Ben > Ben's Quotes

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“And what's strange, what would be marvelous, is not that God should really exist; the marvel is that such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head of such a savage, vicious beast as man.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Science seeks to understand complex processes by reducing them to their essential actions and studying the interplay of those actions--and this reductionist approach extends to art as well. Indeed, my focus on one school of art, consisting of only three major representatives, is an example of this. Some people are concerned that a reductionist analysis will diminish our fascination with art, that it will trivialize art and deprive it of its special force, thereby reducing the beholder's share to an ordinary brain function. I argue to the contrary, that be encouraging a focus on one mental process at a time, reductionism can expand our vision and give us new insights into the nature and creation of art. These new insights will enable us to perceive unexpected aspects of art that derive from the relationships between the biological and psychological phenomena.”
― Eric Kandel

“It is this potential for plasticity of the relatively stereotyped units of the nervous system that endows each of us with our individuality.”
― Eric R. Kandel, Principles of Neural Science

“Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.”
― Franz Kafka

“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”
― Steve Martin

“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Critic As Artist: With Some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”
― Albert Einstein

“But remember this, Japanese boy... airplanes are not tools for war. They are not for making money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.”
― Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises

“Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. ”
― John Updike

“The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else. ”
― John Updike

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
― Flannery O'Connor

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works

“What fresh hell is this?”
― Dorothy Parker, The Portable Dorothy Parker

“In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you. Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.”
― Nizar Qabbani

“The individual's duty is to do what he wants to do, to think whatever he likes, to be accountable to no one but himself, to challenge every idea and every person.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“After all, no one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons.”
― Herodotus

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.”
― anthony burgess

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
― Socrates

“Woke up this morning with a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read.”
― Raymond Carver

“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.”
― Lorraine Hansberry

“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”
― Robert Frost