Quotes from Alice, I Think

290 pages

Rating: (1.8K votes)


“In the future if my mother tries to shame me with her disapproval, I will let her know in no uncertain terms that I reject her and all of her codependent baggage. I am Codependent No More.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“Maybe careers aren’t something you can really plan for. They just sort of happen, like brown eyes or flat feet. I took one of those career aptitude tests last year, and it showed that I should be a flight attendant or a seamstress. Not a fashion designer or anything, mind you, but a sweatshop worker. Apparently stewardesses and sweatshop workers and I enjoy a lot of the same interests and activities.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“If you are alive and conscious, you are probably codependent.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“I am not a people person.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“I think MacGregor might be a genius. Anyone so oblivious to the horror of the human world must be.”
― quote from Alice, I Think



“If you start looking up, they start asking questions.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“Not being a big one for having friends, I had no idea what I was going to do with Aubrey, you know, to entertain him.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“Well, at least I can spare myself the ordeal of a whole battery of personality tests. My personality is poor; that much is clear.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“It’s not a good idea to let on about extreme happy feelings. People get ideas.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“I may never recover. It was like an out-of-body experience. I’m an alien trying on human rituals.”
― quote from Alice, I Think



“Much as I usually dislike nice, positive people, I have to admit that Margaret isn’t bad.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“I’m already in the late stages of advanced detachment where my mother is concerned. With a little practice I could feel that way about everyone.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“I haven’t been that happy since I became conscious for the first time, you know, when I became aware of myself and got so uncomfortable and everything.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“I don’t care about this stuff. I’m not even sure I’m a girl. I’m an eye in the sky. I am detached. I’m an idiot.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“It seemed a little risky, enjoying something so… fun, but I couldn’t help it.”
― quote from Alice, I Think



Popular quotes

“He's forbidden fruit, and I'm Eve standing in front of the apple”
― Jessica Clare, quote from Last Hit


“College costs money- a lot. Yet education in itself is not of much value. For example, we can look to the general public's almost complete disregard for anything that educated people have to say about global warming, shrinking oil reserves, pollution, or the threat of nuclear annihilation. But if all this is true, why does something as worthless as a college diploma cost so much money?”
― quote from The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster


“Why should caring for others begin with the self? There is an abundance of rather vague ideas about this issue, which I am sure neuroscience will one day resolve. Let me offer my own “hand waving” explanation by saying that advanced empathy requires both mental mirroring and mental separation. The mirroring allows the sight of another person in a particular emotional state to induce a similar state in us. We literally feel their pain, loss, delight, disgust, etc., through so-called shared representations. Neuroimaging shows that our brains are similarly activated as those of people we identify with. This is an ancient mechanism: It is automatic, starts early in life, and probably characterizes all mammals. But we go beyond this, and this is where mental separation comes in. We parse our own state from the other’s. Otherwise, we would be like the toddler who cries when she hears another cry but fails to distinguish her own distress from the other’s. How could she care for the other if she can’t even tell where her feelings are coming from? In the words of psychologist Daniel Goleman, “Self-absorption kills empathy.” The child needs to disentangle herself from the other so as to pinpoint the actual source of her feelings.”
― Frans de Waal, quote from The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society


“Love you,” Bits says. “More than all the poop in the toilet?” I ask. Peter heaves a sigh. But you’ve got to play to your audience, and my audience is amused by potty words. It sends her into a coughing spell, but she’s smiling. I wanted that to be the last thing I saw.”
― Sarah Lyons Fleming, quote from All the Stars in the Sky


“When someone who's starved of love is shown something that looks like sincere affection, is it any wonder that she jumps at it and clings to it?”
― quote from Autobiography of a Geisha


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