David Bohm Quotes on Wholeness, Dialogue, and Consciousness

On wholeness and the implicate order

"The notion that all these fragments are separately existent is evidently an illusion, and this illusion cannot do other than lead to endless conflict and confusion."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"Ultimately, the entire universe (with all its 'particles,' including those constituting human beings, their laboratories, observing instruments, etc.) has to be understood as a single undivided whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no fundamental status."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"In the enfolded order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper order."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"The new form of insight can perhaps best be called Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement. This view implies that flow is, in some sense, prior to that of the 'things' that can be seen to form and dissolve in this flow."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality."David Bohm

On thought, fragmentation, and perception

"Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives false info that you are running it, that you are the one who controls thought. Whereas actually thought is the one which controls each one of us."David Bohm, Thought as a System

"The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained."David Bohm

"Indeed, the attempt to live according to the notion that the fragments are really separate is, in essence, what has led to the growing series of extremely urgent crises that is confronting us today."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"If we don't have the sensitivity to notice what our thought is doing, we will always be caught in it, and the very act of trying to escape from it will only strengthen its hold."David Bohm, On Dialogue

On dialogue

"Dialogue is a way of observing, collectively, how hidden values and intentions can control our behavior, and how unnoticed cultural differences can clash without our realizing what is occurring."David Bohm, On Dialogue

"'Dialogue' comes from the Greek word dialogos. Logos means 'the word,' or in our case we would think of the 'meaning of the word.' And dia means 'through' — it doesn't mean 'two.' … The picture or image that this derivation suggests is of a stream of meaning flowing among and through us and between us. This will make possible a flow of meaning in the whole group, out of which may emerge some new understanding."David Bohm, On Dialogue

"In dialogue, we are not trying to win. We all win if we are doing it right."David Bohm, On Dialogue

"A great potential of common consciousness is there. Whether it is possible to actualize it or not is a question for us to explore."David Bohm, On Dialogue

On consciousness and the mind

"Deep down the consciousness of mankind is one. This is a virtual certainty because even in the vacuum matter is one; and if we don't see this it's because we are blinding ourselves to it."David Bohm

"The content of consciousness is basically knowledge and thought. Consciousness is much more of the implicate order than is matter … Yet at a deeper level [matter and consciousness] are actually inseparable and interwoven, just as in the computer game the player and the screen are united by participation."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"It is proposed that a new notion of order is involved here, which we call the implicate order (from the Latin root meaning 'to enfold' or 'to fold inward'). In terms of the implicate order one may say that everything is enfolded into everything."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"What I mean by 'thought' is the whole thing — thought, felt, the body, the whole society sharing thoughts — it's all one process."David Bohm, Thought as a System

On science and creativity

"In scientific research, a great deal of our thinking is in terms of theories. The word 'theory' derives from the Greek 'theoria', which has the same root as 'theatre', in a word meaning 'to view' or 'to make a spectacle'. Thus, it might be said that a theory is primarily a form of insight, i.e. a way of looking at the world, and not a form of knowledge of how the world is."David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"Scientists are supposed to think, but actually they are mostly stuck in old thoughts. What is needed is real thinking, which begins with attention to what is, rather than to what one already believes."David Bohm

"Creativity is, in my view, something that it is impossible to define in words … a person who has a fresh perception of a new order and is thus able to create something new."David Bohm, On Creativity

Why these quotes still matter

Bohm's writing can feel abstract at first, but it returns again and again to a simple demand: look at the whole, not only at the parts. In physics that meant questioning the assumption that reality is made of separate objects. In dialogue it meant listening for meaning beyond opinion. In consciousness it meant noticing how thought creates the very divisions it then complains about.

These quotes are not aphorisms to collect and forget. They are invitations to think differently. Each one points back to the same insight: the way we divide the world in thought is not the way the world is divided in itself.

For readers who want to go further, Wholeness and the Implicate Order remains the central text. The documentary Infinite Potential offers a cinematic introduction to Bohm's life and the questions that drove him. And the recorded dialogues with J. Krishnamurti show Bohm testing his ideas in conversation, where the pressure to be right gives way to the pressure to understand.

Where to go next

• Read Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm for the full philosophical argument.
• Watch Infinite Potential to see Bohm's story and science brought together on screen.
• Explore our article on the implicate order for a plain English introduction to his central idea.
• Listen to the Bohm Krishnamurti dialogues for extended conversations on thought, time, and consciousness.