Ruth Gordon Quotes

I think there is one smashing rule: never face the facts.

The only the way that you can live and function without seeing the facts in front of you is to put yourself in a constant state of denial.

One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.

I think the greatest illusion we have is that denial protects us. It's actually the biggest distortion and lie. In fact, staying asleep is what's killing us.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

People don't really want to know what happens. They ask you for just a second, but then they don't want to know.

I often wonder which is best, to be honest about what you know in this world, or to continue to deny you know it and thereby fool yourself into believing that it does not exist!

I think we live in a time where we can all distract ourselves from facing the pain or the reality of all of our lives - tons of ways to hide, to kill pain, to deal with pain.

There are lots of things we choose not to see. Doesn't mean they aren't there, even if we wish they weren't.

You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.

You need to face what you're running from

If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.

The human race's favorite method for being in control of facts is to ignore them.

I am always amazed by people who know something is wrong but still insist on ignoring it, as if that will somehow make it go away. They spare themselves the confrontation, but end up boiling in resentment anyway.

Stop talking about the murders, and we won't know they're happening. And then we can all just live in a bubble that isn't reality.

Ignoring facts does not make them go away.

I have a very ostrich mentality. I feel like I have my head in the sand so no one can see me.

People don't want to hear the truth; they never do. They wanna live in some kind of fantasy.

The worst enemy of human hope is not brute facts, but men of brains who will not face them.

Sometimes, America, when something's too bad, we don't want to look at it. We want to turn our head.

I don't want to dig in the truth all of the time. Let me dream.

Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye, and deny it.

America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand.

Some people choose not to believe the truth because it disagrees with what they fundamentally want.

Between knowing and not knowing is not wanting to know.