Green, Celia (Celia Green)

In an autocracy, one person has his way; in an aristocracy, a few people have their way; in a democracy, no one has his way.
-- Celia Green

"Lack of clarity is always a sign of dishonesty"
-- Celia Green

"Astonishment is the only realistic emotion."
-- Celia Green

"It is superfluous to be humble on one's own behalf; so many people are willing to do it for one."
-- Celia Green

"The only important thing to realise about history is that it all took place in the last five minutes."
-- Celia Green

"Progress towards sanity is achieved by abandoning first the desire for omnipotence and then that for exceptional achievement."
-- Celia Green

"The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment."
-- Celia Green

"Only the impossible is worth attempting. In everything else one is sure to fail."
-- Celia Green

"The fact that something is far-fetched is no reason why it should not be true; it cannot be as far-fetched as the fact that something exists."
-- Celia Green

"People accept their limitations so as to prevent themselves from wanting anything they might get."
-- Celia Green

"It is inconceivable that anything should be existing. It is not inconceivable that a lot of people should also be existing who are not interested in the fact that they exist. But it is certainly very odd."
-- Celia Green

"The remarkable thing about the human mind is its range of limitations."
-- Celia Green

"The human race has to be bad as psychology; if it were not, it would understand why it is bad at everything else."
-- Celia Green

"When someone says his conclusions are objective, he means that they are based on prejudices which many other people share."
-- Celia Green

"The psychology of committees is a special case of the psychology of mobs."
-- Celia Green

"Society expresses its sympathy for the geniuses of the past to distract attention from the fact that it has no intention of being sympathetic to the geniuses of the present."
-- Celia Green

"In an autocracy, one person has his way; in an aristocracy a few people have their way; in a democracy, no one has his way."
-- Celia Green

"Democracy: everyone should have an equal opportunity to obstruct everybody else."
-- Celia Green

"When people talk about 'the sanctity of the individual' they mean 'the sanctity of the statistical norm'."
-- Celia Green

"In an unenlightened society some people are forced to play degrading social roles; in an enlightened society, everyone is."
-- Celia Green

"Society is everybody's way of punishing one another because they daren't take it out on the universe."
-- Celia Green

"'Social justice' - the expression of universal hatred."
-- Celia Green

"Society is a self-regulating mechanism for preventing the fulfilment of its members."
-- Celia Green

"Human nature: vindictiveness lightly coated with dishonesty."
-- Celia Green

"The human race believes in not taking its problems seriously enough to solve them."
-- Celia Green

"People having religions is an insult to the universe."
-- Celia Green

"People have been marrying and bringing up children for centuries now. Nothing has ever come of it."
-- Celia Green

"The object of the educational system is to make the child feel suitably guilty for the harm that has been done to him."
-- Celia Green

"Education by the State is a contradiction in terms. Intellectual development is only possible to those who have seen through society."
-- Celia Green

"In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is lucky to escape with his life."
-- Celia Green

"What is scandalous is not that stupid people should sometimes inherit private incomes; but that clever people should sometimes not."
-- Celia Green

"The human race knows enough about thinking to prevent it."
-- Celia Green

"One of the greatest superstitions of our time is the belief that it has none."
-- Celia Green

"That society exists to frustrate the individual may be seen from its attitude to work. It is only morally acceptable if you do not want to do it. If you want to, it becomes a personal pleasure."
-- Celia Green

"I cannot write long books; I leave that for those who have nothing to say."
-- Celia Green