Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.
Richard Feynman 1918 - 1988
1918 - 1988
Entire Collection
It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics.
Ernest Hemingway 1899 - 1961
Letter (9 April 1945); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1962
1899 - 1961
Letter (9 April 1945); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1962
We can only know specifically, yet process requires that we constantly surrender the specificity of what we know. Optimally, then, we must have desires while at the same time be resolutely ‘objectless’ in these desires.
Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation
Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797
1729 - 1797
Only in Washington would anyone call this budget fiscally responsible. Every American family has to live within their means. Their government should, too.
John Kerry born 1943
born 1943
They’re Germans. Don’t mention the war.
born 1939
Fawlty Towers Oxford dictionary of quotations
Nations touch at their summits.
1826 - 1877
The English Constitution (1867), 'The House of Lords'
With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Joey Adams 1911 - 1999
As Quoted In: Shapiro, F. (2006). The Yale book of quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press.
1911 - 1999
As Quoted In: Shapiro, F. (2006). The Yale book of quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press.
For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?
1903 - 1950
Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen eighty-four. London: Secker & Warburg.
All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don't, our lives get made up for us by other people.
Ursula K. Le Guin 1929 - 2018
1929 - 2018
Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning —— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
1896 - 1940
Fitzgerald, F. (1925). The great Gatsby.
See in what peace a Christian can die.
Joseph Addison 1672 - 1719
Dying words to his stepson Lord Warwick : Knowles, E. (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1672 - 1719
Dying words to his stepson Lord Warwick : Knowles, E. (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man.
Thomas Robert Malthus 1766 - 1834
1766 - 1834
It is natural human impulse to think of evolution as a long chain of improvements, of a never-ending advance towards largeness and complexity — in a word, towards us. We flatter ourselves. Most of the real diversity in evolution has been small-scale. We large things are just flukes — an interesting side branch.
born 1951
A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
Think of life as it really is, think of the details of life; and then think that there is no meaning in it, no purpose, no goal except the grave. Surely only fools or self-deceivers, or those whose lives are exceptionally fortunate, can face that thought without flinching?
George Orwell 1903 - 1950
1903 - 1950
All this and heaven too.
Matthew Henry 1662 - 1714
1662 - 1714
What is the universe but the question what is the universe?
Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality.
Alan Watts 1915 - 1973
1915 - 1973
If a question is absurd in itself and calls for unnecessary answers, it not only brings disgrace to the person raising it, but may prompt an incautious listener to give absurd answers, thus presenting, as the ancients said, the laughable spectacle of one person milking a he-goat and another holding the sieve underneath.
Immanuel Kant 1724 - 1804
1724 - 1804
Painting it's a blind man profession. Painter is painting not what he sees but what he feels.
Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973
1881 - 1973
Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the higher altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for the freedom not only to conform but to consume.
1925 - 2012
Ch. 1: The Prince and the Pauper, p. 24
My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it.
Sam Abell born 1945
born 1945
If you wish for peace, prepare for war.
Vegetius
The Royal Navy (UK) motto.
The Royal Navy (UK) motto.
There was no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn’t get any worse.
Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999
1908 - 1999