guilty of being delicious
“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.”
– Stephen Hawking, in his new book “The Grand Design,” co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow.
While I doubt that any assertion of truth as regards a creator can be valid from an ontological perspective, I like Hawking’s confidence.
No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
— Robert M. Pirsig
“I think we need to rename the Bible Belt. It’s more like the Dirty Underwear [Belt] of America.”
– P.Z. Myers, from his blog.
“I absolutely love infinity.”
– Danica McKellar, author of Kiss my Math, as heard today on NPR.
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
— Franz Kafka
Never judge a book by its movie.
– J.W. Eagan
“I am eternally grateful . . . for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.”
— Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake
Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
— Charlie Chaplin, “The Great Dictator”.
My new favorite site: Wikipedia’s list of misquotations.
“[B]elieving that religion is a botched attempt to explain the world . . . is like seeing ballet as a botched attempt to run for a bus.”
– Terry Eagleton, in his new book Reason, Faith and Revolution, as quoted in this book review by Stanley Fish.
“If you think it’s a socialist plot, then please drop out of the federal employees health program.”
– Sen.Richard Durbin (D-IL), to Republican lawmakers at the February 25, 2010 health care reform summit.
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
- Carl Sagan
The first thing I should say, is that I’m not retiring. Under Cambridge University regulations, I will no longer be the Lucasian Professor, but I will have a new post as a Director of Research at Cambridge.
I will carry on with my scientific work, and my efforts to explain it to other people. I’m currently working on the quantum creation of the universe, and the rapid inflation in size that followed.
Despite having been unfortunate enough to get motor neurone disease at the age of 21, I have had a full and satisfying life. I have three wonderful children, and have been able to add to our understanding of the universe.
It has been a glorious time to be alive, and doing research in theoretical physics. Our picture of the universe, has changed a great deal in the last 40 years, and I’m happy if I have made a small contribution.
I want to share my excitement and enthusiasm. There’s nothing like the Eureka moment, of discovering something that no-one knew before. I won’t compare it to sex, but it lasts longer.
– Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking on his change of position
“If you’re scientifically literate the world looks very different to you.”
– Neil Degrasse Tyson
Can’t find that appropriately witty yet bizarre Monty Python to whip out at the next party? Look no further.
When anybody reminds him of [his potential wealth], the craigslist founder says there is nothing he would care to do with that much money, should it ever come into his hands. He already has a parking space, a hummingbird feeder, a small home with a view, and a shower with strong water pressure. What else is he supposed to want?
– from this good article on craigslist founder Craig Newmark.
I know we’ve only known each other four weeks and three days, but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week and the second day seemed like five days. And the third day seemed like a week again and the fourth day seemed like eight days. And the fifth day you went to see your mother and that seemed just like a day, and then you came back and later on the sixth day, in the evening, when we saw each other, that started seeming like two days, so in the evening it seemed like two days spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four days, so at the end of the sixth day on into the seventh day, it seemed like a total of five days. And the sixth day seemed like a week and a half. I have it written down, but I can show it to you tomorrow if you want to see it.
– Steve Martin in The Jerk.
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it without a sense of ironic futility.
– Errol Morris, riffing on George Santayana
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
– Friedrich Nietzsche, from Human, All-Too-Human
…how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?
– from the recent Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin
