Quotes by Tom Robbins

For the ethical, political activism was seductive because it seemed to offer the possibility that one could improve society, make things better, without going through the personal ordeal of rearranging ones perceptions and transforming ones self. For the unconscionable, political reactivism was seductive because it seemed to protect ones holdings and legitimize ones greed. But both sides were gazing through a kerchief of illusion.

Cries for help are frequently inaudible.

the greatest men that ever live pass away unknown. they put forth no claims for themselves, establish no schools of systems in their name. they never create or stir but just melt down into love

If you want your tree to produce plenty o fruit, youve got to cut it back from time to time. Same thing with your neural cells. Some people might call it brain damage. I call it prunin.

Theres no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon.

Like the Arthurian years at Camelot, the Sixties constituted a breakthrough, a fleeting moment of glory, a time when a significant little chunk of humanity briefly realised its moral potential and flirted with its neurological destiny, a collective spiritual awakening that flared brilliantly until the barbaric and mediocre impulses of the species drew tight once more the curtains of darkness.

Never underestimate how much assistance, how much satisfaction, how much comfort, how much soul and transcendence there might be in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer.

If being alive is not a virtue, then there is little virtue in virtue.

Gods and men create one another, destroy one another, though by different means.

You’ve remained on the battleground, center stage, experiencing life and, what’s more important, experiencing yourself experiencing it. You havent been reduced to a logistical strategy for somebody elses life-war.

The notion that inspired play (even when audacious, offensive, or obscene) enhances rather than diminishes intellectual vigor and spiritual fulfillment, the notion that in the eyes of the gods the tight-lipped hero and the wet-cheeked victim are frequently inferior to the red-nosed clown, such notions are destined to be a hard sell to those who have E.M. Forster on their bedside table and a clump of dried narcissus up their ass.Not to worry. As long as words and ideas exist, there will be a few misfits who will cavort with them in a spirit of *approfondement*–if I may borrow that marvelous French word that translates roughly as ‘playing easily in the deep’–and in so doing they will occasionally bring to realization Kafka’s belief that ‘a novel should be an ax for the frozen seas around us’.

A few flat clouds folded themselves like crepes over fillings of apricot sky. Pompadours of supper-time smoke billowed from chimneys, separating into girlish pigtails as the breeze combed them out, above the slate rooftops. Chestnut blossoms, weary from having been admired all day, wore faint smiles of anticipation.

Theres always the same amount of good luck and bad luck in the world. If one person doesnt get the bad luck, somebody else will have to get it in their place. Theres always the same amount of good and evil, too. We cant eradicate evil, we can only evict it, force it to move across town. And when evil moves, some good always goes with it. But we can never alter the ratio of good to evil. All we can do is keep things stirred up so neither good nor evil solidifies. Thats when things get scary. Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top.

Disorder is inherent in stability. Civilized man doesnt understand stability. Hes confused it with rigidity. Our political and economic and social leaders drool about stability constantly. Its their favorite word, next to power. Gotta stabilize the political situation in Southeast Asia, gotta stabilize oil production and consumption, gotta stabilize student opposition to the government and so forth.Stabilization to them means order, uniformity, control. And thats a half-witted and potentially genocidal misconception. No matter how thoroughly they control a system, disorder invariably leaks into it. Then the managers panic, rush to plug the leak and endeavor to tighten the controls. Therefore, totalitarianism grows in viciousness and scope. And the blind pity is, rigidity isnt the same as stability at all. True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed.

In order to tame death, they refuse to completely enjoy life. In rejecting complete enjoyment, they are half-dead in advance - and that with no guarantee that their sacrifice will actually benefit them when all is done.

What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make others peoples decisions for them? Liberty, the very opposite of ownership and control, cannot, then, result from political action, either at the polls or at the barricades, but rather evolves out of attitude. If it results from anything, it must be levity.

Something has got to hold it together. Im saying my prayers to Elmer, the Greek god of glue.

The party in Alobar’s head, which agitation and anxiety were throwing, now was crashed by a notion: existence can be rearranged.

Besides, if I am truly immortal, I am my own grandchild, my own descendant, my own dynasty. I am not obliged to live on through what I pass down to others.

But man by his nature is an unnatural animal. If any creature stands a chance of defeating death, it is man.