Quotes About Consciousness

We should have signs in the subways and shops "Watch your thoughts!" "Watch your words!

There is no there---there is only here.

To duplicate meanings is to isolate the consciousness.

At which point my grief-sounds ricocheted outside of language. Something like a drifting swarm of bees. At which point in the tetric silence that followed I was swarmed by those bees and lost consciousness. At which point there was no way out for me either.

You are real, aren't you?" he said. "I have such real dreams very often. You might be one of them.

One of her favorite fancies was that on "the outside," as she called it, thoughts were waiting for people to call them.

The youngest youngster vibrates with the shock of cannon firing, even though the sound may not be near enough to be heard, answered Coombe. We're all vibrating unconsciously. We are shuddering consciously at the things we hear and are mad to put a stop to, before they go further.

Ik hou van de spannende periode van afwachten, van de geestelijke en fysieke sensatie van bochten als iets geheimzinnigs naar de oppervlakte van het bewustzijn zigzagt.

And what is the use of knowing many things if, when you have learned the dimensions of heaven and earth, the measure of the seas, the courses of stars, the virtues of plants and stones, the secrets of nature, you still don't know yourself?

The most important things, I told them, were observation and consciousness. Keep your eyes open, see clearly, think about what you see, ask yourself what it means.

How can intemperate minds be free when they're slaves to their own passions?

Each time a thought came knocking on the door of her mind, she viewed it cautiously. Was it true? Was it honorable? Was it pure or lovely? Was it of good repute?

Perhaps it was the approach of death that had opened his eyes wide and made him see so clearly.

The result, in this world view, is that real freedom comes not from the decisions of an ego-self's "will" but from action without any Self whatsoever

We are the lucky ones for we shall die, as there is an infinite number of possible forms of DNA all but a few billions of which will never burst into consciousness.

We have not been created out of nothing, but from primeval ur-matter, atoms formed billions of years ago that have for a brief while been gathered into collections that think they are us.

Most writing is collective consciousness made manifest, tinged to some degree by the author's individuality. Great writing is a specific consciousness made manifest, illuminating the world in a way that we've never seen before and that yet makes sense. 222

What does a mirror look at?

Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?

No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.

She looked at patches of blackness. Black is a blind remembering, she thought.

To exist is to stand out, away from the background, The Preacher said. You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.

Fear is the penalty of consciousness forced to stare at itself.