We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipwrights. It has always been that way. Even those history books enamored of the voyages of Christopher Columbus do not tell much about the builders of t...
I feel that all knowledge should be in the free-trade zone. Your knowledge, my knowledge, everybody's knowledge should be made use of. I think people who refuse to use other people's knowledge are making a big mistake. Those who refuse to share their...
Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person who made the discovery. I find this path to be voyeuristic...
If everyone had the luxury to pursue a life of exactly what they love, we would all be ranked as visionary and brilliant. … If you got to spend every day of your life doing what you love, you can’t help but be the best in the world at that. And y...
Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here i...
Before an experiment can be performed, it must be planned—the question to nature must be formulated before being posed. Before the result of a measurement can be used, it must be interpreted—nature's answer must be understood properly. These two ...
I think that the event which, more than anything else, led me to the search for ways of making more powerful radio telescopes, was the recognition, in 1952, that the intense source in the constellation of Cygnus was a distant galaxy—1000 million li...
The beauty in the genome is of course that it's so small. The human genome is only on the order of a gigabyte of data...which is a tiny little database. If you take the entire living biosphere, that's the assemblage of 20 million species or so that c...
Nature … has made it impossible for us to have any communication from this earth with the other great bodies of the universe, in our present state; and it is highly possible that he has likewise cut off all communication betwixt the other plan...
I started studying law, but this I could stand just for one semester. I couldn't stand more. Then I studied languages and literature for two years. After two years I passed an examination with the result I have a teaching certificate for Latin and Hu...
We need science education to produce scientists, but we need it equally to create literacy in the public. Man has a fundamental urge to comprehend the world about him, and science gives today the only world picture which we can consider as valid. It ...
Grimes: Why aren't you shooting? Waddell: We're not being shot at yet. Grimes: How can you tell? Waddell: A hiss means it's close. A snap means... [a bullet whizzes close by] Waddell: Now they're shooting at us! [they begin returning fire]
[after Eversmann debriefs his chalk on Wolcott's crashed helicopter] Nelson: How come I gotta stay back here? Eversmann: Because you're dependable. Nelson: [to Twombly after Eversmann, Wadell, Schmid, and Galentine head for the crash site] I hate bei...
Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan: Do you think if you get General Aidid, we will simply put down our weapons and adopt American democracy? That the killing will stop? We know this. Without victory, there will be no peace. There will always be killing, see? ...
Stephen is my boyfriend," Doug said. "We're gay together." "I'm also gay when we're apart," Stephen added.
Busch: Three guys with RPGs! Coming up on your side! Now! [Somalis fire the RPG, striking Super 6-1's tail rotor. 6-1 is now spinning out of control] Cliff Wolcott: Stay with it! Cliff Wolcott: [on radio] This is 6-1. I'm hit. I'm hit. Matthews: Supe...
I'm a huge Stephen King fan.
[eleventh title card] Title Card: In late August, America's elite soldiers, Delta Force, Army Rangers and the 160th SOAR are sent to Mogadishu to remove Aidid and restore order. [twelfth title card] Title Card: The mission was to take three weeks, bu...
[Durant is being interrogated] Durant: My government will never negotiate for me. Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan: Then perhaps you and I can negotiate, huh? Soldier to Soldier. Durant: I am not in charge Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan: Course not, you have the...
[watching Wex as he prepares for the mission] Joyce: Look at this man Ruiz, he's taping his blood type to his boot. That's bad luck. Ruiz: No. That's smart. [pulls out a death/goodbye letter] Ruiz: All Delta do that. Joyce: That's bad luck too, man.
Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information.
