We have become disembodied. By being always somewhere else we are nowhere.
ALAN LIGHTMANThe exploding star of A.D. 1054, the Crab Nebula, was sighted and documented by the Chinese, but nowhere mentioned in the West, where the Aristotelian notion of the immortality of stars still held sway.
More Alan Lightman Quotes
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In a world without future, each laugh is the last laugh. In a world without future, beyond the present lies nothingness, and people cling to the present as if hanging from a cliff.
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We walk from room to room, look into the room that is lit, the present moment, then walk on. We do not know the rooms ahead, but we know we cannot change them. We are spectators of our lives.
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The urge to discover, to invent, to know the unknown, seems so deeply human that we cannot imagine our history without it.
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Faith is the ability to honor stillness at some moments, and at others to ride the passion and exuberance.
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It’s a flow of chemicals and electrical currents, and it developed over millions of years in the process of evolution to aid in the procreation of the species.
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Except for a God who sits down after the universe begins, all other gods conflict with the assumptions of science.
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And if we can’t unplug from that machine, eventually we’re going to become mindless.
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We try to impose order, both in our minds and in our conceptions of external reality.
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I think e-mail is representative of our fast food mentality in the United States, where everything has gotten faster and faster, and we’re required to respond to inputs more quickly with less time for thought and reflection.
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As a scientist, I don’t believe science will ever discover whether God exists. Nor do I believe religion will ever prove it.
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I love the fact publishers are still publishing unprofitable material. It’s a challenge to the powers that be. It’s saying there is a real literature in this country and we will keep publishing it.
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Novels aren’t pedagogical instruments, or instructions in law or physics or any other discipline.
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I picked such seemingly disparate essays, I thought it was important to say what was the guiding principle in the selection rather than focus on any one essay.
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Each time is true, but the truths are not the same.
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When I used to play golf. It’s a terrible miserable game. It’s incredibly frustrating. In 18 holes you make 150 horrible shots off in the woods, in the water…
ALAN LIGHTMAN