People who are happy are slugs

"The people who are happy are slugs... People who are happy and adjusted are inert. They do not move the human race forward. The human race is moved forward by people who have suffered and who take their suffering as a kind of spring for self-development, creativity and production. That's my message..."

"But, again, it's a lack of perspective here. Every trauma that young people suffer can in the long run be very creative. The people in my high school who were the successful ones, who were the blonde WASP sorority queens/kings and all that... they didn't do anything with their lives. They peaked early. They were like magnificent gods and goddesses, what happened to them?" Paglia asks. "The people who were the misfits, the fire was in their belly because they were constantly being harassed or whatever. The people who were the misfits in the long run have this impulse to achieve... This impulse, energy to develop yourself and your talents is coming from maladjustment..."

"It's the person who doesn't fit in who eventually makes the achievement who has the outsider's view of the culture... "

from "Teen Talk with Camille Paglia", Oasis Magazine.

Last updated Monday 3 August 2009