Quotes about syndrome

A collection of quotes on the topic of syndrome, doing, thinking, people.

Quotes about syndrome

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo
Ted Bundy photo
Douglas Adams photo
Neve Campbell photo
Mark Zuckerberg photo
Frank Zappa photo

“The cool-person syndrome is peculiarly American. Part of that has to do with the way the educational business is run in the U.S. It’s not based on how much you can teach your child: it’s based on how much money the suppliers of basic materials can make off your child.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Oui interview (1979)
Context: The cool-person syndrome is peculiarly American. Part of that has to do with the way the educational business is run in the U. S. It’s not based on how much you can teach your child: it’s based on how much money the suppliers of basic materials can make off your child. Somewhere along the line most people pick up the desire to be a cool person, which is just another way to make them buy things. Once you’ve decided that you need to be a cool person, it makes you a possible victim of anyone whose products are the equivalent of bottled smoke. Somebody tells you to buy this particularly useless item and you’ll be a cool person. No matter how stupid it seems, you have to buy it. Pet Rocks. Pringle’s potato chips. whatever it is — the newest, the latest. Since the cool-person thing is something you learn in school, and since the school business is pretty suspicious and definitely tied up with the government, it makes you wonder whether or not the desire to be cool is part of a government plot to make you buy stupid things.

Gloria Steinem photo

“You can compel love, actually, if somebody is isolated and dependent — it’s like the Stockholm syndrome. But you can’t compel laughter. It happens when two things come together and make a third unexpectedly.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

The Humanist interview (2012)
Context: There were never that many women stand-up comics in the past because the power to make people laugh is also a power that gets people upset. But the ones who were performing were making jokes on themselves usually and now that’s changed. So there are no rules exactly but I think if you see a whole group of people only being self-deprecating, it’s a problem.
But I have always employed humor, and I think it’s absolutely crucial that we do because, among other things, humor is the only free emotion. I mean, you can compel fear, as we know. You can compel love, actually, if somebody is isolated and dependent — it’s like the Stockholm syndrome. But you can’t compel laughter. It happens when two things come together and make a third unexpectedly. It happens when you learn something, too. I think it was Einstein who said he had to be careful when he shaved because if he thought of something suddenly, he’d laugh and cut himself.
So I think laughter is crucial. Some of the original cultures, like the Dalit and the Native American, don’t separate laughter and seriousness. There’s none of this kind of false Episcopalian solemnity.

Frank Zappa photo
Christopher Moore photo
Nora Roberts photo
Christopher Moore photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Spider Robinson photo
Newton Lee photo

“The "need to know" syndrome had reached epidemic proportions within the U. S. government, all the way to top including the Presidents of the United States”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

giving them the benefit of the doubt
Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2015

Michael Crichton photo

“The extreme positions of the Crossfire Syndrome require extreme simplification — framing the debate in terms which ignore the real issues.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

"Mediasaurus: The decline of conventional media" - Speech at the National Press Club, Washington D.C. (7 April 1993)

Johnny Cash photo
Warren Farrell photo
Warren Farrell photo
Vernon L. Smith photo
Thabo Mbeki photo

“Aids is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. I don't believe it's a sensible thing to ask: 'Does a virus cause a syndrome?' It can't. A virus will cause a disease. The syndrome is a group of diseases as a result of immune deficiency. As a result of immune deficiency you suffer various diseases.”

Thabo Mbeki (1942) South African politician, President of South Africa

Source: August 2000, addressing South African Parliament http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=173678&area=%2farchives%2farchives__online_edition%2f http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/12/aids.chrismcgreal.

Francis Escudero photo
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson photo
Kent Hovind photo
David Norris photo

“Two charming young women approached me and lobbied me about this matter because they both have Down's syndrome children with a reasonably high IQ.”

David Norris (1944) Irish scholar, independent Senator, and gay and civil rights activist

29 May 2013 http://www.kildarestreet.com/sendebates/?id=2013-05-29a.223&s=speaker%3A210#g233

Paul Weyrich photo
Warren Farrell photo

“Sitcoms routinely portray women hitting men, almost never portray men hitting women. When he fails to leave, it is not called “Battered Man Syndrome”; it is called comedy.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say (2000)

Toby Young photo
Aung San Suu Kyi photo
Daniel Dennett photo
Aron Ra photo
Madonna photo
Margaret Cho photo

“I got back from Toronto, where they had a severe outbreak of SARS- you know, Severe Asian Racism Syndrome.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Tours and CDs, Revolution Tour

Warren Farrell photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Jordan Peterson photo

“Partly what you need to do is decide what your highest value is. It's the star. What are you aiming for? You can decide. But there are some criteria. It should be good for you in a way that facilitates your moving forward. Maybe it should be good for you in a way that's also good for your family, as well as for the larger community. It should cover the domain of life. There's constraints on what you should regard as a value, but within those constraints you have the choice. You have choice. The thing is that people will carry a heavy load if they get to pick the load. And they think, 'well, I won't carry any load.' Ok, fine, but then you'll be like the slead dog that has nothing to pull. You'll get bored. People are pack animals. They need to pull against a wait. And that's not true for everyone. It's not true for conscientious people. For the typical person, they'll eat themselves up unless they have a load. This is why there's such an opiate epidemic among so many dispossessed white, middle aged, unemployed men in the U. S. They lose their job, and then they're done. They despise themselves. They develop chronic pain syndromes and depression. And the chronic pain is treated with opiates. That's what we're doing. And you should watch when you talk to young men about responsibility. They're so thrilled about it. It just blows me away. Really?! That's what the counter-culture is? Grow up and do something useful. Really? I can do that? Oh, I'm so excited by that idea. No one ever mentioned that before. Rights, rights, rights, rights. Jesus. It's appalling. People have had enough of that. And they better have, because it's a non-productive mode of being. Responsibility, man. That's where the meaning in life is.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Concepts

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Premenstrual Syndrome: Just before their periods women behave the way men do all the time.”

credited to Lowell Stone, M.D., born 2144; chapter 15, p. 185
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

Ben Croshaw photo
Sarah Palin photo

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care.”

Sarah Palin (1964) American politician

" Statement on the Current Health Care Debate https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=113851103434&ref=mf", Facebook, , quoted in * 2009-08-10
Sarah Palin falsely claims Barack Obama runs a 'death panel'
Politifact
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/10/sarah-palin/sarah-palin-barack-obama-death-panel/
In response to the proposed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
2014

Christopher Titus photo
Jack Gleeson photo
Rod Serling photo

“I ask for your indulgence when I march out quotations. This is the double syndrome of men who write for a living and men who are over forty. The young smoke pot — we inhale from our Bartlett's.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

Speech at Moorpark College, Moorpark, California (December 3, 1968).
Other

“Ankier is anxious to avoid what she calls the “Anna Kournikova syndrome” — “I realise that a lot of the media attention I’ve got is because I don’t look horrible, but that can bring attention you don’t want.””

Jo Ankier (1982) British athlete and television personality

Jewish Chronicle, 17 August 2007, p. 11-12: "The calendar girl who's going for gold"

Russell Brand photo
Ben Croshaw photo
Linus Torvalds photo

“The NIH syndrome (Not Invented Here) is a disease.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Newsmaker: Torvalds: A Solaris skeptic, CNet, 2004-12-21, Shankland, Stephen, 2006-08-28, http://archive.is/EfHH, 2012-07-12 http://news.com.com/Torvalds+A+Solaris+skeptic/2008-1082_3-5498799.html,
2000s, 2000-04

Harry Browne photo
John Magufuli photo

“Dr Magufuli has so far shown a no-nonsense approach in taming corruption, laziness and the business-as-usual syndrome among public servants. This has endeared him to most Tanzanians. Whereas in the October polls he received only 58.46 per cent of the votes cast, the survey commissioned shows that if elections were to be held today, Dr Magufuli would win by a resounding 70 percent.”

John Magufuli (1959) Tanzanian politician

The Citizen (newspaper), quoted Daily Maverick, "Tanzania: Hundred days later, what has Magufuli done?" http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-02-14-tanzania-hundred-days-later-what-has-magufuli-done/#.VtY1RfkrLrc, February 14, 2016.
About

Greta Thunberg photo
Sandra Fluke photo
Daniel Kash photo

“I’m just one of those guys you know. I lived in England for eight years, I lived in America and I live in Canada. It’s sort of Canadian syndrome. There’s a whole bunch of British actors like that too, where you go, "I think I know that guy, I’ve seen him a million times but I have no idea what his name is."”

Daniel Kash (1959) Canadian actor

It’s that kind of thing, I don’t know if that will ever change but that is what my life is.
Interview: Daniel Kash Talks Mama, Aliens and Defiance https://www.gamesradar.com/interview-daniel-kash-talks-mama-aliens-and-defiance/ (June 14, 2013)

Charles Stross photo

“I’ve known all along I’m not qualified for this—it’s not really imposter syndrome if you really are a fake.”

Source: The Laundry Files, The Labyrinth Index (2018), Chapter 11, “A Dead God Did It and Ran Away” (p. 347)

Josh Duffy photo

“Disease's mess with you from the outside, but syndromes mess with you from the inside.”

Josh Duffy (1978) Subject of the documentary THE MAYOR

Film Quotes