“A mind cannot possibly consider anything beyond what it can measure or calculate; without a body it can only consider itself. Without the interruptions of hellos from the eye, ear, tongue, nose, and finger, the evolving mind huddles in the corner picking its navel.”

—  Kevin Kelly

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A mind cannot possibly consider anything beyond what it can measure or calculate; without a body it can only consider i…" by Kevin Kelly?
Kevin Kelly photo
Kevin Kelly141
American author and editor 1952

Related quotes

“I mean to indicate the reading of poetry not merely for the sensual ear, but for the mind's ear as well; yet the mind's ear can be trained only by the other, and the matter, practically considered, comes inescapably back to the reading of poetry aloud.”

Yvor Winters (1900–1968) American poet and literary critic

The Audible Reading of Poetry (1951)

Fausto Cercignani photo

“Sometimes one would almost like to say: what really matters is only the mind. But where can you find a mind without a body?”

Fausto Cercignani (1941) Italian scholar, essayist and poet

Examples of self-translation (c. 2004), Quotes - Zitate - Citations - Citazioni

“Without attachment to anything beyond its own abysmal exuberance, capitalism identifies itself with desire to a degree that cannot imaginably be exceeded (…)”

Nick Land (1962) British philosopher

"Critique of Transcendental Miserablism" (2007), in Fanged Noumena, pp. 624–5

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo

“Only repetition with a goal in mind can truly lead to mastery. Sometimes you can keep rehearsing without learning anything new.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Aeschylus photo

“Wealth itself is blameless, but there can be fear for its precious eye; for I consider the presence of a house's master to be its saving light.”

Aeschylus The Persians

Source: The Persians (472 BC), lines 168–169 (tr. Christopher Collard)

Catherine of Genoa photo

“I am so submerged in the sweet fire of love I see without eyes, and I hear without ears. I feel without feeling and taste without tasting. I know neither form nor measure; for without seeing I yet behold an operation so divine that I cannot grasp anything except the whole of love, which melts all the marrow of my soul and body.”

Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) Italian author and nurse

Jack Vance photo

“Now, as to the persistence of superstition, only an impoverished mind considers itself the repository of absolute knowledge.”

Jack Vance (1916–2013) American mystery and speculative fiction writer

Source: Short fiction, Future Tense (1964), Sail 25 (p. 84)

Viktor Schauberger photo

“It has been proven psychologically that human beings can only appreciate or apprise, i. e. comprehend and understand, something new, if they can succeed in raising up the subconscious immured in their brain cells into their higher consciousness. If this cannot be achieved, then all preaching is useless. And even the eye has first to learn how to see everything new; it too must therefore be awoken from its latency before it can grasp the seen. Above all, there must be readiness to consider even supposed wonders as the forerunners of forthcoming realities, for only thus can the foundations be laid upon which rational mind can calculate and analyse.”

Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) austrian philosopher and inventor

Viktor Schauberger in a letter to Hermann Jaeger, 31st October 1957, Implosion Magazine, No. 103, p. 20 (Callum Coats: Energy Evolution (2000))
Implosion Magazine

Siddharth Katragadda photo

“Your eyes are windows to your dreams; Your ears are windows to your mind; You nose is the door to your heart - you can win over any man with just your smell.”

Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer

page 34
Dark Rooms (2002)

Sallustius photo

“While the body is young and fine, the soul blunders, but as the body grows old it attains its highest power. Again, every good soul uses mind; but no body can produce mind: for how should that which is without mind produce mind? Again, while the soul uses the body as an instrument, it is not in it; just as the engineer is not in his engines”

Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer

although many engines move without being touched by any one
VIII. On Mind and Soul, and that the latter is immortal.
On the Gods and the Cosmos

Related topics