Aberrations of the human mind are to a large extent due to the obsessional pursuit of some part-truth, treated as if it were a whole truth.

— Arthur Koestler

A shapeless figure bent over him, he smelt the fresh leather of the revolver belt; but what insignia did the figure wear on the sleeves and shoulder straps of its uniform—and in whose name did it raise the dark pistol barrel? A second, smashing blow hit him on the ear. Then all became quiet. There was the sea again with its sounds. A wave slowly lifted him up. It came from afar and travelled sedately on, a shrug of eternity.

— Arthur Koestler

Basho had always believed that he knew himself rather well. Being without moral prejudices, he had no illusions about the phenomenon called the "first-person singular" and had taken for granted, without particular emotion, that this phenomenon was endowed with certain impulses which people are generally reluctant to admit. Now, when he stood with his forehead against the window or suddenly stopped on the third black tile, he made unexpected discoveries. He found that those processes wrongly known as monologues are really dialogues of a special kind - dialogues in which one partner remains silent while the other, against all grammatical rules, addresses him as "I" instead of "you," in order to creep into his confidence and to fathom his intentions, but the silent partner just remains silent, shuns observation, and even refuses to be localized in time and space.

— Arthur Koestler

Courage is never letting your actions be influenced by your fears.

— Arthur Koestler

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

— Arthur Koestler

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

— Arthur Koestler

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

— Arthur Koestler

Each wrong idea we follow is a crime committed against future generations.

— Arthur Koestler

For the movement was without scruples; she rolled towards her goal unconcernedly and deposed the corpses of the drowned in the windings of her course. Her course had many twists and windings; such was the law of her being. And whosoever could not follow her crooked course was washed on to the bank, for such was her law. The motives of the individual did not matter to her. His conscience did not matter to her, neither did she care what went on in his head and his heart. The Party knew only one crime: to swerve from the course laid out; and only one punishment: death. Death was no mystery in the movement; there was nothing exalted about it: it was the logical solution to political divergences

— Arthur Koestler

God seems to have the receiver off the hook.

— Arthur Koestler