More by Douglas Hofstadter
This type of paradox is quite characteristic of Zen. It is an attempt to "break the mind of logic".
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Which statement seems more true: (1) I have a brain. (2) I am a brain.
The Mind's I with Daniel C. Dennett (1981)
No reference is truly direct—every reference depends on some kind of coding scheme. It's just a question of how implicit it is.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Reality includes creating every real connection and reference.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Perhaps the most concise summary of enlightenment would be: transcending dualism. … Dualism is the conceptual division of the world into categories … human perception is by nature a dualistic phenomenon—which makes the quest for enlightenment an uphill struggle, to say the least.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Below Every Tangled Hierarchy Lies An Inviolate Level
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Relying on words to lead you to the truth is like relying on an incomplete formal system to lead you to the truth. A formal system will give you some truths, but as we shall soon see, a formal system, no matter how powerful—cannot lead to all truths.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
All Douglas Hofstadter quotes →