Roberto > Roberto's Quotes

“What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me - into us - clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”
― Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly

“Sometimes I look around my living room, and the most real thing in the room is the television. It’s bright and vivid, and the rest of my life looks drab. So I turn the damn thing off. That does it every time. Get my life back.”
― Michael Crichton, Airframe

“I believe anyone can teach anyone anything. But I mean this in a specific sense. If you have two dedicated, reasonably intelligent people, one interested in teaching and the other wanting to learn, something great can happen. Think master and apprentice, mentor and protégé. For learning, small numbers win. The success of this one-on-one method is proven throughout history; many so-called prodigies were tutored by a parent or family friend (Einstein, Picasso, and Mozart all qualify). Yes, they had amazing, inherent talent, but they were still privately taught by people invested in their learning. Teaching is intimacy of the mind, and you can’t achieve that if you must work in large numbers.”
― Scott Berkun, Confessions of a Public Speaker

“We develop ulcers, high blood pressure, headaches, and other physical problems in part because our stress systems aren’t designed to handle the “dangers” of our brave new world: computer crashes, micromanaging bosses, 12-way conference calls, and long commutes in rush-hour traffic.”
― Scott Berkun, Confessions of a Public Speaker

“She's a woman, you're a dude. You're not supposed to understand her. That's not what she's after.... She doesn't want you to understand her. She knows that's impossible. She just wants you to understand yourself. Everything else is negotiable.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places,”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“the seed of greatness exists in every human being. Whether it sprouts or not is our choice.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“What is generally recognized as “great talent” is, in almost all cases, nothing more than the outward manifestations of an unwavering dedication to a process.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“It’s an essential part of becoming more creative. Expand your interests in life. Seek out new, interesting experiences, no matter how mundane or inconsequential they might seem to others. Read books, watch documentaries, and discuss your ideas with others. No subject, no matter how specialized or esoteric, is off limits. You never know where your imagination will find pieces for its puzzles.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“Many calls to adventure are puzzles waiting to be solved. Anyone can apply, but the price of admission is paid in imagination.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“So, what does all this tell us? First, that the seed of greatness exists in every human being. Whether it sprouts or not is our choice. Second, that there are no such things as natural-born under- or overachievers—there are simply people that tap into their true potentials and people that don’t. What is generally recognized as “great talent” is, in almost all cases, nothing more than the outward manifestations of an unwavering dedication to a process.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“While many theories were put forth, there was one common factor that researchers recognized in all great performers: they practiced so hard and intensely that it hurt.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“..this is just like life must be for about 99 percent of the people in the world. You're in this place. There's other people all around you, but they don't understand you and you don't understand them, but people do a lot of pointless babbling anyway. In order to stay alive, you have to spend all day every day doing stupid meaningless work. And the only way to get out of it is to quit, cut loose, take a flyer, and go off into the wicked world, where you will be swallowed up and never heard from again.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“Well, all information looks like noise until you break the code.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“The franchise and the virus work on the same principle, what thrives in one place will thrive in another. You just have to find a sufficiently virulent business plan, condense it into a three-ring binder ― its DNA ― Xerox it, and embed it in the fertile line of a well-traveled highway, preferably one with a left turn lane. Then the growth will expand until it runs up against its property lines.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“We can destroy what we have written, but we cannot unwrite it.”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

“The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by the grinding opposition of moral entities.”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

“If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange—meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil.”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

“It takes curiosity to find your call to adventure, it takes courage to venture into the unknown, and it takes imagination to create your path.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“deep down inside, we don’t seek the meaning of life, but the experience of being alive.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“Losing what we have can only do us real harm when we feel we can't create it, or something equally valuable or compelling, again, and that ability resides squarely in our imagination.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“It's no coincidence that geniuses not only dare to dream of the impossible for their work, but do the same for their lives. They're audacious enough to think that they're not just an ordinary player.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered—either by themselves or by others.”
― Sean Patrick, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It

“They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. ... The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It

“Life is long if you know how to use it.”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It

“Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It

“There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish something.”
― Thomas Edison

“The best thing that can happen to a human being is to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears.”
― Josh Kaufman, The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast!