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The inner defenses are unconscious. They consist of a kind of magic aura which the mind builds around cherished belief. Arguments which penetrate into the magic aura are not dealt with rationally but by a specific type of pseudo-reasoning. Absurdities and contradictions are made acceptable by specious rationalizations.

Arthur Koestler

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Arthur Koestler
Age: 77 †
Born: 1905
Born: September 5
Died: 1983
Died: March 1
Author
Autobiographer
Journalist
Novelist
Philosopher
Screenwriter
Writer
Buda Pest
Kösztler Artúr
Belief
Unconscious
Builds
Defenses
Around
Specific
Dealt
Rationally
Defense
Penetrate
Aura
Made
Inner
Absurdity
Auras
Kind
Argument
Arguments
Pseudo
Mind
Atheism
Reasoning
Cherished
Rationalizations
Magic
Acceptable
Consist
Specious
Type
Contradiction
Contradictions
Absurdities

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The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition.
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No writer or teacher or artist can escape the responsibility of influencing others whether he intends to or not, whether he is conscious of it or not.
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The progress of science, like an ancient desert trail, is strewn with the bleached skeletons of discarded theories, doctrines, and axioms which seemed to possess eternal life.
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The new frontiers to be conquered are mainly in the convolutions of the cortex.
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