You could not step twice into the same river.
Heraclitus c. 535 - c. 475 BC
c. 535 - c. 475 BC
Entire Collection
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797
1729 - 1797
In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.
1929 - 1945
Frank, A. (1947). The Diary of a Young Girl. Bantam Books.
Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fuelled by a quotation.
1911 - 1995
Anathemas and Admirations (1987)
Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.
Albert Einstein 1879 - 1955
1879 - 1955
Though the details differ across the world, no known culture lacks some version of the time-consuming, wealth consuming, hostility provoking rituals, the anti-factual, counter-productive fantasies of religion.
born 1941
The God Delusion
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797
1729 - 1797
I hate things all fiction...there should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric and pure invention is but the talent of a liar.
Lord Byron 1788 - 1824
1788 - 1824
Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.
Jon Stewart born 1962
born 1962
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?
born 1941
Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
The only thing which saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.
Eugene McCarthy 1916 - 2005
1916 - 2005
The Fundamentalist Christians have told me that I am a slave of Satan and should have my demons expelled with an exorcism. The Fundamentalist Materialists inform me that I am a liar, charlatan, fraud and scoundrel. Aside from this minor difference, the letters are astoundingly similar. Both groups share the same crusading zeal and the same lack of humour, charity and common human decency. These intolerable cults have served to confirm me in my agnosticism by presenting further evidence to support my contention that when dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases.
1932 - 2007
Cosmic Trigger Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati
Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat, If Liston goes back an inch farther he'll end up in a ringside seat. Clay swings with his left, Clay swings with his right, Look at young Cassius carry the fight Liston keeps backing, but there's not enough room, It's a matter of time till Clay lowers the boom. Now Clay lands with a right, what a beautiful swing, And the punch raises the Bear clean out of the ring. Liston is still rising and the ref wears a frown, For he can't start counting till Sonny goes down. Now Liston is disappearing from view, the crowd is going frantic, But radar stations have picked him up, somewhere over the Atlantic. Who would have thought when they came to the fight? That they'd witness the launching of a human satellite. Yes the crowd did not dream, when they put up the money, That they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny.
1942 - 2016
Poem composed prior to his match with Sonny Liston, in 1963
All the plans of life are broken, All the hopes of life are fled Counsel, comfort, and advisor: Alas: Alas: For thou art dead.
With respects to Jessie Kinnersly, passed away 1888
With respects to Jessie Kinnersly, passed away 1888
Within a few years a simple and inexpensive device, readily carried about, will enable one to receive on land or sea the principal news, to hear a speech, a lecture, a song or play of a musical instrument, conveyed from any other region of the globe.
Nikola Tesla 1856 - 1943
1856 - 1943
Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connexion. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men, Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
1731 - 1800
The Task (1785), book VI, 'The Winter Walk at Noon'
There are things which don't deserve to be said briefly.
1894 - 1977
Gross, J. (1983). The Oxford book of aphorisms. Oxford University Press.
All human things are subject to decay, And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
John Dryden 1631 - 1700
1631 - 1700
The desire to find a beginning comes from the idea that everything has a real, solid existence that our minds generally perceive.
The Quantum and the Lotus
The Quantum and the Lotus
Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That's not morality, that's just sucking up, apple-polishing, looking over your shoulder at the great surveillance camera in the sky, or the still small wiretap inside your head, monitoring your every move, even your every base thought.
born 1941
The God Delusion
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
John Adams 1735 - 1826
1735 - 1826
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
United Nations ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (1948) Article 1
United Nations ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (1948) Article 1
When in doubt, sweep.
Geoff Bonney born 1950
born 1950
Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali 1942 - 2016
1942 - 2016
All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 - 1832
1749 - 1832