Trevor Paglen Quotes

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.

I think I write about things that are mysterious to me.

I think we're always intrigued by things we're not familiar with.

You discover how confounding the world is when you try to draw it. You look at a car, and you try to see its car-ness, and you're like an immigrant to your own world. You don't have to travel to encounter weirdness. You wake up to it.

I'm excited about seeing things, and I'm interested in the way I think other people saw things.

I never feel like I'm looking to get away from my own self. Not as much as I'm trying to get inside the mind of somebody else.

As long as a thing is unknown, it belongs to us in a way that well-known things do not. For we have the opportunity to fill the empty, unknown spaces for ourselves, and in them there is room for imagination and for hope.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

Savor the mystery, Stephen, we don't get enough of them.

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.

The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

We never completely comprehend ourselves, but we can do far more than comprehend.

It's human nature to wonder.

The unknown is always interesting.

If there were no mystery left to explore life would get rather dull, wouldn't it?

Looking up and out, how can we not respect this ever-vigilant cognizance that distinguishes us: the capability to envision, to dream, and to invent? the ability to ponder ourselves? and be aware of our existence on the outer arm of a spiral galaxy in an immeasurable ocean of stars? Cognizance is our crest.

If there wasn't mystery, people wouldn't have anything to ponder. If you already knew everything, you wouldn't have anything to think about and life would just be really boring.

Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?

Do not know yourself. I want to continue to surprise me.

There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.

All the things worth writing about are outside me. I'm a lens, not a source. And even if it's not always a comfortable journey, it's always a stimulating one.

I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new.

I have always been intrigued by these lives I have never experienced.

I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.