quotes on understanding

Nature does not count nor do integers occur in nature. Man made them all, integers and all the rest, Kronecker to the contrary notwithstanding. ~Percy William Bridgman, The Way Things Are



Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow-creatures is amusing in itself. ~James Anthony Froude, Oceana, 1886



Deciding whether or not to trust a person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree, because you might get a wonderful view from the highest branch, or you might simply get covered in sap, and for this reason many people choose to spend their time alone and indoors, where it is harder to get a splinter. ~Lemony Snicket



We shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man. ~Lynn White, Jr., "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis," 1967



In reality, killing time is only the name for another of the multifarious ways by which Time kills us. ~Osbert Sitwell



Love is like those second-rate hotels where all the luxury is in the lobby. ~Paul-Jean Toulet



Family: A social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space. ~Evan Esar



If a dog jumps into your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer. ~Alfred North Whitehead



Delusion about history is a serious matter; it can gravely affect the history that is waiting to be made. ~John Terraine



It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards. ~Baltasar Gracian



The flame of love is now just a cold loneliness. ~Uniek Swain



Poetry, like the moon, does not advertise anything. ~William Blissett



A biophysicist talks physics to the biologists and biology to the physicists, but then he meets another biophysicist, they just discuss women. ~Author Unknown



A faith of convenience is a hollow faith. ~M*A*S*H, Father Mulcahy, "A Holy Mess," 1982



The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it. ~Dudley Moore



There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack the Ripper. ~Camille Paglia



Everybody's 12 years old in an apple orchard. ~Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray Show, while making autumn stew, original airdate 11 October 2007



Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music. ~Ezra Pound



When I was a Boy Scout, we played a game when new Scouts joined the troop. We lined up chairs in a pattern, creating an obstacle course through which the new Scouts, blindfolded, were supposed to maneuver. The Scoutmaster gave them a few moments to study the pattern before our adventure began. But as soon as the victims were blindfolded, the rest of us quietly removed the chairs. I think life is like this game. Perhaps we spend our lives avoiding obstacles we have created for ourselves and in reality exist only in our minds. We're afraid to apply for that job, take violin lessons, learn a foreign language, call an old friend, write our Congressman - whatever it is that we would really like to do but don't because of personal obstacles. Don't avoid any chairs until you run smack into one. And if you do, at least you'll have a place to sit down. ~Pierce Vincent Eckhart



All men are not slimy warthogs. Some men are silly giraffes, some woebegone puppies, some insecure frogs. But if one is not careful, those slimy warthogs can ruin it for all the others. ~Cynthia Heimel