Brian Greene: The universe on a string

My favorites quotes from Bertrand Russell

A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin — more even than death…. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.

Passive acceptance of the teacher’s wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

CERN : 50 years of science (1954 - 2004)

My favorites quotes from Socrates

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.

Envy is the ulcer of the soul.

The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.

Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.

If my life is to be prolonged now, I know that I must live out my old age, seeing worse, hearing less, learning with more difficulty, and forgetting more and more of what I have learned. If I see myself growing worse and reproach myself for it, tell me, how could I continue to live pleasantly? Perhaps even the god in his kindness is offering to end my life not only at the right time, but also in the easiest way possible… Plato’s famous account of the trial and death of Socrates.

My favorites quotes from Diogenes

“Why is it, Diogenes, that pupils leave you to go to other teachers, but rarely do they leave them to come to you?” “Because,” replied Diogenes, “one can make eunuchs out of men, but no one can make a man out of eunuchs”.

Plato considered Diogenes’ stray-dog behaviour unbecoming to one calling himself a philosopher. “You really do live up to your name” he said to him disapprovingly one day. “By the Gods, you are right for once Plato,” replied Diogenes, and then baring his teeth, he added, “But at least I’ve sunk my teeth into philosophy.”

Diogenes was asked why he always begged. “To teach people,” replied Diogenes. “Oh yes, and what do you teach?” people would ask him scornfully. “Generosity”, he replied.

Whenever people complimented Diogenes, he would slap himself hard across the face and in self-reproach would cry, “Shame! I must have done something terribly wicked!”

In the midst of serious discourse in the Craneum, Diogenes realised no one was listening. So he instead began to whistle and dance about to attract attention. Immediately, people flocked round him. Diogenes stopped and said, “You idiots, you are not interested to stop and pay attention to wisdom, yet you rush up to observe a foolish display.”

A heckler in the crowd shouted out, “My mind is not made like that, I can’t be bothered with philosophy.”

“Why do you bother to live,” Diogenes retorted, “if you can’t be bothered to live properly?”

A young man contemplating marriage sought advice from Diogenes. “Should I marry?”
“Marriage is too soon for a young man”
“Would you have me wait then until I am old.”
“Oh no, Marriage is far too late for an old man.”
“What am I to do then? I love the girl.”
“Love is a luxury no one can afford. It is for those who have nothing better to do.”
“What should we be doing then?”
“To seek freedom. But it is not possible to be free if you have a wife and children.”
“But having a wife and family is so agreeable.”
“Then you see the problem, young man. Freedom would not be so difficult to attain were prison not so sweet.”
“You mean to be free is to be alone?”
“We come into the world alone and we die alone. Why, in life, should we be any less alone?”
“To live, then, is terrible.”
“No, not to live, but to live in chains.”

Once Diogenes was going into the theatre just as everybody was coming out. When asked why he did this, he answered, “Opposition has been my manner. It is what I have been doing all my life.”

Diogenes was walking backwards across the Agora, affecting a studied indifference to all who laughed at him. Finally, when he had collected a large following he stopped and announced, “You are laughing at me walking just a little distance backwards while you all lead your entire lives arse-about.”
“And what’s more,” he asked, “can you change your way of living as easily as this?” Whereupon, he turned on his heel and walked off in normal fashion.

My favorites quotes from Aldous Huxley

That we do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.
~ in Collected Essays

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.
~ in Texts and Pretexts

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
~ in Vedanta for the Western World

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

That all men are equal is a proposition which, at ordinary times, no sane individual has ever given his assent.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

People intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude

The quality of moral behaviour varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm.

Contact with an Extraterrestrial Civilization Within Two Decades

“That’s 500 billion planets out there, and bear in mind there are 100 billion other galaxies. To think this [the Earth] is the only place where anything interesting is happening, you have got to be really audacious to take that point of view.”

Seth Shostak, SETI senior astronomer

Source : Daily Galaxy

Microsoft World Wide Telescope

World wide telescope is starting today.
Go discover the universe at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org

GTA IV breaks record

The Guinness book of World Record says it’s the biggest launch for any entertainment title ever : 310 millions dollars sold in 24 hours.

(source : CNET Loaded)

Dilbert - numbers