#on

He wrested the world's whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch. ↗

— Dava Sobel

#invention #inventors #science #science

Leela: Why are we listening to them? It is a waste of time. The Doctor; It is difficult to know what will be a waste of time until after the time has been wasted, by which time it is too late. So predicting what will be a waste of time is something of a waste of time. Unless it gives you pleasure of course when it probably doesn't count as a waste of time. Leela (yawning): I am sorry I did not hear what you said, Doctor. The Doctor (smiling): That was a waste of time then. ↗

— Chris Boucher

#humor #science-fiction #science

However modest one may be in one's demand for intellectual cleanliness, one cannot help feeling, when coming into contact with the New Testament, a kind of inexpressible discomfiture: for the unchecked impudence with which the least qualified want to raise their voice on the greatest problems, and even claim to be judges of things, surpasses all measure. The shameless levity with which the most intractable problems (life, world, God, purpose of life) are spoken of, as if they were not problems at all but simply things that these little bigots KNEW! ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#atheists #bigotry #bigots #christianity #ignorance

His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided. ↗

— Robert Louis Stevenson

#life

A people are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick. Without stories we would go mad. Life would lose it’s moorings or orientation... Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart larger. ↗

— Ben Okri

#mythology #stories #storytelling #life

Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action. ↗

— Ramakrishna

#life

That didn't happen, of course. Things never happened like I imagined them. ↗

— John Green

#imagination

I recently read in the book My Stroke of Insight by brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor that the natural life span of an emotion—the average time it takes for it to move through the nervous system and body—is only a minute and a half. After that we need thoughts to keep the emotion rolling. So if we wonder why we lock into painful emotional states like anxiety, depression, or rage, we need look no further than our own endless stream of inner dialogue. ↗

— Tara Brach

#emotions #spirituality #life

Ah, hell. His peripheral vision was working far too well tonight. His slut of a cousin, his cocksucking, suit-wearing, Montblanc-up-the-ass cousin Saxton the Magnificent, was standing next to the queen, looking like a combination of Cary Grant and some model in a goddamn cologne ad. Not that Qhuinn was bitter. Because the guy was sharing Blay's bed. Nah. Nope. Not at all. The Cocksucker- With a wince, he thought maybe he should switch that insult to something a little farther away from what the two of them ... God, he couldn't even go there. Not if he wanted to breathe. ↗

— J.R. Ward

#heartache #quinn #vision

Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. ↗

— Robertson Davies

#because #cats #creatures #like #lovable