Alfred Korzybski Quotes

If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone.

The map is not the territory.

Man's achievements rest upon the use of symbols.... we must consider ourselves as a symbolic, semantic class of life, and those who rule the symbols, rule us.

Words don't mean, people mean.

There are two ways to slice easily thorugh life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.

To use words to sense reality is like going with a lamp to search for darkness.

Who rules our symbols, rules us.

The map is not the territory... The only usefulness of a map depends on similarity of structure between the empirical world and the map.

A person does what he does because he sees the world as he sees it.

If a psychiatric and scientific inquiry were to be made upon our rulers, mankind would be appalled at the disclosures.

I am the same kind of moron as the rest of you, it's the method that does the work, for me as well as for you.

We see what we see because we miss all the finer details.

God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't.

What we call progress consists in coordinating ideas with realities.

Thus, we see that one of the obvious origins of human disagreement lies in the use of noises for words.

Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.

I want to make clear only that words are not the things spoken about, and that there is no such thing as an object in absolute isolation.

The present non-aristotelian system is based on fundamental negative premises; namely, the complete denial of 'identity.'

It is a fallacy of the old schools to divide man into parcels, elements, thoughts, emotions, intuitions, etc. All human faculties consist of an interconnected whole.

I think therefore I seem to be.

Identity is invariably false to facts.

The objective level is not words, and cannot be reached by words alone. We must point our finger and be silent, or we will never reach this level.

He who learns and learns and yet does not know what he knows, is one who plows and plows yet never sows.

Whatever you say about something, it is not.

Whatever you might say the object "is", well it is not.

Different ‘philosophies’ represent nothing but methods of evaluation, which may lead to empirical mis-evaluation if science and empirical facts are disregarded.

Identification makes general sanity and complete adjustment impossible. Training in non-identity plays a therapeutic role with adults.

Any object of thought is both 'more than what we think, and different'.

Whatever you say it is, is simply what YOU SAY it is.

Second order effects, such as belief in belief, makes fanaticism.

One would have to say "in the end everything is a gag, etc" because everything is infinitely more than just a gag. The same applies to other "is"-statements such as "Laughter is an instant vacation"

Psycho-galvonic experiments show clearly that every emotion or thought is always connected with some electrical current.

It is now no mystery that some quite influential 'philosophers' were 'mentally' ill.

Riches I need not, nor man's empty praise.

Whatever you may say something is, it is not!

There are two ways to slide easily through life to believe everything or doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.

...no thought, if it be non-mathematical in spirit, can be trusted, and, although mathematicians sometimes make mistakes, the spirit of mathematics is always right and always sound.

If those who know why and how neglect to act, those who do not know will act, and the world will continue to flounder.

Definitions create conditions.

An individual cannot be considered entirely sane of he is wholly ignorant of scientific method and structure of nature and so retains primitive semantic reactions.

An individual cannot be considered entirely sane if he is wholly ignorant of scientific method and structure of nature and so retains primitive semantic reactions.

Indeed neither life nor science bothers about "essences"-they leave "essences" to metaphysics, which is neither life nor science.