life of the mind

After all everybody, that is, everybody who writes is interested in living inside themselves in order to tell what is inside themselves. That is why writers have to have two countries, the one where they belong and the one in which they live really. The second one is romantic, is separate from themselves, it is not real, but it is really there.

— Gertrude Stein

...as far as we are capable of knowledge we sin in neglecting to acquire it...

— Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Books are in the mind, Grandfather Alessandro said. Too many books and you forget your body is in the world.

— Tom Spanbauer

In my brain were stored a thousand pictures.

— Hermann Hesse