Derren Brown QUOTES

1 " Moreover, knowledge and investigation help promote wonder they do not destroy it. Whatever our tastes, we can generally appreciate such things as music, art or wine better when we understand a bit about them. We read up on our favourite singers or artists because we feel we can appreciate their work better when we know how they think and what they bring to their work. The giddy delight and curiosity that comes from marvelling at the beauty of this universe is deepened, not cheapened, by the laws and facts science gives us to aid our understanding. In a similar way, the psychological tricks at work behind many seemingly paranormal events are truly more fascinating than the explanation of other-worldiness precisely because they are of this world, and say something about how rich and complex and mysterious we are as human beings to be convinced by such trickery, indeed to want to perpetuate it in the first place. "

― Derren Brown , Tricks of the Mind

2 " Many atheists might proudly proclaim that our lives have no ultimate meaning, yet the business of finding significance in one's life is perhaps the most important part of being human. When we drift into a life without meaning, we soon become a pack of symptoms and pathologies; and without any feeling of significance, many choose to end their lives altogether. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

3 " The abnegation of empathy in the case of something as complex and variable as sexual taste is a dangerous thing. The particular misfortune of the paedophile is not that he is a walking manifestation of evil but that his or her sexual development (as much subject to nature, nurture and questions of identity as any of ours) has resulted in a potentially very harmful and unacceptable attraction. We rightly call it a disorder because of these damaging effects, but merely reacting with horror will do little towards solving a complex and difficult issue stemming from a sexual drive as real and compulsive as any of us are used to. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

4 " The science fiction master Arthur C. Clarke gave us the law ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

5 " You should live in the moment’ is as unhelpful an imperative as ‘You should believe in yourself and secure the future you want’. The only ‘should’ we need ever take on board is that we ‘should’ get on with our lives without hurting other people. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

6 " Each piece of exhibited, unconscious body language was an affecting window into private motivations and the delict ballet of the particular interactions in which they found themselves. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

7 " Each of us is leading a difficult life, and when we meet people we are seeing only a tiny part of the thinnest veneer of their complex, troubled existences. To practise anything other than kindness towards them, to treat them in any way save generously, is to quietly deny their humanity. "

― Derren Brown , Confessions of a Conjuror

8 " Few kids seek to learn a skill specifically designed to impress people unless they feel less than impressive themselves. "

― Derren Brown , Tricks of the Mind

9 " We are, each of us, a product of the stories we tell ourselves "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

10 " There is a common response from people when they hear that in the absence of evidence to convince me otherwise I don’t have any particular belief in ghosts, psychic powers or an afterlife. It normally runs something along the lines of ‘So you think we just live, die and that’s it? Come on...’ There’s a clear implication there that this earthly life – the wonder of being human – is somehow worthless. That it’s cheap and disappointing enough to warrant that ‘just’ and the accompanying incredulous tone, which are usually reserved for sentences like ‘After all that it was just a little spider? Come on...’ I live, I am sure, in a fairly narrow band of life, and make an embarrassingly pitiful attempt to explore the world I find myself upon. I ache with guilt and conflict when I hear of people living as adventurers, abandoning mainstream lives and living each day with abandon. But I really hope I have a brighter vision for this life and a greater curiosity for its richness than one who can say, and mean, ‘You think we just live, die and that’s it? "

― Derren Brown , Confessions of a Conjuror

11 " we are terrible at reading each other’s thoughts. Yet we consistently behave as if we have been endowed with this entirely handsome ability. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

12 " We see the illusion of individual predilection being maintained, for example, in the array of different styles of iPhone cases available to us. We wonder which of the provided range of colourful or sophisticated sheaths best communicates to the world our unique character. Thus we lean towards the wood effect, or the Batman one (ironically sported, of course), or the vintage Union Jack. Meanwhile, it is much harder to honestly ask ourselves whether our lives would be improved were we not to be attached to our devices quite as umbilically, and how much misery they bring us alongside the various conveniences and amusements. Whether we might be more authentically ourselves if, with a pioneering and curious spirit, we occasionally left them at home. It "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

13 " What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgements about these things. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

14 " He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

15 " learn to desire what you already have, and you will have all you need. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

16 " If you do grow up feeling as though you don't quite fit in as a child, it's very easy to decide you're certain not going to fit in as an adult. You hang on to your eccentricities and hate the idea of conforming. It's a common pattern. "

― Derren Brown , Tricks of the Mind

17 " We might never rid ourselves of a lingering anxiety regarding our death; this is a kind of tax we pay in return for self-awareness. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

18 " the mantra of ‘you can be anything’ creates more pain than pleasure. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

19 " The True Believer ignores anything that doesn't fit his belief system. Instead, he inevitably comes to hold those beliefs at a very profound level. They can become absolutely part of his identity. It is this that brings together the religious, the psychic, the cynic (as opposed to the open skeptic) and the narrow-minded of all kinds. It is something I encountered a lot among my fellow Christians. At one level it can be seen in the circular discussion which goes as follows:

Why do you believe in the bible?
Because it is Gods word.
And why do you believe in God?
Because of what it says in the bible.

At a less obvious level, it can be seen in the following common exchange:

Why do you believe Christianity is true?
Because I have the experience of a personal relationship with God.
So how do you know you're not fooling yourself?
Because i know it is real.

Even as an enthusiastic believer myself I could see this kind of tautology at work, and over time I realized that it is common to all forms of True Belief., regardless of the particular belief in question. The fact is, it's enormously difficult - and you need to be fantastically brave - to overcome the circularity of your own ideologies. But just because our identity might be tied up with what we believe, it doesn't make that belief any more correct. One wishes that True Believers of any sort would learn a little modesty in their convictions. "

― Derren Brown , Tricks of the Mind

20 " Everything worthwhile in your life draws its meaning from the fact you will die. "

― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine