I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a skepticism towards substances that alter consciousness.
Fran Lebowitz's quote highlights her preference for a grounded reality over the altered perceptions that come from hallucinogenic drugs. She suggests that even the slightest expansion of consciousness is unnecessary for her, indicating a belief in the sufficiency of her natural state of mind.
In practice
During a discussion about substance use and its effects on perception.
Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine. You need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion picture star. If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use the word "collectible" as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified success.
You should make it hard on yourself to write so you’re easier to read.
Special-interest publications should realize that if they are attracting enough advertising and readers to make a profit, the interest is not so special.
I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit.
I must take issue with the term 'a mere child,' for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult.
Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met.
And perhaps it was also the case that, for all a lifetime's internal struggling, you were finally no more than what others saw you as. That was your nature, whether you liked it or not.
Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well.
As in everything else, I must start with myself. That is: in all circumstances try to be decent, just, tolerant, and understanding, and at the same time try to resist corruption and deception. In other words, I must do my utmost to act in harmony with my conscience and my better self.
It is precisely women’s experience of God that this world lacks. A world that does not nurture its weakest, does not know God the birthing mother. A world that does not preserve the planet, does not know God the creator. A world that does not honor the spirit of compassion, does not know God the spirit. God the lawgiver, God the judge, God the omnipotent being have consumed Western spirituality and, in the end, shriveled its heart.
If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.
You are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.