{"id":8,"date":"2012-09-09T13:28:21","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T13:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2012-09-09T13:28:21","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T13:28:21","slug":"quotes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/?page_id=8","title":{"rendered":"Quotes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Physics \/ Mathematics<\/strong><\/div>\n
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What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning<\/em>.<\/div>\n
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— Werner Heisenberg<\/div>\n
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Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Niels Bohr<\/div>\n
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Reason’s last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things that are beyond it.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Pascal<\/div>\n
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I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Richard Feynman<\/div>\n
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And now reader, — bestir thyself — for though we will always lend thee proper assistance in difficult places, as we do not, like some others, expect thee to use the arts of divination to discover our meaning, yet we shall not indulge thy laziness where nothing but thy own attention is required; for thou art highly mistaken if thou dost imagine that we intended when we begun this great work to leave thy sagacity nothing to do or that without sometimes exercising this talent thou wilt be able to travel through our pages with any pleasure or profit to thyself.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Henry Fielding, quoted in David Saxon’s book, Elementary Quantum Mechanics<\/div>\n
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There are tragedies caused by war, famine, and pestilence. \u00a0But there are also intellectual tragedies caused by limitations of the human mind.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Morris Kline, Mathematics: \u00a0The Loss of Certainty<\/div>\n
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If all the books and articles written for the layman about relativity theory were laid end to end, they’d probably reach from here to the moon. \u00a0“Everybody knows” that Einstein’s theory of relativity is the greatest achievement of twentieth-century science, and everybody is wrong.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— John Gribbin, In Search of Schroedinger’s Cat<\/div>\n
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Learning<\/strong><\/div>\n
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We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit!<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Robert H. Shaffer<\/div>\n
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The university is not engaged in making ideas safe for students. \u00a0It is engaged in making students safe for ideas.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Clark Kerr<\/div>\n
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It is better to debate a question ithout settling it than to settle a question without debating it.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Joseph Joubert<\/div>\n
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Minds, my mind and yours, are run by the same principles. \u00a0We are not unique. \u00a0We mirror what is around us. \u00a0If we walk into a red room, we become red. \u00a0If we are always in a group of angry people, it is hard not to become angry. \u00a0If we are with someone who is clear, our mind reflects that back and we become clearer.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Natalie Goldberg, Long Quiet Highway<\/div>\n
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It was important to give myself permission to fail. \u00a0It is the only way to write. \u00a0We can’t live up to anyone’s high standards, including our own.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind<\/div>\n
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And in fact I’m now asking an idle question of my own: \u00a0which is better — cheap happines, or lofty suffering? \u00a0Well, which is better?<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground<\/div>\n
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I saw, of course, the cliff,<\/em><\/div>\n
I saw the turbulent ocean blue:<\/em><\/div>\n
But everyone else was going that way,<\/em><\/div>\n
So I thought that I would too.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Larry Lemming<\/div>\n
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Dreams<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. \u00a0One must imagine Sisyphus happy.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Albert Camus<\/div>\n
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To dream the impossible dream,<\/em><\/div>\n
to fight the unbeatable foe,<\/em><\/div>\n
to bear with unbearable sorrow,<\/em><\/div>\n
to run where the brave dare not go …<\/em><\/div>\n
And I know if I’ll only be true<\/em><\/div>\n
to this glorious quest<\/em><\/div>\n
that my heart will lie peaceful and calm<\/em><\/div>\n
when I’m laid to my rest.<\/em><\/div>\n
And the world will be better for this,<\/em><\/div>\n
that one man scorned and covered with scars<\/em><\/div>\n
still strove with his last ounce of courage<\/em><\/div>\n
to reach the unreachable stars.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Joe Darion, Man of la Mancha<\/div>\n
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Intellectual and moral growth is no less indispensable than natural amelioration; knowledge is a viaticum; thinking is a primary necessity, and truth is nourishment, like wheat. \u00a0A reason fasting for knowledge and wisdom grows thin, and we must nurse minds that do not eat quite as much as stomachs. \u00a0If there be anything more poignant than a body pining away for want of bread, it is a mind that dies of hunger for enlightenment.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Victor Hugo, Les Miserables<\/div>\n
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… Little religious feeling, yet has a reverence for life. \u00a0This is a spirit like a wavering flame which only needs care to burn high. \u00a0If this does not happen, she could lapse into the promiscuity and bitterness of the failed romantic.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— from the movie The Year of Living Dangerously<\/div>\n
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Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: \u00a0if you’re alive, it isn’t.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Richard Bach, Illusions<\/div>\n
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We must honor our dragons, encourage them to be worthy destroyers, expect they’ll strive to cut us down …<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Richard Bach, Running from Safety<\/div>\n
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You live what they expect and you die from so what? \u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
Because you never chose your life, Dickie! \u00a0You never asked for change, you never asked what you loved and you never found it, you never hurled yourself into the world that mattered most to you, never fought dragons that you thought could eat you up, never inched yourself out on cliffsides clinging by the tips of your skill a thousand feet over destruction because your life was there … \u00a0Choose what you love and chase it top speed and I your future do solemnly promise that you will never die from so what!<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Richard Bach, Running from Safety<\/div>\n
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Shop for security over happiness and we buy it at that price.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Richard Bach, Running from Safety<\/div>\n
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It was a meagre enough life, on the grim edge of poverty, with scant margin for possibilities of sickness or mischance, but it had the frail audacious permanence of a bird’s nest built on the edge of a cliff – a mere wisp of leaves and straw, yet so put together that the lives entrusted to it may hang safely over the abyss.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth<\/div>\n
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Something there is in beauty<\/em><\/div>\n
which grows in the sould of the beholder<\/em><\/div>\n
like a flower:<\/em><\/div>\n
fragile —<\/em><\/div>\n
for many are the blights<\/em><\/div>\n
which may waste<\/em><\/div>\n
the beauty<\/em><\/div>\n
or the beholder —<\/em><\/div>\n
and imperishable —<\/em><\/div>\n
for the beauty may die,<\/em><\/div>\n
or the beholder may die,<\/em><\/div>\n
or the world may die,<\/em><\/div>\n
but the soul in which the flower grows<\/em><\/div>\n
survives.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Stephen R. Donaldson<\/div>\n
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“How beautiful the world is, and ow ugly labyrinths are,” I said relieved.<\/em><\/div>\n
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“How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths,” my master replied.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose<\/div>\n
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The universe … is a Ph. D. thesis that God was unable to successfully defend.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— James Morrow, Only Begotten Daughter<\/div>\n
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The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished: \u00a0they did not engender those beliefs, and they are powerless to destroy them …<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Marcel Proust, A la reserche du temps perdu<\/div>\n
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It is not that great ideas have been tried, and found inadequate; it is that they have been prejudged as inadequate, and never even tried.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Richard Nelson Bolles, The 1995 What Color is your Parachute?<\/div>\n
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Most people don’t find their heart’s desire, because they decide to pursue just half their dream — and consequently they hunt for it with only half a heart.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Richard Nelson Bolles, The 1995 What Color is your Parachute?<\/div>\n
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DESIDERATA<\/div>\n
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Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. \u00a0As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. \u00a0Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. \u00a0Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the spirit. \u00a0If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. \u00a0Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. \u00a0Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. \u00a0Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. \u00a0But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strie for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. \u00a0Be yourself. \u00a0Especially do not feign affection. \u00a0Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. \u00a0Take kindly the counself of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. \u00a0Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. \u00a0But do not distress yourself with imaginings. \u00a0Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. \u00a0Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. \u00a0You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. \u00a0And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. \u00a0Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. \u00a0And whatever your labors and aspiratrions, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. \u00a0With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. \u00a0Be cheerful. \u00a0Strive to be happy.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Max Ehrmann<\/div>\n
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Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? \u00a0You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? \u00a0You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!<\/em><\/div>\n
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— J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit<\/div>\n
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It is not in the nature of man — nor of any living entity — to start out by giving up, by spitting in one’s own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption whose rapidity differs from man to man. \u00a0Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it … \u00a0But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man’s nature and of life’s potential.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead<\/div>\n
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The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: \u00a0that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.<\/em><\/div>\n
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— G. K. Chesterton<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Physics \/ Mathematics What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning. — Werner Heisenberg Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. — Niels Bohr Reason’s last step is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9,"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.michaeltstarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}