# Quote — Keith Laumer, Dinosaur Beach

> The human mind is a pattern, nothing more. The first dim flicker of awareness in the evolving forebrain of Australopithecus carried that pattern in embryo; and down through all the ages, as the human neural engine increased in power and complexity, gained control of its environment in geometrically expanding increments, the pattern never varied.
>
> Man clings to his self-orientation as the psychological center of the Universe. He can face any challenge within that framework, suffer any loss, endure any hardship—so long as the structure remains intact.
>
> Without it he’s a mind adrift in a trackless infinity—lacking any scale against which to measure his aspirations, his losses, his victories.
>
> Even when the light of his intellect shows him that the structure is itself a product of his brain; that infinity knows no scale, and eternity no duration—still he clings to his self-non-self concept, as a philosopher clings to a life he knows must end, to ideals he knows are ephemeral, to causes he knows will be forgotten.

- Author: [Keith Laumer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer.md)
- Book: [Dinosaur Beach](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/dinosaur-beach.md)
- Page: 192
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keith_Laumer#Dinosaur_Beach_(1971)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/dinosaur-beach/the-human-mind

## More from this book

> Rules had been made, and even enforced from time to time. When the first absolute prohibition of time meddling came along, it was already far too late.

p. 19 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/dinosaur-beach/rules-had-been.md)

> Don’t go female on me now. We don’t have time for nonsense.

p. 71 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/dinosaur-beach/dont-go-female.md)

> “Impossible!” he said, as if he believed it—or as if he wanted awfully badly to believe it.

p. 183 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/dinosaur-beach/impossible-he-said.md)