Quotes about space
page 53

“Natural Movement is the universal workout the world has forgotten.”

Erwan Le Corre (1971)

Source: The Practice of Natural Movement: Reclaim Power, Health, and Freedom (2019), p. 27

“[W]e live... in the pockets of reducibility. ...I should have realized [that] very many years ago, but didn't... [I]t could very well be that everything about the world is computationally irreducible and completely unpredictable, but... in our experience of the world there is at least some amount of prediction we can make. ...[T]hat's because we have ...chosen a slice of ...how to think about the universe, in which we can... sample a certain amount of computational reducibility, and that's... where we exist. ...It may not be the whole story about how the universe is, but it is that part of the universe that we care about and ...operate in. ...In science, that's been ...a very special case ...science has chosen to talk a lot about places where there is this computational reducibility... The motion of the planets can be ...predicted. The... weather is much harder to predict. ...[S]cience has tended to concentrate itself on places where its methods have allowed successful prediction.”

Stephen Wolfram (1959) British-American computer scientist, mathematician, physicist, writer and businessman

Stephen Wolfram: Fundamental Theory of Physics, Life, and the Universe (Sep 15, 2020)

Success, Thinking, Weather, World

“But nature could not and cannot ever be constrained into self-improvement by sporadic or even endemic or epidemic cases of slow or swift suicide and slaughter, so long as the premature extinction of the whole human race was not and is not seriously threatened. Threaten this seriously, and she will forthwith become our most obedient humble servant. This is the forcible plan of "strikes" by labour against capital, applied in its utmost extension by man against nature; as you have already mere trades'-unions, organise a universal Man-union, and threaten, if all your demands are not immediately granted, to "strike" living, to "turn out" of human existence, and you will at once bring- the everlasting employer to reason.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

"The Speedy Extinction of Evil and Misery", part VII, p. 92
Essays and Phantasies (1881)

Self-confidence, Suicide, Nature

“I call special attention to the fact that it is only our universal suicide which would prove a panacea for all the ills our ' flesh is heir to j individual suicides can do little or no good, save to the individuals themselves; Thus true philosophers may rationally and generously deny themselves the luxury of self-murder, because their death must leave the human average still worse than it is; and, besides, death’s coming is so certain and (at farthest) so near, that it is scarcely worth while to put one’s self out of breath hastening to meet him.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

"The Speedy Extinction of Evil and Misery", part VII, p. 91
Essays and Phantasies (1881)

Self-confidence, Suicide, Death

“Universities are now much more open to cooperation with the Catholic University since theology has been recognized as a subject, so there is a lot of interchange going on.”

Yaroslav Pryriz (1963) Ukrainian Eastern Catholic bishop

“As new technologies search out and lace over every interstice in the net of global communication, we find ourselves with increasingly less excuse for…slack. And that, I would argue, is what the World Wide Web, the test pattern for whatever will become the dominant global medium, offers us. Today, in its clumsy, larval, curiously innocent way, it offers us the opportunity to waste time…It will probably evolve into something considerably less random, and less fun — we seem to have a knack for that — but in the meantime, in its gloriously unsorted Global Ham Television Postcard Universes phase, surfing the Web is a procrastinator’s dream. And people who see you doing it might even imagine you’re working.”

William Gibson book Distrust That Particular Flavor

"The Net Is a Waste of Time," The New York Times Magazine, July 14, 1996.
Distrust That Particular Flavor (2012)

Imagination, Time, Search, Dreams

“The brain isn't the cause of experience for the same reason that lightning isn't the cause of atmospheric electric discharge, or that flames aren't the cause of combustion. Just as flames are but the image of the process of combustion, the body-brain system is but the image of localized experience in the stream of universal consciousness.”

Bernardo Kastrup Dutch computer scientist and philosopher

" Why the World Is Imagined: Summary https://www.bernardokastrup.com/2018/12/why-world-is-imagined-summary.html", Metaphysical Speculations, 1 Dec. 2018

“Of course we want to be in communion, faithfulness to the universal Church but to also recognise that within the Church we have to react to the realities as they are, not as we wish them or think they should be. We have to start where we are at – to see, to judge, and to act.”

Charles Gauci (1952) Bishop of Darwin

Top End Bishop says Indigenous are ‘the most traumatised people I’ve ever met’ https://catholicleader.com.au/news/shepherd-charles-roams-the-top-end (October 14, 2019)

Faith, Reality, Thinking

“The universal hypocrisy has so entered into the flesh and blood of all classes of our modern society, it has reached such a pitch that nothing in that way can rouse indignation. Hypocrisy in the Greek means "acting," and acting—playing a part—is always possible.”

Leo Tolstoy The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Variant Translation: Hypocrisy with good reason means the same as acting, and anybody can pretend — act a part.
Source: The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), Chapter XII, Conclusion—Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

Way, Parting

“No one ever has to believe! The universe is, it does not require belief. Do you think it will stop existing if you do not believe? Do you think far galaxies will harbor resentment against you if you do not believe? Do you resent the ant who does not look up and admire you? Never!”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: Singer from the Sea (1999), Chapter 24, “People from the Sea” (p. 382)

Thinking

“The function of punishment is to do good, to improve the universe, to add to the sum total of happiness. And punishment which does not do this is not justified. It is a crime in itself. The penal acts of society should be judged just as other acts of conduct are judged—by their utilities.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: The New Ethics (1907), The Perils of Over-population, p. 152

Happiness

“I am sure that no more certain method, not only of dechristianizing, but demoralizing the youth of the classes who send their children to the Universities could be found than subjecting them to the influence of tutors who would start with the idea that all beliefs should be submitted for free selection to the consciences and intelligences of their pupils.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech in the House of Lords (8 May 1871) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1871/may/08/committee#column_346 <br class="br">1870s

Intelligence, Children, Youth, Idea

“I do hope that karma is the keystone of the universe—even if I have to come back as a banana slug myself.”

Glen Cook (1944) American fiction writer

Source: Short Fiction, Bone Eaters (2015), p. 230

Hope

“The Phoenicians who from their sagacity and learning possess great insight into things divine, hold the doctrine that this universally diffused radiance is a part of the "Soul of the Stars."”

Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer

This opinion is consistent with sound reason: if we consider the light that is without body, we shall perceive that of such light the source cannot be a body, but rather the simple action of a mind, which spreads itself by means of illumination as far as its proper seat; to which the middle region of the heavens is contiguous, from which place it shines forth with all its vigour and fills the heavenly orbs, illuminating at the same time the whole universe with its divine and pure radiance.
Upon the Sovereign Sun (362)

Soul, Star, Learning, Parting

“Whether Protection is a universal poison, or whether it may be conceived to operate as food in cases where it is granted for a few years in order to shelter the first investments in a new industry, I do not now inquire. We at least have never seen or known it in that mitigated form. With us it has sheltered nothing but the most selfish instincts of class against the just demands of the public welfare. These it has supplied with strongholds, from whose portals our producers have too generally marched forth in the day of need, armed from head to foot with power and influence largely gotten at the expense of the community, to do battle with a perverted prowess, against nature, liberty, and justice.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

'Free Trade, Railways, and the growth of Commerce', The Nineteenth Century, No. XXXVI (February 1880), quoted in The Nineteenth Century, Vol. VII (January–June 1880), p. 377
1880s

Selfishness, Justice, Food, Nature

“It is the universal hope of rising in the social scale which is the key to much of the superiority that is visible in this country. It accounts for the orderly self-respect which is the great characteristic of the masses in the United States. ... All this tends to the argument that the political condition of a people is very much dependent on its economical fate.”

Richard Cobden (1804–1865) English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman

Letter to John Bright during his visit to the United States (1858), quoted in John Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden [1879] (1905), p. 688
1850s

Self-confidence, Country, Dependency, Fate

“Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit by which Nature herself is animated. It is the joy of the intellect which sees clearly into the Universe and which recreates it, with conscientious vision. Art is the most sublime mission of man, since it is the expression of thought seeking to understand the world and to make it understood.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

Preface, p. 7-8
1910s, Art, 1912

Understanding, Search, Art, Pleasure

“Trump started a faux university named for himself that taught nothing of value and collapsed in scandal.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

It's Even Worse Than You Think (2018)

“I believe in the supreme excellence of righteousness; I believe that the law of righteousness will triumph in the universe over all evil; I believe that in the attempt to fulfil the law of righteousness, however imperfect it must remain, are to be found the inspiration, the consolation, and the sanctification of human existence.
We live in order to finish an, as yet, unfinished universe, unfinished so far as the human, that is, the highest part of it, is concerned. We live in order to develop the superior qualities of man which are, as yet, for the most part latent.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Life and Destiny (1913)

Parting, Law, Evil

“Of the origin of things we know nothing, and can know nothing. Perfection does not reveal itself to us as existent in the beginning; but as something that ought to be, something new which we are to help create. Somehow the secret of the universe is hidden in our breast. Somehow the destinies of the universe depend upon our exertions.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 2 : Religion
Life and Destiny (1913)

Perfection, Secret, Dependency, Help

“The divine in man is our sole ground for believing that there is anything divine in the universe outside of man. Man is the revealer of the divine.
At bottom, the world is to be interpreted in terms of joy, but of a joy that includes all the pain, includes it and transforms it and transcends it.
The Light of the World is a light that is saturated with the darkness which it has overcome and transfigured.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 1 : The Meaning of Life
Life and Destiny (1913)

Joy, Pain, World, Light

“There is a remarkably close parallel between the problems of the physicist and those of the cryptographer. The system on which a message is enciphered corresponds to the laws of the universe, the intercepted messages to the evidence available, the keys for a day or a message to important constants which have to be determined. The correspondence is very close, but the subject matter of cryptography is very easily dealt with by discrete machinery, physics not so easily.”

Alan Turing Intelligent Machinery

"Intelligent Machinery." This passage was one of the epigraphs to Cryptonomicon, the influential novel by Neal Stephenson, in which Turing was a fictionalized character. It shared a page with a quote from Imelda Marcos.

Problem, Law

“Everybody needs to understand when you drink a glass of water you’re drinking the ocean. There’s only one water system. If you go up in the Alps or wherever on top of the mountains to go skiing, you’re skiing on the ocean. That water system is life for every plant, every animal, and we need to manage it like a business. We need to make sure it’s not polluted and we need to stop using the ocean ultimately as a universal sewer.”

Jean-Michel Cousteau (1938) French explorer and environmentalist; son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Exclusive: Jean-Michel Cousteau talks marine conservation & why education is key https://www.diveplanit.com/marine-environment/jean-michel-cousteau/ (April 14, 2019)

Drink, Understanding, Business, Mountain

“Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Courage, Wisdom, Men

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”

Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) British author

Waiting

“The Universal Zulu Nation stands to acknowledge wisdom, understanding, freedom, justice, and equality, peace, unity, love, and having fun, work, overcoming the negative through the positive, science, mathematics, faith, facts, and the wonders of God, whether we call him Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, or Jah.”

Afrika Bambaataa (1957) American DJ, record producer and activist

God, Freedom, Mathematics, Science

“I am not the first Buddha who came upon Earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time, another Buddha will arise in the world - a Holy One, a supremely enlightened One, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men, a master of angels and mortals.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

World, Time, Wisdom, Angels

“The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome

Life

“I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Way, People

“We did not expect to have a backup system for the rest of the universe. We can rely upon it to be cold most of the time.”

Neal Stephenson book Seveneves

“YMIR” (p. 354)
Seveneves (2015), Part Two

Time

“Religion translates metaphysical or universal truths into dogmatic language; now though dogma is not accessible to all men in its intrinsic truth, which can only be directly attained by the Intellect, it is nonetheless accessible through faith, which is, for the great majority, the only possible mode of participation in the Divine Truths. As for intellectual knowledge, which proceeds neither from belief nor from a process of reasoning, it goes beyond dogma in the sense that, without ever contradicting the latter, it penetrates its internal dimension, that is, the infinite Truth that dominates all forms.”

Frithjof Schuon book The Transcendent Unity of Religions

[1993, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, Quest Books, xxxi, 978-0-8356-0587-8]
Miscellaneous, Religion

Knowledge, Sense, Men, Truth

“It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration.”

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

1950s, Russell–Einstein Manifesto (1955)

Fear, Death, Disease

“How would you define Christian Science?
As the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony.”

Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) religious leader

Source: Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1

God, Law, Science

“Scientific theories can always be improved and are improved. That is one of the glories of science. It is the authoritarian view of the Universe that is frozen in stone and cannot be changed, so that once it is wrong, it is wrong forever.”

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

"The Nearest Star" (1989) (reprinted in The Secret of the Universe (1992), p. 82)
General sources

Science, Change

“Nature is entirely synergetic and because your problems of representing a society ignorant of such fundamentals are greatly increased you need to pay great attention to learning how to comprehend synergy and thereafter how to educate all of humanity in the shortest time how to comprehend and usefully cope with omni-synergetic universe”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

1960s, Presentation to U.S. Congressional Sub-Committee on World Game (1969)

Learning, Education, Time, Nature

“I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong… I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

Source: Curious Character

Thinking, Way, Feeling

“The forms under which human love ends up being expressed are not governed by sex relations. They are governed by the objective love for humanity; that is to say love for humankind as an integral part of nature and of the universe.”

J. Posadas (1912–1981) Argentine Trotskyist (1912-1981)

Source: Childbearing in Space, 1978

Nature, Sex, Love, Parting

“Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor; and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of that universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

1870s, The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)

Family, God, Children, World

“In the tradition of the ancients and of many great thinkers of our race, I am a Deist. Echoing the words of far greater thinkers than myself, I see an intelligent motivating force throughout the universe and behind Nature's Laws.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

WotansVolk
Focus Fourteen

Intelligence, Motivation, Law, Nature

“Being to reach out to your Goals and Future does not need to graduate in School, College, Training, or University. If you have a chance then just you need more practice, beliefs, discipline, and hard work.”

Ayuel Monykuch (1997) South Sudanese Entrepreneur

Training, School, Chance, Future

“Mankind is beginning to realize that it is not alone in the universe, not alone in the solar system.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (1980)

“A good place to start is with yourself. See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation—to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (2005)

Time, Feeling

“Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere. In freedom it gives itself unreservedly, abundantly, completely. All the laws on the statutes, all the courts in the universe, cannot tear it from the soil, once love has taken root.”

Emma Goldman book Anarchism and Other Essays

Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), Marriage and Love

Freedom, Law, Love, Tear

“Education and health care are not only commercial services, but also public and universal ones. So on top of commerce, what can we do to play our role? What can we do in terms of pension and health in an ageing society?”

Ma Huateng (1971) Chinese internet entrepreneur

"Tencent founder Pony Ma emphasises company’s investment in social value amid increasing antitrust and gaming scrutiny" in South China Morning Post (23 April 2021) https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3130836/pony-ma-emphasises-tencents-investment-social-value-amid-increasing

Health, Age, Education

“If you wanted to get yourself killed, there was no better way than to think you knew all the tricks. It took experience to make you realize that the universe could always pull another one out of the bag and throw it at you.”

Charles Sheffield book Resurgence

Source: The Heritage Universe, Resurgence (2002), Chapter 8, “Theories, Theories, Theories” (p. 84)

Thinking, Way

“Mathematics is universal. But very little else is.”

Charles Sheffield book Summertide

Source: The Heritage Universe, Summertide (1990), Chapter 10, “Summertide Minus Eighteen” (p. 119)

Mathematics

“The infinite is inside / our eyes; / not outside, not in the things / of this world, / but in their shadows. / Night, Death, Blinking, / take us through the universe again, / out of time.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Source: The Poetry of Menotti Lerro, p. 40

Time, Night, World, Death

“It is true that we all lie on some occasions, but that does not mean we should make lying to become the universal law for everyone.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Law, Lie, Lying

“Men are now being forced to kneel down and beg women for mercy. Yes, I told you that there is peace only after one person takes the lead. This is the universal law of nature.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Personality, Peace, Law, Nature

“Only continuous learning can free us from all the madness of this world—From the Flat Earth Theory to those who used to believe that the Earth was the centre of the universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Learning, World, Madness

“Being a parent is the most difficult profession in the whole universe. Thank God that you're still single.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God, Parent

“Everything seems possible during childhood, but things start to change as we age and face the realities of the universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Childhood, Reality, Age, Change

“Heaven exists because of you and all living things in the universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“If all the prayers have been answered successfully, then a madman's prayer can easily destroy the entire universe in a flash of a second.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“In the process of finding the true 'I' you have to become formless and infinite as the Supreme One. Become one with the universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“It can be well seen that we are all the citizens of the universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Living in a strange universe, hatred is not taught but observed in our surrounding environments.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Love is the cause of all the wars and fighting in the world, perhaps, the whole universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

War, World, Fight, Love

“The more knowledge you have, the more imagination. The more you can imagine, the more you will be capable to explore the universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Imagination, Knowledge

“There is no such a thing as the universal time that is accepted by all.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Time

“When steak lovers advise you to reincarnate as an animal. You know you are dead before you even begin to live. Reincarnation is a universal joke.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Dead, Animals, Lovers

“A universe of worlds, a dimensional macrocosm of worlds—and in all of them one thing that was always the same; one unifying force that was undeniably good, even if it now happened to be imprisoned in an evil place; the Talisman, axle of all possible worlds.”

Stephen King book The Talisman

The Talisman (1984)

Evil, World

“Nothing ... nothing in the universe, is of any importance, or is authentic to any serious sense, except the illusions of romance. For man alone of animals plays the ape to his dreams. These axioms — poor, deaf and blinded spendthrift!”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

are none the less valuable for being quoted.
The Gander, in Book Seven : What Saraïde Wanted, Ch. XLV : The Gander Also Generalizes
The Silver Stallion (1926)

Dreams, Animals, Sense

“The absolute love and sacrifice of our grandmother and parents are a universal story.”

Youn Yuh-jung (1947) South Korean actress

Stella, Kim, Hanna, Park, Youn Yuh-jung is just not that into Hollywood, NBC Asian America, 2021-04-28, 2021-06-08 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/k-grandma-youn-yuh-jung-just-not-hollywood-n1265530,

Parent, Love

“The secret irony pervading these arguments [on objections to the goodness of God] is that they would never have occurred to consciences that had not in some profound way been shaped by the moral universe of a Christian culture.”

David Bentley Hart (1965) American theologian

Source: The Doors of the Sea (2005), Chapter 1, Section 2, location 144

God, Secret, Way

“Why can’t it be simple? If we were only to focus on gender, it would make things so much easier. But of course, it has been this yearning toward simplicity that has racialized feminism as white, that has been responsible for its false universals.”

Angela Davis (1944) American political activist, scholar, and author

Difficult Dialogues (2009)

Falseness

“What kind of a universe would it be if we could not do small kindnesses for one another?”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Marianne Trilogy, Marianne, the Madame, and the Momentary Gods (1988), Chapter 17 (p. 123)

“Ultimately the galaxy, indeed the sum of the universe in its entirety, was mostly nothing; average it all out and it made a pretty good vacuum. But within the foci of matter there were the systems, the stars and planets and habitats—what a cornucopia of life was there!”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Matter (2008), Chapter 10 “A Certain Lack” (p. 167)

Star, Life

“As men, you stand at the center of the universe. You spout pearls of wisdom that shape the future of the world. So when your female friend comes to you, you might wonder: ‘Is she hoping to share her sadness with me? No, she must be hoping to learn something from me!’”

Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian

Source: "The ‘Punchline Queens’ Ripping Into Chinese Comedy’s Boys’ Club" in Sixth Tone https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006067/the-punchline-queens-ripping-into-chinese-comedys-boys-club (21 August 2020)

Learning, World, Sadness, Future

“Unlike women, who always think of themselves as unimportant, men always think of themselves as the center of the universe. Every single sentence from men carries utmost importance, and points out the right direction in which the world should advance.”

Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian

Source: "“Average-yet-confident”: A comedian coined a Chinese equivalent to “mansplaining”" in Quartz https://qz.com/1956642/female-comedian-yang-li-coins-chinas-version-of-mansplaining/ (23 January 2021)

World, Thinking, Women, Men

“Jastrow and a few other astronomers have tried to find God in the universe by reading the big bang as the cosmological equivalent of Genesis. I confess that I have found it hard to take this argument seriously.”

Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm

Source: An Urchin in the Storm (1987) "The Perils of Hope", p. 212

God, Reading

“No one doubts that biological universals exist. We must sleep, eat, and grow older, and we are not about to give up procreation; almost all our social institutions are influenced by these imperatives.”

Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm

Source: An Urchin in the Storm (1987) "Genes on the Brain", p. 113

Sleep

“A grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken millions of years to create it.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 131

“[O]ne of the great things about science is it forces us to refine our idea of what's common sense. It forces us to have our beliefs conform to the evidence of reality rather than the other way around. The universe may not be like we'd like it to be, but it doesn't really care.”

Lawrence M. Krauss book A Universe from Nothing

"Lawrence Krauss: A Universe from Nothing" (2031) <br class="br">Source: 7:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46sKeycH3bE&t=429s

Way, Idea, Science, Reality

“A successful story for me exist in a moral universe, not one where goodness always triumph, because that would be false but one with an inherent awareness of goodness”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

https://www.instagram.com/p/CV2h2BKKhl0/?utm_medium=copy_link <br class="br">The Best Short Stories(2021)

Success, Falseness

“Their little universe is very young, and its god is still a child. But it is too soon to judge them; when We return in the Last Days, We will consider what should be saved.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

1990s, 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997), p. 88, Epilogue

God

“The second element in the framework of our design must be the realization of universal unity. This fact is only just beginning to permeate into men’s consciousness.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

Men

“It has seen the people themselves taking increasing individual and collective action in order to obtain a world organization or government, a universal religion, or a universal language.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Introduction p. I - XII

People, World, Religion

“The reform of training, personnel system, scientific research and the management system of colleges and departments will strengthen the endogenous driving force for the healthy development of universities.”

Liu Yandong (1945) Chinese politician

Source: "刘延东强调：加快建设中国特色现代大学制度" http://www.gov.cn/guowuyuan/2013-08/23/content_2589585.htm (23 August 2017)

Training

“The universal desire among awakened Christians to love God and man is part of the law constantly operating through man when he finds his right relation to God.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

God, Law, Parting, Love

“Truth is the ultimate end of the whole universe.”

Thomas Aquinas Summa contra Gentiles

Source: Summa contra Gentiles (1259–1265) I, 1, 2

Truth

“The eyes of man can perform two functions: one is "seeing" energy at large as it flows in the universe and the other is "looking at things in this world." Neither of these functions is better than the other; however to train the eyes only to look is a shameful and unnecessary loss.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from A Separate Reality (Chapter 6)

Training, World, Loss

“A universal refusal to propagate the human species would be the greatest of conceivable crimes from a Utilitarian point of view.”

Henry Sidgwick book The Methods of Ethics

Source: The Methods of Ethics (1874), Book 4, chapter 5, section 3 (7th ed., 1907)

“Ten years on the moon could tell us more about the universe than a thousand years on the earth might be able to.”

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

What Can We Expect of the Moon?" in The American Legion Magazine, March 1965
General sources

“When a woman can be empowered she can, they are very important people in our society, I call on women to enroll in large numbers in the colleges and Universities so that they can be the catalyst for development in our region.”

Irene Tarimo (1964) Tanzanian scientist, biologist and educator

Source: Speech at the Regional Event to the Farewell position of Vice Chancellor Professor Mbwette in Lindi, (21 December 2014)

People, Women

“Everything may exist for a short while—even justice. But the true state of the universe is anarchy. It is the mortal’s tragedy that he can never accept this.”

Michael Moorcock book The Knight of the Swords

Source: Book 3, Chapter 6 “The God Feasters” (p. 139), Corum, The Knight of the Swords (1971)

Justice

“The sentient may perceive and love the universe, but the universe cannot perceive and love the sentient.”

Michael Moorcock book The Knight of the Swords

Source: Prologue (p. 9), Corum, The Knight of the Swords (1971)

Love

“A hero; in our dark, indifferent and cruel universe is the one who makes life bearable and meaningful for human condition.”

Guity Novin (1944) artist

Source: Facebook Page (2021)

Indifference, Life

“God wanted to make heaven and the earth is that heaven. Nowhere in the universe there is so much love, life, beauty and peace. Enjoy your stay with the fellow beings.”

Amit Ray (1960) Indian author

Source: Meditation:Insights and Inspirations (2010) https://books.google.com/books?id=s2ctBgAAQBAJ,

God, Peace, Beauty, Love

“Everyone with different beliefs, with different backgrounds, with different cultures, they all come together and when you are in there (at the Miss Universe pageant), you forget about politics, about your religion. It's just about embracing other women.”

Andrea Meza (1994) Miss Universe 2020

Source: Andrea Meza (2021) cited in: " In Israel, Miss Universe says pageant no place for politics https://www.arabnews.com/node/1970011/offbeat" in Arab News, 17 November 2021.

Religion, Forgetting, Women

“Science simply forces us to revise what is sensible to accommodate the universe, rather than vice versa.”

Lawrence M. Krauss book A Universe from Nothing

Source: A Universe from Nothing, Simon & Schuster (2012), p. 151

Science

“...the constitution of the universe may be such that the human self and the substance that things [are] made out of, the spatial matter or whatever you call it, are much more inextricably related than we realized.”

Christopher Alexander (1936) architect

Source: Debate with Peter Eisenman at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, 17 November 1982.

“I had work to be getting on with. I’ve always had work to be getting on with. It’s what the universe was put there for: to give me things to do.”

Alastair Reynolds book On the Steel Breeze

Source: On the Steel Breeze (2013), Chapter 53 (p. 523)

“This is called the World Breath or ‘Seven’ Breath, and was much practised by the ancient Egyptians who were adepts at physical and physiological culture. Seven, as you know, plays an important part in the plan of the Universe which affects tnis Earth, as for instance, the 7 planets, 7 colours of the spectrum, 7 notes of music, 7 days of the week, etc. If we practise the Seven Breath every morning on awakening, we will tune ourselves in to the forces of growth and progress and derive great benefit and strength from so doing, provided we neither strain nor jerk.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XV The Essential Science of Breathing

World, Music, Jerk, Parting

“The motivations and methodologies might differ, but both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe. There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe.”

Chris Impey (1956) astronomer

Source: Vatican Observatory examines theological implications of finding alien life https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17651/vatican-observatory-examines-theological-implications-of-finding-alien-life (10 November 2009)

Motivation, Science, Understanding, Religion

“People predict by making up stories.
People predict very little and explain everything.
People live under uncertainty whether they like it or not.
People believe they can tell the future if they work hard enough.
People accept any explanation as long as it fits the facts.
The handwriting was on the wall. It was just the ink that was invisible.
People often work hard to obtain information they already have and avoid new knowledge.
Man is a deterministic device thrown into a probabilistic Universe. In this match, surprises are expected.
Everything that has already happened must have been inevitable.
A part of good science is to see what everyone else can see but think what no one else has ever said.
The difference between being very smart and very foolish is often very small.
So many problems occur when people fail to be obedient when they are supposed to be obedient, and fail to be creative when they are supposed to be creative
The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.
It is sometimes easier to make the world a better place than to prove you have made the world a better place.”

Amos Tversky (1937–1996) Israeli psychologist

Source: Notes made by Tversky for a scientific paper, c.1972. Michael Lewis. "The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World". Penguin, 2016 (ISBN 9780141983035).

Knowledge, Problem, Thinking, People

“... I have no reason to doubt that the universe is the billions of years old that physicists say it is. Further, I find the idea of common descent (that all organisms share a common ancestor) fairly convincing, and have no reason to doubt it. ... I think that evolutionary biologists have contributed enormously to our understanding of the world. Although Darwin's mechanism - natural selection working on variation - might explain many things, however, I do not believe it explains molecular life.”

Michael J. Behe (1952) American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate

Source: Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (1996), page 5

Idea, Understanding, Nature, Thinking

“People who object to the by-product hypothesis [for female orgasm] are doing something strange: They're saying that it's hugely important to them that female orgasm turns out to be an adaptation, like vomiting, cobra venom, and the scorpion's stinger, rather than a "mere" cultural invention, like science, medicine, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018), p. 59

People, Science

“Language has become the universal evil. And we can certainly see why. What characterizes any word is its difference from the thing – the fact that, taken in itself, in its own reality, language contains nothing of the reality of the thing, none of its properties. This difference from the thing explains its indifference to the thing. Since a word has nothing in itself that is identical or similar to what is in the thing, it could as well be united with any other thing whatever. One could use the same name for two different things or else attribute several names to the same thing. But because, in and of itself, the word contains nothing that is real and ignores everything about that reality, it could just as well bring reality back to itself, identify with it, define it, in such a way that everything the word says becomes reality, and pretends to stand for it. Emerging from its own powerlessness, the power of language suddenly becomes frightening, shaking up reality, twisting it up in its frenzy.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 9

Indifference, Reality, Evil, Way

“I often dream about falling. Such dreams are commonplace to the ambitious or those who climb mountains. Lately I dreamed I was clutching at the face of a rock but it would not hold. Gravel gave way. I grasped for a shrub, but it pulled loose, and in cold terror 1 fell into the abyss. Suddenly I realized that my fall was relative; there was no bottom and no end. A feeling of pleasure overcame me. I realized that what I embody, the principle of life, cannot be destroyed. It is written into the cosmic code, the order of the universe. As I continued to fall in the dark void, embraced by the vault of the heavens, I sang to the beauty of the stars and made my peace with the darkness.”

Heinz R. Pagels (1939–1988) American physicist

Source: The Cosmic Code (1982), p. 312-313

Mountain, Star, Life, Pleasure

Quotes about space page 53

Quotes about space
page 53