"It must be remembered that the object of the world of ideas as a whole [the map or model] is not the portrayal of reality - this would be an utterly impossible task - but rather to provide us with an instrument for finding our way about more easily in the world." (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"[...] operations of an almost mysterious character, which run counter to ordinary procedure in a more or less paradoxical way. They are methods which give an onlooker the impression of magic if he be not himself initiated or equally skilled in the mechanism. (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"Scientific thought is a function of the psyche [...]. Psychical actions and reactions are, like every event known to us, necessary occurrences; that is to say, they result with compulsory regularity from their conditions and causes." (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"The opponents of the atom are generally content to point to its contradictions and reject it as unfruitful for science. A rash form of caution, for without the atom science falls." (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"[...] the organic function of thought is carried on for the most part unconsciously. Should the product finally enter consciousness also, or should consciousness momentarily accompany the processes of logical thought, this light only penetrates to the shallows, an the actual fundamental processes are carried on in the darkness of the unconscious. The specifically purposeful operations are chiefly, and in any case at the beginning, wholly instinctive and unconscious, even if they later press forward into the luminous circle of consciousness [...]" (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"The organized activity of the logical function draws into itself all the sensations and constructs an inner world of its own, which progressively departs from reality but yet at certain points still retains so intimate a connection with it that transitions from one to the other continually take place and we hardly notice that we are acting on a double stage - our own inner world (which, of course, we objectify as the world of sense-perception) and also an entirely different and external world." (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"The psyche works over the material presented to it by the sensations, i.e. elaborates the only available foundation with the help of the logical forms; it sifts the sensations, on the one hand cutting away definite portions of the given sensory material, in conformity with the logical functions, and on the other making subjective additions to what is immediately give. And it is in these very operations that the process of acquiring knowledge consists, and it is all the while departing from reality as given to it." (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"We have repeatedly insisted [...] that the boundary between truth and error is not a rigid one, and we were able ultimately to demonstrate that what we generally call truth, namely a conceptual world coinciding with the external world, is merely the most expedient error." (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"Where the logical function actively intervenes, it alters what is given and causes it to depart from reality. We cannot even describe the elementary processes of the psyche without at every step meeting this disturbing -or shall we say helpful? - factor. As soon as sensation has entered the sphere of the psyche, it is drawn into the whirlpool of the logical processes. The psyche quite of i t s own accord alters both what is given and presented. Two things are to be distinguished in this process: First, the actual forms in which this change takes place; and secondly, the products obtained from the original material by this change. " (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
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