Robert W. Fuller > Quotes

“When the power inherent in a position of authority is used to fortify that position, the institution's purpose is subverted. Behaviors are not aligned with the institution';s professed goals; rather they are skewed to preserve the rank, power, salaries, and security of rank-holders. -- "Somebodies and Nobodies", by Robert W. Fuller”
― Robert W. Fuller

“Twain broke with the tradition of asking “Who Am I?” and its species-wide variant “Who Is Man?” on the grounds that a “who-question” is a leading question. It predisposes us to expect the answer to be a sentient being, not unlike ourselves, “whom” we’re trying to characterize.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The golden rule of relationships is “Cause no indignity.” A loving relationship is one in which both partners take care to protect each other’s dignity. A wounded soul heals more slowly than a wounded body, so it is as important to avoid indignity as it is to avoid outright harm.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent Of everything you think, And of everything you do, Is for yourself — And there isn’t one. – Wei Wu Wei”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Awe is an intuition of the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship?

“… the children’s eyes In momentary wonder stare upon A sixty-year-old smiling public man. — William Butler Yeats,”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“The ‘I’ that we confidently broadcast to the world is a fiction—a jerry-built container for the volatile unconscious elements that divide and confound us. In this sense, personal history and public history share the same dynamic principle: both are fables agreed upon. – John Lahr”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Za vasheh zdahrov-yeh,”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“We must believe in free will. We have no choice. – Isaac Bashevis Singer”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“First you guess. Don't laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn't matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it's wrong. That's all there is to it. – Richard Feynman”
― Robert W. Fuller, Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship?

“across Jefferson Square to sanctuary in the inn. Good god, he thought, what have I gotten”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“The issue is whether we’ll invite those who are currently taken for nobodies into the human family or force them to crash our gates.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“The true joy of life is being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one … being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown to the scrap heap … being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“past.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“Who has not sometimes wondered: suppose I had been born somewhere else, in another country, in another time, what would my life have been? The question contains within it one of mankind’s most widespread illusions, the illusion that brings us to consider our life situation a mere stage set, a contingent, interchangeable circumstance through which moves our autonomous, continuing “self.” Ah, how fine it is to imagine our other lives, a dozen possible other lives! But enough daydreaming! We are all hopelessly riveted to the date and place of our birth. Our “self” is inconceivable outside the particular, unique situation of our life; it is only comprehensible in and through that situation. – Milan Kundera”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The self does not stand alone; as we’ve seen, the self is not a thing, let alone a thing in itself. Rather, we experience selfhood as a renewable capacity to construct and field identities. Like evanescent particles in a cloud chamber, the existence of the self is inferred from its byproducts.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Although not exceptional in ways we once believed, we remain exceptionally good at building tools and machines. And that includes machines that do what we do. Machines that dig, sow, and reap. Machines that kill and machines that prolong life. Machines that calculate, and, before long, machines who think.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“If we don’t do likewise, we’ll soon have a sclerotic society that takes care of its elders at the expense of its youth.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“Permitting businesses and special interests to fund political campaigns encourages demagoguery and invites corruption. That is not government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It’s government of, by, and for money.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“I have a feeling you’re going to do your ancestors proud. You know, that’s how the Chinese see it—your accomplishments bring glory not to your descendants, but to your ancestors, in recognition of the fact that it was their sacrifices that put you in a position to do what you do.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“Live your life as if there are no miracles and everything is a miracle. – Albert Einstein”
― Robert W. Fuller, Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship?

“The elderly will tell you that although their bodies have aged and their minds have changed, their witness is much the same as always. Even in old age, it remains a young upstart voice—detached, observant, occasionally rude. Whether ignored or embraced, the witness continues to whisper the truth to us as long as we live.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Usually, city lights and smog block the stars, but last night a full moon shone overhead. Gazing upward, I had a vision of pockets of poverty shrinking like puddles in the sun.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree

“The inner voice we sometimes hear shaming us is not that of the witness, which is indifferent to our ups and downs. Self-accusation is rather the result of internalizing others’ judgments.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“Distinct identities are strung together on the thread of memory, all of them provisional and perishable. No less fascinating than the birth, life, and death of our bodies are the births, lives, and deaths of these makeshift, transient identities. Reincarnation of the body is arguable; metamorphosis of identity is not.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“The inability to recruit recognition from others cripples an identity.”
― Robert W. Fuller, Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity

“I like to tease Rowan that he can go ahead and try to reason his way to a new world, but my generation intends to dance our way there.”
― Robert W. Fuller, The Rowan Tree