May 2012
42 posts
“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with...”
– Carl Sagan, on books
There is something about holding an organized pile of wood pulp and dried ink that gives the reader a shared stake in the author’s experience, some small part-ownership of a piece of information. “This is mine, and although the words in it are not, the experience is purely...
“I gained nothing at all from supreme enlightenment, and for that very reason it...”
– Buddha (via wordslessspoken)
“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow...”
– Eden Philpotts (via ikenbot)
“Try as we might to invent a reasonable theory that can explain how a photon...”
– Richard Feynman [in QED: the strange theory of light and matter]
He continues with:
“We cannot predict whether a given photon will arrive at A or B. All we can predict is that out of 100 photons that come down, an average of 4 will be reflected by the front surface. Does this mean that physics,...
“The first duty of a man is to think for himself.”
– Jose Marti (via philphys)
“I want to fulfill myself in one of the rarest of destinies. I have only a dim...”
– Jean Genet, The Thief’s Journal (via jobefish)
“The first duty of love is to listen.”
– Paul Tillich (via wordslessspoken)
Winston: Has it ever occurred to you that the best thing for us to do would be simply to walk out of here before it's too late, and never see each other again?
Julia: Yes, dear, it has occurred to me, several times. But I'm not going to do it, all the same.
“The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the...”
– John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (via philphys)
“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something,...”
– Nora Ephron (via overflowing, questionall)
“[…] the way scientists work is more like: Fiddle Around, Find Something Weird,...”
– Dispelling 8 popular culture myths about scientists: Thick Books and Thin Films (via scipsy)
