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Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler Quotes

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Famous Arthur Koestler Quotes

“Zen is to religion what a Japanese "rock garden" is to a garden. Zen knows no god, no afterlife, no good and no evil, as the rock-garden knows no flowers, herbs or shrubs. It has no doctrine or holy writ: its teaching is transmitted mainly in the form of parables as ambiguous as the pebbles in the rock-garden which symbolise now a mountain, now a fleeting tiger. When a disciple asks "What is Zen?", the master's traditional answer is "Three pounds of flax" or "A decaying noodle" or "A toilet stick" or a whack on the pupil's head.”

KnowsFormThreeEvilAsksAnswersTeachingRocksFlowerMastersHolyMountainGardenSticksDoctrineTraditionalPoundsAfterlifeDiscipleTigersFleetingToiletsHerbsPupilsAmbiguousPebblesParablesNoodlesShrubsFlax
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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“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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