Date: 1980

"Cause is the cement of the universe; the concept of cause is what holds together our picture of the universe, a picture that would otherwise disintegrate into a diptych of the mental and the physical."

— Davidson, Donald (1917-2003)

Date: 1980

"What is thought after all, what is dreaming, but swim and flow, and the images they seem to animate?"

— Robinson, Marilynne (b. 1943)

Date: 1980

"And here we find our greatest affinity with water, for like reflections on water our thoughts will suffer no changing shock, no permanent displacement."

— Robinson, Marilynne (b. 1943)

Date: 1981

"What's my head but a rat's nest / of dubious texts?"

— Harwood, Gwen (1920-1995)

Date: 1981

"When we introspect we do not perceive 'concepts' flowing through our minds as such. Stop the stream of thought when or where we will, what we catch are words, images, sensations, feelings."

— Putnam, Hilary (b. 1926)

Date: 1981

"If one must use metaphorical language, then let the metaphor be this: the mind and the world jointly make up the mind and the world. (Or, to make the metaphor even more Hegelian, the Universe makes up the Universe--with minds--collectively--playing a special role in the making up.)"

— Putnam, Hilary (b. 1926)

Date: March 11, 1982

''The mind is like a parachute -- it only functions when it's open."

— Duncan, Amy

Date: 1982

"'I can still see Wilkie,' says a contemporary, 'late for a speech, running through the library, raincoat over his shoulder, half done up, like his mind.'"

— Smith, Richard Norton (b. 1953)

Date: 1983

"Hume's account of mental happenings is geographical in the broadest sense, a description of human economy and ecology, not just a record of topography and a positioning of land masses but a marking of the tidal movements and trade routes of the mind as it negotiates for ease and stability."

— Richetti, John (b. 1938)

Date: 1983

Die Dogmatiker sind sonderbare Hyänen. Sie nähren sich vom Aas der Gedanken, die sie selbst getötet haben. [The dogmatists are strange hyenas They feed on the carrion of the thoughts that they themselves killed].

— Laub, Gabriel (1928-1998)