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Arthur Koestler

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Famous Arthur Koestler Quotes

“As modern physics started with the Newtonian revolution, so modern philosophy starts with what one might call the Cartesian Catastrophe. The catastrophe consisted in the splitting up of the world into the realms of matter and mind, and the identification of 'mind' with conscious thinking. The result of this identification was the shallow rationalism of l' esprit Cartesien, and an impoverishment of psychology which it took three centuries to remedy even in part.”

ThinkingWorldMindMatterPhilosophyMightScienceThreeResultsPsychologyModernCenturyRevolutionConsciousPhysicsRealmsRemedyShallowCatastropheIdentificationRationalismSplittingModern PhysicsModern PhilosophySplitting Up
Book:The Act of Creation
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“Nobody before the Pythagorean had thought that mathematical relations held the secret of the universe. Twenty-five centuries later, Europe is still blessed and cursed with their heritage. To non-European civilizations, the idea that numbers are the key to both wisdom and power, seems never to have occurred.”

StillsIdeasWisdomSeemsUniverseNumbersSecretPowerFiveCenturyKeysCivilizationEuropeRelationTwentiesMathematicsBlessedMathematicalHeritageCursedTwenty Five
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“If one looks with a cold eye at the mess man has made of his history, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he has been afflicted by some built-in mental disorder which drives him towards self-destruction. Murder within the species on an individual or collective scale is a phenomenon unknown in the whole animal kingdom, except for man, and a few varieties of ants and rats.”

IfsMenLooksHas BeensMadeSelfWholeEyeIndividualDifficultAnimalColdBuiltDestructionMurderSpeciesScalesKingdomsConclusionMessVarietyCollectivesPhenomenonDisorderCynicalRatsAntsSelf DestructionMental DisorderAnimal KingdomCold Eyes
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“In the index to the six hundred odd pages of Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History, abridged version, the names of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes and Newton do not occur yet their cosmic quest destroyed the medieval vision of an immutable social order in a walled-in universe and transformed the European landscape, society, culture, habits and general outlook, as thoroughly as if a new species had arisen on this planet.”

IfsOrderCultureUniverseNamesSocialVisionStudyPlanetsHabitSixPagesHundredHistoricalSpeciesVersionsDestroyedMathematicalLandscapeOddCosmicTransformedQuestsOutlookMedievalNewtonSocial OrderCopernicus
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“The greatest temptation for the like of us is: to renounce violence, to repent, to make peace with oneself. Most revolutionaries fell before this temptation, from Spartacus to Danton and Dostoevsky; they are the classical form of betrayal of the cause. The temptations of God were always more dangerous for mankind than those of Satan. As long as chaos dominates the world, God is an anachronism; and every compromise with one’s own conscience is perfidy. When the accursed inner voice speaks to you, hold your hands over your ears….”

WorldLongHandsFormSpeakCausesVoiceViolenceMankindDangerousConscienceEarsChaosOneselfBetrayalTemptationCompromiseRevolutionarySatanOver YouRepentInner VoiceMaking PeaceRenounceAnachronismPerfidySpartacus
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“I profoundly admire Aldous Huxley, both for his philosophy and uncompromising sincerity. But I disagree with his advocacy of 'the chemical opening of doors into the Other World', and with his belief that drugs can procure 'what Catholic theologians call a gratuitous grace'. Chemically induced hallucinations, delusions and raptures may be frightening or wonderfully gratifying; in either case they are in the nature of confidence tricks played on one's own nervous system.”

WorldMayPhilosophyBeliefCasesGraceDoorsDrugCatholicTricksAdmireOpeningNervousDelusionChemicalsSincerityDisagreeFrighteningTheologianOther WorldsRaptureNervous SystemAdvocacyHallucinationsUncompromisingHuxley
Book:Kaleidoscope: essays from Drinkers of infinity, and The heel of Achilles and later pieces and stories
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“In the social equation, the value of a single life is nil; in the cosmic equation, it is infinite... Not only communism, but any political movement which implicitly relies on purely utilitarian ethics, must become a victim to the same fatal error. It is a fallacy as naïve as a mathematical teaser, and yet its consequences lead straight to Goya's Disasters, to the reign of the guillotine, the torture chambers of the Inquisition, or the cellars of the Lubianka.”

PoliticalLife IsValuesSocialMovementEthicsConsequenceInfiniteVictimErrorsDisasterCommunismMathematicalRelyTortureCosmicReignEquationsChamberFallacySingle LifeInquisitionCellarsUtilitarianPolitical MovementsGuillotineGoyaTeasers
Book:Arrow in the blue: an autobiography
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“The inner censor of the mind of the true believer completes the work of the public censor; his self-discipline is as tyrannical as the obedience imposed by the regime; he terrorizes his own conscience into submission;he carries his private Iron Curtain inside his skull, to protect his illusions against the intrusion of reality.”

MindSelfRealityDisciplineProtectIllusionConscienceBelieverObedienceIronCarrieRegimesSelf DisciplineSubmissionCurtainsSkullsTrue BelieverIntrusionIron Curtain
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flushes, or short-circuits of reasoning. In fact they may be likened to an immersed chain, of which only the beginning and the end are visible above the surface of consciousness. The diver vanishes at one end of the chain and comes up at the other end, guided by invisible links.”

GivingMayEndsMomentsFactsConsciousnessCome UpAppearanceInsightIntuitionSurfaceInvisibleChainsReasoningVisibleLinksMiraculousCircuitsEmergenceMoment Of TruthShort Circuit
Book:The Act of Creation
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“Coincidence may be described as the chance encounter of two unrelated causal chains which-miraculously, it seems-merge into a significant event. It provides the neatest paradigm of the bisociation of previously separate contexts, engineered by fate. Coincidences are puns of destiny. In the pun, two strings of thought are tangled into one acoustic knot; in the coincidental happening, two strings of events are knitted together by invisible hands.”

MayTwoHandsSeemsTogetherChanceDestinyFateEventsHappeningsSignificantInvisibleChainsEncountersStringsCoincidenceParadigmKnotsAcousticsTangledPunInvisible HandCoincidence In LifeChance EncountersSignificant Events
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“The life we led was a proof of man's capacity for adaptation.I think that even the condemned souls in purgatory after time develop a sort of homely routine.That is ,by the way, why most prison memoirs are unreadable.The difficulty of conveying to the reader an idea of a nightmare world from which he has emerged makes the author depict the prisoner's state of mind as an uninterruped continuity of despair.He fears to appear frivolous or to spoil his effect by admitting that even in the depths of misery cheerfulness keeps breaking in.”

ThinkingMenWorldWayMindIdeasSoulStatesEffectsReaderDespairCapacityDifficultyPrisonMiseryDepthProofMemoirNightmareRoutinePrisonerState Of MindAdaptationSpoilContinuityCheerfulnessAdmittingFrivolousPurgatoryHomelyConveying
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“Of all forms of mental activity, the most difficult to induce even in the minds of the young, who may be presumed not to have lost their flexibility, is the art of handling the same bundle of data as before, but placing them in a new system of relations with one another by giving them a different framework, all of which virtually means putting on a different kind of thinking-cap for the moment. It is easy to teach anybody a new fact...but it needs light from heaven above to enable a teacher to break the old framework in which the student is accustomed to seeing.”

ThinkingNeedsGivingMindKindMayMeanArtDifferentMomentsFactsLightFormYoungLostHeavenEasyDifficultTeachBreakTeacherSeeingStudentsActivityRelationDataDifferent KindsAccustomedFlexibilityFrameworkCapsBundlesThinking Flexibly
Author:Arthur Koestler
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