A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of spirit over matter. – Susan Sontag
Cancer patients are lied to, not just because the disease is (or is thought to be) a death sentence, but because it is felt to be obscene — in the original meaning of that word: ill-omened, abominable, repugnant to the senses. – Susan Sontag
Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future. – Susan Sontag
Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All the conditions of modern life — its material plenitude, its sheer crowdedness — conjoin to dull our sensory faculties. – Susan Sontag
Air travel survived decades of terrorism, including attacks which resulted in the deaths of everyone on the plane. It survived 9/11. Itll survive the next successful attack. The only real worry is that well scare ourselves into making air travel so onerous that we wont fly anymore. – Bruce Schneier