Carl Gustav Jung

The ability to reach a rich vein of such material and to translate it effectively into philosophy, literature, music, or scientific discovery is one of the hallmarks of what is commonly called genius.

We find this in everyday life, where dilemmas are sometimes solved by the most surprising new propositions

The so-called “mystical” experience of the French philosopher Descartes involved a similar sudden revelation in which he saw in a flash the “order of all sciences.”

In everyday life one thinks out what one wants to say, selects the most telling way of saying it, and tries to make one’s remarks logically coherent.

For instance, an educated person will seek to avoid a mixed metaphor because it may give a muddled impression of his point.

But dreams have a different texture. Images that seem contradictory and ridiculous crowd in on the dreamer, the normal sense of time is lost, and commonplace things can assume a fascinating or threatening aspect.

if we first realize the fact that the ideas with which we deal in our apparently disciplined waking life are by no means as precise as we like to believe.

anything we have heard or experienced can become subliminal—that is to say, can pass into the unconscious. And even what we retain in our conscious mind and can reproduce at will has acquired an unconscious undertone that will color the idea each time it is recalled.

the difference of meaning is naturally greatest when people have widely different social, political, religious, or psychological experiences.

Even the most carefully defined philosophical or mathematical concept, which we are sure does not contain more than we have put into it, is nevertheless more than we assume.