I think once we stop asking questions like “what is the age of the universe,” or “how are the instructions of DNA carried out on a microscopic level,” once we stop asking questions like that, we’re dead.
ALAN LIGHTMANIlluminated by only the most feeble red light, for light is diminished to almost nothing at the center of time, its vibrations slowed to echoes in vast canyons, its intensity reduced to the faint glow of fireflies.
More Alan Lightman Quotes
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One metaphor for how we are living is that you see so may people with cell phones.
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My writings are an exploration, and I think a lot of writers would tell you this, but in writing, you’re not simply putting down things that are already known to you. You’re actually discovering in the writing process, you’re actually creating knowledge.
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I reached for some principle that had been subconscious in me and lifted it into consciousness.
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And if we can’t unplug from that machine, eventually we’re going to become mindless.
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As both a scientist and a humanist myself, I have struggled to understand different claims to knowledge, and I have eventually come to a formulation of the kind of religious belief that would, in my view, be compatible with science.
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Novels aren’t pedagogical instruments, or instructions in law or physics or any other discipline.
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I still will sit down at the piano and play when I am wrestling with something emotionally or just want to move into the musical world.
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Another strand of my writing is the importance of the idea.
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We try to impose order, both in our minds and in our conceptions of external reality.
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But what is the past? Could it be, the firmness of the past is just illusion? Could the past be a kaleidoscope, a pattern of images that shift with each disturbance of a sudden breeze, a laugh, a thought? And if the shift is everywhere, how would we know?
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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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Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly.
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And if the present has little effect on the future, present actions need not be weighed for their consequence.
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I have also been fascinated for a long time with the intersection of science and religion.
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I’m humbled and enormously grateful to be connected to [Franz] Kafka in a any way. He is one of the writers I admire. I think he has been a big influence on me.
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The loved one will never take his arms from where they are now, will never give back the bracelet of memories, will never journey afar from his lover, will never place himself in danger of self-sacrifice.
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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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In short, the body is a machine, subject to the same laws of electricity and mechanics as an electron or clock.
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Human beings consider themselves satisfied only compared to some other condition.
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Franz Kafka is an idea person. His books begin and end in ideas. Ideas have always been important to me in my writing.
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Rather, each act is an island in time, to be judged on its own. … It is a world of impulse. It is a world of sincerity.
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And beyond any particular clock, a vast scaffold of time, stretching across the universe, lays down the law of time equally for all.
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Unfortunately, public debates do not have much room for subtlety. The audience wants a quick thrust at your opponent, not a slow and convoluted series of moves.
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All other giving is selfish. But he is being selfish a little, isn’t he, by wanting her to love him in return?
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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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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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