“so mortals tend to see only what they can understand.”
Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters
Source: The Sea of Monsters
Letter X
The Screwtape Letters (1942)
“so mortals tend to see only what they can understand.”
Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters
Source: The Sea of Monsters
“The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.”
William Dean Howells (1837–1920) author, critic and playwright from the United States
Letter to Charles Eliot Norton (6 April 1903)
“This is to be mortal, And seek the things beyond mortality.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
“To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.”
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) French philosopher (1930-2004)
“All the Good of mortals is mortal.”
Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCVIII: On the Fickleness of Fortune
“With all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.”
William of Ockham (1285–1349) medieval philosopher and theologian
Variant: The simplest explanation is usually the right one
“All men are mortal. Socrates was mortal. Therefore, all men are Socrates.”
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Love and Death (1975)
Context: If I don't kill him he'll make war all through Europe. But murder... the most foul of all crimes. What would Socrates say? All those Greeks were homosexuals. Boy, they must have had some wild parties. I bet they all took a house together in Crete for the summer. A: Socrates is a man. B: All men are mortal. C: All men are Socrates. That means all men are homosexuals. Heh... I'm not a homosexual. Once, some cossacks whistled at me. I happen to have the kind of body that excites both persuasions. You know, some men are heterosexual and some men are bisexual and some men don't think about sex at all, you know... they become lawyers.
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 92, “The Music that Plays” (p. 716)