Arthur Koestler
Born 5 September 1905 · Died 1 March 1983
From Budapest, Hungary · Nationality: Hungary, Austria, United Kingdom · Writes fiction and nonfiction
Arthur Koestler CBE was a prolific writer of essays, novels and autobiographies.
He was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest but, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. His early career was in journalism. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany but, disillusioned, he resigned from it in 1938 and in 1940 published a devastating anti-Communist novel, Darkness at Noon, which propelled him to instant international fame.
Quotes
“The more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterwards.”
The Act of Creation, Chapter 5 “The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeletons of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life.”
The Ghost in the Machine “Without the hard little bits of marble which are called ‘facts’ or ‘data’ one cannot compose a mosaic; what matters, however, are not so much the individual bits, but the successive patterns into which you arrange them, then break them up and rearrange them.”
The Act of Creation, Chapter 10 “No death is so sad and final as the death of an illusion.”
p. 23 “God seems to have left the receiver off the hook, and time is running out.”
The Ghost in the Machine
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Books by Arthur Koestler in order
Books by Arthur Koestler in the order they were published, from The Gladiators (1939) to Workbook - IB Diploma Math HL Part 1 (2013).
- 1The Gladiators
The Gladiators1939 - 2Darkness at Noon
Darkness at Noon1940 - 3Scum of the Earth
Scum of the Earth1941 - 4Dialogue with Death
Dialogue with Death1942 - 5Arrival and Departure
Arrival and Departure1943 - 6The Yogi and the Commissar
The Yogi and the Commissar1945 - 7Thieves in the Night
Thieves in the Night1946 - 8The Age of Longing
The Age of Longing1951 - 9Arrow in the Blue
Arrow in the Blue1952 - 10The Invisible Writing
The Invisible Writing1954 - 11The Sleep Walkers
The Sleep Walkers1959 - 12The Lotus and the Robot
The Lotus and the Robot1960 - 13The Watershed
The Watershed1960 - 14The Sleepwalker
The Sleepwalker1963 - 15The Act of Creation
The Act of Creation1964 - 16The Ghost in the Machine
The Ghost in the Machine1967 - 17Drinkers of Infinity
Drinkers of Infinity1968 - 18The Call-girls
The Call-girls1972 - 19The Roots of Coincidence
The Roots of Coincidence1972 - 20The Heel of Achilles
The Heel of Achilles1974 - 21The Thirteenth Tribe
The Thirteenth Tribe1976 - 22Janus
Janus1978 - 23Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope1981 - 24Workbook - IB Diploma Math HL Part 1
Workbook - IB Diploma Math HL Part 12013