“Our whole past experience is continually in our consciousness, though most of it sunk to a great depth of dimness. I think of consciousness as a bottomless lake, whose waters seem transparent, yet into which we can clearly see but a little way.” ThinkingWayLittlesWholeSeemsPastWaterConsciousnessExperienceDepthLakesTransparentPast Experiences Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce Source: Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce
“I think of consciousness as a bottomless lake, whose waters seem transparent, yet into which we can clearly see but a little way.But in this water there are countless objects at different depths; and certain influences will give certain kinds of those objects an upward influence which may be intense enough and continue long enough to bring them into the upper visible layer. After the impulse ceases they commence to sink downwards.” ThinkingWayGivingKindMayLittlesLongDifferentEnoughSeemsCertainWaterConsciousnessInfluenceObjectsDepthCeaseIntenseImpulseVisibleLakesLayersTransparent Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce Source: Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce
“While we tend to conceive of the operations of the mind as unified and transparent, they're actually chaotic and opaque. There's no invisible boss in the brain, no central meaner, no unitary self in command of our activities and utterances. There's no internal spectator of a Cartesian theater in our heads to applaud the march of consciousness across its stage.” MindSelfBrainConsciousnessStageActivityTheaterInvisibleCommandOperationsInternalsMarchBossSpectatorsTransparentChaoticUnifiedUtteranceOpaque Author:Daniel Dennett
“Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.” LifeEndsLife IsConsciousnessSeriesLampsTransparentGigsLuminousEnvelopesHalos Author:Virginia Woolf