Everything Ive learned in life Ive learned either by doing it or watch — Cass Elliot

"I think I would like to be a Senator or something in twenty years. I dont think I really know enough yet. Im just 30 now and I wouldnt even be eligible to run for office for another five years. But I have a lot of feelings about things. I know the way I would like to see things for this country and in my travels, when I talk to people, everybody wants pretty much the same thing: peace, enough jobs, no poverty and good education. And Ive learned a lot. Its funny. So many people in show business go into politics, and I used to say "What the heck do they know about it?" But when you travel around, you really do get to feel — not to be cliche — the pulse of the country and what people want. Im concerned and its not good to be unconcerned and just sit there."

"Having the baby changed my life a lot. I dont want to go on the road, you see. Its actually a matter of economics, much like the Vietnamese war, I guess. I didnt want to go on the road and I wanted to stay home with my baby. I guess I could go to Kansas and be a waitress and support my child that way. But Id rather live comfortable and I wanted to do more creative work. I didnt just want to be part of a group. I wanted to be able to do television, and a movie if it came up, to sort of diversify myself, to extend myself. Within the framework of a group, that freedom is not possible."

"I hated it. Everybodyd say, "Hey, mama, whats happening?" Then came the Mamas and Papas and I was stuck with it. And now people call me Mama Cass because of the baby. So I dont know whether Im gonna be able to really get away from it."

"I say, "Look, Im here now. There must be a reason Im here." If thats fatalistic, be that as it may. Where my work is, is where my life is, and if were falling in the ocean, were falling into the ocean."

"Ive heard that story about kids are high naturally, but Ive seen kids that arent high, kids whove had the high taken out of them."

"I dont think its so important who you vote for — you vote for who you believe in. The important thing is to vote, because its our way and its the best way."

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

"we are engaged in a grim experiment never before attempted. We are subjecting whole populations to exposure to chemicals which animal experiments have proved to be extremely poisonous and in many cases cumulative in their effect. These exposures now begin at or before birth and-unless we change our methods-will continue through the lifetime of those now living. No one knows what the result will be, because we have no previous experience to guide us."

"pity this busy monster, manunkind, not. Progress is a comfortable disease: your victim (death and life safely beyond) plays with the bigness of his littleness"

"I believe that the unity of man as opposed to other living things derives from the fact that man is the conscious life of himself. Man is conscious of himself, of his future, which is death, of his smallness, of his impotence; he is aware of others as others; man is in nature, subject to its laws even if he transcends it with his thought."

"“We need brains, is the bottom line,” Ivy said. “We’re not hunter-gatherers anymore. We’re all living like patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital. What keeps us alive isn’t bravery, or athleticism, or any of those other skills that were valuable in a caveman society. It’s our ability to master complex technological skills. It is our ability to be nerds. We need to breed nerds.”"

"I have been clinically depressed for most of my life. I once used drugs to fix it. Then I stopped. I stopped because I decided they were making me stupid, and Id rather be miserable than stupid. I am what I am."