It is never possible to understand completely any other human being; and no individual will ever really understand himself – the complexity is too great and there is not the time to constantly take things apart and examine them.
Because we have put ourselves in our own zoo, we find it difficult to break out.
The reason man does not experience his true cultural self is that until he experiences another self as valid he has little basis for validating his own self.
Age affects how people experience time.
Man is used to the fact that there are languages which he does not at first understand and which must be learned, but because art is primarily visual he expects that he should get the message immediately and is apt to be affronted if he doesn’t.
The information is in the people, not in your head.
Behind every piece of paper lies a human situation.
I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost.
The drive to learn is as strong as the sexual drive. It begins earlier and lasts longer.
Theatre is about people, not buildings. Incalculable damage has been done to the expert talent a company needs – from wardrobe to lighting technicians.
Two points that are very important points to remember and ask: Is it real and does it work?
We are only peripherally tied to the lives of others. It takes a long long time for us to become deeply involved with others, and for some this never happens.
The future for us is the foreseeable future. The South Asian, however, feels that it is perfectly realistic to think of a ‘long time’ in terms of thousands of years.
Now, you can’t tell me, we have the only God in the whole world. You can’t tell me that nobody else has God.
I have found the study of organisms to be a truly exciting experience, always interesting and sometimes humbling.
By their very nature bureaucracies have no conscience, no memory, and no mind.
The study of man is the study of his extensions.
To increase density in a rat population and maintain healthy specimens, put them in boxes so they can’t see each other, clean their cages, and give them enough to eat. You can pile the boxes up as many stories as you wish. Unfortunately, caged animals become stupid, which is a very heavy price to pay for a super filing system!
It is characteristic of all extension systems to be treated as distinct and separate from the user and to take on an identity of their own. Religions, philosophies, literature, and art illustrate this. After a time, the extended system accretes to itself a past and a history as well as a body of knowledge and skills that can be learned. Such systems can be studied and appreciated as entities in themselves.
Everything man is and does is modified by learning and is therefore malleable. But once learned, these behavior patterns, these habitual responses, these ways of interacting gradually sink below the surface of the mind and, like the admiral of a submerged submarine fleet, control from the depths. The hidden controls are usually experienced as though they were innate simply because they are not only ubiquitous but habitual as well.