Timothy Leary - People Quotes

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People use the word "natural" … What is natural to me is these botanical species which interact directly with the nervous system. What I consider artificial is 4 years at Harvard, and the Bible, and Saint Patrick's cathedral, and the sunday school teachings.

Timothy Leary
Seven million people I turned on, and only one hundred thousand have come by to thank me.

Timothy Leary
Explaining why he abandoned his plan to have his head preserved by the cryonics movement:
They have no sense of humor. I was worried I would wake up in 50 years surrounded by people with clipboards.

Timothy Leary
My advice to people today is as follows: If you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.

Timothy Leary
Drugs Are the Religion of the People — The Only Hope is Dope

Timothy Leary
We always have urged people: Don't take LSD unless you are very well prepared, unless you are specifically prepared to go out of your mind. Don't take it unless you have someone that's very experienced with you to guide you through it. And don't take it unless you are ready to have your perspective on yourself and your life radically changed, because you're gonna be a different person, and you should be ready to face this possibility.

Timothy Leary
The only abuse of drugs is the control of drugs by other people.... The only control is self-control.

Timothy Leary
My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.

Timothy Leary
If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.

Timothy Leary
In the Eleusinian mysteries, they would always warn people, "if you go in here, your ego will die. You're going to have to confront all your past hang-ups, strip them off, and be a changed person." One emperor of Rom who wanted to be initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries said, "That's interesting, I approve of what you're doing, but I don't want to be changed.

Timothy Leary
Fundamentalist Christianity appeals to pre-civilized, prudish tribal people who are not ready for urban feudal pleasures.

Timothy Leary