Charles Manson
56 quotes
Biography
"Total paranoia is just total awareness."
"We're all our own prisons, we are each all our own wardens and we do our own time. I can't judge anyone else. What other people do is not really my affair unless they approach me with it. Prison's in your mind. Can't you see I'm free?"
"Rubin, I am not of your world. I've spent all my life in prison. When I was a child, I was an orphan and too ugly to be adopted. Now I am too beautiful to be set free."
"A lot of you young people, even though you go through college, you still don't understand that courtroom. That courtroom is the court of the kings and lords of the world. We as human beings can invoke the ground here called the United States of America. And the reason our system has perpetuated in such a way is because all the powers of Europe and England and monarchies and all those big people; we have come over here and started another world where each man in the United States has that power because he has that courtroom. That courtroom belongs to every human being in the United States. And if you take that courtroom away from one human being, you're taking that courtroom away from all human beings. Then what follows is you got kings and queens of yesterday – they're gonna come and play croquet with your heads. They're gonna take your courtrooms. They're gonna take your money and they're gonna take your country. They're gonna take your resources. They're gonna rip you off in every way you can think of because you didn't give your own children the benefit of the courtroom that your fathers fought in battles and died for."
"Will of God... whatever you wanna call it... you call it Jesus, call it Mohammed, call it goobybob, call it nuclear mind, call it blow the world up, call it your heart. Whatever you wanna call it, it's still music to me. It's there. It's the will of life."
"Money is a game. It's only real to the people who work for it. It's a monopoly game. It's a game of paper. It's all on paper."
"I've been 15 years in the nut ward for trying to stop the trees from being cut down, from trying to rearrange the lifestyle of a bunch of people who don't want to change. But they're gonna change because a cold wind is blowing. You're gonna change or else there's going to be no life left on the planet Earth."
"We use the word God. God hooks all the other words up. I'm the pope. I'm ten times the pope. I'm fifty times the pope. But I'm the pope in the hills and in the mountains."
"So how do you communicate to a whole group of people? You stand up and take the worst fear symbol [<nowiki/>swastika] and say "There, now I've got your fear. Now I've got your fear." And your fear is your power and your power is your control. I'm your king of this whole planet. I'm gonna rule this whole world."
"Who do you think I am, girl? If you could pick all the words of the vocabulary that your mother taught you, who do you think I am? And this is only a couple hours, can you imagine what it would be like a couple days with me? I live a hundred years a day."
"You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays, everybody's crazy."
"If you are gonna do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
"I don't want to take my time going to work. I got a motorcycle and a sleeping bag and 10 or 15 girls. What the hell I want to go off and go to work for? Work for what? Money? I've got all the money in the world. I'm the king, man! I run the underworld, guy! I decide who does what and where they do it at! What am I gonna run around and act like I'm some teeny-bopper somewhere for somebody else's money? I make the money, man. I roll the nickels. The game is mine! I deal the cards."
"Nobody. I'm nobody. I'm a tramp, a bum, a hobo. I'm a boxcar and a jug of wine. And a straight razor if you get too close to me."
"I was so smart when I was a kid that I learnt that I was dumb fast."
"Progress? There's no such thing as progress. There's only change. You dig a hole in the ground, you build up a city, and you fight a war, and you call it progress?"
"As long as there's hate in your heart, there'll be hate in the world. You can't fight for peace and you cannot capture freedom."
"Look down at me and you see a fool; look up at me and you see a god; look straight at me and you see yourself."
"If I had a desire, it would be to be free from desire."
"They're looking for something dirty in everything, and if you're looking for something, you'll find it. You have to put up some kind of face for them, and that's the only face they understand."
"A baby is born into this world in a state of fear. Total paranoia and awareness. He sees the world with eyes not used yet. As he grows up, his parents lay all this stuff on him. They tell him, when they should be letting him tell them. Let the children lead you."
"Anything you see in me is in you. If you want to see a vicious killer, that's who you'll see, do you understand that? If you see me as your brother, that's what I'll be. It all depends on how much love you have. I am you, and when you can admit that, you will be free. I am just a mirror."
"I'm probably one of the most dangerous men in the world if I want to be. But I never wanted to be anything but me."
"Have you ever seen the coyote in the desert? Watching, tuned in, completely aware. Christ on the cross, the coyote in the desert — it’s the same thing, man. The coyote is beautiful. He moves through the desert delicately, aware of everything, looking around. He hears every sound, smells every smell, sees everything that moves. He’s in a state of total paranoia, and total paranoia is total awareness."
"Death is psychosomatic."