Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Arthur Koestler (British Writer, Journalist)

Arthur Koestler (1905–83) was a Hungarian-born British writer, journalist, prisoner, and political refugee. He wrote the great political novel, Darkness at Noon (1940,) a biting indictment of Stalinist totalitarianism, in addition to several other fictional works and essay collections that explained the ethos of Communism to the West.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Koestler studied science at Vienna, worked on a collective farm in Palestine in 1926, and then became a political correspondent, and later a scientific editor for a German newspaper group. Dismissed as a Communist, he traveled in Russia 1932–33, but became disenchanted, breaking with the Communist party finally in 1938, as described in The God that Failed (1950.)

Koestler reported the Spanish Civil War 1936–37, and was imprisoned under sentence of death by General Francisco Franco, as retold in Spanish Testament (1938) and Dialogue with Death (1942,) and again by the French (1940.) He escaped from German-occupied France via the French Foreign Legion and eventually joined the Pioneer Corps.

These experiences provided the background for Koestler’s first novel in English, Arrival and Departure (1943.) He portrayed the degeneration of revolutionary idealism in Roman times under Spartacus in The Gladiators (1939,) which was followed by the striking modern equivalent, Darkness at Noon (1940,) Koestler’s masterpiece and one of the great political novels of the 20th century.

The Act of Creation (1964) and The Case of the Midwife Toad (1971) were among Koestler’s later works. Bricks to Babel (1980) is a selection from his non-fiction writings. He and his wife, active members of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, committed suicide together when he became terminally ill from leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. Under the terms of his will, the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology was established at the University of Edinburgh (1985.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Arthur Koestler

Politics can be relatively fair in the breathing spaces of history; at its critical turning points there is no other rule possible than the old one, that the end justifies the means.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Politics, Politicians

The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: To Be Born Everyday, Genius, Creativity

The definition of the individual was: a multitude of one million divided by one million.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Individuality

Coincidence may be described as the chance encounter of two unrelated causal chains which miraculously, it seems merge into a significant event.
Arthur Koestler

Man is only true to himself when he surpasses the limitations inherent in his nature.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Imitation, Nature, Rent

If one looks with a cold eye at the mess man has made of history, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he has been afflicted by some built-in mental disorder which drives him towards self-destruction.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Disorder, History

We cannot unthink unless we are insane.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Insanity

Nobody before the Pythagorean had thought that mathematical relations held the secret of the universe. Twenty-five centuries later, Europe is still blessed and cursed with their heritage. To non-European civilizations, the idea that numbers are the key to both wisdom and power, seems never to have occurred.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Mathematics

The most persistent sound which reverberates through man’s history is the beating of war drums.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: War

If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Risk

Laughter and weeping, the Greek masks of comedy and tragedy, mark the extremes of a continuous spectrum; both provide channels for the overflow of emotion; both are
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Laughter

The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Innovation, Discovery, Originality

If conquerors be regarded as the engine-drivers of History, then the conquerors of thought are perhaps the pointsmen who, less conspicuous to the traveler’s eye, determine the direction of the journey.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: War

Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Illusion

Prometheus is reaching out for the stars with an empty grin on his face.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Space

The evolution of the brain not only overshot the needs of prehistoric man, it is the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ which it does not know how to use
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Evolution

Courage is never letting your actions be influenced by your fears.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Courage, Influence, Fear

The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flushes, or short-circuits of reasoning. In fact they may be likened to an immersed chain, of which only the beginning and the end are visible above the surface of consciousness. The diver vanishes at one end of the chain and comes up at the other end, guided by invisible links.
Arthur Koestler

Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Creativity

Space-ships and time machines are no escape from the human condition. Let Othello subject Desdemona to a lie-detector test; his jealousy will still blind him to the evidence. Let Oedipus triumph over gravity; he won’t triumph over his fate.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Technology

Scientists are peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity.
Arthur Koestler
Topics: Scientists, Science, Eternity

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