Bruce Watson > Bruce's Quotes

“Does Life care about fairness? Not one hoot. Does Life compensate? Never by design. Does Life keep score? How could it? There’s no scoreboard.”
― Waldo Mellon, What's What And What To Do About It

“Light is the magician of the cosmos.”
― Bruce Watson, Light: A Radiant History from Creation to the Quantum Age

“Light takes darkness vanish and worlds reappear. Light opens each day with a blaring overture, then throws its wands to earth and casts diamonds on lakes and oceans. Each night, lights tricks make the stars seem alive.”
― Bruce Watson, Light: A Radiant History from Creation to the Quantum Age

“We have entered the Age of Light. The ages of steam and coal are long gone. With oil clinging to power, light is emerging as our deus ex machine. Light goes where nothing else can, gets there faster than anything else could, and brings back the images. If there are limits to light, other than its cosmic speed limit, we have not tested them. If there is a final answer to the question "What is light?" we have not found it.”
― Bruce Watson, Light: A Radiant History from Creation to the Quantum Age

“But there was a time when light waged a heroic battle with darkness. It was a time when night skies were not bleached by urban glare, when candles were not romantic novelties, when light was the source of all warmth and safety. For the vast majority of human history, each sunrise was a celebration; each waxing moon stirred hope of nights less terrifying. And to anyone caught unprepared— in dark woods, on echoing streets, even at home when lamps flickered and failed— light was, simply, life.”
― Bruce Watson, Light: A Radiant History from Creation to the Quantum Age

“But the bullet that killed Herbert Lee set off a string of firecrackers that clustered in a single summer, a season so radically different, so idealistic, so savage, so daring, that it redefined freedom in America.”
― Bruce Watson, Freedom Summer: The Savage Season of 1964 That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy

“With the two sides entrenched, each began a campaign for public sympathy. The focus was wages. How much did Lawrence textile workers really earn? Ettor told the press that the average mill wage was $6 a week; mill owners countered that it was $9.71 The difference depended on who did the math, and how. Ettor was using a mathematical mean, dividing the mills’ $150,000 weekly payroll by twenty-five thousand workers.72 Mill owners relied on what statisticians call the median. Taking a weaver’s average wage of $13 a week and a doffer’s average of $4.50, they found the midpoint, then rounded up. Strikers protested. For every weaver, they pointed out, there were dozens of doffers, sweepers, and bobbin boys earning $4.50 a week or less. Mill owners countered that such low pay was earned only by the least skilled workers, few in number and not prime wage earners. But neither weekly wage figure factored in the several weeks each year that work was slow and thousands were laid off.”
― Bruce Watson, Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream

“nothing trite in SNCC’s founding statement: “Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear; love transforms hate. Acceptance dissipates prejudice, hope ends despair. Peace dominates war, faith reconciles doubt.”
― Bruce Watson, Freedom Summer: The Savage Season of 1964 That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy

“My guess about Love is this: Love is a whisper that you don’t hear but feel. It can be a look in the eye or a tone in the voice or a certain way of a smile that says Yeah, you and me both, we’re in this thing together and isn’t it some ride?”
― Waldo Mellon, What's What And What To Do About It

“The basic difference between Animals and Plants is that Animals are cordless, while Plants have to be plugged in.”
― Waldo Mellon, What's What And What To Do About It

“Right after hollering ‘Fire!’ the best way to clear a crowded room is to yell “Anybody wanna hear my philosophy on life?”
― Waldo Mellon, What's What And What To Do About It