The Mind-Body Problem Quotes

“That's one of the compensations for being mediocre. One doesn't have to worry about becoming mediocre.”
― Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem

“I am beautiful for a brainy woman, brainy for a beautiful woman, but objectively speaking, neither beautiful nor brainy.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, Mind-Body Problem

“For Goddsakes, am I, who carries an entire world within me, a body?”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem, with foreword by Jane Smiley

“I feel an immediate closeness to anyone who loves New York or hates Los Angeles. Either condition is sufficient, but I’ve found that satisfaction of the one usually entails satisfaction of the other.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem

“Our world is eagerly awaiting the posthumous publication of his works, which are rumored to contain an a priori proof of God’s existence—a situation which has prompted me to flirt with the idea of a symbolism-heavy play entitled Waiting for Gödel.)”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem, with foreword by Jane Smiley

“Every morning I had to force myself to leave the apartment, so dark and protected, its walls lined with books. I stared longingly at the few English titles scattered among them. No, I’d tell myself sternly, you will not sit in an apartment in Rome reading William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience. Get out there and have some experiences for yourself, religious or otherwise. And I’d push myself out into the relentless noise and glare.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem, with foreword by Jane Smiley

“The old love of philosophy had returned. The process of thinking about philosophy always reminds me of fireworks. One question is shot up and bursts into a splendorous many. Answers? Forget answers. The spectacle is all in the questions.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem, with foreword by Jane Smiley

“Then there are those regions (and we’re getting into deeper gray now) where what matters is not a person’s relationship with some external thing, such as food or clothes or music, but rather some intrinsic quality of his or her own: beauty or physical fitness. Or intelligence. Since we can discard these attributes even less easily than our clothes, we can always be strictly categorized according to the perceptions emanating from these areas: of who matters (the beautiful, the athletic, and the intelligent, respectively) and who doesn’t (the ugly, the flabby and the dumb). Contempt for the unfit is stronger, I think, than disdain for the plain. Perhaps because of the passivity of beauty? But no, intelligence is every bit as passive, a gift either granted or denied. And yet the scorn felt for the unintelligent is an almost moral outrage. Never mind that the dull can’t help themselves, that they would, granted the sense to do so, have chosen to be otherwise. Their very existence is felt as a moral affront by those of us who dwell where the genius is hero. The color of our zone is only just discernably lighter than the true black of those who perceive people according to their acceptance of some moral or religious or political code.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem, with foreword by Jane Smiley

“Answers? Forget answers. The spectacle is all in the questions.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem