atomic bombing of Hiroshima

courage

creative activity

creativity

editor

genius

geometry

humor

individual

joke

language

originality

risk-taking

science

scientist

uncertainty

nationality

British

Hungarian

occupation / innovator as

journalist

novelist

essayist

cause of death

suicide

innovator in the field of

journalism

philosopher

autobiographer

screenwriter

Austrian

religion

Judaism

Spanish Civil War

scientific organization

Modern Language Association

is significant in that after that event on 6 august, 1945, mankind as a whole came to live with the prospect of its extinction as a species.

Arthur Koestler argued that Hiroshima was special, and that's what I thought before I visited the Peace Parks. In Janus: A Summing Up (Hutchinson, 1978), Koestler said: 'If I were asked to name the most important date in the history and prehistory of the human race, I would answer without hesitation 6 August 1945.' His reason: before this time, humans lived in the knowledge of their individual deaths. Since Hiroshima, he claimed, mankind as a whole lives now with the prospect of its extinction as a species.

is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.

Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.

is a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. (Arthur Koestler)

Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality. (Arthur Koestler)

is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

is a cross between a fall guy and a father figure.

is originality, the opening of new frontiers.

is the purest realization of human reason; but Euclid's axioms cannot be proved. He who does not believe in them sees the whole building crash.

is a type of stimulation which tends to elicit the laughter reflex.

is a multitude of one million divided by one million.

is a kind of coitus interruptus between reason and emotion.

 requires the art of forgetting - at the proper moment - that which we know.

The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know.

is two strings of thought tied with an acoustic knot.

is important --- If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.

If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.

is a domain which, owing to the limitations of our biological equipment, may leave us condemned to the role of Peeping Toms at the keyhole of eternity.

The limitations of our biological equipment may condemn us to the role of Peeping Toms at the keyhole of eternity.

is a Peeping Tom at the keyhole or eternity.

is a kind of quiet liberation that prepares us for new ways of being ourselves, living in the world, and making a difference in the lives of others.

Quite the opposite, as the stories in this book illustrate: seeing the world as dangerous and uncertain may lead to a kind of quiet liberation, preparing us for new ways of being ourselves, living in the world, and making a difference in the lives of others. (Kleinman 2006 : 9)

Arthur KoestlerThinkers

Arthur Koestler