Our Last Will and Testament, providing for the only future of which we can be reasonably certain, namely our own death, shows that... the Will's need to will is no less strong than Reason's need to think; in both instances the mind transcends its own natural limitations, either by asking unanswerable questions or by projecting itself into a future which, for the willing subject, will never be.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the 'human essence,' the distinctive qualities of mind that ...are, so far as we know, unique to man and that are inseparable from any critical phase of human existence, personal or social. Hence the fascination of this study, and, no less, its frustration. The frustration arises from the coming to grips with the core problem of human language, which I take to be this: having mastered a language, one is able to understand an indefinite number of expressions that are new to one's experience, that bear no simply physical resemblance and are in no simple way analogous to the expressions that constitute one's linguistic experience; and one is able ... to produce such expressions on an appropriate occasion, despite their novelty.... The normal use of language is, in this sense, a creative activity. This creative aspect of normal language use is one fundamental factor that distinguishes human language from any known system of animal communication.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My mind to me a kingdom is; Such present joys therein I find... That it excels all other bliss That earth affords or grows by kind. Though much I want which most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I suppose an entire cabinet of shells would be an expression of the whole human mind; a Flora of the whole globe would be so likew...ise, or a history of beasts; or a painting of all the aspects of the clouds. Everything is significant.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We early arrive at the great discovery that there is one mind common to all individual men: that what is individual is less than w...hat is universal ... that error, vice and disease have their seat in the superficial or individual nature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forge...t their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide. But sometimes, and oftenest at midnight, those dark receptacles are flung wide open. In an hour like this, when the mind has a passive sensibility, but no active strength; when the imagination is a mirror, imparting vividness to all ideas, without the power of selecting or controlling them; then pray that your griefs may slumber, and the brotherhood of remorse not break their chain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »