Tom Robbins Quotes

Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than a minority of them - never become even conscious of them all.

[L]et my reader who is puzzled by my awkward explanations close his eyes for no more than two minutes, and see if he does not find himself suddenly not a compact human being at all, but only a consciousness on a sea of sound and touch . . .

It is consciousness that sets all limits of life, if there are any limits.

The world which we perceive is a tiny fraction of the world which we can perceive, which is a tiny fraction of the perceivable world.

Our life is not so much threatened as our perception. Ghostlike we glide through nature, and should not know our place again.

You can't be conscious unless you have variable receptors... When people say the way I see the world is the way it is - that's ridiculous. We can only see it depending on the quality of our receptors and background.

Reality is what trips you up when you walk around with your eyes closed.

The mind's capacity is limitless, and its manifestations are inexhaustible. Seeing forms with your eyes, hearing sounds with your ears, smelling odors with your nose, tasting flavors with your tongue, every movement or state is all your mind.

Bodies do not produce sensations, but complexes of elements (complexes of sensations) make up bodies.

You think you're looking at things all the time, but you're not looking at things, you're looking at what your brain is interpreting through light and color. And who knows what everybody else sees?

Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, and consciousness is the ability to feel things and have subjective experiences.

Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, whereas consciousness is the ability to feel things such as pain, joy, love, and anger. Throughout history, intelligence always went hand in hand with consciousness.

The brain is so intricate. It can do so many things, and people sleep on it. It's not just a piece of meat in there - it can do so much.

We live within this reality we create, and we're quite unaware of how we create the reality.

We are astonished at thought, but sensation is equally wonderful.

The mind was dreaming. The world was its dream.

What I really found myself interested in was the idea that our minds our so powerful and when we're living, the mind is dampened by the body. As crazy as our minds can get, they're only so crazy because they're physically housed.

To think is an act. To feel is a fact.

Perception was easily accomplished, required little effort, and it never had to stand the test of reality.

Life is rarely about what happened; it's mostly about what we think happened.

A brain is only capable of what it could conceive, andit couldnt concieve what it hasnt experienced

There is nothing outside of us that is not at the same time in us, and as the external world has its colors the eye, too, has colors.

You believe that you live in the world, where in fact the world lives within you.

The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.

A sub-clerk in the post-office is the equal of a conqueror if consciousness is common to them.