“We are born by accident into a purely random universe.”

—  Robert Silverberg, book The Stochastic Man

Source: The Stochastic Man (1975), Chapter 1, (p. 1; opening words)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We are born by accident into a purely random universe." by Robert Silverberg?
Robert Silverberg photo
Robert Silverberg88
American speculative fiction writer and editor 1935

Related quotes

Joyce Carol Oates photo

“Nothing is accidental in the universe — this is one of my Laws of Physics — except the entire universe itself, which is Pure Accident, pure divinity. So it cannot be an accident that I think of you so constantly.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

"The Summing Up: Meredith Dawe," Do What You Will (1970)

Jeet Thayil photo

“He leaves the reader with a realization. The line between those born with choices and those not so lucky is very thin. The side of the divide you’re born on is purely random.”

Jeet Thayil (1959) Indian writer

Savita Iyer, Ahrestani in: "Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil Dens and iniquity"

Giordano Bruno photo

“We find that everything that makes up difference and number is pure accident, pure show, pure constitution.”

Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer

Cause, Principle, and Unity (1584)
Context: We find that everything that makes up difference and number is pure accident, pure show, pure constitution. Every production, of whatever kind, is an alteration, but the substance remains always the same, because it is only one, one divine immortal being.

James A. Owen photo

“Not many people can lay claim to having broken Time, and we did it purely by accident.”

James A. Owen The Search for the Red Dragon

Source: The Search for the Red Dragon

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Neale Donald Walsch photo

“Nothing in this universe occurs by accident.”

Neale Donald Walsch (1943) American writer

Source: Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Vol. 1

Kim Stanley Robinson photo

“In the random flux of universal contingency, nothing mattered; and yet, and yet...”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 3, “Long Runout” (p. 125)

Kevin Warwick photo

“I was born human. But this was an accident of fate - a condition merely of time and place. I believe it's something we have the power to change.”

Kevin Warwick (1954) British robotics and cybernetics researcher

in Kevin Warwick "Cyborg 1.0", Wired, pp.145-151, February 2000.

Starhawk photo

“The Trickster represents the quality of randomness and chance in the universe, without which there could be no freedom.”

Starhawk (1951) American author, activist and Neopagan

The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979)
Context: The Trickster represents the quality of randomness and chance in the universe, without which there could be no freedom. In the Craft the Goddess is not omnipotent. The cosmos is interesting rather than perfect, and everything is not part of some greater plan, nor is all necessarily under control. Understanding this keeps us humble, able to admit that we cannot know or control or define everything. <!-- p. 231

Larry Wall photo

“The random quantum fluctuations of my brain are historical accidents that happen to have decided that the concepts of dynamic scoping and lexical scoping are orthogonal and should remain that way.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199709021854.LAA12794@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

Related topics