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Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler Quotes

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Famous Arthur Koestler Quotes

“I have repeatedly stressed that the selfish impulses of man constitute a much less historic danger than his integrative tendencies. To put it in the simplest way: the individual who indulges in an excess of aggressive self-assertiveness incurs the penalties of society-he outlaws himself, he contracts out of the hierarchy. The true believer, on the other hand, becomes more closely knit into it; he enters the womb of his church, or party, or whatever the social holon to which he surrenders his identity.”

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Author:Arthur Koestler
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“The creativity and pathology of the human mind are, after all, two sides of the same medal coined in the evolutionary mint. The first is responsible for the splendour of our cathedrals, the second for the gargoyles that decorate them to remind us that the world is full of monsters, devils, and succubi.”

WorldMindFirstsHumansTwoSidesCreativityDevilResponsibleMonstersHuman MindMedalTwo SidesCathedralsMintPathologySplendourGargoyles
Book:Astride the two cultures: Arthur Koestler at 70
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“Man's destiny was no longer determined from 'above' by a super-human wisdom and will, but from 'below' by the sub-human agencies of glands, genes, atoms, or waves of probability. ...they could determine his fate, but could provide him with no moral guidance, no values and meaning. A puppet of the Gods is a tragic figure, a puppet suspended on his chromosomes is merely grotesque.”

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Author:Arthur Koestler
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“Most of us were not afraid of death, only of the act of dying; and there were times when we overcame even this fear. At such moments we were free-men without shadows, dismissed from the ranks of the mortal; it was the most complete experience of freedom that can be granted a man.”

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Book:Dialogue with Death: The Journal of a Prisoner of the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War
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“Death tripped down the corridor, changing step, struck out here and there, danced pirouettes; often I felt his breath on my face when he was miles away; often I fell asleep and dreamed while he stood leaning over my bed.”

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Book:Dialogue with Death: The Journal of a Prisoner of the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War
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“The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.”

InspirationalSeemsScienceBusinessEducationCreativityAcceptanceDiscoveryInnovationOriginalsObviousRejectionOriginalityAdoptionInnovativeCreativity And InnovationBusiness InnovationInnovation And BusinessImagination And CreativityIdeas And InnovationImagination CreativityCreativity In BusinessInnovative IdeasCreativity And BusinessObviousness
Book:The Act of Creation
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“The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.”

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Author:Arthur Koestler
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“Our Press and our schools cultivate Chauvinism, militarism, dogmatism, conformism and ignorance. The arbitrary power of the Government is unlimited, and unexampled in history; freedom of the Press, of opinion and of movement are as thoroughly exterminated as though the proclamation of the Rights of Man had never been. We have built up the most gigantic police apparatus, with informers made a national institution, and the most refined scientific system of political and mental torture. We whip the groaning masses of the country towards a theoretical future happiness, which only we can.”

MenMadeCountryGovernmentSchoolPoliticalOpinionRightsMovementIgnoranceMassBuiltPoliceInstitutionsPressesTortureUnlimitedArbitraryTheoreticalWhipsRefinedFreedom Of The PressProclamationMilitarismDogmatismGroaningChauvinismFuture HappinessInformers
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”

SchoolIndividualProcessInspiringCreativityCreativeLearningTeacherTypeEducationalCreative PeoplePupilsSchoolingLearning ProcessCreative ArtCreativity And InnovationUnschoolingSchools And EducationSchool EducationCreative IdeasArt And CreativityIdeas And CreativityInspire CreativityInspiration And CreativityArtists And CreativityEducation And FreedomCreativity And LearningCreativity In Education
Author:Arthur Koestler
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