Lapham’s Quarterly

Every thought is, strictly speaking, an afterthought.

To be too conscious is an illness—a real thoroughgoing illness.

What the brain does by itself is infinitely more fascinating and complex than any response it can make to chemical stimulation.

Imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization. It is the very eye of faith.

What is the hardest task in the world? To think.

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

Not all heads have a brain.

Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.

What a torture to talk to filled heads that allow nothing from the outside to enter them.

The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.