that's for damn sure the first time a woman's ever said that to me.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

Sex, Feeling, Time

“You are confusing plumbing and love again.”

Robin Hobb (1952) American fiction writer (pseudonym)

Love

“We're all confused, Samantha. We all need more time to think. That's life. Get over it.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Undomestic Goddess

Source: The Undomestic Goddess

Life, Thinking, Time

“Al was looking at me in disbelief. “Not your lover?”
“No.”
“But he is Rachel candy,” Al said, his confusion too honest to be faked.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Lovers

“Most people confuse their life situation with their actual life, which is an underlying flow beneath the everyday events.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Life, People

“sometime hate is just confused love!”

Omar Tyree (1969) American writer

Love, Hate

“… there is a point when the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confused in a word, a mortal word, les miserables”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“You looking good."
"Devil's confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad.”

Toni Morrison book Beloved

Source: Beloved

Feeling

“Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: Essays and Aphorisms

Hope

“we use TV as we use tranquilizers- to even things out, to blot out unpleasantness, to dilute confusion, distress, unhappiness, loneliness.”

Bill McKibben (1960) American environmentalist and writer

Source: The Age of Missing Information

Loneliness

“Hide-and-seek, grown-up style. Wanting to hide. Needing to be sought. Confused about being found.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things

“Cloisters, ancient libraries… I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.”

Alan Bennett The History Boys

Source: The History Boys

Learning

“The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us; but he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. His attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful.”

William Peter Blatty book The Exorcist

Source: The Exorcist

Truth, Lie

“Hush, Harry. Or you'll go to the special hell."

I blinked at that, confused. I'm not supposed to be the guy who doesn't get the reference joke, dammit.”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Guy, Hell

“Because in the end nothing is worse than seeing the fall of one you loved. It was somehow worse than losing a love. It made everything seem questionable. It made the past bitter and confused.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Fall of the Hotel Dumort

Love, Question, Past

“Sometimes people can be too intellegent for their own good. Too much thinking could confuse things.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Siege of Macindaw

People, Thinking

“I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Beauty, Imagination, Nature

“Some time ago," he said, "--how long it seems! -- I remember saying to a young friend of mine of the name of Spiller, 'Comrade Spiller, never confuse the unusual with the impossible.' It is my guiding rule in life.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Life, Time

“Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness.”

Dean Karnazes (1962) American distance runner

Source: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

Happiness

“Vin: I don't know -- and it's all your fault, you know. I used to understand everything. Now it's all confused.

Kelsier: Yes, we've messed you up right properly.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Understanding

“Four things to learn in life: To think clearly without hurry or confusion; To love everybody sincerely; To act in everything with the highest motives; To trust God unhesitatingly.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Love, Life, God, Motivation

“There is a big confusion in this country over what we want verses what we need… you need food. You want a chocolate sundae.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Food, Country

“There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind…”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

“What about confusing clutter? Information overload? Doesn't data have to be "boiled down" and "simplified"? These common questions miss the point, for the quantity of detail is an issue completely separate from the difficulty of reading..”

Edward R. Tufte Envisioning Information

Source: Envisioning Information

Question, Reading

“The concept of conservation is a far truer sign of civilization than that spoilation of a continent which we once confused with progress.”

Peter Matthiessen (1927–2014) American novelist

Source: Wildlife in America

“It's not your fate to be well treated," Ignatius cried. "You're an overt masochist. Nice treatment will confuse and destroy you.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

Fate

“Truth is eternal. Knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse them.”

Madeleine L'Engle An Acceptable Time

Source: An Acceptable Time

Truth, Knowledge

“Furie had once asked her, “Why would you ever send a man to do a woman’s job?”
Confused, Myst had answered, “Because I can.”

Kresley Cole book The Warlord Wants Forever

Source: The Warlord Wants Forever

“Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory, Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

“Hey, aren’t we forgetting something? (Savitar)
Your dignity? (Takeshi)
No, you have me confused with you again. Aren’t you supposed to be training him? (Savitar)
So you admit my superiority by deflecting my attention to the neophyte. (Takeshi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Training, Forgetting

“It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

People, Truth, Failure

“The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Source: 1900s, Man and Superman (1903), p. 121

Marriage, Error

“I think, therefore I am… confused.”

Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh

Source: The Tao of Pooh

Thinking

“Confuse your trail, lose your trail.”

Vikas Swarup book Q & A

Q & A

“At first she beckoned and lured one into her world; then, she blurred the passageways, confused all the images, as if to elude detection.”

Anaïs Nin book A Spy in the House of Love

Source: A Spy in the House of Love

World

“Her eyes met his, but she looked quickly away; entangling gazes with Will was confusing at best, dizzying at worst.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“Who knew that the devil had a factory where he made millions of fossils, which his minions distributed throughout the earth, in order to confuse my tiny brain?”

Lewis Black (1948) American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor

Source: Me of Little Faith

“Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Beauty, Imagination

“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem—in my opinion—to characterize our age.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

"The Common Language of Science", a broadcast for Science, Conference, London, 28 September 1941. Published in Advancement of Science, London, Vol. 2, No. 5. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions (1954), the quote appearing on this page http://books.google.com/books?id=OeUoXHoAJMsC&lpg=PP1&pg=PT357#v=onepage&q&f=false. <br class="br">1940s

Age, Perfection

“Wait,” Foyle commanded. He looked at the beaming grin engraved in the steel robot face. “But society can be so stupid. So confused. You’ve witnessed this conference.”
“Yes, sir, but you must teach, not dictate. You must teach society.”
“To space-jaunte? Why? Why reach out to the stars and galaxies? What for?”
“Because you’re alive, sir. You might as well ask: Why is life? Don’t ask about it. Live it.”
“Quite mad,” Dagenham muttered.
“But fascinating,” Y’ang-Yeovil murmured.
“There’s got to be more to life than just living,” Foyle said to the robot.
“Then find it for yourself, sir. Don’t ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.”
“Why can’t we all move forward together?”
“Because you’re all different. You’re not lemmings. Some must lead, and hope that the rest will follow.”
“Who leads?”
“The men who must … driven men, compelled men.”
“Freak men.”
“You’re all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That’s its hope and glory.”
“Thank you very much.”

Alfred Bester book The Stars My Destination

“My pleasure, sir.”
Source: The Stars My Destination (1956), Chapter 16 (p. 251).

Life, Men, Pleasure, Stupidity

“There has been 32 isms since the advent of Cubism, yet after all there are essentially the same two old strings, the Romantic and the Classical. We've just be confused by the storm. Science and psychology have played a great part to say nothing of sex.”

Mark Tobey (1890–1976) American abstract expressionist painter

The Tigers Eye 1, Mark Tobey, 1952; as quoted in Abstract Expressionist Painting in America, W.C, Seitz, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1983, p. 103
1950's

Sex, Science, Parting

“Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure — but the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other reverence; because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are to be born. Each contract of each particular state is but a clause in the great primaeval contract of eternal society, linking the lower with the higher natures, connecting the visible and the invisible world, according to a fixed compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all physical and all moral natures, each in their appointed place. This law is not subject to the will of those, who by an obligation above them, and infinitely superior, are bound to submit their will to that law. The municipal corporations of that universal kingdom are not morally at liberty at their pleasure, and on their speculations of a contingent improvement, wholly to separate and tear asunder the bands of their subordinate community, and to dissolve it into an unsocial, uncivil, unconnected chaos of elementary principles. It is the first and supreme necessity only, a necessity that is not chosen, but chooses, a necessity paramount to deliberation, that admits no discussion, and demands no evidence, which alone can justify a resort to anarchy. This necessity is no exception to the rule; because this necessity itself is a part too of that moral and physical disposition of things, to which man must be obedient by consent or force: but if that which is only submission to necessity should be made the object of choice, the law is broken, nature is disobeyed, and the rebellious are outlawed, cast forth, and exiled, from this world of reason, and order, and peace, and virtue, and fruitful penitence, into the antagonist world of madness, discord, vice, confusion, and unavailing sorrow.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Pleasure, World, Peace, Law

“Your great demonstration which marks this day in the City of Washington is only representative of many like observances extending over our own country and into other lands, so that it makes a truly world-wide appeal. It is a manifestation of the good in human nature which is of tremendous significance. More than six centuries ago, when in spite of much learning and much piety there was much ignorance, much wickedness and much warfare, when there seemed to be too little light in the world, when the condition of the common people appeared to be sunk in hopelessness, when most of life was rude, harsh and cruel, when the speech of men was too often profane and vulgar, until the earth rang with the tumult of those who took the name of the Lord in vain, the foundation of this day was laid in the formation of the Holy Name Society. It had an inspired purpose. It sought to rededicate the minds of the people to a true conception of the sacredness of the name of the Supreme Being. It was an effort to save all reference to the Deity from curses and blasphemy, and restore the lips of men to reverence and praise. Out of weakness there began to be strength; out of frenzy there began to be self-control; out of confusion there began to be order. This demonstration is a manifestation of the wide extent to which an effort to do the right thing will reach when it is once begun. It is a purpose which makes a universal appeal, an effort in which all may unite.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Authority and Religious Liberty (1924)

Life, Men, People, World

“The rest of our weekend—sleeping arrangements, hand-done work, hand-prepared food—was simple enough to please Thoreau, who I am convinced was a nice fellow who confused rustic vacations with life.”

Alexei Panshin book Rite of Passage

Source: Rite of Passage (1968), Chapter 11 (p. 157).

Life, Food, Sleep

“They learn to tolerate ambiguity and to bring order out of confusion.”

Roger Smith (executive) (1925–2007) CEO

Learning

“Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months, are so complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make coherent mental reckoning in time all but impossible. Indeed, had some tyrannical god contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make it all but impossible for us to escape subjection to sodden routines and unpleasant surprises, he could hardly have done better than handing down our present system. It is like a set of trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or horizontal surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought demands ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy circumlocutions. Unlike the more successful patterns of language and science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and persistently encourages our terror of time.
…
It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals demanded a knowledge of five different languages. It is no wonder then that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last Tuesday or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion.”

Robert Grudin (1938) American writer

Time and the Art of Living (1982)

God, Feeling, Knowledge, Science

“Oh eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;
Oh life, no life, but lively form of death;
Oh world, no world, but mass of public wrongs,
Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds.”

Thomas Kyd book The Spanish Tragedy

Act III, sc. ii
The Spanish Tragedy (1592)

Life, Death, World, Tear

“I'd hear, "Because they paid the man, there's no money for the woman." How many times do you think I heard this? Over and over. Then I became a sex symbol. Now, how the hell did that happen? I don't exactly know the moment when it happened, but all of a sudden I'm a bombshell. The way I discovered this was I did Desperado. I had a very hard time with the love scene. I cried throughout the love scene. That's why you never see long pieces of the love scene — it's little pieces cut together. I'm crying most of the time so they have to take little pieces. It took eight hours instead of an hour. I nearly got fired. … Because I didn't want to be naked in front of a camera. The whole time, I'm thinking of my father and my brother… And then when the movie comes out, I read the first review. What do they say about me. "Salma Hayek is a bombshell." I had heard that when a movie does badly here, they say it bombs. So I'm crying. Thinking they're saying, "That terrible actress! It's a bomb! Salma Hayek is the worst part of the movie!" I called my friend and said, "The critics are destroying me!" She says, "No, they're saying you're very sexy." And then I look at all the reviews, and everybody said I was very sexy. So I'm very confused. I said, "I wonder if that's good or bad." I hear, "Yes, that's good." Then I do Fools Rush In, and I'm a pregnant woman. And they say I'm sexy again! I go, "But I'm pregnant!"”

Salma Hayek (1966) Mexican-American actress and producer

I'm not even naked in this movie, and they still say I'm sexy. And then it became very depressing — I thought, I guess I'm reduced to that now. That's all I am in the perception of these people.
O interview (2003)

Love, Money, People, Fools

“Women are more evolved biologically and emotionally, that’s well known and it’s obvious. But they confuse sex and the spirit; they don’t separate. Men, as you know, always separate: they separate their human and dog natures.”

Jeet Thayil (1959) Indian writer

Source: An extract from Jeet Thayil's Booker-shortlisted Narcopolis http://www.welovethisbook.com/features/extract-narcopolis, 10 September 2012 The Bookseller Media

Women, Men, Dogs, Sex

“Seeing the water birds on the lake increase in number day by day, I thought to myself how nice it would be if it snowed before we got back to the Palace—the garden would look so beautiful; and then, two days later, while I was away on a short visit, lo and behold, it did snow. As I watched the rather drab scene at home, I felt both depressed and confused. For some years now I had existed from day to day in listless fashion, taking note of the flowers, the birds in song, the way the skies change from season to season, the moon, the frost and snow, doing little more than registering the passage of time. How would it all turn out? The thought of my continuing loneliness was unbearable, and yet I had managed to exchange sympathetic letters with those of like mind—some contacted via fairly tenuous connections—who would discuss my trifling tales and other matters with me; but I was merely amusing myself with fictions, finding solace for my idleness in foolish words. Aware of my own insignificance, I had at least managed for the time being to avoid anything that might have been considered shameful or unbecoming; yet here I was, tasting the bitterness of life to the very full.”

Murasaki Shikibu book The Diary of Lady Murasaki

trans. Richard Bowring (Penguin Books, 1996)
The Diary of Lady Murasaki

Life, Beauty, Way, Home

“Thus, by mere confusion of thought, or by inability to rise above conceptions couched in terms of space and time, the original theistic formula — which in its contrasting of theism against deism and pantheism is unobjectionable, and correct enough so far as it goes — is brought in the end to contradict its own essential idea.”

George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher

Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Modern Science and Pantheism, p.60-1

Idea, Time

“Never confuse sitting on your side with being on your side.”

Ian Paisley (1926–2014) Politician and former church minister

To Jeremy Hanley, who had introduced himself to Paisley saying "How do you do? I did not realise that you were on our side."http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.com/pa/cm199091/cmhansrd/1990-11-07/Debate-2.html

“The centuries are thick, dark waves that rise and fall, steeped in blood. Every moment is a gaping abyss.
Gaze on the dark sea without staggering, confront the abyss every moment without illusion or impudence or fear. … But this is not enough; take a further step: battle to give meaning to the confused struggles of man.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)

Fear, Sea

“He had a passion for historical accuracy, saying that it is useless to write when one is not sure of the facts. It will only be adding confusion to an already confused world.”

Epifanio de los Santos (1871–1928) Filipino politician

The Manila Tribune. April 19, 1928.
BALIW

World, Passion

“If you have a faith, if you've some deep conviction, whether you're a Nazi or a Communist or what the hell else you are — then you can sacrifice yourself and others to your faith. But from the moment you've no faith — from that moment you live in a deep inner confusion — from then on you're exposed to what Strindberg calls 'the powers.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

Bergman on Bergman (1970)

Faith, Hell

“They were murderers and they still are, but policemen are like dogs on a leash.… The police function under political direction. They go after whoever they are sent after, and that's where the problem comes in.… Black people were moving out of their traditional position in America. Nobody knew what to do about it. The white politicians were confused, the blacks were confused.… the police were told to go out, stop those civil-rights marches … and they went out and did that. When you talk to police now who participated in that, you find out that they were in the same position we were in — just trying to find the right formula.”

Eldridge Cleaver (1935–1998) American activist

Interview by Reason magazine (1986)
1980s

People, Dogs, Problem

“Mnemonists, people with freakish memories and no other virtues, were capable of playing dazzling games, dismaying and confusing the other participants by their rapid muster of countless ideas. In the course of time such displays of virtuosity fell more and more under a strict ban, and contemplation became a highly important component of the Game. Ultimately, for the audiences at each Game it became the main thing. This was the necessary turning toward the religious spirit. What had formerly mattered was following the sequences of ideas and the whole intellectual mosaic of a Game with rapid attentiveness, practiced memory, and full understanding. But there now arose the demand for a deeper and more spiritual approach. After each symbol conjured up by the director of a Game, each player was required to perform silent, formal meditation on the content, origin, and meaning of this symbol, to call to mind intensively and organically its full purport. The members of the Order and of the Game associations brought the technique and practice of contemplation with them from their elite schools, where the art of contemplation and meditation was nurtured with the greatest care. In this way the hieroglyphs of the Game were kept from degenerating into mere empty signs.”

Hermann Hesse book The Glass Bead Game

The Glass Bead Game (1943)

People, School, Art, Way

“Some Confederate soldiers switched sides, beginning as early as 1862. When Sherman made his famous march to the sea from Atlanta to Savannah, his army actually grew in number, because thousands of white southerners volunteered along the way. Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of the Confederate army disappeared through desertion. Eighteen thousand slaves joined Sherman, so many that the army had to turn some away. Compare these facts with the portrait common in our textbooks of Sherman's marauders looting their way through a united south. The increasing ideological confusion in the Confederate states, coupled with the increasing strength of the United States, helps explains the Union victory… Many nations and people have continued to fight with far inferior means and weapons… The Confederacy's ideological contradictions were its gravest liabilities, ultimately causing its defeat.”

James W. Loewen book Lies My Teacher Told Me

As quoted in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong https://books.google.com/books?id=5m23RrMeLt4C&pg=PT225&dq=%22Twenty+Nigger+Law%22+loewen&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwitwZHxq7fKAhXFdR4KHVgMDrYQ6AEIHzAA#v=onepage&q=%22Twenty%20Nigger%20Law%22%20loewen&f=false (2007), New York: New Press, pp. 225&ndash;226 <br class="br">2000s, 2007, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (2007)

People, Way, Victory, Help

“The neanderthal experiment was simultaneously the high and low point of the genetic revolution. Successful in that a long-dead cousin of Homo sapien was brought back from extinction, yet a failure in that the scientists, so happy to gaze upon their experiments from their ever lofty ivory towers, had not seen so far as to consider the social implications that a new species of man might command in a world unvisited by their like for over 30 millennia. It was little surprise that so many neanderthals felt confused and unprepared for the pressures of modern life. It was Homo sapien at his least sapient.”

Jasper Fforde (1961) British novelist

Lost In A Good Book (2002), ch. 4a, p. 67

Life, Happiness, World, Failure

“I think fiction rescues history from its confusions.”

Don DeLillo (1936) American novelist, playwright and essayist

'"An Outsider in this Society": An Interview with Don DeLillo' by Anthony DeCurtis, South Atlantic Quarterly, #89, No.2, 1988

History, Thinking

“Core values = The organization’s essential and enduring tenets – a small set of general guiding principles, not to be confused with specific cultural or operating practices, and not to be compromised for financial gain or short-term expediency.
Purpose = The organization’s fundamental reasons for existence beyond simply making money – a perpetual guiding star on the horizon, not to be confused with specific goals or business strategies”

James C. Collins book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Source: Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, 1994, p. 73

Money, Star, Business

“The danger in trying to do good is that the mind comes to confuse the intent of goodness with the act of doing things well.”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

“The Finder” (p. 85)
Earthsea Books, Tales from Earthsea (2001)

“Whenever God shines his light on me
Opens up my eyes so I can see
When I look up in the darkest night
I know everything's going to be alright
In deep confusion, in great despair
When I reach out for him he is there
When I am lonely as I can be
I know that God shines his light on me.”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Whenever God Shines His Light
Song lyrics, Avalon Sunset (1989)

God, Light, Despair, Night

“This is a terrific outburst. And since it doesn’t have a tail right now, some observers have confused it with a nova. We’ve had at least two reports of a new star.”

Brian G. Marsden (1937–2010) British astronomer

As quoted in "Dramatic Comet Outburst Could Last Weeks" (26 October 2007) by Robert Roy Britt at Space.com http://www.space.com/spacewatch/071026-comet-holmes-update.html.

Star

“The enthronement in office of a Socialist Government will be a serious national misfortune such as has usually befallen great States only on the morrow of defeat in war. It will delay the return of prosperity; it will check enterprise and impair credit; it will open a period of increasing political confusion and disturbance.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Letter to a correspondent (17 January 1924) shortly before Labour formed its first government, reprinted in The Times (18 January 1924), p. 14
Early career years (1898–1929)

War

“Marriage was a lottery, and you drew your lot in late adolescence or early adulthood at a point of maximum idiocy and confusion.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Komarr (1998)

Marriage, Adulthood

“[T]he whole purpose of the Torah is to correct the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, which induced the confusion of the conduct of the sustenance of reality.”

Yehuda Ashlag (1886–1954) Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and Kabbalist

Assorted Themes, On Torah

Knowledge, Reality, Tree

“[Nelson, to Annabelle] "The misery of the world," he says, reaching into himself to overcome her resistance. "That's what I kept thinking during my group this morning – the pity of everything, all of us, these confused souls trying so pathetically hard to break out of the fog – to see through our compulsions, our needs as they chew us up…"”

John Updike book Rabbit Remembered

Rabbit Remembered (2000)

World, Soul, Thinking

“People aren't either wicked or noble," the hook-handed man said. They're like chef's salad, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.”

Daniel Handler book The Grim Grotto

The Grim Grotto (2004)

People

“"You are like the Spanish, Captain Sharpe, confused. Cadiz is filled with politicians and lawyers and the encourage confusion. They argue. Should we be a Republic? Or perhaps a monarchy? Do we want a Cortes? And if so, should it have one chamber or two? Some want a parliament like Britain's. Others insist that Spain is best ruled by God and by a king. They squabble about these like children, but in truth there is only one real argument." "The argument, is whether Spain fights France or not?" "Exactly." "And you, believe Spain should fight against France?" "You know what the French have done to our country? The women raped, the children killed, the churches desecrated? Yes, I believe we should fight."”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Captain Fernando Galiana and Captain Richard Sharpe, p. 202
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Fury (2006)

Women, God, Children, Truth

“What I am saying is that it is not so much what man is that counts as it is what he ventures to make of himself. To make the leap he must do more than disclose himself; he must risk a certain amount of confusion. Then, as soon as he does catch a glimpse of a different kind of life, he needs to find some way of overcoming the paralyzing moment of threat, for this is the instant when he wonders who he really is - whether he is what he just was or is what he is about to be. Adam must have experienced such a moment.”

George Kelly (psychologist) (1905–1967) American psychologist and therapist

Variant: What I am saying is that it is not so much what man is that counts as it is what he ventures to make of himself. To make the leap he must do more than disclose himself; he must risk a certain amount of confusion. Then, as soon as he does catch a glimpse of a different kind of life, he needs to find some way of overcoming the paralyzing moment of threat, for this is the instant when he wonders who he really is - whether he is what he just was or is what he is about to be. Adam must have experienced such a moment.
Source: The Language of Hypothesis, 1964, p. 158

Life, Way

“To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the G in the word GNU when it is the name of this project.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

1980s, GNU Manifesto (1985)

“… I must say, it [the Koran] is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite; endless iterations, long-windedness, entanglement; most crude, incondite; — insupportable stupidity, in short! Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Koran … It is the confused ferment of a great rude human soul; rude, untutored, that cannot even read; but fervent, earnest, struggling vehemently to utter itself in words … We said "stupid:" yet natural stupidity is by no means the character of Mahomet's Book; it is natural uncultivation rather. The man has not studied speaking; in the haste and pressure of continual fighting, has not time to mature himself into fit speech … The man was an uncultured semi-barbarous Son of Nature, much of the Bedouin still clinging to him: we must take him for that. But for a wretched Simulacrum, a hungry Impostor without eyes or heart … we will not and cannot take him. Sincerity, in all senses, seems to me the merit of the Koran; what had rendered it precious to the wild Arab men … Curiously, through these incondite masses of tradition, vituperation, complaint, ejaculation in the Koran, a vein of true direct insight, of what we might almost call poetry, is found straggling.”

Thomas Carlyle book On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History

Thomas Carlyle, "On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History" (1841), pg. 64-67
1840s

Men, Books, Stupidity, Soul

Quotes about confusion page 4

Quotes about confusion
page 4