Thought Moves (a collage) by Timothy O'Keefe

In his essay "Language/Mind/Writing," Alan Davies writes, "The mind is the actions in thought of a life."

 

In The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector writes: “When living is realized, the question will be asked: but was that all there was to it?  And the answer: that isn’t all there is, it is exactly what there is to it.”

 

T.S. Eliot, from the “Little Gidding” section of Four Quartets:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

 

In her poem "The Creation," Rae Armantrout writes: "To come true, / a thing must come second."

 

In Adagia, a group of aphorisms on philosophy and poetics, Wallace Stevens writes, "In the presence of extraordinary actuality, consciousness takes the place of the imagination."

 

In a letter to Max Brod, Kafka writes: “We are nihilistic figments, all of us; suicidal notions forming in God’s mind.”

 

Descartes: “I think, therefore I am.”

Lacan: “I think of what I am where I do not think to think.”

 

Finally—and special thanks to Donald Revell for reminding me—A.A. Milne:

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

“It’s the same thing,” he said.

Comments

[Susan]

Deep and fun and for your final quote (ultimately), thanks for the laugh. Is it the same thing in each case?
My mind--having "studied" each profundity--wants to say no, but my heart says yes.