Jim Holt Quotes

• When you are trying to understand the world, it is unwise to assume that you occupy a privileged position in it.

  Jim Holt

  Trying, World, Assuming

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• 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

  Children, Simple, Profound

  Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.4, Profile Books

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• Suppose you turn your attention inward in search of this 'I'. You may encounter nothing more than an ever changing stream of consciousness, a flow of thoughts and feelings in which there is no real self to be discovered.

  Jim Holt

  Real, Self, Feelings

  Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.256, Profile Books

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• Having just enough life to enjoy being dead.

  Jim Holt

  Enough, Enjoy

  Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.269, Profile Books

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• You have to have a temperamental attraction to dangerous ideas.

  Jim Holt

  Ideas, Danger, Attraction

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• Jokes often arise involuntarily, like dreams, and tend to be swiftly forgotten. From these similarities Freud inferred that jokes and dreams share a common origin in the unconscious. Both are essentially means of outwitting our inner 'censor'.

  Jim Holt

  Dream, Mean, Common

  Jim Holt (2008). “Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes”, p.70, W. W. Norton & Company

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• To abandon the principle of simplicity would be to abandon all reasoning about the external world

  Jim Holt

  Simplicity, Principles, Would Be

  Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.96, Profile Books

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