Joan Didion Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their acts.
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I know it sounds ridiculous, but I haven't quite got over the miracle that you plant things, and they do sprout up.
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I am a leader in my own world. That's enough for me.
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Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement.
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We will stand by the Paris climate deal.
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It is remarkable how easily children and grown-ups adapt to living in a dictatorship organised by lunatics.
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I have a lot of admiration for people who've been in relationships a long time, married for years.
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I don't like talking about myself and I don't like talking about the work.
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I'll always be tough on myself.
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I feel exhausted if I teach too long.
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I like to think of myself as a 'Mord the jailer' type.
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When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.
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I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, and a lot of folk music.
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Everyone knows nowadays that people 'have complexes'. What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us.
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If you're of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself and I think that's often hard for us to do.
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Human affairs require some combination of moral commitment with disciplined political action. And that is what keeps me intrigued and challenged and wanting to influence events.
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Do I believe in arbitration? I do. But not in arbitration between the lion and the lamb, in which the lamb is in the morning found inside the lion.
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The philosophical connection between the Islamic world and the West is much closer than I thought. Doubt did not begin with Descartes. We have this construction today that the West and Islam are entirely separate worlds. This is wrong.
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When you're afraid, you look to amass power to defend yourself, not realizing that can also be corrupting.
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The basis for all human relationships and where we derive our greatest strength and power, trust is single-handedly the most powerful source of positive energy and, once in place, unlocks a freedom and peace to explore.
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An application of judicial power that does not rest on facts is worse than mindless, it is inherently dangerous. If its deployment does not rest on facts - cold, hard, solid facts, established either by admissions or by trials - it serves no lawful or moral purpose and is simply an engine of oppression.
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Power intoxicates men. It is never voluntarily surrendered. It must be taken from them.
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Part of me loves to control and to exert power, but it's not the best part of me at all. What I am slowly learning is that allowing others to have power too makes us a better organisation - many brains are simply better than one.
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Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power.
