Instinct perfected is a faculty of using and even constructing organized instruments; intelligence perfected is the faculty of making and using unorganized instruments. Henri Bergson More Quotes by Henri Bergson More Quotes From Henri Bergson Is it astonishing that, like children trying to catch smoke by closing their hands, philosophers so often see the object they would grasp fly before them? Henri Bergson trying children hands Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science Henri Bergson mysticism philosophical It is of man's essence to create materially and morally, to fabricate things and to fabricate himself. Homo faber is the definition I propose ... Homo faber, Homo sapiens, I pay my respects to both, for they tend to merge. Henri Bergson definitions essence men A situation is always comic if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings. Henri Bergson independent different two In short, intelligence, considered in what seems to be its original feature, is the faculty of manufacturing artificial objects, especially tools to make tools, and of indefinitely varying the manufacture. Henri Bergson intelligence philosophical tools Genius is that which forces the inertia of humanity to learn. Henri Bergson force genius humanity Knowledge, in so far as it is directed to practical matters, has only to enumerate the principal possible attitudes of the thing towards us, as well as our best possible attitude towards it. Therein lies the ordinary function of ready-made concepts, those stations with which we mark out the path of becoming. But to seek to penetrate with them into the inmost nature of things, is to apply to the mobility of the real a method created in order to give stationary points of observation on it. Henri Bergson nature real order There is nothing [that] disarms us like laughter. Henri Bergson laughter Laughter appears to stand in need of an echo, Listen to it carefully: it is not an articulate, clear, well-defined sound; it is something which would fain be prolonged by reverberating from one to another, something beginning with a crash, to continue in successive rumblings, like thunder in a mountain. Henri Bergson mountain echoes laughter It seems that laughter needs an echo. Henri Bergson philosophical laughter happiness And I also see how this body influences external images: it gives back movement to them. Henri Bergson philosophical movement giving Spirit borrows from matter the perceptions on which it feeds and restores them to matter in the form of movements which it has stamped with its own freedom. Henri Bergson movement freedom perception The major task of the twentieth century will be to explore the unconscious, to investigate the subsoil of the mind. Henri Bergson philosophical tasks mind I believe I experience creativity at every moment of my life. Henri Bergson i-believe creativity believe ACT as men of thought; THINK as men of action. Henri Bergson action men thinking I believe that the time given to refutation in philosophy is usually time lost. Of the many attacks directed by many thinkers against each other, what now remains? Nothing, or assuredly very little. That which counts and endures is the modicum of positive truth which each contributes. The true statement is, of itself, able to displace the erroneous idea, and becomes, without our having taken the trouble of refuting anyone, the best of refutations. Henri Bergson taken time philosophy I cannot escape the objection that there is no state of mind, however simple, that does not change every moment Henri Bergson philosophical simple mind The only cure for vanity is laughter. And the only fault that's laughable is vanity. Henri Bergson vanity laughter humble All the living hold together, and all yield to the same tremendous push. The animal takes its stand on the plant, man bestrides animality, and the whole of humanity, in space and in time, is one immense army galloping beside and before and behind each of us in an overwhelming charge able to beat down every resistance and clear the most formidable obstacles, perhaps even death. Henri Bergson army animal men The movement of the stream is distinct from the river bed, although it must adopt its winding course. Henri Bergson movement bed rivers
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