Life is a near-death experience.
George CarlinRead
I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of independent thinking and forming one's own opinions, even when it goes against societal norms.
George Carlin's quote highlights the value of critical thinking and the necessity of having personal opinions. He satirically critiques the notion of blindly conforming to popular beliefs, suggesting that true intelligence involves questioning the status quo and thinking for oneself. The quote illustrates a deeper philosophy advocating for individual thought in a society that often discourages deviation from conventional views.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of critical thinking in education.
Life is a near-death experience.
Here’s a bumper sticker I’d like to see: “We are the proud parents of a child who’s self-esteem is sufficient that he doesn’t need us promoting his minor scholastic achievements on the back of our car."
If you've got a cat and a leg, you've got a happy cat. If you've got a cat and two legs, you've got a party.
This is a lttle prayer dedicated to the separation of church and state. I guess if they are going to force those kids to pray in schools they might as well have a nice prayer like this: Our Father who art in heaven, and to the republic for which it stands, thy kingdom come, one nation indivisible as in heaven, give us this day as we forgive those who so proudly we hail. Crown thy good into temptation but deliver us from the twilight's last gleaming. Amen and Awomen.
Some people try to get out of jury duty by lying. You don't have to lie. Tell the judge the truth. Tell him you'd make a terrific juror because you can spot guilty people.
Intelligence tests are biased toward the literate.
We're going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.
There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom.
The most interesting conversation is not about why Donald Trump lies. Many public figures lie, and he's only a severe example of a common type. The interesting conversation concerns how we come to accept those lies.
A liberal society stands on the proposition that we should all take seriously the idea that we might be wrong. This means we must place no one, including ourselves, beyond the reach of criticism; it means that we must allow people to err, even where the error offends and upsets, as it often will.
But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.
This is what is sad when one contemplates human life, that so many live out their lives in quiet lostness...they live, as it were, away from themselves and vanish like shadows. Their immortal souls are blown away, and they are not disquieted by the question of its immortality, because they are already disintegrated before they die.
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