It is better to be small, colorful, sexy, careless, and peaceful, like the flowers, than large, conservative, repressed, fearful, and aggressive, like the thunder lizards; a lesson, by the way, that the Earth has yet to learn.
Tom RobbinsThings. Cosas. Things attach themselves like leeches to the human soul, then they bleed out the sweetness and the music and the primordial joy of being unencumbered upon the land.
Tom RobbinsYou don't have to be a genius to recognize one. If you did, Einstein would never have gotten invited to the White House.
Tom RobbinsIn times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings--artists, scientists, clowns and philosophers--to create order. In times such as ours, however, when there is too much order, too much management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relive the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption.
Tom RobbinsDreamily the Princess stood up. "I'm not sure if I can walk," she said. "Then I'll carry you." "Is that what love is?" "I no longer know what love is. A week ago I had a lot of ideas. What love is and how to make it stay. Now that I'm in love, I haven't a clue. Now that I'm in love, I'm completely stupid on the subject.
Tom RobbinsDeep down, all of us are probably aware that some kind of mystical evolution is our true task. Yet we suppress the notion with considerable force because to admit it is to admit that most of our political gyrations, religious dogmas, social ambitions, and financial ploys are not merely counter-productive but trivial.
Tom RobbinsIt's good to bear in mind that like it or not, enlightenment has always been, even in a golden age, pretty much limited to an elite.
Tom RobbinsOnce one pays some attention to something, then you begin to see evidence of it everywhere.
Tom RobbinsWe're our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
Tom RobbinsHere's an idea: let's get over ourselves, buy a cherry pie, and go fall in love with life.
Tom RobbinsConservatives understand Halloween, liberals only understand Christmas. If you want to control a population, don't give it social services, give it a scary adversary.
Tom RobbinsFrom the outside, my life may look chaotic, but inside I feel like some kind of monk licking an ice cream cone while straddling a runaway horse.
Tom RobbinsDip a slice of bread in batter. That's September: yellow, gold, soft and sticky. Fry the bread. Now you have October: chewier, drier, streaked with browns. The day in question fell somewhere in the middle of the french toast process.
Tom RobbinsVirtually every advancement made by our species since civilization first peeked out of its nest of stone has been initiated by lone individuals, mavericks who more often than not were ignored, mocked, or viciously persecuted by society and its institutions.
Tom RobbinsRedheads are said to be children of the moon, thwarted by the sun and addicted to sex and sugar.
Tom RobbinsThere is a similarity between juggling and composing on the typewriter. The trick is, when you spill something, make it look like a part of the act.
Tom RobbinsNever 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.
Tom RobbinsThe only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime.
Tom RobbinsThere is only one serious question. And that is: Who knows how to make love stay? Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself.
Tom RobbinsO tequila, savage water of sorcery, what confusion and mischief your sly, rebellious drops do generate
Tom RobbinsThere exists a false aristocracy based on family name, property, and inherited wealth. But there likewise exists a true aristocracy based on intelligence, talent and virtue.
Tom RobbinsYou have taught us much. Come with us and join the movement." "This movement of yours, does it have slogans?" inquired the Chink. "Right on!" they cried. And they quoted him some. "Your movement, does it have a flag?" asked the Chink. "You bet!" and they described their emblem. "And does your movement have leaders?" "Great leaders." "Then shove it up your butts," said the Chink. "I have taught you nothing.
Tom RobbinsThe first time that she spread her legs for him it had been like opening her jaws for the dentist.
Tom RobbinsThe loony legacy of money was that the arithmetic by which things were measured had become more valuable than the things themselves.
Tom RobbinsOn their sofas of spice and feathers, the concubines also slept fretfully. In those days the Earth was still flat, and people dreamed often of falling over edges.
Tom RobbinsWhen we can converse with the animals, we will know the change is halfway here. When we can converse with the forest, we will know the change has come.
Tom RobbinsA book no more contains reality than a clock contains time. A book may measure so-called reality as a clock measures so-called time; a book may create an illusion of reality as a clock creates an illusion of time; a book may be real, just as a clock is real (both more real, perhaps, than those ideas to which they allude); but let's not kid ourselves - all a clock contains is wheels and springs and all a book contains is sentences.
Tom RobbinsTeachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received.
Tom RobbinsI had literary interests my whole life. I decided at the age of five I was going to be a writer. So I had done a great deal of reading. I suppose I was more at home in Greenwich Village than, say, any of classmates from Warsaw High School. But in any case, it was an overwhelming experience for me. It took me some time to begin to assimilate it.
Tom RobbinsAnd it rained a screaming. And it rained a rawness. And it rained a plasma. And it rained a disorder.
Tom RobbinsTo some extent, Seattle remains a frontier metropolis, a place where people can experiment with their lives, and change and grow and make things happen.
Tom Robbins