I think a strong claim can be made that the process of scientific discovery may be regarded as a form of art. This is best seen in the theoretical aspects of Physical Science. The mathematical theorist builds up on certain assumptions and according t...
I suppose there has been nothing like the airports since the age of the stage-stops - nothing quite as lonely, as sombre-silent. The red-brick depots were built right into the towns they marked - people didn't get off at those isolated stations unles...
Almost I feel the pulsebeat of the ages, Now swift, now slow, beneath my fingertips. The heartthrobs of the prophets and the sages Beat through these bindings; and my quick hand slips Old books from dusty shelves, in eager seeking For truths the flam...
Can you not see, […] that fairy tales in their essence are quite solid and straightforward; but that this everlasting fiction about modern life is in its nature essentially incredible? Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is...
Because she looks to the sky so often, people think that her life is sweet, that her eyes are dotted with dreamy stars. But quite the opposite is true and I wish they could see— she looks up so much because all around her it's hard to see without b...
If you are writing a story, miracles or abnormal events may be bad art, or they may not. If, for example, you are writing an ordinary realistic novel and have got your characters into a hopeless muddle, it would be quite intolerable if you suddenly c...
Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read. . . . We are quite ...
I think you are wrong, partner Elijah. My briefing on human characteristics here among the people of Earth includes the information that, unlike the men of the Outer Worlds, they are trained from birth to accept authority. Apparently this is the resu...
Everybody is equal before God and law, but everybody cannot be equal with respect to his intellect. High intelligence is rare, it is not determined by formal education, academic career, money, etc. But if you hold it, you cannot think as others, as t...
When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will ...
It is true that our everyday view of the world is not quite naively realistic, but that is what it would like to be. Common-sense is naively realistic wherever it does not think that there is some positive reason why it should cease to be so. And thi...
A touch so tender Bliss of sweet words fills of desire Open Hearts of sweet surrender Nightly poison gas the fire. A quite place to romance Touches as we held hands. No loud words spoken, but whispers Just Heart, promises to be kept No tales being to...
Someone should write an erudite essay on the moral, physical, and esthetic effect of the Model T Ford on the American nation. Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris, about the planetary system of gears than the s...
I went to a concert upstairs in Town Hall. The composer whose works were being performed had provided program notes. One of these notes was to the effect that there is too much pain in the world. After the concert I was walking along with the compose...
Paul Hood: To find yourself in the negative zone, as the Fantastic Four often do, means all every day assumptions are inverted. Even the invisible girl herself becomes visible and so she loses the last semblance of her power. It seems to me that ever...
John Hammond: You know the first attraction I ever built when I came down south from Scotland? It was a Flea Circus, Petticoat Lane. Really quite wonderful. We had a wee trapeze, and a merry-go... carousel and a seesaw. They all moved, motorized of c...
Agnes' Father Olof: When our class met, I think it was our 25-year reunion, when they found out that I'd done well for myself. Bengt, who was then the class king, he didn't become anything. And the girls who were considered the prettiest, they weren'...
Jim Braddock: You think you're telling me something? Like, what, boxing is dangerous, something like that? You don't think working triple shifts and at night on a scaffold isn't just as likely to get a man killed? What about all those guys who died l...
Cynthia: God, don't you ever feel like everything we do and everything we've been taught is just to service the future? Tony: Yeah I know, like it's all preparation. Cynthia: Right. But what are we preparing ourselves for? Mike: Death. Tony: Life of ...
Pawnee #1: [speaking Pawnee; subtitled] We have nothing to show for this trail. Pawnee #2: [in Pawnee] We have no rifles. White men are sure to have rifles! Pawnee #3: [in Pawnee] If they don't have rifles, it's hard to say how many might be down the...
Idgie Threadgoode: One time, there this this lake [pause] Idgie Threadgoode: and uh, it was right outside of town. We used to go fishin' and swimmin' and canoein' in it, and uh [sniffle] Idgie Threadgoode: this one November this flock o'ducks came in...
