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Quote by Stanislaw Lem

“Psychoanalysis provides truth in an infantile, that is, a schoolboy fashion: we learn from it, roughly and hurriedly, things that scandalize us and thereby command our attention. It sometimes happens, and such is the case here, that a simplification touching upon the truth, but cheaply, is of no more value than a lie. Once again we are shown the demon and the angel, the beast and the god locked in Manichean embrace, and once again man has been pronounced, by himself, not culpable.”

Quote by Stanislaw Lem

Book:His Master's Voice

Work

His Master's Voice

This novel delves into the complex dynamics of power and submission, examining the relationship between a master and their servant through a compelling narrative. more

Author

Stanislaw Lem was a Polish science fiction novelist, writer, and philosopher. His works are renowned for their profound philosophical insights and unique literary style, profoundly influencing science fiction literature. Lem's many novels, including 'Solaris', 'Soylent Green', and 'Fahrenheit 451', have won widespread readership and numerous literary awards, and have inspired many writers to come. more

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“Man's quest for knowledge is an expanding series whose limit is infinity, but philosophy seeks to attain that limit at one blow, by a short circuit providing the certainty of complete and inalterable truth. Science meanwhile advances at its gradual pace, often slowing to a crawl, and for periods it even walks in place, but eventually it reaches the various ultimate trenches dug by philosophical thought, and, quite heedless of the fact that it is not supposed to be able to cross those final barriers to the intellect, goes right on.”

Source: His Master's Voice

“Science is turning into a monastery for the Order of Capitulant Friars. Logical calculus is supposed to supersede man as moralist. We submit to the blackmail of the 'superior knowledge' that has the temerity to assert that nuclear war can be, by derivation, a good thing, because this follows from simple arithmetic.”

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Book:His Master's Voice

Source: His Master's Voice

“Futurologists have been multiplying like flies since the day Herman Kahn made Cassandra's profession "scientific," yet somehow not one of them has come out with the clear statement that we have wholly abandoned ourselves to the mercy of technological progress. The roles are now reversed: humanity becomes, for technology, a means, an instrument for achieving a goal unknown and unknowable.”

Mean Has Beens Made Humanity Goal Roles Technology Clear Progress Achieve Mercy Instruments Profession Statements Abandoned Technological Multiplying Technological Progress

Author:Stanislaw Lem

“Skepticism is like a microscope whose magnification is constantly increased: the sharp image that one begins with finally dissolves, because it is not possible to see ultimate things: their existence is only to be inferred.”

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Book:His Master's Voice

Source: His Master's Voice

“That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox...”

Should Humans Wells Existence Records Repeats Tunes Coins Human Existence Drunkards Jukebox

Author:Stanislaw Lem

“It is notorious that we speak no more than half-truths in our ordinary conversation, and even a soliloquy is likely to be affected by the apprehension that walls have ears.”

Speak Half Wall Conversation Ordinary Ears Affected Apprehension Notorious Half Truth Walls Have Ears

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“We must define flattery and praise; they are distinct. Trajan was encouraged to virtue by the panegyric Pliny; Tiberius became obstinate in vice from the flattery of his senators.”

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“The foundation is in place, and now we have to get to work.”

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“If the US is the country that most contributes with greenhouse gases, in the world, it should assume more responsibility to reduce emissions”

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“I was born Jewish and so I remain, even if that's unacceptable for many. For me, the vocation of Israel is bringing light to the goyim. That's my hope and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it.”

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