Peg O'Connor quotes

The narrative that each person tells herself and others is a big part of how we construct our self-identities. It's one of the most important ways that we make sense of our past and present and understand our hopes for the future.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Past #Self #Identity

Above all else, philosophy ought to aim for clarification - of the self, one's place in the world, and the ways we make meaning. Philosophy, when practiced well, can be useful. It can enable us to grapple in productive ways with questions about the meaning of life and who I am and how I want to be in the world.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Philosophy #Self #Who I Am

The world we all share is the same in important respects. But in some deep ways, the lived world and its meanings are radically different.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Important #World #Way

Anxiety is the dizziness we experience when we recognize we hold the freedom and responsibility for our life choices. More than anyone, alcoholics have a very clear sense of this dizziness, especially when we were coming to realize our own powerlessness over alcohol and that we could act differently.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Responsibility #Choices #Alcohol

In constructing our narratives, we identify which particular events or experiences were formative or transformative. In telling our stories, we also claim some authority over our own experiences and their meanings.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Events #Stories #Narrative

The acknowledgment of powerlessness does empower. We humans are powerless over a whole host of factors and conditions in the world, and mostly we're not bothered by these.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Empowering #Doe #World

An evolutionary biologist and a fundamentalist may see the same chimpanzee sitting in a cage, but in another important way, they do not. And they may approach the details of their lives in very different ways.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Important #Sitting #May

I can't overrule gravity or turn away an approaching hurricane. I'm powerless over those things, yet this doesn't mean that I can't act with responsibility. I can pack provisions and head to my cellar as a storm approaches.
-- Peg O'Connor

#Mean #Responsibility #Storm

In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all.

What we have done in the past is not sufficient now to prepare our youth.

The past actually happened. History is what someone took the time to write down.

I'm addicted to self-improvement. The thing is, there's so damn much about myself to improve.

Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.

As a result of the awareness and consciousness of decline, an awareness and consciousness of a national ethnicity or an Islamic identity also came into being.

The loss of illusions and the discovery of identity, though painful at first, can be ultimately exhilarating and strengthening.

We can build a collective civic space large enough for all our separate identities, that we can be E Pluribus Unum - Out of One, Many.

Human identity is the most fragile thing that we have, and it's often only found in moments of truth.

A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.