The Book of Telling tells of a woman’s journey to uncover the secret life of her father and to find herself in the process.
ALAN LIGHTMANOthers hold that each decision must be considered and committed to, that without commitment there is chaos. Such people are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each.
More Alan Lightman Quotes
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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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An unusual counterpoint between personal history and the history of a young nation. Haunting, powerful, and beautifully written.
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Authenticity and sincerity were the most important unifying principles of all these apparently different essays.
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In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time.
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When the first mechanical clocks were invented, marking off time in crisp, regular intervals, it must have surprised people to discover that time flowed outside their own mental and physiological processes.
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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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Unconditional love. That’s what he wants to give her and what he wants from her. People should give without wanting anything in return.
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Sadness is no more than a bit of acid transfixed in the cerebellum.
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And since the human mind has a degree of infinity and imagination unlikely to be matched by a machine for a very, very long time, I don’t think that we will become the machines of the machines.
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After a while the car becomes just another thing that he owns. Moreover, when his neighbor next door buys two cars, in an instant our man feels wretchedly poor and deprived.
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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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Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.
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Sadness is no more than a bit of acid transfixed in the cerebellum.
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A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable.
ALAN LIGHTMAN






