Martin Svoboda

@quick, member from April 4, 2011
Albert Einstein photo

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to his son Eduard (5 February 1930), as quoted in Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), p. 367
1930s

Albert Einstein photo

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

As quoted in Journal of France and Germany (1942–1944) by Gilbert Fowler White, in excerpt published in Living with Nature's Extremes: The Life of Gilbert Fowler White (2006) by Robert E. Hinshaw, p. 62. From the context http://books.google.com/books?id=_2qfZRp9SeEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q&f=false it seems that White did not specify whether he had heard Einstein himself say this or whether he was repeating a quote that had been passed along by someone else, so without a primary source the validity of this quote should be considered questionable.
Some have argued that elsewhere Einstein defined a "miracle" as a type of event he did not believe was possible—Einstein on Religion by Max Jammer (1999) quotes on p. 89 from a 1931 conversation Einstein had with David Reichinstein, where Reichinstein brought up philosopher Arthur Liebert's argument that the indeterminism of quantum mechanics might allow for the possibility of miracles, and Einstein replied that Liebert's argument dealt "with a domain in which lawful rationality [determinism] does not exist. A 'miracle,' however, is an exception from lawfulness; hence, there where lawfulness does not exist, also its exception, i.e., a miracle, cannot exist." ("Dort, wo eine Gesetzmässigkeit nicht vorhanden ist, kann auch ihre Ausnahme, d.h. ein Wunder, nicht existieren." D. Reichenstein, Die Religion der Gebildeten (1941), p. 21). However, it is clear from the context that Einstein was stating only that miracles cannot exist in a domain (quantum mechanics) where lawful rationality does not exist. He did not claim that miracles could never exist in any domain. Indeed, Einstein clearly believed, as seen in many quotations above, that the universe was comprehensible and rational, but he also described this characteristic of the universe as a "miracle". In another example, he is quoted as claiming belief in a God, "Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world."
As quoted in From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter (1993) by David T. Dellinger, p. 418
Disputed
Variant: There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Variant: There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Zhuangzi photo

“Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.”

Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher

Variant: "Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to."
Context: A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find someone who's forgotten words so I can have a word with him?...

Honoré de Balzac photo

“When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they do not love, they cannot forgive anything, not even our virtues.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

Lorsque les femmes nous aiment, elles nous pardonnent tout, même nos crimes; lorsqu'elles ne nous aiment pas, elles ne nous pardonnent rien, pas même nos vertus!
La Muse du Département http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Muse_du_d%C3%A9partement_-_II_-_34 (1843), translated by James Waring, part II, ch. XXXIV (part XIII in the translated version).

Erwin Schrödinger photo

“Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

As quoted in The Observer (11 January 1931); also in Psychic Research (1931), Vol. 25, p. 91
Context: Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.

Volodymyr Zelensky photo

“When you attack us, you will see our faces. Not our backs, but our faces.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

Context: But if we come under attack, if we face an attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives and the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. When you attack us, you will see our faces. Not our backs, but our faces.

Volodymyr Zelensky photo

“The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/26/europe/ukraine-zelensky-evacuation-intl/index.html

Volodymyr Zelensky photo

“The most terrible iron is not missiles, aircraft, and tanks, but shackles.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

Source: https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1562384096130736128

Martin Heidegger photo
Maya Angelou photo

“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.”

Variant: Be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud.
Source: Letter to My Daughter

Hannah Arendt photo

“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist
Jean Cocteau photo

“I only fear the death of others. For me, true death is that of the people I love”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Simone de Beauvoir photo
Charles Baudelaire photo

“Do not look for my heart any more; the beasts have eaten it.”

Ne cherchez plus mon cœur; des monstres l’ont mangé.
"Causerie" [Conversation] http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Fleurs_du_mal/1857/Causerie
Les fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil) (1857)
Source: Les Fleurs du Mal

Haruki Murakami photo

“Once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.”

Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002)
Context: And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others. And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.

Chapter One

Hubert Reeves photo
Paul Dirac photo

“I was taught at school never to start a sentence without knowing the end of it.”

Paul Dirac (1902–1984) theoretical physicist

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Printonly/Dirac.html

Paul Dirac photo

“If we are honest — and scientists have to be — we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality. The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination.”

Paul Dirac (1902–1984) theoretical physicist

Remarks made during the Fifth Solvay International Conference (October 1927), as quoted in Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations (1971) by Werner Heisenberg, pp. 85-86; these comments prompted the famous remark later in the day by Wolfgang Pauli: "Well, our friend Dirac, too, has a religion, and its guiding principle is "God does not exist and Dirac is His prophet." Variant translations and paraphrases of that comment are listed in the "Quotes about Dirac" section below.
Context: If we are honest — and scientists have to be — we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality. The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination. It is quite understandable why primitive people, who were so much more exposed to the overpowering forces of nature than we are today, should have personified these forces in fear and trembling. But nowadays, when we understand so many natural processes, we have no need for such solutions. I can't for the life of me see how the postulate of an Almighty God helps us in any way. What I do see is that this assumption leads to such unproductive questions as why God allows so much misery and injustice, the exploitation of the poor by the rich and all the other horrors He might have prevented. If religion is still being taught, it is by no means because its ideas still convince us, but simply because some of us want to keep the lower classes quiet. Quiet people are much easier to govern than clamorous and dissatisfied ones. They are also much easier to exploit. Religion is a kind of opium that allows a nation to lull itself into wishful dreams and so forget the injustices that are being perpetrated against the people. Hence the close alliance between those two great political forces, the State and the Church. Both need the illusion that a kindly God rewards — in heaven if not on earth — all those who have not risen up against injustice, who have done their duty quietly and uncomplainingly. That is precisely why the honest assertion that God is a mere product of the human imagination is branded as the worst of all mortal sins.

Seneca the Younger photo

“For no man is free who is a slave to his body.”
Nemo liber est qui corpori servit.

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCII: On the Happy Life

Seneca the Younger photo

“Worse than war is the very fear of war.”
peior est bello timor ipse belli.

Thyestes, line 572 (Chorus).
Tragedies