He had a better mind and a more rigorous temperament than me; he thoug…

Julian Barnes
152 citations
He had a better mind and a more rigorous temperament than me; he thought logically, and then acted on the conclusion of logical thought. Whereas most of us, I suspect, do the opposite: we make an instinctive decision, then build up an infrastructure of reasoning to justify it. And call the result common sense.
Thought
36

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History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. ✨ Julian Barnes (2011). The Sense of an Ending, p.59, Random House
We live with such easy assumptions, don't we? For instance, that memory equals events plus time. But it's all much odder than this. Who was it said that memory is what we thought we'd forgotten? And … ▶
The next day, when I was sober, I thought again about the three of us, and about time's many paradoxes. For instance: that when we are young and sensitive, we are also at our most hurtful; whereas wh … ▶
Pride makes us long for a solution to things – a solution, a purpose, a final cause; but the better telescopes become, the more stars appear. ✨ Julian Barnes (1984). Flaubert's parrot, Vintage
Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. ✨ Flaubert's Parrot ch. 13 (1984)

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