consciousness quotes from influential philosophers, authors and people
"Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point."
87
"In the child, consciousness rises out of the depths of unconscious psychic life, at first like separate islands, which gradually unite to form a 'continent,' a continuous landmass of consciousness. Progressive mental development means, in effect, extension of consciousness."
165
"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world."
178
"Our association of our true self with the constant voice in our head is an instance of mistaking the map (the voice) for the territory (who we really are)."
210
"The root of the problem is that many of us do not see language as a representation of reality, but confuse it with reality itself."
211
"The trick is to become less identified with your thoughts, to not take them so seriously, to see them as 'happenings' rather than 'the way things really are.'"
212
"The brain breathes mind like the lungs breathe air."
218
"The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water."
557
"A large part of what is real within us is not comprehended; and that which is comprehended is not real."
558
"The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises."
560
"The whole is more than the sum of its parts."
595
"Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind."
647
"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well."
694
"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."
786
"You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop."
904
"I think; therefore I am."
905
"Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power."
912
"But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming."
934
"I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am."
936
"But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understand, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses."
938
"Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality."
981
"Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness."
990
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced."
1058
"People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me."
1059
"All psychic contents which either approach the threshold of consciousness from below, or have sunk only slightly beneath it, have an effect upon our conscious activities. Since the content itself is not conscious, these effects are necessarily indirect."
351
"The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness."
535