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e1029ca
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We live in a world that is subjectively open. And we are designed by evolution to be "informavores", epistemically hungry seekers of information, in an endless quest to improve our purchase on the world, the better to make decisions about our subjectively open future."
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Daniel C. Dennett |
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5cb22cc
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My faith in the expertise of physicists like Richard Feynman, for instance, permits me to endorse--and, if it comes to it, bet heavily on the truth of--a proposition that I don't understand. So far, my faith is not unlike religious faith, but I am not in the slightest bit motivated to go to my death rather than recant the formulas of physics. Watch: E doesn't equal mc2, it doesn't, it doesn't! I was lying, so there!
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religion
science
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Daniel C. Dennett |
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3a1046d
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Brant's an idealist, and he's competent. There are few more dangerous combinations in this world... Heroes are even more dangerous than idealists.
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Patricia C. Wrede |
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e5008be
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I'm sorry. I'm used to people objecting to things because they think I can't do them or shouldn't do them. It didn't occur to me that you might have a real reason.
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Patricia C. Wrede |
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4d891d3
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May you and your triple cursed wash water turn purple with orange spots and fall down a bottomless pit!
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humor
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Patricia C. Wrede |
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fcd1b58
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Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.
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John C. Maxwell |
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9e311a2
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He was only aware of the conflict that was slowly destroying his integrity--the conflict between truth, and concealment of truth.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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371f8b6
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Imagine that you're an intelligent extraterrestrial, concerned only with verifiable truths. You discover a species that has divided itself into thousands - no, by now millions - of tribal groups holding an incredible variety of beliefs about the origin of the universe and the way to behave in it. Although many of them have ideas in common, even when there's 99% overlap, the remaining one percent's enough to set them killing and torturing ea..
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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f9f10e8
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Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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a271111
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He was moving through a new order of creation, of which few men had ever dreamed. Beyond the realms of sea and land and air and space lay the realms of fire, which he alone had been privileged to glimpse. It was too much to expect that he would also understand.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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2c9aff5
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It is a good principle in science not to believe any 'fact'---however well attested---until it fits into some accepted frame of reference. Occasionally, of course, an observation can shatter the frame and force the construction of a new one, but that is extremely rare. Galileos and Einsteins seldom appear more than once per century, which is just as well for the equanimity of mankind.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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49db49b
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First, when we are busy, we naturally believe that we are achieving. But busyness does not equal productivity. Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Second, prioritizing requires leaders to continually think ahead, to know what's important, to know what's next, to see how everything relates to the overall vision. That's hard work. Third, prioritizing causes us to do things that are at the least uncomfortable and sometimes downright pa..
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John C. Maxwell |
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2e7efd1
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Isn't it true that whatever isn't determined by our genes must be determined by our environment? What else is there? There's Nature and there's Nurture. Is there also some X, some further contributor to what we are? There's Chance. Luck. This extra ingredient is important but doesn't have to come from the quantum bowels of our atoms or from some distant star. It is all around us in the causeless coin-flipping of our noisy world, automatical..
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Daniel C. Dennett |
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64fbd3d
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If nobody cares, then it doesn't matter what happens to flowers.
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Daniel C. Dennett |
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75a4937
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Some philosophers can't bear to say simple things, like "Suppose a dog bites a man." They feel obliged instead to say, "Suppose a dog d bites a man m at time t," thereby demonstrating their unshakable commitment to logical rigor, even though they don't go on to manipulate any formulae involving d, m, and t."
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philosophers
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Daniel C. Dennett |
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deb2086
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No matter how smart you are, you're smarter if you take the easy ways when they are available.
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Daniel C. Dennett |
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fdc16d7
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All medieval and classic cultures of the ancient world, including those on which Tolkien modeled his elves, routinely exposed their young and marriageable women to the fortunes of war, because bearing and raising the next generation of warriors is not needed for equality-loving elves. Equality-loving elves. Who are monarchists. With a class system. Of ranks. Battles are more fun when attractive young women are dismembered and desecrated..
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peter-jackson
tolkien
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John C. Wright |
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85beb8c
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Rennie didn't quite dare to answer back, but she looked a whole book and a couple of extra chapters.
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Patricia C. Wrede |
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caf5f06
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God uses people who fail--'cause there aren't any other kind around.
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John C. Maxwell |
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cde4d54
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The greatest danger is panic
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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97ebefa
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all the world's religions cannot be right, and they know it. Sooner or later man has to learn the truth:
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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1857cb8
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He did not know that the Old One was his father, for such a relationship was utterly beyond his understanding, but as he looked at the emaciated body he felt a dim disquiet that was the ancestor of sadness.
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apes
death
sadness
science
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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99b6e5c
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When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart, and only its absence can produce any emotional effect.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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a34d9aa
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The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, versions of ourselves hat we would never see, never permit ourselves to see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go and might not care to, while assuring that we get to return home again
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novels
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Thomas C. Foster |
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d4933fa
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Courage is not the lack of fear, it is fear plus action.
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Laura C. Schlessinger |
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fb3bf3a
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It is easier to move from failure to success in from excuses to success.
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excuses
humility
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John C. Maxwell |
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b32fa0d
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Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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e5d410d
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Training was one thing, reality another, and no one could be sure that the ancient human instincts of self-preservation would not take over in an emergency.
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first-contact
self-preservation
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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7f44426
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Long ago it had been discovered that without some crime or disorder, Utopia soon became unbearably dull.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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c5c6cbb
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As his body became more and more defenseless, so his means of offense became steadily more frightful.
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evolution
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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cacae4c
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In 1491 the Inka ruled the greatest empire on earth. Bigger than Ming Dynasty China, bigger than Ivan the Great's expanding Russia, bigger than Songhay in the Sahel or powerful Great Zimbabwe in the West Africa tablelands, bigger than the cresting Ottoman Empire, bigger than the Triple Alliance (as the Aztec empire is more precisely known), bigger by far than any European state, the Inka dominion extended over a staggering thirty-two degree..
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Charles C. Mann |
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5fa727b
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Reading...is a full-contact sport; we crash up against the wave of words with all of our intellectual, imaginative, and emotional resources.
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reading
sports
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Thomas C. Foster |
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b3ef1aa
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Hope is a cruel bitch.
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Ryan C. Thomas |
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f9ebf7e
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Self-esteem is earned! When you dare to dream, dare to follow that dream, dare to suffer through the pain, sacrifice, self-doubts, and friction from the world--when you show such courage and tenacity--you will genuinely impress yourself. And most important, you will treat yourself accordingly and not settle for less from others--at least, not for long.
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Laura C. Schlessinger |
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0f1eabc
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Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.
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John C. Maxwell |
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2c929c5
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You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight." --Jim Rohn"
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John C. Maxwell |
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b5f58c5
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Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Need to Be Needed Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Want to Be Succeeded
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John C. Maxwell |
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d27eb43
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How can you know it's the best, if you don't learn about anything else?
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Patricia C. Wrede |
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809c33f
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Very well. You may help me to exterminate the society of wizards.
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Patricia C. Wrede |
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4e4e062
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It was a pity that there was no radar to guide one across the trackless seas of life. Every man had to find his own way, steered by some secret compass of the soul. And sometimes, late or early, the compass lost its power and spun aimlessly on its bearings. Alan Bishop
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compass
direction
life
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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e75dfe4
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if one had to think about every footstep one took, ordinary walking would be impossible.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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7d72e3b
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There was nothing left of Earth. They had leeched away the last atoms of its substance. It had nourished them, through the fierce moments of their inconceivable metamorphosis, as the food stored in a grain of wheat feeds the infant plant while it climbs towards the Sun.
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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17fde01
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Now, before you make a movie, you have to have a script, and before you have a script, you have to have a story; though some avant-garde directors have tried to dispense with the latter item, you'll find their work only at art theaters.
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storytelling
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Arthur C. Clarke |
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b4f4888
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A brief hush fell over the table when the guy from the bar approached. After he finished depositing their drinks in the center of the table, Lynn jumped on the opportunity to flirt, winking and smiling prettily at him. "Thanks, cowboy." "Cowboy?" Reaching for her appletini, Piper laughed. Lynn shrugged. "When I picture him in my bed, I see a Stetson and a saddle." Something well-known among their group, ever since she watched John Travol..
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humor
series
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J. C. Valentine |