Samuel Alexander Quotes & Sayings

“What is the meaning of the togetherness of the perceiving mind, in that peculiar modification of perceiving which makes it perceive not a star but a tree, and the tree itself, is a problem for philosophy.”

“Both expectations and memories are more than mere images founded on previous experience.”

“An expectation is a future object, recognised as belonging to me.”

“It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation, the act of contemplation itself is of course an enjoyment.”

“The perceptive act is a reaction of the mind upon the object of which it is the perception.”

“You can mark in desire the rising of the tide, as the appetite more and more invades the personality, appealing, as it does, not merely to the sensory side of the self, but to its ideal components as well.”

“We cannot therefore say that mental acts contain a cognitive as well as a conative element.”

“Psychology is the science of the act of experiencing, and deals with the whole system of such acts as they make up mental life.”

“Curiosity begins as an act of tearing to pieces or analysis.”

“The mental act of sensation which issues in reflex movement is so simple as to defy analysis.”