“The universe may
be as great as they say.
But it wouldn't be missed
if it didn't exist.”

—  Piet Hein

Nothing Is Indespensable : Grook to warn the universe against megalomania
Grooks

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 "The universe may be as great as they say. But it wouldn't be missed if it didn't exist." by Piet Hein?
Piet Hein photo
Piet Hein37
Danish puzzle designer, mathematician, author, poet 1905–1996

Related quotes

Nicholas Negroponte photo

“The Internet for us was like air. It was there all the time — you wouldn't notice it existed unless it was missing.”

Nicholas Negroponte (1943) American computer scientist

Being Nicholas, The Wired Interview by Thomas A. Bass http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bd1101bn.htm

Lee Smolin photo

“There is no fixed, eternal frame to the universe to define what may or may not exist.”

Lee Smolin book Three Roads to Quantum Gravity

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity (2000)

Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“We of Es Toch tell a little myth, which says that in the beginning the Creator told a great lie. For there was nothing at all, but the Creator spoke, saying, It exists. And behold, in order that the lie of God might be God’s truth, the universe at once began to exist.”

Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle

Source: Hainish Cycle, City of Illusions (1967), Chapter 7

“Didn't I say I'd always be your same stars? If you get to missing me, just look up.”

Anne Rivers Siddons (1936–2019) novelist from the United States

Source: Fault Lines

Bob Dylan photo

“Opportunities may come along for you to convert something—something that exists into something that didn't yet.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: Chronicles: Vol. One (2004), p. 51

Robert De Niro photo

“Some people say, "New York's a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." I say that about other places.”

Robert De Niro (1943) American actor, director and producer

What I've Learned

Isaac Asimov photo

“It is very likely that there are many, many planets carrying life, even intelligent life, throughout the universe, because there are so many stars. By sheer chance, even if those chances are small, a great many life forms and a great many intelligences may exist.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Interview http://americanindian.net/asimov.html in Southwest Airlines Magazine 1979) <br class="br">General sources

Maimónides photo

“It is of great advantage that man should know his station, and not imagine that the whole universe exists only for him.”

Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.12
Context: It is of great advantage that man should know his station, and not imagine that the whole universe exists only for him. We hold that the universe exists because the Creator wills it so; that mankind is low in rank as compared with the uppermost portion of the universe, viz., with the spheres and the stars; but, as regards the angels, there cannot be any real comparison between man and angels, although man is the highest of all beings on earth; i. e., of all the beings formed of the four elements.

“It must be nice to think there is a true reality,' says Miss Callendar. 'I've always found reality a matter of great debate.”

Malcolm Bradbury book The History Man

Page 143.
The History Man (1975)

Related topics