Tom Robbins Quotes

You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans.

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.

There are only two mantras, yum and yuck, mine is yum.

Curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions.

You risked your life, but what else have you ever risked? Have you risked disapproval? Have you ever risked economic security? Have you ever risked a belief? I see nothing particularly courageous about risking one's life. So you lose it, you go to your hero's heaven and everything is milk and honey 'til the end of time. Right? You get your reward and suffer no earthly consequences. That's not courage. Real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one's clichés.

there are two kinds of people in this world : those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better.

Never underestimate how much assistance, how much satisfaction, how much comfort, how much soul and transcendence there might be in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer.

To achieve the impossible; it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.

The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens — but our lives are not as limited as we think they are, all things are possible, laughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it's love and love alone that really matters.

The enemy of the black is not the white. The enemy of capitalist is not communist, the enemy of homosexual is not heterosexual, the enemy of Jew is not Arab, the enemy of youth is not the old, the enemy of hip is not redneck, the enemy of Chicano is not gringo and the enemy of women is not men. We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind. The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized.

The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime.

Religion is not merely the opium of the masses, it's the cyanide.

Our greatest human adventure is the evolution of consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain.

Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have known all along that it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek.

But why diminish your soul being run-of-the-mill at something? Mediocrity: now there is ugliness for you. Mediocrity's a hairball coughed up on the Persian carpet of Creation.

The sky was the color of Edgar Allan Poe's pajamas.

Of the Seven Dwarfs, the only one who shaved was Dopey. That should tell us something about the wisdom of shaving.

If it is committed in the name of God or country, there is no crime so heinous that the public will not forgive it.

Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence.

There's always the same amount of good luck and bad luck in the world. If one person doesn't get the bad luck, somebody else will have to get it in their place. There's always the same amount of good and evil, too. We can't eradicate evil, we can only evict it, force it to move across town. And when evil moves, some good always goes with it. But we can never alter the ratio of good to evil. All we can do is keep things stirred up so neither good nor evil solidifies. That's when things get scary. Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top.

When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing.

True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed.

Our similarities bring us to a common ground; Our differences allow us to be fascinated by each other.

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.

I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.

Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef.

To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being.

If little else, the brain is an educational toy.

In order to be respected, authority has got to be respectable.