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Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.

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Quote of the Week 23 “ Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth. ” ― Pablo Picasso Triggered by scanning the QR code attached to a wooden sculpture. Source of citation: 1923 May, T he Arts: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine Covering All Phases of Ancient and Modern Art , Volume 3, Number 5, Picasso Speaks: A Statement by the Artist (Note accompanying text: Picasso gave his interview to “The Arts” in Spanish, and subsequently authenticated the Spanish text which we herewith translate), Start Page 315, Quote Page 315, The Arts Publishing Corporation, New York.  ( HathiTrust Full View )  referenced  in  Quote Investigator® .   I can hardly understand the importance given to the word research in connection with modern painting. In my opinion to search means nothing in painting. To find, is the thing. Nobody is interested in following a man who, with his eyes fixed on the ground, spends his life looking for the pocketbook that fortune should put in h...
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AI is the anthropomorphium of the people.

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2nd Quote of the Week 22 “AI is the anthropomorphium of the people. ” ― Alan Bipe Triggered by several discussions about the (future) impact of AI on society.
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There is nothing more abstract than the visible.

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Quote of the Week 22 “There is nothing more abstract than the visible. ” ― Giorgio Morandi Also quoted as “Nothing is more abstract than reality. ” Triggered by a visit to the “ Metafisica ” exhibition in Milano. “I believe that nothing can be more abstract, more unreal, than what we actually see. We know that all we can see of the objective world, as human beings, never really exists as we see and understand it. Matter exists, of course, but has no intrinsic meaning of its own, such as the meaning that we attach to it. We can know only that a cup is a cup, that a tree is a tree.” Source: After The Art Natura morta con intelligenza artificiale
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Once you reach the top, there's nowhere to go but down.

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3rd Quote of the Week 21 “O nce you reach the top, there's nowhere to go but down.” ― Mauro Corona Alternative translation : “ From the summit, there’s nowhere to go but down.” Triggered by the use of another Mauro Corona quote here:  BUSIE di Moreno Togni “ Dalla vetta non si va in nessun posto, si può solo scendere.” ― Mauro Corona ( " Nel legno e nella pietra ") “ Vom Gipfel aus geht man nirgendwo hin, man kann nur absteigen.”
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Women marry men hoping they will change, and men marry women ….

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2nd Quote of the Week 21 “Women marry men hoping they will change, and men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed. ” ― often misattributed to Albert Einstein Triggered by a conversation while hiking. Variations: “ Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed. ” “ That’s the trouble about marriage. Women always hope it’s going to change the husband. Men always hope it won’t change their wives—and both are disappointed! ” ― from the play “Cynara” by H. M. Harwood and R. Gore-Browne
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Behind every beautiful thing, there's been some kind of pain.

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Quote of the Week 21 “Behind every beautiful thing, there's been some kind of pain. ” ― Bob Dylan (" Not Dark Yet ", song lyrics)      
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The map is not the territory.

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Quote of the Week 20 “ The map is not the territory. ” ―  Alfred Korzybski   Triggered b y the growing gap between how things are described and how they actually are . Well, actually triggered by a road trip through the alps.   See also:  various quotes on perception vs. reality .   Quote of the Week 6/2020 " All models are wrong, but some models are useful. " ― George Box  
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Doubt everything.

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Quote of the Week 19 “ Doubt everything. ” ― Karl Marx   (his motto : " De omnibus dubitandum " by René Descartes ) “ An allem ist zu zweifeln. ” Triggered by the i nscription on the sidewalk of my & his native town  across the street of his  birthplace .
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Dear Stone, I win.

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Quote of the Week 18 “ Dear Stone, I win. ” ― Paper Triggered by the use of the quote in Ronen Steinke‘s book „ Meinungsfreiheit “. Original wording: “ Dear Rock, I win. ” ― Paper
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The future's uncertain, and the end is always near.

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Quote of the Week 17 “ The future's uncertain, and the end is always near.” ―  The Doors , Roadhouse Blues (Lyrics) “Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, all night long.”
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Nothing is swifter than rumor.

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Quote of the Week 16 “ Nothing is swifter than rumor.” ―    Titus Livius  ( Livy ) Inspired by  A. Paul Weber's  Das Gerücht  -  interpreted in Keith Haring style: Related: “ A  lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on. ”
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You can see AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics.

Quote of the Week 15 “ You can see AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” ― inspired by  Robert Solow ( Productivity Paradox rephrased) Triggered by Jon Hartley 's tweet : It also seems to be the case that AI adoption, while causing significant productivity changes in certain sectors, isn't showing up in macro productivity numbers yet. To rephrase Bob Solow: "You can see AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics." https://t.co/eUFx77EL1G — Jon Hartley (@Jon_Hartley_) March 27, 2026 Original quote: “ You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” ― Robert Solow
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Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

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Quote of the Week 14 “ Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ―  Leonard Thiessen   Triggered by the mentioning of the Apple ad Apple II: Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication in  Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue: Sometimes misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci . Related: Quote of the Week 29/2024 "Simple can be harder than complex." ―  Steve Jobs Quote of the Week 4/2015 "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ―  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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The prompt doesn’t make the image; the eye for the extraordinary in the ordinary does.

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Quote of the Week 13 “ The prompt doesn’t make the image;   the eye for the extraordinary in the ordinary does.” ― Alan Bipe     Original German quote : “ Nicht der Prompt macht das Bild, sondern die Fähigkeit, das Besondere im Beliebigen zu erkennen. ” ― Gemini AI
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The 'yes' needs the 'no' in order to hold up against the 'no'.

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Quote of the Week 12 “ The 'yes' needs the 'no' in order to hold up against the 'no'.” ―  Jürgen Habermas  (paraphrased)     Original German  paraphrase : “ Das Ja braucht das Nein, um gegen das Nein bestehen zu können. ”   The Power of the Productive "No" At first glance, this quote by the influential German philosopher  Jürgen Habermas  might sound like a riddle. However, it captures the heartbeat of a healthy democracy and meaningful conversation. For Habermas, a "Yes" (agreement) only has value if the person saying it had the genuine freedom to say "No" (dissent). If you aren't allowed to disagree, your agreement isn't a choice—it’s just submission. In his theory of  Communicative Action , Habermas argues that: True Consensus  must be "stress-tested" by counter-arguments. The "No"  acts as a filter that strains out weak ideas. The "Yes"  that emerges is stronger because it "held up...
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To define is to limit.

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Quote of the Week 11 “ To define is to limit.” ― Oscar Wilde ,  The Picture of Dorian Gray     Full quote : “What are you?" "To define is to limit.”            
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To explain is to jam people's thinking.

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Quote of the Week 10 “ To explain is to jam people's thinking.” ― Etel Adnan , Shifting the Silence     Triggered by the exibition " Shifting the Silence. Die Stille verschieben "  at the Lenbachhaus, Munich.
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Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.

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Quote of the Week 9 “ Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” ― Michael Jackson   Related: Quote of the Week 50 / 2020 " Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it. " ―  Jonathan Swift Full quote :
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I may not always be right, but I’m never wrong.

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Quote of the Week 8 “ I may not always be right, but I’m never wrong.” ― attributed to  Samuel Goldwyn Triggered by a recent  QuoteInvestigator  review.
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Don’t believe everything you think.

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Quote of the Week 7 “ Don’t believe everything you think. ” ―  Sidney K. Bennett Triggered by a recent QuoteInvestigator review. Variants: “ Don’t believe everything you think, especially today. ” “ Don’t believe anything you think and only half what you know. ” Related : “ Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” ―  Edgar Allan Poe (Short story “ The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether ”)
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A solution looking for a problem has found an artificial problem looking for a solution.

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Quote of the Week 6 “ A solution looking for a problem has found an artificial problem looking for a solution. ” ― Alan Bipe On the use of blockchain technology for Agentic AI .  
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Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

Quote of the Week 5 “ Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” ― Charles de Gaulle Triggered by the recent Quote Investigator research. 
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We both step and do not step into the same river, we both are and are not.

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Quote of the Week 4 “ We both step and do not step into the same river, we both are and are not.” ― Heraclitus Triggered by the reference to a variation of the quote in WDR 5 - Das philosophische Radio Podcast with  Heinz-Michael Bartling: Weisheit und Wandel   (01/05/2026) . Related (see Wikipedia for details): You cannot step into the same river twice Since Plato, Heraclitus's theory of flux has been associated with the metaphor of a flowing river, which cannot be stepped into twice. [ 57 ] [ as ]  This fragment from Heraclitus's writings has survived in three different forms: [ 56 ] "On those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow" –  Arius Didymus , quoted in  Stobaeus [ at ] "We both step and do not step into the same river, we both are and are not" –  Heraclitus Homericus ,  Homeric Allegories [ au ] "It is not possible to step into the same river twice" –  Plutarch ,  On the E at Delphi [ av ] The classicis...
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