Solomon (-990–-931 BC) king of Israel and the son of David
Ecclesiastes, 1:13 http://bible.cc/ecclesiastes/1-13.htm, New American Standard Bible
Prologue, How I Became a Mathematician, p. 1.
Enigmas Of Chance (1985)
Solomon (-990–-931 BC) king of Israel and the son of David
Ecclesiastes, 1:13 http://bible.cc/ecclesiastes/1-13.htm, New American Standard Bible
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
After some fifty or sixty repetitions, this remark ceased to amuse me.
Source: 1950s, Portraits from Memory and Other Essays (1956), p. 9
Wilbur Wright (1867–1912) American aviation pioneer
Letter to (13 May 1900)
Context: For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money if not my life. I have been trying to arrange my affairs in such a way that I can devote my entire time for a few months to experiment in this field.
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher
Sixth Talk in New Delhi (31 October 1956) http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=570&chid=4889&w=%22It+seems+to+me+that+the+real+problem+is+the+mind+itself%22, J.Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 561031, Vol. X, p. 155 <br class="br">1950s <br class="br">Context: It seems to me that the real problem is the mind itself, and not the problem which the mind has created and tries to solve. If the mind is petty, small, narrow, limited, however great and complex the problem may be, the mind approaches that problem in terms of its own pettiness. If I have a little mind and I think of God, the God of my thinking will be a little God, though I may clothe him with grandeur, beauty, wisdom, and all the rest of it. It is the same with the problem of existence, the problem of bread, the problem of love, the problem of sex, the problem of relationship, the problem of death. These are all enormous problems, and we approach them with a small mind; we try to resolve them with a mind that is very limited. Though it has extraordinary capacities and is capable of invention, of subtle, cunning thought, the mind is still petty. It may be able to quote Marx, or the Gita, or some other religious book, but it is still a small mind, and a small mind confronted with a complex problem can only translate that problem in terms of itself, and therefore the problem, the misery increases. So the question is: Can the mind that is small, petty, be transformed into something which is not bound by its own limitations?
John Cale (1942) Welsh composer, singer-songwriter and record producer
Attributed without citation at John Cale Quotes, inspirationalstories.com, 16 November 2012 http://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/john-cale/,
“I knew I would always want to go on living with myself, however hollow I became, however diseased.”
John Fowles book The Magus
Daniel Martin (1977)
Source: The Magus
Context: I saw that I was from now on, for ever, contemptible. I had been and remained, intensely depressed, but I had also been, and always would be, intensely false; in existentialist terms, inauthentic. I knew I would never kill myself, I knew I would always want to go on living with myself, however hollow I became, however diseased.