Quote Of The Week

Quote of the Week 28 “ Time is but memory in the making. ” ― Vladimir Nabokov As cited in  Recursion by Blake Crouch. Context as provided in Nabokov's interview with BBC-2 in 1969: Let me quote a paragraph in my book Ada : " Physiologically the sense of Time is a sense of continuous becoming. . . . Philosophically , on the other hand, Time is but memory in the making. In every individual life there goes on, from cradle to deathbed, the gradual shaping and strengthening of that backbone of consciousness, which is the Time of the strong." This is Van speaking, Van Veen, the charming villain of mv book. I have not decided yet if I agree with him in all his view's on the texture of time. I suspect I don't.   See  Restoration of time: Henry Bergson and Vladimir Nabokov  for an exploration of Nabokov's notion of time, viewing it through the lens of Henri Bergson ’s philosophy. According to Nabokov “time is essentially memory in th...

Quote of the Week 27 “A man's truth is, first and foremost, what he hides. ” ― André Malraux Original ( Antimémoires , 1967 , pg. 16): “La vérité d'un homme, c'est d'abord ce qu'il cache. On  m'a  prêté  la  phrase  d'un  de  mes  personnages :  « L'homme  est  ce  qu'il  fait!»  Certes,  il  n'est  pas  que  cela;  et  le  personnage  répondait  à  un  autre,  qui  venait  de  dire : «Qu'est-ce qu'un homme? Un misérable petit tas de secrets ...»”     This paraphrases a line of dialogue from his own earlier work ( Les Noyers de l'Altenburg , 1943) :  “ Essentially, a person is what they hide : a miserable little pile of secrets. ”   Triggered by a recent  tweet : We are defined less by what we show the world, and more by what we hide from it. pic.twitter.com/sb7DLDcA1E — Dr Pooja Garg (@poojagarg1111) June 21, 202...

Quote of the Week 26 “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.  Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. ” ―  Ralph Waldo Emerson   Triggered by a recent tweet : "Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." | Ralph Waldo Emerson — Philosophy Thoughts (@Philosophy_DQ) June 6, 2026 Source : Self-Reliance  (final sentences) from  Essays: First Series (1841) Initial quote   therein - originally by Aulus Persius Flaccus : “Ne te quaesiveris extra. ” (Do not seek for things outside of yourself)      

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...

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.”

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

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  

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 .

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

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.”

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. ”

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

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...

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.”            

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.

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 :

Quote of the Week 5 “ Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” ― Charles de Gaulle Triggered by the recent Quote Investigator research. 

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...