Erksh > Erksh's Quotes

“It is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain. But yet we see around us every day the growth of new beliefs, which think themselves new; and which are yet but the old, which pretend to be young—like the fine ladies at the opera.”
― Bram Stoker

“Man in the mass sinks unconsciously to an inferior moral and intellectual level, to that level which is always there, below the threshold of consciousness, ready to break forth as soon as it is activated by the formation of a mass.
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Since nobody is capable of recognizing just where and how much he himself is possessed and unconscious, he simply projects his own condition upon his neighbor, and thus it becomes a sacred duty to have the biggest guns and the most poisonous gas.”
― Carl Jung

“The best part of a Mr. Goodbar is not the wrapper, is it? No, and the best part of a Coke is not the can. On those nights when you lie awake, either man or boy, wondering about yourself, peeling away one layer of oddness after another, you should remember and always be grateful that the woefully imperfect person that you are, with all your contradictions and unworthy desires, is not the best of you, any more than the wrapper is the best part of a Mr. Goodbar.”
― Dean Koontz, Odd Apocalypse: A supernatural suspense fiction novel

“From time to time, I do consider that I might be mad. Like any self-respecting lunatic, however, I am always quick to dismiss any doubts about my sanity.”
― Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas

“I believe nothing. Belief is intellectual surrender; “faith” a state of willed self-delusion.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

“Morality, as far as I could see, originates in atheism and the realization that no higher power is coming along to feed the hungry or lift the fallen. Mercy is left entirely to us.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

“You can talk about depression as a "chemical imbalance" all you want, but it presents itself as an external antagonist - a "demon," a "beast," or a "black dog," as Samuel Johnson called it. It could pounce at any time, even in the most innocuous setting.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

“Without people around, furniture has nothing to do but bear witness to the structural inadequacies of the human body: How much padding, cushioning, embracing, enfolding, and supporting we had needed just to stumble about through our days!”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

“Somehow human authority is never enough; we must have special effects.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

“That's what "meaning" is—a special additive like salt or garlic that could make even the most fetid piece of meat seem palpable, even delicious.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

“Breast cancer, I can now report, did not make me prettier or stronger, more feminine or spiritual. What it gave me, if you want to call this a “gift,” was a very personal, agonizing encounter with an ideological force in American culture that I had not been aware of before—one that encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only ourselves for our fate.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

“You can describe it to them as much as you want. You can write books about what you felt, what you experienced. You can compose poems and songs about what it was like. But until they've seen it for themselves, they can't really know what it is you're talking about. A few people will clearly see the effect it had on you, will understand that much, at least. But they won't know.”
― Jim Butcher, The Aeronaut's Windlass

“Thy will be done –’ No Muslim claiming to be a ‘slave of God’ ever gave a more sweeping consent than that. In that prayer you invite Him to do His worst. The perfect masochist.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Job: A Comedy of Justice

“The path isn't a straight line; it’s a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths.”
― Barry H. Gillespie

“Either god exists or it doesn’t exist. If a god does exist, it either interacts with the universe in some detectable way or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, that god is indistinguishable from a non-existent god. That only leaves a god who interacts with the universe in some detectable way. But if science, which is the greatest realization of the use of our senses to, you know, detect things, hasn’t found this god, that doesn’t say much for individuals.

In short, the god you’ve created is, in fact, undetectable by science. The limits of science are not the province of religious knowledge. Where science is ignorant, so is religion. The only difference is that religion lacks the integrity of science.”
― Matt Dillahunty

“I get my limits from a rational consideration of the consequences of my actions, that's how I determine what's moral. I get it from a foundation that says my actions have an effect on those people around me, and theirs have an effect on me, and if we're going to live cooperatively and share space, we have to recognize that impact. And my freedom to swing my arm ends ends at their nose, and that I have no right to impose my will over somebody else's will in that type of scenario. That's where I get them from. I get them from an understanding of reality, not an assertion of authority.”
― Matt Dillahunty

“The truth about resilience is that it's a learned behavior. If you gravitate toward hopelessness, it's not because you're hopeless, but because your brain has done it so many times before. If your mind naturally goes to despair, it's not because your situation is dire, but because you have developed strong neural pathways for despair.”
― Alan Gordon

“The truth about resilience is that it's a learned behavior. If you gravitate toward hopelessness, it's not because you're hopeless, but because your brain has done it so many times before. If your mind naturally goes to despair, it's not because your situation is dire, but because you have developed strong neural pathways for despair.”
― Alan Gordon, The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain