It has been said that the question, 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' is so profound that it would occur only to a metaphysician, yet so simple that it would occur only to a child. — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“Consistency is the virtue of small minds, and Spinoza had a great mind—he was inconsistent all over the place.” — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
Jokes often arise involuntarily, like dreams, and tend to be swiftly forgotten. From these similarities Freud inferred that jokes and dreams share a common… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“(It is interesting that the words “cosmos” and “cosmetic” have the same root, the Greek word for “adornment” or “arrangement.”)” — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
When you are trying to understand the world, it is unwise to assume that you occupy a privileged position in it. — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“To begin with, if existence arose out of a need for goodness, then it must be essentially mental. In other words, existence must ultimately… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“In both jokes and dreams, Freud observed, meanings are condensed and displaced, things are represented indirectly or by their opposites, fallacious reasoning trumps logic.… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
To abandon the principle of simplicity would be to abandon all reasoning about the external world — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
Suppose you turn your attention inward in search of this 'I'. You may encounter nothing more than an ever changing stream of consciousness, a… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“In 1921, a New York rabbi asked Einstein if he believed in God. "I believe in Spinoza's God," he answered, "who reveals himself in… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“I really don’t like to formulate what I believe because, like a quantum phenomenon, it varies from day to day, and anyway there’s a… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
