#speculation

When we come to images or memories or thoughts, speculation, while always closely related to practice, is more explicit, and it is in fact not immediately obvious that such processes can be described in any sense as practical. ↗

— Samuel Alexander

#any #closely #come #described #explicit

Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature. ↗

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

#confirms #destroys #nature #speculation #time

The first and most important reason for its elimination is the unquestioned fact that evolution is not a science; it is a hypothesis only, a speculation. ↗

— William Bell Riley

#evolution #fact #first #hypothesis #important

A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it can't be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics. ↗

— Michael Crichton

#brain #conjecture #consciousness #darwinism #evolution

These mysteries about how we evolved should not distract us from the indisputable fact that we did evolve. ↗

— Jerry A. Coyne

#conclusion-before-evidence #confessions-of-the-darwinists #conjecture #darwin #darwinism

I've been to the other side...You're dead there, too. ↗

— Courtney Kirchoff

#death-and-dying #death

When we die the only judge we have is ourselves. We see our life played out in a hologram of knowledge that our earth souls cannot understand. We see all at once how each word and each action affected the lives of the people around us. How a moment of kindness can change a life and a sharp word can affect someone for ever. Words and actions are far more powerful than we realise. It's the pebble-in-the-lake effect-even the tiniest pebble thrown into water will create ripples right across the lake. We don't need to be punished because, when we have viewed the consequences of our actions on all the souls we have met, we have remorse enough. I believe there is no external judge. We must face ourselves. ↗

— Michele Knight

#death #reincarnation #souls #change

The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation. ↗

— Roger Bacon

#experience #experimental #goal #long #nothing

Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. ↗

— Hal Clement

#only #perfectly #right #science #speculation

Speculation, speculation!' she [Caroline Hamelin] mechanically repeated, struggling with her doubts. 'Ah! the idea of it fills my heart with disturbing anguish. ↗

— Émile Zola

#money #speculation #money