John Irving Quotes

What do you think of the human mind? I mean, in case you think there is a human mind.

In Psychology we deal with minds and their processes, and leave out of account as far as possible the objects that we get to know by means of them.

The human body is not the person. Identity is the way the brain operates; it's memories, it's sensory input and output. The mind is the person.

Consciousness is the perception of what passes in man's own mind.

Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.

I feel, I think, I judge; therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.

Many psychologists ... thought by turning their attention to their own consciousness to be able to explain what happened when we were thnking. Or they sought to attain the same end by asking another person a question, by means of which certain processes of thought would be excited, and then by questioning the person about the introspection he had made. It is obvious ... that nothing can be discovered in such experiments.

Consciousness is cerebral celebrity--nothing more and nothing less. Those contents are conscious that persevere, that monopolize resources long enough to achieve certain typical and "symptomatic" effects--on memory, on the control of behavior and so forth.

Mind is memory, not intelligence.

No man can prove upon awakening that he is the man who he thinks went to bed the night before, or that anything that he recollects is anything other than a convincing dream.

Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought

Memory marks the horizon of our consciousness, imagination its zenith.

That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing.

Because waking I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdities of my waking thoughts, I am well satisfied that being awake, I know I dream not; though when I dream, I think myself awake.

Life in the true sense is perceiving or thinking.

It seems to me that the real problem is the mind itself and not the problem which the mind has created and tries to solve.

No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.

Consciousness is the foundation of all thinking; and thinking is the foundation of all consciousness.

But sometimes what we call 'memory' and what we call 'imagination' are not so easily distinguished.

Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the way.

Indeed, the line between perceiving and hallucinating is not as crisp as we like to think. In a sense, when we look at the world, we are hallucinating all the time. One could almost regard perception as the act of choosing the one hallucination that best fits the incoming data.

The problem is we think we exist.

Many people mistakenly suppose that the essence of consciousness is that of a control mechanism

We can conceive a thinking being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose the mind to be reduced even below the life of anoyster. Suppose it to have only one perception, as of thirst or hunger. Consider it in that situation. Do you conceive any thing but merely that perception? Have you any notion of self or substance? If not, the addition of other perceptions can never give you that notion.

All thinking, knowing, perception, space-time, occur in consciousness. You are a non-local consciousness. The world is in you.