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Matthew Barnes

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“One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

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“In fact he was incurably insane and hallucinated more or less continuously, but by a remarkable stroke of lateral thinking his fellow wizards had reasoned that, in that case, the whole business could be sorted out if only they could find a formula that caused him to hallucinate that he was completely sane.*

*This is a very common hallucination, shared by most people.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Truth: Stage Adaptation

tags: discworld, terry-pratchett, the-bursar, the-truth

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“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

tags: friendship, inspirational, pooh, winnie

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“The evolution of the world can be compared to a display of fireworks that has just ended: some few red wisps, ashes and smoke. Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the slow fading of the suns, and we try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of worlds.”
― Georges Lemaître

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“I find many adults are put off when young children pose scientific questions. Why is the Moon round? the children ask. Why is grass green? What is a dream? How deep can you dig a hole? When is the world’s birthday? Why do we have toes? Too many teachers and parents answer with irritation or ridicule, or quickly move on to something else: ‘What did you expect the Moon to be, square?’ Children soon recognize that somehow this kind of question annoys the grown-ups. A few more experiences like it, and another child has been lost to science. Why adults should pretend to omniscience before 6-year-olds, I can’t for the life of me understand. What’s wrong with admitting that we don’t know something? Is our self-esteem so fragile?”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

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Matthew’s Groups

Of Mice and Men Readalong #OfMiceAndMenReadalong — 257 members — last activity Jun 06, 2022 04:50AM
This April, I will be hosting a readalong of John Steinbeck's classic Of Mice and Men. Please do join in if you would like to read this book or learn ...more

Little Women Readalong — 203 members — last activity Sep 21, 2025 04:32PM
This June, I will be hosting a readalong of Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women. Please do join in if you would like to read this book or learn a ...more

The Cool Kids' Fantasy Club — 1805 members — last activity Jun 13, 2026 09:13AM
A group to chat about SFF books. Authors and readers welcome. I might post about my books and the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off too. I plan on maki ...more

Lord of the Flies Readalong #LordOfTheFliesReadalong — 317 members — last activity Jul 15, 2022 10:16AM
This February, I will be hosting a readalong of William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies. Please do join in if you would like to read this book or ...more

Animal Farm Readalong #AnimalFarmReadalong — 305 members — last activity Mar 30, 2022 08:08AM
This January, I will be hosting a readalong of George Orwell's classic Animal Farm. Please do join in if you would like to read this book or learn a b ...more

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