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Robert Anton Wilson Biography

Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, novelist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized as an Episkopos, Pope, and saint of Discordianism, Wilson helped publicize the group[which?] through his writings and interviews.

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Robert Anton Wilson Quotes

People's belief in their own local reality-tunnels keep us all far stupider than we ought to be.

Keep, Local, Ought, People, Reality, Tunnels

I have never experienced another human being. I have experienced my impressions of them.

Impression, Humans, Human Beings, Human, Impressions, Experienced

Following Korzybski , I put things in probabilities, not absolutes. . . My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics , to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics , ideology , jury verdicts and, of course, conspiracy theory.

Attitude, Hardest, Lying, Originality, Physics

The worst that can happen under monarchy is rule by a single imbecile, but democracy often means the rule by an assembly of three or four hundred imbeciles.

Mean, Democracy, Three, Hundred, Happen, Under

The normal is that which nobody quite is. If you listen to seemingly dull people very closely, you'll see that they're all mad in different and interesting ways, and are merely struggling to hide it.

Different, Listen, Mad, People, Struggle, Ways

We're living on the Planet of the Apes. Is that funny or serious?

Apes, Funny, Planet, Planets, Serious

We have been told over and over that "you can't change human nature", but the study of emic realities shows quite the contrary, that almost anything can become "human nature" if society defines it as such.

Contrary, Human Nature, Reality, Shows, Study, Told

Most of our ancestors were not perfect ladies and gentlemen. The majority of them weren't even mammals.

Ancestors, Gentleman, Gentlemen, Majority, Perfect

Hysteria is a chaotic and irrational emotional state caused by seeing how the world really operates.

Caused, Chaotic, Emotional, Hysteria, Operates, World

Everybody who has ever worked for a corporation knows that corporations conspire all the time. Politicians conspire all the time, pot-dealers conspire not to get caught by the narcs, the world is full of conspiracies. Conspiracy is natural primate behavior.

Caught, Conspiracies, Corporations, Politician, Primate, World

Voting wouldn't excite me unless it included electing the directors of the big banks and corporations, who make the real decisions that affect our lives. It's hard to get excited about the trained seals in Washington.

Decision, Make, Real, Unless, Voting

Christianity is alone in thinking that sex is entirely the Devil's business and an offence to God, This is a strange doctrine and almost implies that God and the devil must have collaborated on the creation of humanity, God working above the belly button and the Devil below.

Business, Collaborated, God, Humanity, Sex, Thinking

Governments are based pincipally on force and deception. Democratic governments are based chiefly on deception, other governments on force. And democratic governments, if you get too uppity, give up on the deception and resort to brute force, as a lot of us found out in the sixites. Those who didn't find out in the sixites will find out in the near future because we're going to have a rerun.

Deception, Future, Give, Giving Up, Government, Pincipally

The novels that get praised in the NY Review of Books aren't worth reading. Ninety-seven percent of science fiction is adolescent rubbish, but good science fiction is the best and only literature of our times.

Book, Books, Fiction, Praised, Reading, Times

We say seeing is believing, but actually, we are much better at believing than at seeing. In fact, we are seeing what we believe all the time and occasionally seeing what we can't believe

Believe, Believing, Facts, Say, Seeing, Seeing Is Believing

I was born into a working class Irish Catholic family at the brutal bottom of the Great Depression. I suppose this early imprinting and conditioning made me a life-long radical. My education was mostly scientific, majoring in electrical engineering and applied math. Those imprints made me a life-long rationalist. I have become increasingly skeptical about, or detached from, the assumption that radicalism and rationalism are the only correct perspectives with which to view life, but they remain my favorite perspectives.

Class, Detached, Math, Scientific, Views

Nothing of any importance can be taught. It can only be learned, and with blood and sweat.

Blood, Learning, Sweat, Taught

Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, lamenting, that ye've been left to fight alone.

Alone, Brother, Complain, Fear, Fighting, Lamenting

A true initiation never ends.

Ends, Initiation, True

. . . an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable.

Finds, Mind, Optimistic, Philosophy, Possible, Problem

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