From a man’s face, I can read his character. If I can see him walk, I know his thoughts.
—Gaius Petronius Arbiter, c. 60Quotes
my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing
Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
—Alexander Pope, 1733The universe is an object of thought at least as much as it is a means of satisfying needs.
—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1962Every thought is, strictly speaking, an afterthought.
—Hannah Arendt, 1978The brain is an unreliable organ, it is monstrously great, monstrously developed. Swollen, like a goiter.
—Aleksandr Blok, c. 1920We need strength, we need energy, we need quickness, and we need brain in this country to turn it around.
—Donald Trump, 2015To be too conscious is an illness—a real thoroughgoing illness.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864Sooner or later if the activity of the mind is restricted anywhere, it will cease to function even where it is allowed to be free.
—Edith Hamilton, 1930In psychoanalysis nothing is true except the exaggerations.
—Theodor Adorno, 1951If anything affects your eye, you hasten to have it removed; if anything affects your mind, you postpone the cure for a year.
—Horace, 20 BCYour mind’s got to eat, too.
—Dambudzo Marechera, 1978Imagination continually outruns the creature it inhabits.
—Katherine Anne Porter, 1949