Pataphysical Essays Quotes

“The man who would find his vegetal negative and unite with it would restore the integrity of the cosmos.”
― René Daumal, Pataphysical Essays

“On an experimental animal subject—the University not yet having authorized us to attempt a trial on a bishop in partibus, as we would prefer—we have tied, one by one, Corti fibers, that living harp, to the cones and rods of the retina. We have obtained, right on the macula lutea (which paradoxical as it may seem, is in keeping with our theory of concrete absences), the exact image of the guinea pig’s scream. The victim’s face presented all the signs of celestial bliss. The day we are allowed to avail ourselves of a subject of our choosing, we will be able to offer their Lordships the Ecclesiastics all the photophloxes of vespers, matins, complines, plainchants, antiphons, neumes, etc., they might need for their confounded ministries.”
― René Daumal, Pataphysical Essays

“I am a man?" Why not say, "I am Alphonse," or "I am a wholesaler," or "a crook," or "a mammal," or "a philosopher," or "a proud animal"?”
― René Daumal, Pataphysical Essays