1.
It has been said that the question, 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' is so profound that it would occur only to a metaphysician, yet so simple that it would occur only to a child.
Jim Holt
2.
You have to have a temperamental attraction to dangerous ideas.
Jim Holt
3.
Jokes often arise involuntarily, like dreams, and tend to be swiftly forgotten. From these similarities Freud inferred that jokes and dreams share a common origin in the unconscious. Both are essentially means of outwitting our inner 'censor'.
Jim Holt
4.
When you are trying to understand the world, it is unwise to assume that you occupy a privileged position in it.
Jim Holt
5.
Suppose you turn your attention inward in search of this 'I'. You may encounter nothing more than an ever changing stream of consciousness, a flow of thoughts and feelings in which there is no real self to be discovered.
Jim Holt
6.
Having just enough life to enjoy being dead.
Jim Holt
7.
To abandon the principle of simplicity would be to abandon all reasoning about the external world
Jim Holt