All men by nature desire to know.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
The real difference between democracy and oligarchy is between poverty and wealth. Wherever the rulers, whether they be a minority or a majority, owe their power to wealth, that is an oligarchy. Wherever the poor rule, that is a democracy.
Disaster is my muse.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
It will be seen that we are not fully equipped by our senses for forming an impersonal picture of the world. And it is because the deficiency is manifest that we do not hesitate to advocate a conception of the world which transcends the images familiar to the senses. Such a world can perhaps be grasped, but not pictured by the brain. It would be unreasonable to limit our thought of nature to what can be comprised in sense-pictures. As Lodge has said, our senses were developed by the struggle for existence, not for the purpose of philosophising on the world.
(Space, Time and Gravitation)
The lesson seems almost Zen: you live longer only when you stop trying to live longer.
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.”
I sweat, you perspire, but she glows
he doxes, she leaks, but the New York Times investigates
But what keeps you going is the fact that you're doing your best, that you -- you are re--- you have put together a team of people that could not be working harder or be smarter or more effective and what you also know is is that, at the end of the day, our democracy works because it's not reliant just on one person, but it's a -- it's a process of self-government where we're all involved in making things a little bit better.
Well done is better than well said.
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
You have to give someone the chance to cheat in order to learn to trust them.
People overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years.
I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; one third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
“What is the biggest mistake we make in life?” the Buddha replied, “The biggest mistake is you think you have time.” Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. And once it’s lost you can never get it back.
A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice, I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare's?
(The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution)
They’re doing God’s work, their CEO said.They’re the kings of the Street.They are regal.So now we must ask if God ever knewThat some of his work was illegal
Science is the replacement of big errors by lesser errors.
Politics is War By Other Means (“from On War”)
The most blatant and deadly example of the intervention-based incentives of our medical system is that medical leaders are absolutely silent on the things that are actually making us sick: food and lifestyle.
(Good Energy)
Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.
Three things ruin people: drugs, liquor, and leverage.
I touch the future; I teach.
