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Quote by Arthur Koestler

“Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky . The glory of science is not in a truth more absolute than the truth of Bach or Tolstoy, but in the act of creation itself. The scientist's discoveries impose his own order on chaos, as the composer or painter imposes his; an order that always refers to limited aspects of reality, and is based on the observer's frame of reference, which differs from period to period as a Rembrant nude differs from a nude by Manet.”

Quote by Arthur Koestler

Book:The Act of Creation

Work

The Act of Creation

This book delves into the nature of creativity, examining how individuals engage in the creative process and the factors that contribute to their innovative work. more

Author

Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler was a Hungarian-British author, journalist, and political activist. He is renowned for his novel 'Darkness at Noon' and his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Koestler's writings frequently delved into the themes of totalitarianism and the individual's resistance to oppression. more

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“Indeed, the ideal for a well-functioning democratic state is like the ideal for a gentleman's well-cut suit it is not noticed. For the common people of Britain, Gestapo and concentration camps have approximately the same degree of reality as the monster of Loch Ness. Atrocity propaganda is helpless against this healthy lack of imagination.”

“Men cannot be treated as units in operations of political arithmetic because they behave like the symbols for zero and the infinite , which dislocate all mathematical operations.”

Men Political Infinite Treated Symbols Mathematical Operations Behave Zero Units Arithmetic

Book:Dialogue with Death: The Journal of a Prisoner of the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War

Source: Dialogue with Death: The Journal of a Prisoner of the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War

“We find in the history of ideas mutations which do not seem to correspond to any obvious need, and at first sight appear as mere playful whimsies such as Apollonius' work on conic sections, or the non-Euclidean geometries, whose practical value became apparent only later.”

Needs Firsts Ideas Seems Values Sight Mere Obvious Practicals Sections Geometry Mutation Whimsy

Author:Arthur Koestler

“If there is a lesson in our story it is that the manipulation, according to strictly self-consistent rules, of a set of symbols representing one single aspect of the phenomena may produce correct, verifiable predictions, and yet completely ignore all other aspects whose ensemble constitutes reality.”

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Author:Arthur Koestler

“If time is treated in modern physics as a dimension on a par with the dimensions of space, why should we a priori exclude the possibility that we are pulled as well as pushed along its axis? The future has, after all, as much or as little reality as the past, and there is nothing logically inconceivable in introducing, as a working hypothesis, an element of finality, supplementary to the element of causality, into our equations. It betrays a great lack of imagination to believe that the concept of "purpose" must necessarily be associated with some anthropomorphic deity.”

“All "if" statements about the past are as dubious as prophecies of the future are. It seems fairly plausible that if Alexander or Ghengis Khan had never been born, some other individual would have filled his place and executed the design of the Hellenic or Mongolic expansion; but the Alexanders of philosophy and religion, of science and art, seem less expendable; their impact seems less determined by economic challenges and social pressures; and they seem to have a much wider range of possibilities to influence the direction, shape and texture of civilizations.”

“It is impossible to decide whether a particular detail of the Pythagorean universe was the work of the master, or filled in by a pupil a remark which equally applies to Leonardo or Michelangelo . But there can be no doubt that the basic features were conceived by a single mind; that Pythagoras of Samos was both the founder of a new religious philosophy, and the founder of Science, as the word is understood today.”

Source: The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe

“People feel guilty enough at funerals without having more guilt heaped on. I would prefer a bighearted preacher giving my eulogy, someone inclined to widen heaven's doors. I don't want to leave folks wondering whether I made it.”

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Book:For Everything a Season: Simple Musings on Living Well

Source: For Everything a Season: Simple Musings on Living Well

“Ambition is no cure for love!”

Book:Select Poetical Works: Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, Lady of the Lake and Rokeby

Source: Select Poetical Works: Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, Lady of the Lake and Rokeby

“Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, like the bubble on the fountain, thou art gone, and for ever!”

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Book:The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Biography, and His Last Additions and Illustrations

Source: The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Biography, and His Last Additions and Illustrations