#public

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

Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt. ↗

— Felix Adler

#corrupt #diseased #fruit #private #probity

Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing. ↗

— Diane Abbott

#debates #even #health #mental #mental health

I really did try to write it so that an educated public that cares about issues like this doesn't have to be a lawyer and can read it and understand it. ↗

— Floyd Abrams

#cares #did #educated #i #issues

My popularity plunged three years ago and I didn't try to court publicity. ↗

— Namie Amuro

#court #i #plunged #popularity #publicity

I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office. ↗

— Dean Acheson

#describe #does #employment #glad #happily

Sometimes we pay too much attention in Washington to public relations, as opposed to the substance. ↗

— Spencer Abraham

#much #opposed #pay #public #public relations

My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master's there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school. My dad had a more working-class lifestyle. He didn't go to college. He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard. ↗

— Ben Affleck

#bartender #college #dad #fifth #go

What happens is this sort of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you only go once. But the tabloids and Internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody. ↗

— Ben Affleck

#everywhere #go #happens #image #internet

I think celebrities have an obligation to the public to not just sing or act. ↗

— Clay Aiken

#celebrities #i #i think #just #obligation