Date: 1949

"Mental states and processes are (or are normally) conscious states and processes, and the consciousness which irradiates them can engender no illusions and leaves the door open for no doubts."

— Ryle, Gilbert (1900-1976)

Date: 1949

"A person's present thinkings, feelings and willings, his perceivings, rememberings and imaginings are intrinsically 'phospherescent'; their existence and their nature are inevitably betrayed to their owner."

— Ryle, Gilbert (1900-1976)

Date: 1949

"Rather, to relapse perforce into simile, it is supposed that mental processes are phosphorescent, like tropical sea-water, which makes itself visible by the light which it itself emits."

— Ryle, Gilbert (1900-1976)

Date: 1958

"I believe it was your colleague Hospers who proposed this useful figure: that whereas both thoughts and words have meaning, just as both the sun and moon send light to us, the meaning of the words is related to the meaning of the thoughts just as the light of the moon is related to that of the s...

— Chisholm, Roderick (1916-1999)

Date: November 11, 1967

"The answer is yes, but there is nothing wrong with having an oblique heart, it is a lighthouse, a compass, wisdom, sharp instinct, experience of death, the power to divine a disquieting but blissful lack of adjustment, because I am discovering that my own maladjustment stems from my origins."

— Lispector, Clarice (1920-1977)

Date: 1975, 1976

"Mind contemplating mind is like an object and its shadow--the object cannot shake the shadow off. The two are one."

— Thich Nhat Hanh (b. October 11, 1926)

Date: 1984

"Amid those visits and conversations a book to be called 'The Pound Era' first began to shimmer hazily in my mind."

— Kenner, Hugh (1923-2003)

Date: 1999

"As the brain gets more complex in the womb, then, like a dimmer switch, consciousness gradually grows and burgeons until, of course, in adulthood it reaches its particular pinnacles or depths."

— Greenfield, Susan (b. 1950)

Date: 2000

"The public situations that I have mentioned give rise to corresponding mental processes which are modeled on the public procedures, as a shadowy movement on a ceiling is modeled on an original physical movement on the floor."

— Hampshire, Stuart (1914-2004)

Date: 2001

"It is as substantial or insubstantial as the shadow of a house, in which some things will grow, some not."

— Richardson, James (b. 1950)