One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better.
I think that one should recognize reality even when one doesn't like it; indeed, especially when one doesn't like it.
Even the bravest only rarely have courage for what they really know.
Reality cannot be ignored except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid.
She intended to swallow the world and he lived crushed by reality.
Sooner or later,reality does occor and when it does, all the lies show up, like blood on snow.
Yes, there was an element of abstraction and unreality in misfortune. But when an abstraction starts to kill you, you have to get to work on it.
Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.
But this was what happened when you didn't want to visit and confront the past: the past starts visiting and confronting you.
I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a society where you're trying not to look at it is stupid because looking at death throws us back into life with more vigour and energy. The fact that flowers don't last for ever makes them beautiful.
We live in what is, but we find a thousand ways not to face it. Great theater strengthens our faculty to face it.
Reality confronts man with a great many musts, but all of them are conditional the formula of realistic necessity is You must, if and the if stands for man's choice
I don't believe you get to just act like things didn't happen because it's uncomfortable or sad.
The role of the artist is to not look away.
Things become clear when there is no escape.
… willingness to face an ugly truth and say, “Never Again”.
At some point you just have to turn around and face your life head on.
Never turn your back on reality. It surrounds you.
In the absence of wake-up calls, many of us never really confront the critical issues of life.
nothing good ever comes out of denying the truth about our situation.
That's the way I feel about the world: there are certain problems that can only be dealt with that way - going out and doing them. As ugly a truth as that is, I do think it's the truth about the world.
Psychedelics can carry you farther and faster than most people care to go. Once you get to psychedelics, it's no longer a matter of seeking the answer, you have found the answer. Now the issue changes dramatically, you must face the answer.
Reality is painful -- it's so much easier to keep doing stuff you know you're good at or else to pick something so hard there's no point at which it's obvious you're failing -- but it's impossible to get better without confronting it.
