Top 7 Quotes by Jim Holt

When you are trying to understand the world, it is unwise to assume that you occupy a privileged position in it.

When you are trying to understand the world, it is unwise to assume that you occupy a privileged position in it.

Trying, World, Assuming

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

Children, Simple, Profound

Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.4, Profile Books

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

Real, Self, Feelings

Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.256, Profile Books

Having just enough life to enjoy being dead.

Jim Holt

Enough, Enjoy

Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.269, Profile Books

You have to have a temperamental attraction to dangerous ideas.

Jim Holt

Ideas, Danger, Attraction

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

Dream, Mean, Common

Jim Holt (2008). “Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes”, p.70, W. W. Norton & Company