JENNY HOLZER SURVIVAL, 1983-1985


A little knowledge can go a long way
A lot of professionals are crackpots
A man can't know what it's like to be a mother
A name means a lot just by itself
A positive attitude makes all the difference in the world
A relaxed man is not necessarily a better man
A sense a timing is the mark of genius
A sincere effort is all you can ask
A single event can have infinitely many interpretations
A solid home base builds a sense of self
A strong sense of duty imprisons you
Absolute submission can be a form of freedom
Abstraction is a type of decadence
Abuse of power comes as no surprise
Action causes more trouble than thought
Alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries
All things are delicately interconnected
Ambition is just as dangerous as complacency
Ambivalence can ruin your life
An elite is inevitable
Anger or hate can be a useful motivating force
Animalism is perfectly healthy
Any surplus is immoral
Anything is a legitimate area of investigation
Artificial desires are despoiling the earth
At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning
At times your unconscious is truer than your conscious mind
Automation is deadly
Awful punishment awaits really bad people
Bad intentions can yield good results
Being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular
Being happy is more important than anything else
Being honest is not always the kindest way
Being judgmental is a sign of life
Being sure of yourself means you're a fool
Believing in rebirth is the same as admitting defeat
Bodies lie in the bright grass and some are murdered and some are picnicking
Boredom makes you do crazy things
Calm is more conducive to creativity than is anxiety
Categorizing fear is calming
Change is valuable when the oppressed become tyrants
Chasing the new is dangerous to society
Children are the cruelest of all
Children are the hope of the future
Class action is a nice idea with no substance
Class structure is as artificial as plastic
Confusing yourself is a way to stay honest
Crime against property is relatively unimportant
Dance on down to the government and tell them you're eager to rule because you know what's good for you
Decadence can be an end it itself
Decency is a relative thing
Dependence can be a meal ticket
Description is more valuable than metaphor
Deviants are sacrificed to increase group solidarity
Die fast and quiet when they interrogate you or live so long that they are ashamed to hurt you anymore
Disgust is the appropriate response to most situations
Disorganization is a kind of anesthesia
Don't place too much trust in experts
Don't run people's lives for them
Drama often obscures the real issues
Dreaming while awake is a frightening contradiction
Dying and coming back gives you considerable perspective
Dying should be easy as falling off a log
Eating too much is criminal
Elaboration is a form of pollution
Emotional responses are as valuable as intellectual esponses
Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway
Ensure that your life stays is flux
Even your family can betray you
Every achievement requires a sacrifice
Everyone's work is equally important
Everything that's interesting is new
Exceptional people deserve special concessions
Expiring for love is beautiful but stupid
Expressing anger is necessary
Extreme behavior has its basis in pathological psychology
Extreme selfconsciousness leads to perversion
Faithfulness is a social not a biological law
Fake or real indifference is a powerful personal weapon
Fathers often use too much force
Fear is the greatest incapacitator
Finding extreme pleasure will make you a better person if you're careful about what thrills you
Freedom is a luxury not a necessity
Giving free rein to your emotions is an honest way to live
Go all out in romance and let the chips fall where they may
Go where people sleep and see if they're safe
Going with the flow is soothing but risky
Good deeds eventually are rewarded
Government is a burden on the people
Grass roots agitation is the only hope
Guilt and selflaceration are indulgences
Habitual contempt doesn't reflect a finer sensibility
Hands on your breast can keep your heart beating
Hide under water or anywhere so undisturbed you feel the jerk of pleasure when an idea comes
Hiding your motives is despicable
Holding back protects your vital energies
Humanism is obsolete
Humor is a release
Ideals are replaced by conventional goals at a certain age
If you aren't political your personal life should be xemplary
If you can't leave your mark give up
If you had behaved nicely the communists wouldn't exist
If you have many desires life will be interesting
If you live simply there is nothing to worry about
If you're considered useless no one will feed you anymore
Ignoring enemies is the best way to fight
Illness is a state of mind
Imposing order is man's vocation for chaos is hell
In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy
In some instances it's better to die than to continue
Inheritance must be abolished
It can be helpful to keep going no matter what
It is embarrassing to be caught and killed for stupid reasons
It is fun to walk carelessly in a death zone
It is heroic to try to stop time
It is in your selfinterest to find a way to be very tender
It is man's fate to outsmart himself
It's a gift to the world not to have babies
It's better to be lonely than to be with inferior people
It's better to be naive than jaded
It's better to be a good person than a famous person
It's better to study the living fact than to analyze history
It's crucial to have an active fantasy life
It's easy to get millions of people on every continent to pledge allegiance to eating and equal opportunity
It's good to give extra money to charity
It's hard to know if you're crazy if you feel you're in danger all the time now
It's important to stay clean on all levels
It's impossible to reconcile your heart and head
It's just an accident your parents are your parents
It's not good to hold too many absolutes
It's not good to operate on credit
It's vital to live in harmony with nature
Just believing something can make it happen
Keep something in reserve for emergencies
Killing is unavoidable but is nothing to be proud of
Knowing yourself lets you understand others
Knowledge should be advanced at all costs
Labor is a lifedestroying activity
Lack of charisma can be fatal
Learn things from the ground up
Learn to trust your own eyes
Leisure time is a gigantic smokescreen
Let your hand wander on the flesh to make possibility multiply
Letting go is the hardest thing to do
Listen when your body talks
Looking back is the first sign of aging and decay
Loving animals is a substitute activity
Low expectations are good protection
Manual labor can be refreshing and wholesome
Men are not monogamous by nature
Men don't protect you anymore
Moderation kills the spirit
Money creates taste
Monomania is a prerequisite of success
Morals are for little people
Most people are not fit to rule themselves
Mostly you should mind your own business
Mothers shouldn't make too many sacrifices
Mothers with reasons to sob should do it in groups in public and wait for offers
Much was decided before you were born
Murder has its sexual side
Myths make reality more intelligible
Noise can be hostile
Nothing upsets the balance of good and evil
Occasionally principles are more valuable than people
Offer very little information about yourself
Often you should act like you are sexless
Old friends are better left in the past
Opacity is an irresistible challenge
Outer space is where you discover wonder and where you fight and never hurt earth if you stop believing this your mood turns ugly
Pain can be a very positive thing
People are boring unless they're extremists
People are nuts if they think they are important
People are responsible for what they do unless they're nsane
People look like they are dancing before they love
People who don't work with their hands are parasites
People who go crazy are too sensitive
People won't behave if they have nothing to lose
Physical culture is secondbest
Planning for the future is escapism
Playing it safe can cause a lot of damage in the long run
Politics is used for personal gain
Potential counts for nothing until it's realized
Presentation is as important as content
Private property created crime
Protect me from what I want
Pursuing pleasure for the sake of pleasure will ruin you
Push yourself to the limit as often as possible
Put food out in the same place every day and talk to the people who come to eat and organize them
Raise boys and girls the same way
Random mating is good for debunking sex myths
Rechanneling destructive impulses is a sign of maturity
Recluses always get weak
Redistributing wealth is imperative
Relativity is no boon to mankind
Religion causes as many problems as it solves
Remember you always have freedom of choice
Repetition is the best way to learn
Resolutions serve to ease your conscience
Revolution begins with changes in the individual
Romantic love was invented to manipulate women
Routine is a link with the past
Routine small excesses are worse than the occasional ebauch
Sacrificing yourself for a bad cause is not a moral act
Salvation can't be bought and sold
Savor kindness because cruelty is always possible later
Selfawareness can be crippling
Selfcontempt can do more harm than good
Selfishness is the most basic motivation
Selflessness is the highest achievement
Separatism is the way to a new beginning
Sex differences are here to stay
Shoot into infinite space to hit a target in time and call it inevitable
Silly holes in people are for breeding or are from shooting
Sin is a means of social control
Slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison
Sloppy thinking gets worse over time
Solitude is enriching
Some stones are better left unturned
Some wounds never heal
Someone else's body is a place for your mind to go
Sometimes all you can do is look the other way
Sometimes science advances faster than it should
Sometimes things seem to happen of their own accord
Spending too much time on selfimprovement is antisocial
Spit all over someone with a mouthful of milk if you want to find out something about his personality fast
Starvation is nature's way
Stasis is a dream state
Sterilization is a weapon of the rulers
Strong emotional attachment stems from basic insecurity
Stupid people shouldn't breed
Survival of the fittest applies to men and animals
Symbols are more meaningful than things themselves
Taking a strong stand publicizes the opposite position
Talking is used to hide one's inability to act
Teasing people sexually can have ugly consequences
Technology will make or break us
The beginning of the war will be secret
The breakdown comes when you stop controlling yourself and want the release of a bloodbath
The conversation always turns to living long enough to have fun
The cruelest disappointment is when you let yourself down
The desire to reproduce is a death wish
The family is living on borrowed time
The future is stupid
The idea of revolution is an adolescent fantasy
The idea of transcendence is used to obscure oppression
The idiosyncratic has lost its authority
The land belongs to no one
The more you know the better off you are
The most profound things are inexpressible
The mundane is to be cherished
The new is nothing but a restatement of the old
The only way to be pure is to stay by yourself
The sum of your actions determines what you are
The unattainable invariably is attractive
The world operates according to discoverable laws
There are too few immutable truths today
There's a fine line between information and propaganda
There's no sense being anywhere but the top of the heap
There's nothing except what you sense
There's nothing redeeming in toil
Thinking too much can only cause problems
Threatening someone sexually is a horrible act
Timidity is laughable
To disagree presupposes moral integrity
To volunteer is reactionary
Torture is barbaric
Trading a life for a life is fair enough
True freedom is frightful
Trust visions that don't feature buckets of blood
Turn soft and lovely any time you have a chance
Unique things must be the most valuable
Unquestioning love demonstrates largesse of spirit
Use a stun gun when the person coming at you has a good excuse
Use what is dominant in a culture to change it quickly
Using force to stop force is absurd
Violence is permissible even desirable occasionally
War is a purification rite
We must make sacrifices to maintain our quality of life
What country should you adopt if you hate poor people?
What urge will save us now that sex won't?
When someone beats you with a flashlight you make light shine in all directions
When something terrible happens people wake up
When there's no safe place to sleep you're tired from walking all day and exhausted from the night because it's twice as dangerous then
When you expect fair play you create an infectious bubble of madness around you
Wishing things away is not effective
With all the holes in you already there's no reason to define the outside environment as alien
With perseverance you can discover any truth
Words tend to be inadequate
Worrying can help you prepare
You are a victim of the rules you live by
You are caught thinking about killing anyone you want
You are guileless in your dreams
You are responsible for constituting the meaning of things
You are so complex that you don't always respond to danger
You are the past present and future
You are trapped on the earth so you will explode
You can live on through your descendants
You can never outrun yourself
You can pull yourself out of any hole
You can't expect people to be something they're not
You can't fool others if you're fooling yourself
You can't reach the people who can kill you any time so you have to go home and think about what to do
You dig you own grave
You don't know what's what until you support yourself
You get the face you deserve
You have to hurt others to be extraordinary
You hover near lovely unconscious lifeforms that offer no immediate resistance
You live the surprise results of old plans
You must be intimate with a token few
You must disagree with authority figures
You must have one grand passion
You must know where you stop and the world begins
You never know what people really think about you
You only can understand someone of your own sex
You owe the world not the other way around
You should study as much as possible
You should travel light
Your actions are pointless if no one notices
Your modern face scans the surprise ending
Your oldest fears are the worst ones