Marvin > Marvin's Quotes

“There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.”
― Bertrand Russell

“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”
― Anthony G. Oettinger

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
― Mark Twain

“Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
― Karl Popper

“Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well I have others.”
― Groucho Marx

“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

“No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.”
― Karl Popper

“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”
― Bertrand Russell

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.”
― Frederick P. Brooks

“I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.”
― Bjarne Stroustrup

“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”
― Andy Goldsworthy

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
― Pablo Picasso

“Is," "is," "is"—the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.”
― Robert Anton Wilson, Nature's God

“We should realize that, if [Socrates] demanded that the wisest men should rule, he clearly stressed that he did not mean the learned men; in fact, he was skeptical of all professional learnedness, whether it was that of the philosophers or of the learned men of his own generation, the Sophists. The wisdom he meant was of a different kind. It was simply the realization: how little do I know! Those who did not know this, he taught, knew nothing at all. This is the true scientific spirit.”
― Karl Raimund Popper

“But the secret of intellectual excellence is the spirit of criticism ; it is intellectual independence. And this leads to difficulties which must prove insurmountable for any kind of authoritarianism. The authoritarian will in general select those who obey, who believe, who respond to his influence. But in doing so, he is bound to select mediocrities. For he excludes those who revolt, who doubt, who dare to resist his influence. Never can an authority admit that the intellectually courageous, i.e. those who dare to defy his authority, may be the most valuable type. Of course, the authorities will always remain convinced of their ability to detect initiative. But what they mean by this is only a quick grasp of their intentions, and they will remain for ever incapable of seeing the difference.”
― Karl R. Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato