For anyone who lived through the 1960s, Timothy Leary’s name is synonymous with LSD. But this former Harvard psychology professor and counterculture guru had some really far-out wisdom to share.
“Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.”
“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”
“You can’t stop the human instinct to think for oneself. You can hold it down, but in every situation it springs forth.”
“All suffering is caused by being in the wrong place. If you’re unhappy where you are, move.”
“The critics of the Information Age see everything in the negative, as if the quantity of information can lead to a loss of meaning. They said the same thing about Gutenberg.”
“Think for yourself. Know what you’re doing. Question authority.”
“The problem with the sixties, the problem with most hippies, the problem with television watching, is it’s passive consumption. You’re just sitting there.”
“Our genetic assignment is the receiving, processing, and producing of digital information.”
“Man’s best friend is his dogma.”
“Never before has the individual been so empowered. But in the Information Age you do have to get the signals out. Popularization means making it available to the people.”
“The universe is an intelligence test.”
“You’re only as young as the last time you changed your mind.”
“Nobody ever understands what a pioneer is doing.”
“We have this incredible brain, 120 billion neurons; the complexity is beyond our ability to conceive. The challenge of the human species is to learn how to operate this wonderful equipment.”
“Intelligence is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
If you could drive to the sun at 60 mph, it would take 176 years…not including “pit stops.”