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Consciousness Quotes

Browse 6772 quotes about Consciousness.

Consciousness Quotes

“It seems to me a worthy goal: try to create a representation of consciousness that's durable and truthful, i.e., that accounts, somewhat, for all the strange, tiny, hard-to-articulate, instantaneous, unwilled things that actually go on in our minds in the course of a given day, or even a given moment.”

Trying Mind Hard Moments Seems Courses Given Goal Consciousness Strange Goes On Accounts Worthy Tiny Truthful Representation Instantaneous

Author:George Saunders

“Art arises in those strange complexities of action that are called human beings. It is a kind of human behavior. As such it is not magic, except as human beings are magical. Nor is it concerned in absolutes, eternities, "forms," beyond those that may reside in the context of the human being and be subject to his vicissitudes. Art is not an inner state of consciousness, whatever that may mean. Neither is it essentially a supreme form of communication. Art is human behavior, and its values are contained in human behavior.”

“The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken suddenly by a fundamental question. One can attempt to imagine the moment. How did they look at the instant the question invaded them, flooding the angelic consciousness, taking hold with terrifying force? The question was, "What are angels?" New to questioning, unaccustomed to terror, unskilled in aloneness, the angels (we assume) fell into despair.”

Looks Moments Left Force Consciousness Imagine Position Strange Despair Angel Fundamentals Assuming Terror Instant Questioning Angelic Flooding

Book:Sixty stories

Source: Sixty stories

“Lichtenberg ... held something of the following kind: one should neither affirm the existence of God nor deny it. ... It is not that he wished to leave certain perspectives open, nor to please everyone. It is rather that he was identifying himself, for his part, with a consciousness of self, of the world, and of others that was "strange" (the word is his) in a sense which is equally well destroyed by the rival explanations.”

World Should Wells Kind Self Certain Existence Consciousness Strange Perspective Please Following Deny Destroyed Explanation Rivals Identifying Existence Of God

Author:Maurice Merleau-Ponty

“Below the incandescent stars / below the incandescent fruit, / the strange experience of beauty; / its existence is too much; / it tears one to pieces / and each fresh wave of consciousness / is poison.”

Stars Existence Consciousness Beauty Too Much Pieces Tears Strange Fruit Wave Poison

Book:Observations: Poems

Source: Observations: Poems

“The popular prophets have underestimated how strange the truth can be. The human brain, that 'perfect instrument,' that 'fabulous electronic dance,' can be our open sesame to an infinitely richer life than we have believed possible. The fluent, liberating, creative, healing attributes of the altered states can be incorporated into consciousness. We are just beginning to realize that we can truly open the doors of perception and creep out of the cavern.”

“In description we hear and feel the absorption of the author in the material. We sense the presence of the creator of the scene. .. This personal absorption is what we mean by 'style.' It is strange that we would choose so oddly surfacey a word - style - for this most soulful aspect of writing. We could, perhaps more exactly, call this relation between consciousness and its subject 'integrity.' What else is the articulation of perception?”

Feels Writing Mean Poetry Literature Consciousness Subjects Style Strange Materials Integrity Scene Perception Aspect Relation Creator Description Soulful Absorption Articulation

Author:Patricia Hampl

“Proportion is all; and, in sports at school, I lost it by surrendering to the awful significance of my self-consciousness. Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.”

People Looks Important Self School Belief Lost Sports Consciousness Strange Elements Awful Proportion Significance Narcissism Shyness Self Consciousness

Book:Broken Vessels: Essays

Source: Broken Vessels: Essays

“Sometimes my life has been Odyssean - landing on strange islands of consciousness and reality and meeting very curious monsters who turn out to be very great teachers. Sometimes my life has been a quest for a grail of knowledge and education. Like Parsifal, my life has been a quest to pierce the veil, stumbling along but eventually finding it.”

Has Beens Sometimes Reality Turns Consciousness Teacher Strange Findings Meetings Monsters Curious Islands Quests Veils Landing Great Teacher Pierce Stumbling Education And Knowledge

Author:Jean Houston

“A metaphysical tour de force of untethered meaning and involuting interlocking contrapuntal rhythms, 'The Clock' is more than a movie or even a work of art. It is so strange and other-ish that it becomes a stream-of-consciousness algorithm unto itself - something almost inhuman.”

Art Actors Force Consciousness Strange Rhythm Clock Streams Movie Works Of Art Metaphysical Inhuman Algorithms Stream Of Consciousness

Author:Jerry Saltz

“It is strange,' pursued he, 'that while I love Rosomond Oliver so wildly-with all the intensity, indeed, of a first passion, the object of which is exquisitely beautiful, graceful, and fascinating--I experience at the same time a calm, unwarped consciousness, that she would not make me a good wife; that she is not the partner suited to me; that I should discover this within a year after marriage; and that to twelve months' rapture would succeed a lifetime of regret. This I know.”

Knows Should Years Firsts Beautiful Passion Consciousness Wife Objects Strange Regret Months Succeed Lifetime Calm Partners Fascinating Intensity Twelve Pursued Rapture Good Wife

Book:Jane Eyre

Source: Jane Eyre