Habit is the denial of creativity and the negation of freedom; a self-imposed straitjacket of which the wearer is unaware. — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
The integrative tendencies of the individual are incomparably more dangerous than his self-assertive tendencies. — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
the self-assertive tendency is the dynamic expression of the holon's wholeness, the integrative tendency, the dynamic expression of its partness. — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
one of the tests of a theory is that, once grasped, it appears self-evident. — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to tribe, church,… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
The evils of mankind are caused, not by the primary aggressiveness of individuals, but by their self-transcending identification with groups whose common… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
You can't help people being right for the wrong reasons...This fear of finding oneself in bad company is not an expression of… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
...the crimes of violence committed for selfish, personal motives are historically insignificant compared to those committed ad majorem gloriam Dei, out of… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
If there is a lesson in our story it is that the manipulation, according to strictly self-consistent rules, of a set of… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
From the psychological point of view, the self-asserting emotions, derived from emergency reactions, involve a narrowing of consciousness; the participatory emotions an… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
The inner censor of the mind of the true believer completes the work of the public censor; his self-discipline is as tyrannical… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
I have repeatedly stressed that the selfish impulses of man constitute a much less historic danger than his integrative tendencies. To put… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
If one looks with a cold eye at the mess man has made of his history, it is difficult to avoid the… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
No man is an island- he is a holon. A Janus-faced entity who, looking inward, sees himself as a self-contained unique whole,… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
The integrative tendencies of the individual operate through the mechanisms of empathy, sympathy, projection, introjection, identification, worship- all of which make him… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a tribe, nation,… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share Image
The inner defenses are unconscious. They consist of a kind of magic aura which the mind builds around cherished belief. Arguments which penetrate into… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
The temptations of God were always more dangerous for mankind than those of Satan. — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
The greatest temptation for the like of us is: to renounce violence, to repent, to make peace with oneself. Most revolutionaries fell before this… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
The revolutions of thought which shape the basic outlook of an age are not disseminated through text-books- they spread like epidemics, through contamination by… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flushes,… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
Coincidence may be described as the chance encounter of two unrelated causal chains which - miraculously, it seems - merge into a significant event. — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
“Revolutionary theory had frozen to a dogmatic cult, with a simplified, easily graspable catechism, and with No. 1 as the high priest celebrating the Mass.” — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
Coincidence may be described as the chance encounter of two unrelated causal chains which — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
The more backwoodish a social group, juvenile or adult, the stricter its conception of the normal, and the readier it will ridicule any departure… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
As modern physics started with the Newtonian revolution, so modern philosophy starts with what one might call the Cartesian Catastrophe. The catastrophe consisted in… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
If one looks with a cold eye at the mess man has made of history, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
The ultimate truth is penultimately always a falsehood. He who will be proved right in the end appears to be wrong and harmful before… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
The real achievement in discoveries... is seeing an analogy where no one saw one before... The essence of discovery is that unlikely marriage of… — Arthur Koestler Copy Share
