Tom Robbins Quotes

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's somebody doing something because I pushed them in that direction.

When my body is covered and disappears, it's not about the relationship between me and the wall, but the relationship between me as an individual and those slogans which are used to fool the public.

If you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite.

The enemy of the black is not the white. The enemy of capitalist is not communist, the enemy of homosexual is not heterosexual, the enemy of Jew is not Arab, the enemy of youth is not the old, the enemy of hip is not redneck, the enemy of Chicano is not gringo and the enemy of women is not men. We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind. The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized.

They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal.

You're a very difficult person to manipulate, you know." "Nonsense," he said. "You just have to promise me that I won't have to do a thing, and then I'll do anything you want." "Anything?" "Anything that doesn't require doing anything." "That's nothing, then." "Is it?" "Yes." "Well, that's something.

I refuse to follow the rules where society tries to control people with low self esteem.

To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country.

They say you better listen to the voice of reason But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason. So you had better do as you are told. You better listen to the radio.

National discord is, like religion, a standardized form of revolt; and the moment a revolt is standardized, it is no longer a revolt.

A weak invention of the Enemy.

I was not born to amuse the Tsars.

Custom, madam, is the law of fools, but it shall never govern me.

The habit of taking the line of least resistance makes all rivers and some men crooked.

Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

It would be very hard for me to do things somebody else's way.

I hope I can pass on a few thoughts and ideas to the Sci-Fi channel to encourage people to see that they are living in a conditioned illusion and we can change it any time we want. We can be people and not sheeple.

The one thing more difficult than following a regime is keeping from imposing it on others.

If you decide to just go with the flow, you'll end up where the flow goes, which is usually downhill, often leading to a big pile of sludge and a life of unhappiness. You'll end up doing what everyone else is doing.

I'm more than just a piece in their Games.

So far, we do not seem appalled at the prospect of exactly the same kind of education being applied to all the school children from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but there is an uneasiness in the air, a realization that the individual is growing less easy to find; an idea, perhaps, of what standardization might become when the units are not machines, but human beings.

It's pure instinct that makes me rebel every time someone tries to control my life and hand out more rules.

Perhaps even more than constituted authority, it is social uniformity and sameness that harass the individual most.

Happy slaves are the bitterest enemies of freedom.

Any kind of dictatorship, I'm uneasy. I just don't like dictators. I don't like crowds. I don't like hordes, and I don't like other people telling me what to do. This is probably a reaction against people telling me what to do when I was a kid. I won't join any group, espouse a cause against some other people.