No one's ever dared come out and say it before, but there's not a man among us that doesn't think it, that doesn't feel just as you do about her and the whole business - feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul.
But I remember one thing:_x000D_ _x000D_ it wasn't me that started acting deaf;_x000D_ _x000D_ it was people that first started acting like_x000D_ _x000D_ I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the disconnect between individuals and the misunderstandings that can arise in communication.
In this quote, Ken Kesey conveys a feeling of frustration regarding interpersonal communication. He reflects on how people's actions can create barriers, leading to a situation where he feels unheard and invalidated. This emphasizes the importance of mutual understanding and attention in relationships, suggesting that often it's not a lack of perception on one side, but rather a failure of the other to acknowledge and engage meaningfully.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on effective communication, you might use this quote to emphasize the importance of actively listening to others.
More from Ken Kesey
All quotes →His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can't lift, something everybody knows he can't lift. But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it.
You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you.
The job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
If this glorious birth to death hassle is the only hassle we are ever to have ..if our grand exhilarating fight of life is such a tragically short little scrap anyway,compared to the eons of rounds before and after-then why should one want to relinquish even a few precious seconds of it?
He was in his chair in the corner, resting a second before he came out for the next round -- in a long line of next rounds. The thing he was fighting, you couldn't whip it for good. All you could do was keep on whipping it, till you couldn't come out anymore and somebody else had to take your place.
Similar quotes
Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
No one feels another's grief, no one understands another's joy. People imagine they can reach one another. In reality they only pass each other by.
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
Simple exchanges can break down walls between us, for when people come together and speak to one another and share a common experience, then their common humanity is revealed. We are reminded that we're joined together by our pursuit of a life that's productive and purposeful, and when that happens mistrust begins to fade and our smaller differences no longer overshadow the things that we share. And that's where progress begins.
Bullying, to me, starts very small around the kindergarten age where the first thing we learn is to call each other names. Something so small can be so long lasting in someone's life.
The relationship between a manufacturer and his advertising agency is almost as intimate as the relationship between a patient and his doctor. Make sure that you can life happily with your prospective client before you accept his account.