Douglas Hofstadter Quotes

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.

Douglas Hofstadter

• Truth
• Words
• Powerful

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Quotes to Explore

• Religious ideas about good and evil tend to focus on how to achieve well-being in the next life, and this makes them terrible guides to securing it in this one. Of course, there are a few gems to be found in every religious tradition, but insofar as these precepts are wise and useful they are not, in principle, religious.

  

  Sam Harris
  • Life
  • Good
  • Focus

• It's always an honor to represent your country.

  

  Sammy Sosa
  • Country
  • Always
  • Honor

• We need to protect the privacy rights of all Americans, and that means stopping the federal government from spying on the cellphones and emails of law-abiding citizens.

  

  Ted Cruz
  • Law
  • Government
  • Need

• The main thing is to make history, not to write it.

  

  Otto von Bismarck
  • History
  • Write
  • Main Thing

• The actress they'd hired had refused to appear naked in front of the camera. I didn't like to appear naked either, but the first thing I did was take off my clothes and jump into the pool completely naked.

  

  Victoria Abril
  • Jump
  • Clothes
  • Camera

• Real Madrid is the most important thing that happened to me, both as a footballer and as a person.

  

  Zinedine Zidane
  • Important
  • Real
  • Me

• Lets be clear, Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country, I don't know what happens up there in the mountains when you're growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a very long time - 50 years I'd say.

  

  Queen Latifah
  • Up
  • Time
  • Long

• It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are.

  

  Wendell Berry
  • Learn
  • Better
  • Than

• I like what it is to sing, or to be with the others singing, to make music, but the fuss and all the things that are the exterior part of a career, has never interested me.

  

  Victoria de los Angeles
  • Music
  • Career
  • Interested

• I am a just man.

  

  Fidel Castro
  • Man

• Wise is he who enjoys the show offered by the world.

  

  Fernando Pessoa
  • World
  • Wise
  • Show

• I don't have any particular goals in making a recording. In a way the recording is itself the goal. The music comes into my mind, and from there the main job is to give form to it.

  

  Mahavishnu John McLaughlin
  • Music
  • Mind
  • Job

• If there is no criticism, you become lazy. But it should be constructive, and it should be the truth. If it's biased and there's no truth in it, then I don't care about it. If it's true, it helps me grow.

  

  A. R. Rahman
  • Truth
  • True
  • Care

• The sadness of the incomplete, the sadness that is often Life, but should never be Art.

  

  E. M. Forster
  • Life
  • Art
  • Sadness

• This world is too hard for me to leave my kids, without me supervising and being there for them.

  

  Fat Joe
  • World
  • Kids
  • Me

• The film business creates a large amount of waste, and I'm not immune to waste in the business.

  

  Ian Somerhalder
  • Business
  • Film
  • Waste

• Architecture will always express the technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle.

  

  Oscar Niemeyer
  • Country
  • Political
  • Wish

• But if I played well and prepared myself properly, then all I had to do was control myself and put myself in a position to win.

  

  Jack Nicklaus
  • Control
  • Myself
  • Win

• You can't propel a nation to move forward if all you are doing is taking something from them.

  

  Adam Beach
  • You
  • Doing
  • Nation

• A compassionate attitude opens our inner door, and as a result it is much easier to communicate with others. If there is too much self-centered attitude, then fear, doubt and suspicion come and as a result our inner door closes. Then it is very difficult to communicate with others.

  

  Dalai Lama
  • Fear
  • Doubt
  • Attitude

• The truth is that the first changes are so slow they pass almost unnoticed, and you go on seeing yourself as you always were, from the inside, but others observe you from the outside.

  

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • Truth

• For Tibetans, the real strength of our struggle is truth - not size, money, or expertise. China is much bigger, richer, more powerful militarily, and has much better skill in diplomacy. They outdo us in every field. But they have no justice. We have placed our whole faith in truth and in justice. We have nothing else, in principle and in practice.

  

  Dalai Lama
  • Real
  • Money
  • Truth

• 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.

  

  Douglas Hofstadter
  • Truth
  • Words
  • Powerful