Douglas R. Hofstadter Quotes

We don't want to focus on the trees (or their leaves) at the expense of the forest.
Douglas R. Hofstadter
A term meant to convey a person's inability to make sense of the numbers that run their lives.
Douglas R. Hofstadter
It now becomes clear that consistency is not a property of a formal system per se, but depends on the interpretation which is proposed for it. By the same token, inconsistency is not an intrinsic property of any formal system.
Douglas R. Hofstadter
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law
Douglas R. Hofstadter
Saying that studying the brain is limited to the study of physical entities would be like saying that literary criticism must focus on paper and bookbinding, ink and its chemistry, page sizes and margin widths, typefaces and paragraph lengths, and so forth.
Douglas R. Hofstadter
No, no - I think about thinking
Douglas R. Hofstadter
I am a lifelong lover of form–content interplay, and this book is no exception. As with several of my previous books, I have had the chance to typeset it down to the finest level of detail, and my quest for visual elegance on each page has had countless repercussions on how I phrase my ideas. To some this may sound like the tail wagging the dog, but I think that attention to form improves anyone’s writing. I hope that reading this book not only is stimulating intellectually but also is a pleasant visual experience.
Douglas R. Hofstadter
And one of my firmest conclusions is that we always think by seeking and drawing parallels to things we know from our past, and that we therefore communicate best when we exploit examples, analogies, and metaphors galore, when we avoid abstract generalities, when we use very down-to-earth, concrete, and simple language, and when we talk directly about our own experience.
Douglas R. Hofstadter