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Link Quote Stars Tags Author
4c7febc The rational reasons were all rationales for an underlying irrationality. science word-plays Kim Stanley Robinson
1825384 Human beings, Lucretius thought, must not drink in the poisonous belief that their souls are only part of the world temporarily and they are heading somewhere else. That belief will only spawn in them a destructive relation to the environment in which they live the only lives they have. science philosophy Stephen Greenblatt
77f4af6 It takes a special energy, over and above one's creative potential, a special audacity or subversiveness, to strike out in a new direction once one is settled. It is a gamble as all creative projects must be, for the new direction may not turn out to be productive at all. science creativity Oliver Sacks
c139406 A union of literary and scientific cultures - there was not the dissociation of sensibility that was so soon to come ... Davy himself was writing (and sometimes publishing) a good deal of poetry at the time; his notebooks mix details of chemical experiments, poems, and philosophical reflections all together; and these did not seem to exist in separate compartments in his mind. literature science science-and-arts childhood Oliver Sacks
3ab57d6 You know, the aspirants believe this is the only true existence. That everything outside is an illusion, a shadow play created by the ancestor gods to cradle us until we can build our own tailored reality and Upload into it. That's comforting, isn't it. science singularity transhumanism theology Richard K. Morgan
508c997 When the neglect is severe, the patient may behave almost as if one half of the universe had abruptly ceased to exist in any meaningful form.... Patients with unilateral neglect behave not only as if nothing were actually happening in the left hemispace, but also as if nothing of any importance could be expected to occur there. science nonfiction Oliver Sacks
aa34709 When facts are treated as if they were opinions, when there is no universal standard by which to determine truth in law, in science, in scholarship, or in the reporting of events of the day, the world becomes a place where lies become true, where people can believe what they want to believe, where there is no possibility of reaching any conclusion not predetermined by those who interpret the official, divinely inspired text. religion science truth dominionism fanaticism Chris Hedges
29a12c4 For an instant Stile was daunted by the improbability of it all: a man, a cyborg, a robot, an animalhead, and a wooden golem, all riding unicorns through a battlefield strewn with goblins and dragons, pursuing an invaluable ball of power-rock that rolled along a channel cleared by plastic explosive. What a mishmash! magic science humor Piers Anthony
c333b9b Proof of the beginning of time probably ranks as the most theologically significant theorem. This great significance arises from the theorem establishing that the universe must be caused by some Entity capable of creating the universe entirely independent of space and time. Such an entity matches the attributes of the God of the Bible but is contradicted by the gods of the eastern (and indeed all other) religions who create within space and time. religion science god astrophysics big-bang Hugh Ross
20eac0a The fact that establishment scientists say something doesn't exist doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It only means that science has no effective way to measure it. inspirational-quotes science intuition-quotes laurie-nadel laurie-nadel-quotes quote-about-life quote-of-the-day quote-of-the-week quotes-twitter wayne-dyer intuition power-of-thoughts Laurie Nadel
b6c67cd "Eureka!"s like the one Archimedes had when he stepped in a bathtub and suddenly realized the answer to the problem of testing metals' density are few and far between, and mostly it's just trying and failing and trying something else, feeding in data and eliminating variables and staring at the results, trying to figure out where you went wrong." science Connie Willis
d3521a9 As a species we are a predominantly intelligent and exploratory animal, and beliefs harnessed to this fact will be the most beneficial for us. A belief in the validity of the acquisition of knowledge and a scientific understanding of the world we live in, the creation and appreciation of aesthetic phenomena in all their many forms, and the broadening and deepening of our range of experiences in day-to-day living, is rapidly becoming the 'religion' of our time. Experience and understanding are our rather abstract god-figures, and ignorance and stupidity will make them angry. Our schools and universities are our religious training centres, our libraries, museums, art galleries, theatres, concert halls and sports arenas are our places of communal worship. At home we worship with our books. newspapers. magazines, radios and television sets. In a sense, we still believe in an after-life, because part of the reward obtained from our creative works is the feeling that, through them, we will 'live on' after we are dead. Like all religions, this one has its dangers, but if we have to have one, and it seems that we do, then it certainly appears to be the one most suitable for the unique biological qualities of our species. Its adoption by an ever-growing majority of the world population can serve as a compensating and reassuring source of optimism to set against the pessimism (...) concerning our immediate future as a surviving species. literature immortality religion science belief Desmond Morris
4ea4ac3 Researchers may have some conscious or unconscious bias, either because of a strongly held prior belief or because a positive finding would be better for their career. (No one ever gets rich or famous by proving what doesn't cause cancer.) science statistics Charles Wheelan
36f1e20 "The man is mollified. The systematic juices leave off bubbling, the fires sink, the coals are scattered. But the anger is still there, apart. Energy is never lost; a primal law. -"Mad House" science insanity Richard Matheson
3b0fc24 At a deeper level what this whole exchange revealed to me was something disturbing about the way science works. I hadn't quite grasped the role of before. But I could see it in action everywhere here: fear of being 'noticed and monitored by colleagues,' fear of unwanted negative celebrity, fear of indignity, fear of loss of reputation, fear of loss of career--and not for committing some terrible crime but simply for exploring unorthodox possibilities and undertaking 'somewhat controversial research' into what everyone agrees were extraordinary events 12,800 years ago. Worse still, this pervasive state of fear has somehow ingrained itself so deeply into the fabric of science that those who have embraced unorthodox possibilities themselves are often among the least willing to consider unorthodox possibilities embraced by others--lest by doing so they 'contaminate' their own preferred unorthodoxy. How will it ever be possible to discover the truth about the past when so much fear gets in the way? fear science truth controversy shills unorthodoxy establishment exploring Graham Hancock
f705f2a Figurines of Apkallus were buried in boxes in the foundation deposits in Mesopotamian buildings in order to avert evil ... The term , Watchers, is used of these sets. Likewise the Apkallus were said to have taught antediluvian sciences to humanity and so, too, were the Watchers. As one scholar concludes, however: 'The Jewish authors often inverted the Mesopotamian intellectual traditions with the intention of showing the superiority of their own cultural foundations. [Thus] ... the antediluvian sages, the Mesopotamian Apkallus, were demonised as the 'sons of God' and ... appear as the Watchers ... illegitimate teachers of humankind before the flood. science judaism apkallu mesopotamia sages watchers deluge Graham Hancock
dcc65e5 "Robin, he chided her. He wanted to tell her all this would happen to her, too, that her luck would turn as well. But he had no good arguments for this, and she had no reason to believe him. Such luck as his was far too rare. "I hope it all works out," she said, looking up, and then, as if afraid to sound too stingy, she added, "I'm sure it will." He bent down to kiss her, but she turned away slightly, and his lips brushed her ear as he whispered, "Please be happy for me." suffering science love luck Allegra Goodman
b7c4528 Svenska Dagbladet var inte bara en ursinnigt antisovjetisk publikation, det var ocksa den tidning den svenska motparten anvande mest for att kanalisera sin aktivism; alla dessa standiga bevislosa historier om Sovjetunionens militara aktiviteter runt Sveriges kust. science inspirational Jan Guillou
8d560a7 A lot of who you were in middle age was determined before you had a chance to manipulate, control, or eve understand the things around you. It was no mystery, he thought, why some old people's minds returned to their youth; the wonder of those years, the discoveries, the first experience with the dirty secret of death, and the first stirrings of lust and love were indelible, drawn in luminous colors on clean canvas. Indeed, the first sex act was so mind-boggling that most people could still remember it clearly twenty, thirty, sixty years later. sex romance science humor life love wisdom inspirational old lust Nelson DeMille
086c0ba Cars with flames painted on the hood might get more speeding tickets. Are the flames making the car go fast? No. Certain things just go together. And when they do, they are correlated. It is the darling of all human errors to assume, without proper testing, that one is the cause of the other. science correlation entomology monarch-butterflies Barbara Kingsolver
4956162 Det er ikke sikkert at alkohol dreper alle sykdomsbasiller. Nar det gjelder neshorneri, vet man ikke noe forelobig. science cure rhinoceros health Eugène Ionesco
ad0ed9a Live for the future. A cosmic history read out of signs so subtle and mathematical that only the effort of a huge transtemporal group of powerful minds could ever have teased it out; but then those who came later could be given the whole story, with its unexplored edges there to take off into. progress science human-story Kim Stanley Robinson
19d1265 Weightlessness is like heroin, or how I imagine heroin must be. You try it once, and when it's over, all you can think about is how much you want to do it again. But apparently the thrill wears off. funny science humor mary-roach space sci-fi Mary Roach
85589a6 I've brought scientific thinking to literature. There's been very little gratitude for this. science Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
ce69c4d It suddenly occurred to me just how absurd this scene was: a guy wearing a suit of armor, standing next to an undead king, both hunched over the controls of a classic arcade game. It was the sort of surreal image you'd expect to see on the cover of an old issue of Heavy Metal or Dragon magazine. science key undead-king video-game wade wade-watts ready-player-one undead video-games quest science-fiction Ernest Cline
6a4b42c After a few years of breeding a type of lily, Burbank found a single specimen that met his standards. A rabbit ate it. science Carl Zimmer
6ecb9f8 Statistically it was not greatly different than it had been for previous generations, but anecdotally it had become so prominent that every problem was noticed and remarked. The cognitive error called ease of representation thrust them into a space where every problem they witnessed convinced them they were in an unprecedented colapse. They were getting depressed. science science-fiction society pessimism Kim Stanley Robinson
b193082 There are ecological, biological, sociological, and psychological problems that can never be solved to make this idea work. The physical problems of propulsion have capture your fancy, and perhaps they can be solved, but they are the easy ones. science science-fiction Kim Stanley Robinson
7c0c913 Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. wonder science technology Paul Theroux
d21aa66 We must respect that silence and make our decisions and judgments based upon science and fact and simple old-fashioned common sense - a commodity absent for too long from those in governmental elevatia, where its employ would do us all much good. science judgments facts government Mark Dunn
2de603d For comparison, tap out a single grain of salt from a shaker. You could line up about ten skin cells along one side of it. You could line up about a hundred bacteria. Compared to viruses, however, bacteria are giants. You could line up a thousand viruses alongside that same grain of salt. science microbiology wonders-of-nature virus Carl Zimmer
02a9162 ... Para que estes ahora aqui, tuvieron que agruparse de algun modo, de una forma compleja y extranamente servicial, trillones de atomos errantes. Es una disposicion tan especializada y tan particular que nunca se ha intentado antes y que solo existira esta vez. Durante los proximos muchos anos -tenemos esa esperanza-, estas pequenas particulas participaran sin queja en todos los miles de millones de habilidosas tareas cooperativas necesarias para mantenerte intacto y permitir que experimentes ese estado tan agradable, pero tan a menudo infravalorado, que se llama existencia. Por que se tomaron esta molestia los atomos es todo un enigma. Ser tu no es una experiencia gratificante a nivel atomico. Pese a toda su devota atencion, tus atomos no se preocupan en realidad por ti, de hecho ni siquiera saben que estas ahi. Ni siquiera saben que ellos estan ahi. Son, despues de todo, particulas ciegas, que ademas no estan vivas. (Resulta un tanto fascinante pensar que si tu mismo te fueses deshaciendo con unas pinzas, atomo por atomo, lo que producirias seria un monton de fino polvo atomico, nada del cual habria estado nunca vivo pero todo el habria sido en otro tiempo tu.) Sin embargo, por la razon que sea, durante el periodo de tu experiencia, tus atomos responderan a un unico impulso riguroso: que tu sigas siendo tu. science Bill Bryson
b51a2e9 So, fatality will play me these terrible tricks. The elements themselves conspire to overwhelm me with mortification. Air, fire, and water combine their united efforts to oppose my passage. Well, they shall see what the earnest will of a determined man can do. I will not yield, I will not retreat even one inch; and we shall see who shall triumph in this great contest - man or nature. science power-of-will Jules Verne
e48eef9 I gazed at these marvels in profound silence. Words were utterly wanting to indicate the sensations of wonder I experienced. I seemed, as I stood upon that mysterious shore, as if I were some wandering inhabitant of a distant planet, present for the first time at the spectacle of some terrestrial phenomena belonging to another existence. To give body and existence to such new sensations would have required the coinage of new words - and here my feeble brain found itself wholly at fault. I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear! discovery science science-fiction Jules Verne
1d3a763 "To measure market needs, I would watch carefully what customers do, not simply listen to what they say. Watching how customers actually use a product provides much more reliable information than can be gleaned from a verbal interview or a focus group. Thus, observations indicate that auto users today require a minimum cruising range (that is, the distance that can be driven without refueling) of about 125 to 150 miles; most electric vehicles only offer a minimum cruising range of 50 to 80 miles. Similarly, drivers seem to require cars that accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than 10 seconds (necessary primarily to merge safely into highspeed traffic from freeway entrance ramps); most electric vehicles take nearly 20 seconds to get there. And, finally, buyers in the mainstream market demand a wide array of options, but it would be impossible for electric vehicle manufacturers to offer a similar variety within the small initial unit volumes that will characterize that business. According to almost any definition of functionality used for the vertical axis of our proposed chart, the electric vehicle will be deficient compared to a gasolinepowered car. This information is not sufficient to characterize electric vehicles as disruptive, however. They will only be disruptive if we find that they are also on a trajectory of improvement that might someday make them competitive in parts of the mainstream market. science innovation technology Clayton M Christensen
ee6619c Tech made all things possible, and therefore mandatory. Not to mention the fact that carrying around all this smartphone in your purse or pocket had become such a fantastic drag. Cranial implant was so much easier. Now they could be in touch with the hive 24/7 and have their hands free for whatever. Their cars drove them everywhere, too. Also left them free to, you know, do whatever. science science-fiction-comedy snarky-humor modern-life technology sarcasm Stanley Bing
9bf72f8 "As the ninth-century legal scholar Malik ibn Anas, founder of the Maliki school of law, once quipped, "This religion is a science, so pay close attention to those from whom you learn it." religion science islam Reza Aslan
b574650 The pollenless trees were genomed to repel bugs and birds; the stagnant air reeked of insecticide. science life revolutionary David Mitchell
be22379 When an experiment was to begin, all women were excluded for fear their irrational natures would influence the result, and an air of fervent concentration descended. women science Iain Pears
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