Our political process not only spurns consensus but also works by “turning the angers and fears and energy of the few” against “the rest of the country.”
Authors: Joan Didion, Michiko Kakutani | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
Author: Joan Didion | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement
We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not.
Author: Joan Didion | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Personal Improvement
When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we … [ Read more ]
Author: Joan Didion | Subjects: Material Possessions, Perception | Observation