Trevor Paglen Quotes

I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.

The cynicism that you have is not your real soul.

By nature, I am not an optimist, though I try to act as if I am.

You are as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fears; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

I really try, at least consciously, not to be cynical or ironic.

You have to find some way to not become a cynical or negative person, a person who keeps walking around and opening your eyes in the outside world but inside you close down, a person who stops expecting tomorrow to be better than today.

I'm not cynical.

No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.

I never really thought of myself as depressed so much as paralyzed by hope.

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.

The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.

Anyone can identify with those moments in life where circumstances or people inform us that we've strayed from the path of our better nature and intentions. We know what that's like, and we resist it - so as not to feel like we're bad people.

I try to be the same person I was yesterday.

The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.

What you say about this world I do not quite agree with; I think it a very good world, and only requires a person to be reasonable in his expectations, and not to trust too much to others.

I can't hide my feelings. I'm efficient. I've always been that way.

I don't want to become a jaded person, and I don't want to be complacent.

I find it hard to act other than the way I feel.

It is much easier to conquer a country than to conquer ourselves.

I have found the best way to avoid ending your life as a bitter wreck is to start out as one.

I want to continue to be the same man I've always been.

I'm a passionate person. I'm a lot of things, like most people are. Most people are dynamic. The focus is not on me though, I'm a screen. The aim is to always keep myself in the position where the screen is clear.

Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is being a bore to oneself.

The world is cynical and sarcastic, but that doesn't mean that that's always the truth.

Until I feel strong enough to pray sincerely and to act accordingly, I would rather not pray at all.