
Video game commentary, Calm Time (November 23, 2013)
Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 7
Video game commentary, Calm Time (November 23, 2013)
Part 5: "The World of One Physicist", "But Is It Art?", p. 261
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
Context: I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world. It's difficult to describe because it's an emotion. It's analogous to the feeling one has in religion that has to do with a god that controls everything in the whole universe: there's a generality aspect that you feel when you think about how things that appear so different and behave so differently are all run "behind the scenes" by the same organization, the same physical laws. It's an appreciation of the mathematical beauty of nature, of how she works inside; a realization that the phenomena we see result from the complexity of the inner workings between atoms; a feeling of how dramatic and wonderful it is. It's a feeling of awe — of scientific awe — which I felt could be communicated through a drawing to someone who had also had this emotion. It could remind him, for a moment, of this feeling about the glories of the universe.
“Did not shame restrain him and awe of the mother by his side.”
Ni pudor et junctae teneat reverentia matris.
Source: Achilleid, Book I, Line 312
Napoleon the Little (1852), Book V, V
Napoleon the Little (1852)
Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People) (1935), Book One, Part II: Free of Debt
Context: His mother taught him to sing. And when he had grown up and had listened to the world's song, he felt that there could be no greater happiness than to return to her song. In her song dwelt the most precious and most incomprehensible dreams of mankind. The heath grew into the heavens in those days. The songbirds of the air listened in wonder to this song, the most beautiful song of life.
Source: Star Maker (1937), Chapter XV: The Maker and His Works; 2. Mature Creating (p. 179)
Interview with John C. Tibbetts http://www.murphywong.net/barzuncentennial/JohnCTibbetts.htm (1986-12-04)