No one really knows the ones they love
If you knew everything they thought I bet that you'd wish that they'd just shut up
If you knew everything they thought I bet that you'd wish that they'd just shut up
— Modest Mouse, "Lives"
"You don't get it. I didn't just hear what they were dumb enough to say out loud. I heard everything they were thinking about us. Every drop of pity, every shudder of horror, every bit of backhanded gratitude. Yes, I wanted to leave. Yes, I wanted to take Rita with me. It physically hurt to hear them thinking of her that way. How many times can you save the lives of this mob of people only to read their minds and find their contempt? Humanity are bastards; I've read enough of their minds to know."
— Mento, DC Nation, "Filthy Lucre" plotline
"It's like seeing people with their clothes off — I never imagined they were like that! They do things without thinking about them, and they think about things without the slightest intention of doing them. I'll tell you one thing, people aren't anything like I imagined..."
— Hector B. Poole, The Twilight Zone (1959), "A Penny for Your Thoughts"
"No one should know exactly what someone else is thinking."
— Simon Phillips, Fringe, "Concentrate and Ask Again"
And if my thought-dreams could be seen — they'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma — It's life, and life only
But it's alright, Ma — It's life, and life only
— Bob Dylan, Last lines of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"
"You can't possibly like somebody that you've opened up to, because you know them too well. The most you can do is tolerate them."
—Kira, "The Speed Of Thought"
"You know what people don't realize? That ignorance of what other people are thinking is one of the keys to human happiness. Lets you have friends and lovers. Lets you keep a job."
—Eric Letrobe, Alphas, "The Unusual Suspects"
"The most compassionate people you will ever meet, empathics, and the loneliest."
— The Doctor, Doctor Who, "Hide"
Vaniji Ralo: You have a lovely mind, soft and malleable as cookie dough. I will make a new mind for you, a new identity. But first you will become no one. You will be nothing. You will... is someone screaming?
Blitz: He's always screaming.
Vaniji: What are you doing? What ARE you? — Boy, I don't know what's wrong with you, but your brain's no place to be. — Aaugh! #$%&! What are you doing?! Stop it! It hurts! Stop it!
Blitz: I can't. I've tried so hard.
Vaniji: LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!
Raven: Broke into the wrong brain, didn't you? He looks all frail and frightened, but he has a mind that will swallow you up before it lets you take over. Take it from me, more powerful minds than yours have tried.
Blitz: He's always screaming.
Vaniji: What are you doing? What ARE you? — Boy, I don't know what's wrong with you, but your brain's no place to be. — Aaugh! #$%&! What are you doing?! Stop it! It hurts! Stop it!
Blitz: I can't. I've tried so hard.
Vaniji: LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!
Raven: Broke into the wrong brain, didn't you? He looks all frail and frightened, but he has a mind that will swallow you up before it lets you take over. Take it from me, more powerful minds than yours have tried.
"The most disappointing thing about learning telepathy is finding out how boring people really are."
Yoshihisa: What's the secret to that mind-reading trick you do? That's so cool! If I could read people's minds, I could do anything!
Haruka: You idiot. There's nothing cool about it, you idiot... You don't know anything! You don't know how it feels to look into other people's minds!
Haruka: You idiot. There's nothing cool about it, you idiot... You don't know anything! You don't know how it feels to look into other people's minds!
— Kotoura-san, chapter 1.
"I welcome you to read my mind. But you wouldn't like what you see."
Dr. Destiny: Coming here was the mistake of your life. See, the closer I am to someone, the stronger I get. I'll be able to go into your brain, even if you're wide awake.
Batman: My brain's not a nice place to be.
Batman: My brain's not a nice place to be.
Lucario reads its opponent's feelings with its aura waves. It finds out things it would rather not know, so it gets stressed out easily.
"...I know how to freak you the fuck out. You see, if you're talking about my fucked-up head versus your fucked up head, your fucked up head is gonna lose."
"I touch somebody, and a whole life full of shit just flashes in front of my eyes!"
— Dennis, Thir13en Ghosts
"I can feel death in this room! I feel a presence, a twisted mind sending me thoughts! Perverted, murderous thoughts... Go away! You have killed! And you will kill again!"
— Helga Ulmann, Deep Red
It was my brain. Literally everything was in there: the first time I'd masturbated. The last time I'd cried. That time when I stood there and watched three older kids beat up Rod Allbright for having the wrong kind of clothes, not saying a word because at the time I'd figured he deserved it. That girl whose name I couldn't even remember who spat on my shoes and called me ugly when I asked her to the seventh-grade Spring mixer.
Other things. Every terrible stupid regretful thought I'd ever had. The time I hate Mom and I wish she would die had crossed my mind during a fight about whether I actually needed a new pair of Air Jordans. The moment I wondered what it would be like if I touched Ms. Zarves's boobs as she leaned over my desk.
My greatest hits. I knew they were, because Temrash 114 had pulled them out for its own personal amusement. Time after time.
And again. And again.
Other things. Every terrible stupid regretful thought I'd ever had. The time I hate Mom and I wish she would die had crossed my mind during a fight about whether I actually needed a new pair of Air Jordans. The moment I wondered what it would be like if I touched Ms. Zarves's boobs as she leaned over my desk.
My greatest hits. I knew they were, because Temrash 114 had pulled them out for its own personal amusement. Time after time.
And again. And again.
— Tom's narration, Eleutherophobia: Ghost in the Shell
