Barry Williams

“People believe in the supernatural because they do not understand. They do not understand the amazing complexity of the human brain and the influence of the subconscious mind. They believe in the supernatural because they do not appreciate just how unendingly wonderful nature truly is.’ ‘And”
― Peter Flannery, First and Only

“Being forced to confront the prospect of failure head-on—to study it, dissect it, tease apart all its components and consequences—really works. After a few years of doing that pretty much daily, you’ve forged the strongest possible armor to defend against fear: hard-won competence.

Our training pushes us to develop a new set of instincts: instead of reacting to danger with a fight-or-flight adrenaline rush, we’re trained to respond unemotionally by immediately prioritizing threats and methodically seeking to defuse them. We go from wanting to bolt for the exit to wanting to engage and understand what’s going wrong, then fix it.”
― Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

“They’re not much different from kitchen trash bags, though I’m sure they cost $50,000 because of NASA.”
― Andy Weir, The Martian

“Death sucks, and premature death sucks worse. But it’s part of the package deal of getting to be alive. It happens because you, and all the people around you, are part of the world; the physical, natural world, with all of its wonders and horrors. It’s a world that doesn’t really care whether you live or die, whether you suffer or rejoice, and to some people that can seem bleak and cold. But it’s a world of which we are a part, a world which we are intimately connected to down to our very molecules — not a world that stands apart from us and punishes us for reasons we can never fathom. And”
― Greta Christina, Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God