[W]hatever my intentions, whatever the truth of my claim, I had no business giving a lecture to a total stranger.
--
Salon.com columnAyelet Waldman
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Back in ’95, when the District Attorney of Billingham, Washington, took a pair of newsstand owners to trial for selling ANSWER Me! #4, it was truly surreal to see layouts from my magazine blasted onto a white wall with an overhead projector. "Basically, it tells you how to rape everyone", the DA told the jury. It’s always unsettling when a stranger seems certain of your intentions and motivations, when they couldn’t be further from the truth. This sense of anguish is heavily compounded when the stranger in question has the power to destroy your life.
Jim Goad
Men always talk about the most important things to total strangers. It is because in the total stranger we perceive man himself; the image of God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of the wisdom of a moustache.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Now, Brother, everything I have said to you is the truth, as Weshemoneto has inspired me to speak only truth to you. I have declared myself freely to you about my intentions. And I want to know your intentions. I want to know what you are going to do about the taking of our land. I want to hear you say that you understand now, and will wipe out that pretended treaty, so that the tribes can be at peace with each other, as you pretend you want them to be. Tell me, brother. I want to know now.
Tecumseh (popular pronunciation of Tecumtha)
Human thought by its nature is capable of giving, and does give, absolute truth, which is compounded of a sum-total of relative truths.
Vladimir Lenin
The techniques of opening conversation are universal. I knew long ago and rediscovered that the best way to attract attention, help, and conversation is to be lost. A man who seeing his mother starving to death on a path kicks her in the stomach to clear the way, will cheerfully devote several hours of his time giving wrong directions to a total stranger who claims to be lost.
John Steinbeck
Waldman, Ayelet
Wales, Jimmy
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