B.S. Johnson famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

In general, generalization is to lie, to tell lies.
-- B.S. Johnson

#Lying #Generalization

I walk up a dune to a beach and look out to sea, but it's 100km away. The ships lie askew in their dry beds, at anchor for ever. Today is my son's birthday. Thousands of miles from here, his healthy lungs are blowing out candles. I should be there but I'm here with another boy, who puts his face close to mine and laughs. I smile back but realise he can't see it, because I'm wearing an antiseptic muzzles to protect me from his breath.
Television is a constant stream of fact, opinions, lies, moral dilemmas, plots: an infinitely complex and sophisticated torrent of information. How could it not make you cleverer? The only people who ever thought television rotted the brain and made kids dumb were those with a vested interest in other ways of learning, or those who were intellectually insecure, usually about books.
If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name.
Could man be drunk for ever Â Â Â With liquor, love, or fights, Lief should I rouse at morning Â Â Â And lief lie down of nights. But men at whiles are sober Â Â Â And think by fits and starts, And if they think, they fasten Â Â Â Their hands upon their hearts.
Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land from which we sprung. Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; but young men think it is, and we were young.
When something important is going on, silence is a lie.
I have known men to hazard their fortunes, go long journeys halfway about the world, forget friendships, even lie, cheat, and steal, all for the gain of a book.
The Bible says, 'The truth shall make you free.' But let's not forget it was Spiro Agnew who said that a good lie will keep you out of jail in the first place.
The true enemy of man is generalization.
There are no generalizations in American politics that vested selfishness cannot cut through.

B.S. Johnson famous quotes

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