Quotessence
Home / Authors / Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenSelfMindIndividualSocietyIfsRealitySeemsTwoCreativityEndsFormHumansMayWorldBelieveDiscoveryMankindScienceSocial

Famous Arthur Koestler Quotes

“No man is an island- he is a holon. A Janus-faced entity who, looking inward, sees himself as a self-contained unique whole, looking outward as a dependent part. His self-assertive tendency is the dynamic manifestation of his unique wholeness, his autonomy and independence as a holon. Its equally universal antagonist, the integrative tendency, expresses his dependence on the larger whole to which he belongs: his 'part-ness.'.”

MenSelfWholeUniqueUniversalIndependenceTendenciesManifestationIslandsDependentEntityInwardWholenessDependenceAutonomyAssertiveAntagonistSelf ContainedJanus
Author:Arthur Koestler
Create image

“The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a tribe, nation, church or cause, and to espouse its credo uncritically and enthusiastically, even if its tenets are contrary to reason, devoid of self-interest and detrimental to the claims of self-preservation.We are thus driven to the unfashionable conclusion that the trouble with our species is not an excess of aggression, but an excess capacity for fanatical devotion.”

IfsMenSelfReasonNationsCausesInterestChurchTroubleCapacityClaimsSpeciesDuesDrivenContraryDisasterDevotionConclusionUrgesExcessAggressionTribesPreservationSelf InterestSelf PreservationDetrimentalCredo
Author:Arthur Koestler
Create image

“Modern man lives isolated in his artificial environment, not because the artificial is evil as such, but because of his lack of comprehension of the forces which make it work- of the principles which relate his gadgets to the forces of nature, to the universal order. It is not central heating which makes his existence 'unnatural,' but his refusal to take an interest in the principles behind it. By being entirely dependent on science, yet closing his mind to it, he leads the life of an urban barbarian.”

MenMindOrderEvilForceInterestBehindsExistencePrinciplesEnvironmentSocietyModernUniversalRelateDependentArtificialIsolatedUrbanClosingRefusalComprehensionUnnaturalBarbariansGadgetsModern ManForces Of NatureHeating
Book:The Act of Creation
Create image

“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.”

MenWaySelfHandsIndividualSocialChurchPartyDangerIdentityBelieverSelfishSurrenderTendenciesImpulseContractsAggressiveExcessPenaltiesSimplestHistoricWombHierarchyIndulgeStressedIndulge InOutlawTrue BelieverAssertiveness
Author:Arthur Koestler
Create image

“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.”

MenHumansValuesMoralDestinyFateFiguresWaveDetermineDeterminedGuidanceAgencyTragicAtomsGenesProbabilityPuppetsSuspendedGrotesqueGlandsHuman WisdomChromosomes
Author:Arthur Koestler
Create image

“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.”

MenMomentsDyingShadowMortalsGrantedNot AfraidFree ManAfraid Of DeathNot Afraid Of Death
Book:Dialogue with Death: The Journal of a Prisoner of the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War
Create image

“The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.”

MenWarSoundHistoryMilitarySoldierRemembranceVeteranPersistentTotal WarVeterans DayOur VeteransHonoring VeteransAmerican MilitaryHonoring Our VeteransVeterans Day Thank YouGreat Veterans DayThank A VeteranThank You VeteranVeterans Day InspirationalVeterans Day PoemsWar VeteranHappy Veterans DayVeteran AppreciationFunny Veterans DaySoldiers At WarVeterans Day AppreciationAmerican VeteransArmisticeRemembrance DayVeterans Day RemembranceChristian Veterans DayThanking Our VeteransArmistice DayPatriotic Veteran
Author:Arthur Koestler
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image