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Sex Is God's Joke On The Human Race ... If We Didn't Have Sex To Make Us Ridiculous, She Would Have Had To Think Up Something Else Instead.
-Erica Jong
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Sex Is God's Joke

Erica Jong
...
Sex Is God's Joke On The Human Race ... If We Didn't Have Sex To Make Us Ridiculous, She Would Have Had To Think Up Something Else Instead.

Understanding the Quote: "sex is god's joke on the human race ... if we didn't..."

This quote by Erica Jong reflects deeply on the theme of sex. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Sex, Thinking, Race, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Erica Jong interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Erica Jong

Erica Jong is celebrated for insightful thoughts on sex and thinking. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Sex
Thinking
Race
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But If The Gods Do Not Exist At All - Then We Are Lost,' I Said. On The Contrary - We Are Found!' Said Aesop. But When We Are Afraid, Who Can We Turn To, If Not The Gods?' Ourselves. We Turn To Ourselves Anyway. We Only Pretend There Are Gods And That They Care About Us. It Is A Comforting Falsehood.
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Back In The Days When Men Were Hunters And Chest Beaters And Women Spent Their Whole Lives Worrying About Pregnancy Or Dying In Childbirth, They Often Had To Be Taken Against Their Will. Men Complained That Women Were Cold, Unresponsive, Frigid... They Wanted Their Women Wanton. They Wanted Their Women Wild. Now Women Were Finally Learning To Be Wanton And Wild - And What Happened? The Men Wilted.
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I Myself Hate That Old Hemingwayesque Paradigm Of The Writer As Prizefighter And I Have Tried Hard To Create An Alternate One For Myself. When Anne Sexton Admonished Me, "we Are All Writing God's Poem," I Took It To Mean There Should Be No Competition Between Writers Because We Are All Involved In A Common Project, A Common Prayer. But To Gore's And Norman's Generation, Particularly Those Male Writers Who Served In The Second World War, The Prizefighter Paradigm Remains.
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Morning
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Licking
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Thinking
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Writers Are Doubters, Compulsives, Self-flagellants. The Torture Only Stops For Brief Moments.
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Moments
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Joy
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Falling In Love
Crazy
This Is The Sad Bed Of Chosen Chastity Because You Are Miles And Mountains Away.
Long Distance Relationship
Mountain
Bed
Every Time Women Make Tremendous Strides, The Right Wing Gets Terrified And Creates Laws Making It Hard To Get An Abortion Or Birth Control.
Law
Wings
Abortion
The Older We Get, The More Jewish We Become In My Family.
My Family
Sex Is God's Joke On The Human Race ... If We Didn't Have Sex To Make Us Ridiculous, She Would Have Had To Think Up Something Else Instead.
Sex
Thinking
Race
Perhaps Every Generation Thinks Of Itself As A Lost Generation And Perhaps Every Generation Is Right.
Thinking
Generations
Lost
Souls Have Neither Sex Nor Colour.
Sex
Soul
Colour
But We Should Ask The Question: Why Should A Writer Be More Than A Writer? Why Should A Writer Be A Guru? Why Are We Supposed To Be Psychiatrists? Isn't It Enough To Write And Tell The Truth? It's Not Like Telling The Truth Is Common. Writers Are The Earthworms Of Society. We Aerate The Soil. That's Enough.
Writing
Soil
Common
I Believe That Women Should Live For Love, For Motherhood And For Intellect, And I Believe We Shouldn't Have To Choose. And I Believe That's Always Been Difficult For Women, To Express Themselves Intellectually, Maternally, And Passionately.
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Motherhood
Should
There Is No Loneliness Like The Loneliness Of A Dead Marriage.
Loneliness
I Think We’re [men And Women] More Similar. In That We All Deal With Our Fantasy Lives And Sometimes Are Disappointed By Reality.
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Fantasy
Sometimes
I Think Men Have Always Been Afraid Of Women's Sexuality, And The Restrictions They Put On Women Testify To That.
Men
Thinking
Sexuality
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Advice
Calm
Blaming Women Is Always In Fashion.
Fashion
Women
Blame
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Holy Days
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Heart
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Mirrors
Self
Venice Is Ever The Fragile Labyrinth At The Edge Of The Sea And It Reminds Us How Brief And Perilous The Journeys Of Our Lives Are; Perhaps That Is Why We Love It So. City Of Plagues And Brief Liaisons, City Of Lingering Deaths And Incendiary Loves, City Of Chimeras, Nightmares, Pigeons, Bells. You Are The Only City In The World Whose Dialect Has A Word For The Shimmer Of Canal Water Reflected On The Ceiling Of A Room.
Journey
Sea
Cities
If Sex And Creativity Are Often Seen By Dictators As Subversive Activities, It's Because They Lead To The Knowledge That You Own Your Own Body (and With It Your Own Voice), And That's The Most Revolutionary Insight Of All.
Sex
Creativity
Voice
Humor Is One Of The Most Serious Tools We Have For Dealing With Impossible Situations.
Impossible Situations
Tools
Serious
A Baby's Mother Also Needs A Mother.
Mother
Baby
Needs
We Need Quiet Time To Examine Our Lives Openly And Honestly...spending Quiet Time Alone Gives Your Mind An Opportunity To Renew Itself And Create Order.- Susan Taylor--everyone Has A Talent. What Is Rare Is The Courage To Nurture It In Solitude And To Follow The Talent To The Dark Places Where It Leads.
Dark
Opportunity
Order
If, Every Day, I Dare To Remember That I Am Here On Loan, That This House, This Hillside, These Minutes Are All Leased To Me, Not Given, I Will Never Despair.
House
Despair
Remember
Every Time We Hit An Air Pocket And The Plane Dropped About Five Hundred Feet (leaving My Stomach In My Mouth) I Vowed To Give Up Sex, Bacon, And Air Travel If I Ever Made It Back To Terra Firma In One Piece.
Sex
Giving Up
Air
It Takes Courage To Lead A Life. Any Life.
Adventure
All People Believe Their Suffering Is Greater Than Others.
Believe
People
Suffering
Of All The Foolish Fears Of Humankind, Fear Of The Future Is By Far The Most Foolish.
Fear
Future
Foolish
Men And Women, Women And Men. It Will Never Work.
Relationship
Women
Men
We Were Not Human Beings Going Through Spiritual Experiences; We Were Spiritual Beings Going Through Human Experiences, In Order To Grow.
Spiritual
Order
Human Experience
Pain Is Not Love. Love Flowers; Love Gives Without Taking; Love Is Serene And Calm.
Pain
Flower
Love Is
As A Reader, I Want A Book To Kidnap Me Into Its World. Its World Must Make My So-called Real World Seem Flimsy. Its World Must Lure Me To Return. When I Close The Book, I Should Feel Bereft.
Real
Book
World
I Think I've Become More Cynical About Sex. Meaning, I Don't Think Sex In And Of Itself Leads To An Epiphany.
Sex
Thinking
Cynical
Is There No Villain In This World Who Doth Not Regard Himself As A Poor Abus'd Innocent, No She-wolf Who Doth Not Think Herself A Lamb, No Shark Who Doth Not Fancy That She Is A Goldfish?
Thinking
Sharks
Fancy
I Understand That Unless You Have A Government Of Laws, Rather Than A Government Of People, You Cannot Protect Dissent. And I Understand, As A Woman Who Probably Would Have Been Burned In The Marketplace For Witchcraft Only About 200 Years Ago, That I Need The First Amendment More Than Anybody Does. And That Even If I Am Repelled By Child Pornography Or Bob Guccione's Productions, That I Have To Protect Those Things, Because Essentially It's In My Self-interest To Do So.
Children
Government
Self
The Words Carry Their Own Momentum. A Confession In Motion Tends To Stay In Motion. Newton's First Law Of Jealousy.
Law
Momentum
Firsts
The Lives Of Great Men Are More Oft' At Variance With Their Profess'd Phillosophies Than Consistent With 'em.
Men
Hypocrisy
Ems
What Makes A Man Love Death, Fanny? Is It Because He Hopes To Avert His Own By Watchin' The Deaths Of Others? Doth He Hope To Devour Death By Devourin' Executions With His Eyes? I'll Ne'er Understand It, If I Live To Be Eight Hundred Years. The Human Beast Is More Beast Than Human, 'tis True.
Eye
Men
Eight
Perfectionism Is The Enemy Of Art. Since Art Is Essentially Divine Play, Not Dogged Work, It Often Happens That As One Becomes More Professionally Driven One Also Becomes Less Capriciously Playful.
Art
Play
Perfection
In A Way Women Are Fleshier Because Of Estrogen. It's Hard For Us To Lose Weight Because When We Get Super Skinny We Don't Ovulate. Women In Camps During The Holocaust Didn't Menstruate And Didn't Ovulate. They Were Starving; They Were Terrified. Why Emulate That Condition? It's Nonsensical To Me.
Holocaust
Weight
Way
Pregnancy Seemed Like A Tremendous Abdication Of Control. Something Growing Inside You Which Would Eventually Usurp Your Life.
Pregnancy
Growing
Abdication
Writing About Sex Turns Out To Be Just Writing About Life.
Sex
Writing
Turns
Divorce Is My Generation's Coming Of Age Ceremony - A Ritual Scarring That Makes Anything That Happens Afterward Seem Bearable.
Divorce
Age
Generations
We All Parent The Best We Can. Being Human, We're Ambivalent. We Want Perfection For Our Babies, But We Also Need Sleep.
Baby
Sleep
Perfection
A Poem (surely Someone Has Said This Before) Is A One-night Stand, A Short Story A Love Affair, And A Novel A Marriage.
Night
Stories
Literature
You're Not Too Fat; You're Just In The Wrong Country.
Country
Weight
Fats
Denounce Useless Guilt. Don’t Make A Cult Of Suffering. Live In The Now(or At Least The Soon). Always Do The Things You Fear Most. Courage Is An Acquired Taste Like Caviar. Trust All Joy. If The Evil Eye Fixes You In Its Gaze, Look Elsewhere. Get Ready To Be 87.
Eye
Evil
Joy
We Write Poems / As Leaves Give Oxygen - / So We Can Breathe.
Writing
Oxygen
Giving
How Wonderful To Have Someone To Blame! How Wonderful To Live With One's Nemesis! You May Be Miserable, But You Feel Forever In The Right.
Forever
Blame Someone
May
Many People Today Believe That Cynicism Requires Courage. Actually, Cynicism Is The Height Of Cowardice. It Is Innocence And Open-heartednes S That Requires The True Courage -- However Often We Are Hurt As A Result Of It.
Hurt
Believe
People
When Everyone Thinks They Know You, It's Hard Not To Be Guarded.
Thinking
Guarded
Knows
The Desire For Magic Cannot Be Eradicated. Even The Most Supposedly Rational People Attempt To Practice Magic In Love And War. We Simultaneously Possess The Most Primitive Of Brain Stems And The Most Sophisticated Of Cortices. The Imperatives Of Each Coexist Uneasily.
War
Practice
People
I Mostly Hate Organized Religion, Which I Think Is A Force For The Oppression Of Women And Creates Warfare.
Hate
Thinking
Warfare
Sex Doesn't Disappear, It Just Changes Forms.
Sex
Disappear
Form
I Want You. I Want You. I Want You. Anything To Avoid Saying: I Love You.
Love You
Want
Say I Love You
Great Loves Have Legs And Wings. They Are Substantial. They Do Not Dissapate So Easily... Great Loves Have Staying Power. Or So I Told Myself.
Wings
Great Love
Legs
Poems, Like Dreams, Are A Sort Of Royal Road To The Unconscious. They Tell You What Your Secret Self Cannot Express.
Dream
Self
Secret
Everyone Has Talent. What Is Rare Is The Courage To Follow The Talent To The Dark Place Where It Leads.
Inspirational
Life
Success
Creativity Demands Nothing Less Than All You Have. Talent Alone Is Never Enough.
Creativity
Demand
Talent
And The Trouble Is, If You Don't Risk Anything, You Risk Even More.
Love
Inspirational
Life
As Yet We Use Our Media Only For Selling Things - Including, Of Course, Political Candidates. What Will Happen When Someone Masters The Art Of Selling Souls?
Art
Media
Selling Things
If You Apologize For Something That Isn't Your Fault In The First Place, You, In Effect, Confirm Their Belief That It Is Your Fault.
Firsts
Faults
Belief
Do You Want Me To Tell You Something Really Subversive? Love Is Everything It's Cracked Up To Be. That's Why People Are So Cynical About It. It Really Is Worth Fighting For, Being Brave For, Risking Everything For. And The Trouble Is, If You Don't Risk Anything, You Risk Even More.
Love
Inspirational
Life
Someday Every Woman Will Have Orgasms- Like Every Family Has Color Tv- And We Can All Get On With The Business Of Life.
Sex
Women
Color
In Loving Life You Love What Can't Survive.
Loving Life
Conflict Is The Soul Of Literature.
Soul
Literature
Conflict
I Have Accepted Fear As A Part Of Life - Specifically The Fear Of Change... I Have Gone Ahead Despite The Pounding In The Heart That Says: Turn Back.
Inspirational
Change
Courage
Any System Was A Straightjacket If You Insisted On Adhering To It So Totally And Humorlessly.
Ifs
Young People Never Believe In The Possibility Of Their Own Deaths. That's One Reason Old Men Can Send Them To War.
War
Believe
Men
Many, Many People Have Done A Lot More Sexual Experimentation Than I Have.
People
Done
Experimentation
There Is Nothing Fiercer Than A Failed Artist. The Energy Remains, But, Having No Outlet, It Implodes In A Great Black Fart Of Rage Which Smokes Up All The Inner Windows Of The Soul. Horrible As Successful Artists Often Are, There Is Nothing Crueler Or More Vain Than A Failed Artist.
Successful
Artist
Soul
I Stand In The Mist And Cry, Thinking Of Myself Standing In The Mist And Crying, And Wondering If I Will Ever Be Able To Use This Experience In A Book.
Book
Writing
Thinking
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