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The nice thing about having a brain is that one can learn, that ignorance can be supplanted by knowledge, and that small bits of knowledge can gradually pile up into substantial heaps.

— Douglas Hofstadter Le Ton beau de Marot (1997)

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More quotes by Douglas Hofstadter

Irrationality is the square root of all evil.

If the meanings of true and false were switched, this sentence wouldn't be false.

I Am a Strange Loop (2007)

In fact, a sense of essence is, in essence, the essence of sense, in effect.

Metamagical Themas (1985)

The "Strange Loop" phenomenon occurs whenever, by moving upwards (or downwards) through levels of some hierarchial system, we unexpectedly find ourselves right back where we started.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)

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)

All Douglas Hofstadter quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Douglas Hofstadter (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.