We often do not see what we do not expect to see.
ALAN LIGHTMANWe’re plugged in 24 hours a day now. We’re all part of one big machine, whether we are conscious of that or not.
More Alan Lightman Quotes
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In the coffee houses, in the government buildings, in boats of Lake Geneva, people look at their watches and take refuge in time.
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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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We try to impose order, both in our minds and in our conceptions of external reality.
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I think it is always a long shot getting a book made into a film.
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Every essay – the subject matter of every essay – is ultimately about the essayist; him or herself. That ultimately, every essayist is writing about his or her view of the world.
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I go to live in Maine for the summer. Without computer, and without the telephone service we are mercifully without the faxes and e-mails.
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Some make light of decisions, arguing that all possible decisions will occur. In such a world, how could one be responsible for his actions?
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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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I believe that we need to slow down.
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Thoughts are no more than electrical surges in the brain.
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I think that the scienti?c way of looking at the world, and the humanistic way of looking at the world are complementary.
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In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time.
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Oh, love is very much a physical thing…. I realize that it’s very complicated, and I’m sure it can’t be traced to individual neurons and hormones, but I think it’s very much a physiological sensation that takes place in the brain.
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We don’t have the time, literally, to think during the day. To listen to ourselves think. To think about where we are going, who we are, what’s important.
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I should have written books instead of reading them.
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In our constant search for meaning in this baffling and temporary existence, trapped as we are within our three pounds of neurons,
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Sons never escape from the shadows of their fathers. Nor do daughters of their mothers. No one ever comes into his own…Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free.
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I think people all over the institution recognize that different ways of understanding are valuable. Artists may think in a different way than biologists or chemists, but you can learn something from that.
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Events, once happened, lose reality, alter with a glance, a storm, a night. In time, the past never happened. But who could know? Who could know that the past is not as solid as this instant.
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Where are the one billion people who lived and breathed in the year 1800, only two short centuries ago?
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In this world, time has three dimensions, like space.
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Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives?
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In a world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room dark but prepared.
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The world is moving faster and faster, but where are we going?I think one of the reasons why things are getting blurry is because there is not much meaning.
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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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In a world in which time is a circle, every handshake, every kiss, every birth, every word, will be repeated precisely.
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