Elias Canetti Quotes

Like the herd animals we are, we sniff warily at the strange one among us.

I mean, knowing people, people are terrified of the unknown and they want to just kill the unknown.

There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown.

Oh, we can populate the dark with horrors, even we who think ourselves informed and sure, believing nothing we cannot measure or weigh. I know beyond all doubt that the dark things crowding in on me either did not exist or were not dangerous to me, and still I was afraid.

I think most people are afraid of what they don't know.

I'm more the sort of person who doesn't like hugging strangers because we don't know each other, so we shouldn't.

We met, 'twas in a crowd, and I thought he would shun me.

People have a fear of the unknown. Insects have different senses than us, different amount of limbs and their body structure is very different. It's hard for us to really relate to them and understand them.

We're frightened of what makes us different.

I don't seek discomfort. But, very often, you realise that what you fear is actually quite ephemeral; something's different, something's unfamiliar; therefore, it must be worse.

I increasingly wonder whether most humans are in a constant state of unconsciously fearing each other. Perhaps they fear how intimately different other people might be to them, and the problem is that there is no real way of finding out just how huge that difference might be.

I'm intimidated anytime I work with someone who's directly outside my very insulated group of friends.

I've had paranoid panic attacks.

Anxiety is a kind of fuel that activates the fight-or-flight part of the brain in me. It makes sure that a velociraptor isn't around the corner and that you do as much as you possibly can to survive. Because Hollywood has a lot in common with 'Jurassic Park' and its primeval-dinosaur universe.

People say to me that I can't be nervous because I've had such a wealth of experience, but I tell them that I have never done this particular part before.

I like normal stuff people fear - like spiders and heights. I'm frightened by the unknown, by things that are hard to figure out and get a grip on.

The Alien is gross, scary. There is something in a human being that looks at them and sees it as a cockroach. You can never feel nurturing towards the cockroach.

Change creates fear, and technology creates change. Sadly, most people don't behave very well when they are afraid.

With most people, strangers are not only enemies, but inferiors.

When we do not understand something, a common reaction is to fear it. In government, this is the usual, and encouraged, reaction. The reaction to the gig economy has been no different, and this growing fear has unfortunately turned into a legislative bloodbath.

I get scared of really simple things and not scared of big things.

As a child, I was afraid of everything. My parents were shy, the kind of people for whom it is an ordeal to go and buy some bread or whatever.

The fear of public speaking is a primal fear. You can train your body to not be crazy when you're doing it, but it truly is a primal fear.

I don't like new environments. I don't like being around a lot of new people. It makes me uncomfortable.

I don't like going out. I'm more of a watch TV, hang out, Netflix kind of guy. I don't like leaving; I don't like talking to people. It gives me anxiety.