Douglas R. Hofstadter · 880 pages
Rating: (3.2K votes)
“It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order - and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, quote from Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
“I would like to understand things better, but I don’t want to understand them perfectly.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, quote from Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
“This computer-generated pangram contains six a's, one b, three c's, three d's, thirty-seven e's, six f's, three g's, nine h's, twelve i's, one j, one k, two l's, three m's, twenty-two n's, thirteen o's, three p's, one q, fourteen r's, twenty-nine s's, twenty-four t's, five u's, six v's, seven w's, four x's, five y's, and one z.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, quote from Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
“Please, Oh please, publish me in your collection of self-referential sentences!”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, quote from Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
“Supperational thinkers, by recursive definition, include in their calculations the fact that they are in a group of superrational thinkers.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, quote from Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
“Vespers
Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.
God bless Mummy. I know that's right.
Wasn't it fun in the bath tonight?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy -- I quite forgot.
If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.
Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.
Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember. God bless Me.
Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed.
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.”
― A.A. Milne, quote from When We Were Very Young
“No one is going to abduct me, Rae."
"That's what all abductees say.”
― Lisa Lutz, quote from The Spellman Files
“Volví a pie a la oficina. Frau Protze estaba limpiando el cristal del amarillento grabado de Tilly colgado de la pared de mi sala de espera, y observando con una cierta diversión los apuros del burgomaestre de Rothenburg. Cuando cruzaba la puerta, el teléfono empezó a sonar. Frau Protze me sonrió y luego entró ágilmente en su cubículo para contestar, dejándome que contemplara de nuevo el cuadro limpio. Hacía mucho tiempo que no lo había mirado de verdad. Al burgomaestre, que había suplicado a Tilly, comandante del ejército alemán del siglo XVII, que no destruyera su ciudad, le fue exigido por su conquistador que bebiera seis litros de cerveza sin respirar. Según recuerdo la historia, el burgomaestre consiguió realizar esa extraordinaria hazaña de beodo y la ciudad se salvó. Era, siempre lo había pensado, característicamente alemán.”
― Philip Kerr, quote from Berlin Noir: March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem
“ليس أمام الذين لا يملكون الشجاعة سوى مخرج واحد فقط: أن يُميتوا وعيهم، ويخنقوا ذاكرتهم ويطفئوا البقية الأخيرة من الأمل.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, quote from Enemies: A Love Story
“One never really knew just how taxing pain was till one was free of it and could feel the difference.”
― Kristen Britain, quote from Mirror Sight
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