WIST Quotations

Koestler, Alfred -- Janus: A Summing Up, Prologue (1978)

Dave — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:56:15 +0000

The most persistent sound which reverberates through history is the beating of war drums.

Alfred Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-English novelist, essayist
Janus: A Summing Up, Prologue (1978)

Koestler, Alfred -- The Act of Creation (1969) p.120

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

This leads to the paradox that the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterwards. The creative act is not an act of creation in the sense of the Old Testament. It does not create something out of nothing: it uncovers, selects, re-shuffles, combines, synthesizes already existing facts, idea, faculties, skills. The more familiar the parts, the more striking the new whole.

Alfred Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-English novelist, essayist
The Act of Creation (1969) p.120

Koestler, Alfred -- The Act of Creation, 1.2.8 (1964)

Dave — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:48:13 +0000

The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flashes, or short-circuits of reasoning. In fact they may be likened to an immersed chain, of which only the beginning and ends are visible above the surface of consciousness. The diver vanishes at one end of the chain and comes up at the other end, guided by invisible links.

Alfred Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-English novelist, essayist
The Act of Creation, 1.2.8 (1964)