The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
Lily TomlinRead
My space chums think my unique hookup with humanity could be evolution's awkward attempt to jump-start itself up again. They're thinking just maybe, going crazy could be the evolutionary process trying to hurry up mind expansion. Maybe my mind didn't snap. Maybe it was just trying to stretch itself into a new shape. The cerebral cortex trying to grow a thumb of sorts.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that unusual or 'crazy' thoughts may represent an evolutionary leap in human consciousness and development.
Lily Tomlin's quote contemplates the nature of human thought and evolution, proposing that what is often labeled as insanity may actually be a sign of the mind striving for greater complexity and understanding. She likens this to an awkward yet necessary evolution, where the mind seeks to expand and transform, perhaps even in unconventional ways. The metaphor of the cerebral cortex trying to 'grow a thumb' illustrates the tension between traditional thinking and the desire for intellectual and emotional growth.
Themes
EvolutionMindHumanityConsciousnessInsanity
In practice
Example use cases
During a psychology seminar, someone can reference this quote to discuss creativity and mental health.
More from Lily Tomlin
All quotes →Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.
Lily TomlinRead
The road to success is always under construction.
Lily TomlinRead
Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them.
Lily TomlinRead
Truth is, I've always been selling out. The difference is that in the past, I looked like I had integrity because there were no buyers.
Lily TomlinRead
Why is it that when we talk to God we're said to be praying but when God talks to us we're schizophrenic?
Lily TomlinRead
Similar quotes
The origin of the absurd idea of immortal life is easy to discover; it is kept alive by hope and fear, by childish faith, and by cowardice.
Clarence DarrowRead
If the meanest man in the republic is deprived of his rights,then every man in the republic is deprived of his rights.
Jane AddamsRead
But you see, a rich country like America can perhaps afford to be stupid.
Barack ObamaRead
No one is so completely disenchanted with the world, or knows it so thoroughly, or is so utterly disgusted with it, that when it begins to smile upon him he does not become partially reconciled to it.
Giacomo LeopardiRead
It is not that the girl is unfit for everything, it is that she is not of this world.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
We are a society that has been structured from top to bottom by race. You don't get beyond that by deciding not to talk about it anymore. It will always come back; it will always reassert itself over and over again.
Kimberle Williams CrenshawRead