#future

Even if it were possible to cast my horoscope in this one life, and to make an accurate prediction about my future, it would not be possible to 'show' it to me because as soon as I saw it my future would change by definition. This is why Werner Heisenberg's adaptation of the Hays Office—the so-called principle of uncertainty whereby the act of measuring something has the effect of altering the measurement—is of such importance. In my case the difference is often made by publicity. For example, and to boast of one of my few virtues, I used to derive pleasure from giving my time to bright young people who showed promise as writers and who asked for my help. Then some profile of me quoted someone who disclosed that I liked to do this. Then it became something widely said of me, whereupon it became almost impossible for me to go on doing it, because I started to receive far more requests than I could respond to, let alone satisfy. Perception modifies reality: when I abandoned the smoking habit of more than three decades I was given a supposedly helpful pill called Wellbutrin. But as soon as I discovered that this was the brand name for an antidepressant, I tossed the bottle away. There may be successful methods for overcoming the blues but for me they cannot include a capsule that says: 'Fool yourself into happiness, while pretending not to do so.' I should actually want my mind to be strong enough to circumvent such a trick. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#assistance #bupropion #depression #future #happiness

Those who insist on having hostilities with us, kill and destroy the option of friendship with us in the future, which is unfortunate because it is clear the future belongs to Iran and that enmities will be fruitless. ↗

— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

#belongs #clear #destroy #friendship #fruitless

I came to live in Shepperton in 1960. I thought: the future isn't in the metropolitan areas of London. I want to go out to the new suburbs, near the film studios. This was the England I wanted to write about, because this was the new world that was emerging. ↗

— J. G. Ballard

#areas #because #came #emerging #england

The incentive that you give to your youth is going to be the make-or-break future of the country. ↗

— King Abdullah II

#future #give #going #incentive #you

If you believe that the killing of innocent people is right, then you are not part of my future. ↗

— King Abdullah II

#future #innocent #innocent people #killing #part

Always remember that the future comes one day at a time. ↗

— Dean Acheson

#always #comes #day #future #one day

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. ↗

— Dean Acheson

#best #comes #day #future #one day

As to judging our own time, and thereby gaining some basis for a judgment of future possibilities, we are doubtless not only too close to it to appraise it but too much formed by it and enclosed within it to do so. ↗

— Emily Greene Balch

#basis #close #doubtless #enclosed #formed

I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul. ↗

— J. G. Ballard

#again #boring #conforming #ever #everything

The future is going to be boring. The suburbanisation of the planet will continue, and the suburbanisation of the soul will follow soon after. ↗

— J. G. Ballard

#boring #continue #follow #future #going