are not aware of something that 'corresponds' to something else; nor is the awareness itself a correspondence to anything. Nor is our view that of the coherence theory.... Our analysis finally is metaphysical.... The mind, in its cognitive dimension, intends Being." — Objectivity, pp. 153-7. On human nature and human life "The very posing of the question 'What is man?' is itself an invitation to forget who we are." — The Autobiographical Consciousness, p. 91. "The laws of perception have been analysed ad nauseam; but my life is not in the least concerned with the laws of perception, but rather with what I perceive, and that remains absolutely contingent, accidental, non-deducible, and therefore surprising in principle.... Surprise also happens to be the condition of jokes, love, zest, and in effect a general synonym for life itself." — "The Invisibility of the World", in Evanescence, p. 59. On value theory and ethics "It would be a mistake to divorce the general consideration of value from ontology, by isolating it in some 'value theory.' Values for me represent the way I finally want to be." — The Autobiographical Consciousness, p. 182. On literature "When literature is purest, when it is not trying to do what it cannot do in any case, it never gives a scientific explanation of anything, it delivers no laws of human existence, it neither urges nor threatens us with anything.... At its best, literature simply presents or records singular human existences in their singular situations, making their absolute choices of life." — The Autobiographical Consciousness, p. 95. On God and truth "The transcendental ego is... in its essence, the essential intuition of God by God. This intuition itself constituting the ego may be explicit as in the perfection of mystic experience, or implicit, down through any number of grades of consciousness." — Mystical Reason, p. 100. "Truth... is related to troth, which is the same as loyalty or faith. When true, I am faithful to friends and the God in them and in me.... The passion for truth which men of good will manifest is certainly not a matter of ascertaining the exact chemical composition of water or the number of grains of sand on the beach. It always was and remains a passion for recognizing and honoring the divinity in oneself and the other." — Mystical Reason, pp. 106-7. Major works Books 157 pages. Revised edition issued