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Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler Quotes

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Famous Arthur Koestler Quotes

“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
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“Some tribes [of monkeys] have taken to washing potatoes in the river before eating them, others have not. Sometimes migrating groups of potato-washers meet non-washers, and the two groups watch each other's strange behavior with apparent bewilderment. But unlike the inhabitants of Lilliput, who fought holy crusades over the question at which end to break the egg, the potato-washing monkeys do not go to war with the non-washers, because the poor creatures have no language which would enable them to declare washing a diving commandment and eating unwashed potatoes a deadly heresy.”

TwoWarEndsSometimesLanguagePoorWatchesBreakTakenGroupsSocietyStrangeHolyCreaturesBehaviorEatingRiversEggsCommandmentsTribesMonkeysPotatoesHeresyWashingCrusadesDivingBewilderment
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“The integrative tendencies of the individual operate through the mechanisms of empathy, sympathy, projection, introjection, identification, worship- all of which make him feel that he is a part of some larger entity which transcends the boundaries of the individual self. This psychological urge to belong, to participate, to commune is as primary and real as its opposite. The all-important question is the nature of that higher entity of which the individual feels himself a part.”

FeelsImportantRealSelfIndividualSocietyHigherWorshipEmpathyOppositesBoundariesTendenciesPsychologicalPrimariesUrgesMechanismEntityProjectionIdentificationImportant QuestionsCommunes
Author:Arthur Koestler
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