“It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“I hope he doesn't know he just touched my leg.

And nothing happened.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

“Your dreams and goals are bigger than small minded people or the fears that they harbor. Don’t let their ocean of fear trap you in the undertow.”
― Jaha Knight, 39 Day Lifescape-Become a Better You

“This is why people have babies...because it's exhausting not to know what you're supposed to do next. A baby is basically a nonnegotiable map for the next two decades.”
― Glynnis MacNicol, No One Tells You This

“The only certainty in life is that it is uncertain.”
― Charles F. Glassman, Brain Drain - The Breakthrough That Will Change Your Life

“To live for your dreams, you have to be fearless in life.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!

“Dwelling on the past and worrying about the future will only rob you of the present's joy.”
― Stacy A. Padula, The Truth We Never Told

“In an article titled "The Ex-Communists," she analyzed how these McCarthy loyalists had simply switched allegiances. Instead of demanding communism as they had earlier, they now called for unconditional loyalty and cooperation in denouncing others for the sake of freedom and democracy. They still had a cause, just a different one from before. The new cause, the right cause, she continued, had a totalitarian catch to it. By turning democracy "into a cause," something that would arrive in the future and to which the present must be devoted, the present became unfree. The idea of futurity destroyed the present moment.
How could one escape this destruction of the present by fear of the future....?”
― Marie Luise Knott, Unlearning with Hannah Arendt

“That is what's meant by being afraid of the future, by showing how brilliant you come out of it.”
― Bisco Hatori

“Fear is historically the strongest emotion in economics. Remember FDR in the Great Depression? It's the most famous quote in financial history: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." In fact fear is probably the strongest human emotion, period. Who ever woke up at four in the morning because they were feeling half?”
― Robert Harris

“Of course you don't get it," he said. "You and Yaya, you've always felt trapped here. But I don't want to graduate." He rolled a banana against the table with his palm. "I've spent my whole life reading beautiful books and watching beautiful movies, dreaming that there was some real place out there where I would fit in and be beautiful, too. And now I'm here. And I don't to leave. I don't want to get an ugly job in an ugly office full of shit like staplers and fax machines. I don't want to write memos. I don't want us all to move far away from each other and grow up and forget to call. I don't to get fat. I don't want to be tired. I don't know. I just...sometimes I can't imagine anything good happening to me. After Catherine.”
― Elisabeth Thomas

“I have a friend whose therapist tells him, 'you know too much to be happy', meaning it's too hard to live when you believe you can see how the rest of your life will play out. That may be what I miss most about youth; unknowing without fear.”
― Elisa Gabbert, Any Person Is the Only Self