Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess…

Teachers 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.

Sourced, Jitterbug Perfume
(1984)

Other Tom Robbins Quotes

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. - View Quote Details on Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it…
Suppose the neutral angels were able to talk to Yahweh and Lucifer- God and Satan, to use their popular titles- into settling out of court. What would be the terms of the compromise? Specifically, how would they divide the assets of their earthly kingdom? Would God be satisfied to take loaves and fishes and itty-bitty thimbles of Communion wine, while allowing Satan to have the redeye Gravy, eighteen ounce New York steak, and buckets of chilled champagne? Would God really accept twice-a-month lovemaking for procreative purposes and give Satan the all-night, no-holds-barred, nasty “can’t-get-enough-of-you” hot-as-hell fucks? - View Quote Details on Suppose the neutral angels were able to talk to Yahweh…
I’ll never write another novel on an electric typewriter. I’d rather use a sharp stick and a little pile of dogshit. - View Quote Details on I’ll never write another novel on an electric typewriter. I’d…
Zippers are primal and modern at the very same time. On the one hand, your zipper is primitive and reptilian, on the other, mechanical and slick. A zipper is where the Industrial Revolution meets the Cobra Cult. - View Quote Details on Zippers are primal and modern at the very same time…
In the haunted house of life, art is the only stair that doesn’t creak. - View Quote Details on In the haunted house of life, art is the only…
There are essential and inessential insanities. The latter are solar in character, the former are linked to the moon. Inessential insanities are a brittle amalgamation of ambition, aggression, and pre-adolescent anxiety - garbage that should have been dumped long ago. Essential insanities are those impulses one instinctively senses are virtuous and correct, even though peers may regard them as coo-coo. Inessential insanities get one in trouble with one’s self. Essential insanities get one in trouble with others. In fact, it may be essential. Poetry, the best of it, is lunar and is concerned with the essential insanities. Journalism is solar… and is devoted to the inessential. - View Quote Details on There are essential and inessential insanities. The latter are solar…
She needed help, but God was in a meeting whenever she rang. - View Quote Details on She needed help, but God was in a meeting whenever…
When we’re incomplete, we’re always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we’re still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on- series polygamy- until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimension to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter. - View Quote Details on When we’re incomplete, we’re always searching for somebody to complete…
“I’ll follow him to the ends of the earth,” she sobbed. Yes, darling. But the earth doesn’t have any ends. Columbus fixed that. - View Quote Details on “I’ll follow him to the ends of the earth,” she…
We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love. - View Quote Details on We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of…