Whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. I cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive.

William S. Burroughs
About This Quote

When one does not want to do something anymore, they are committed to the endeavor. They are committed to not doing that thing for personal reasons. The reason is because they don’t want to suffer. However, their own actions bring about suffering.

When you do not want to do something anymore, you are still committed to it. You are still in that thing that you no longer want to do. You may be ready to leave it but you are still committed because if you really want out, you would leave it.

Source: Letters To Allen Ginsberg, 19531957

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More Quotes By William S. Burroughs
  1. There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.
  2. Whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. I cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive.
  3. Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
  4. A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on.
  5. The first and most important thing an individual can do is to become an individual again, decontrol himself, train himself as to what is going on and win back as much independent ground for himself as possible
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