Chris > Chris's Quotes

“Knowledge is good, method is good, but one thing beyond all others is necessary; and that is to have a head, not a pumpkin, on your shoulders and brains, not pudding, in your head.”
― A.E. Housman

“Canst thou love me, lady? I've not learn'd to woo: Thou art on the shady Side of sixty too. Still I love thee dearly! Thou hast lands and pelf: But I love thee merely Merely for thyself.”
― Charles Stuart Calverley

“Basically, if you're not a utopianist, you're a schmuck.”
― Jonathan Feldman

“Since one cannot know a radically better world is not possible, are we not betraying everyone by insisting on continuing to justify, and reproduce, the mess we have today? And anyway, even if we’re wrong, we might well get a lot closer.”
― David Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology

“Still my soul is in its boyhood; Nor of year or changes recks. Though my scalp is almost hairless, And my figure grows convex.”
― Charles Stuart Calverley

“Anybody can grow a bone in the penis; you don't have to be particularly healthy or tough.”
― Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

“We are no longer a leader. Putin has become the leader, and it's an embarassment to our country.”
― Donald J. Trump, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again

“This mess calls for leadership in the worst way.”
― Donald J. Trump, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again

“I'm the only boss in the world who boosts a person's future status by firing them.”
― Donald J. Trump, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again

“They think that successful diplomacy requires years of experience and an understanding of all the nuances that have to be carefully considered before reaching a conclusion. Only then do these pinstriped bureaucrats consider taking action.”
― Donald J. Trump, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again

“Many people think that the idea is the difficult part of writing a story, and this can be true. But there is another challenge too: finishing the story.”
― William Herring

“Tortoises are not very fast, as everyone knows, but they make up for their slow speed by being very determined. And if you turn your back on a tortoise, thinking they will just hang around like a lazy cat, you are in for a surprise.”
― William Herring

“The thing about finishing a story is that finishing is really only the beginning.”
― William Herring

“The pearlfish swims up a sea cucumber's anus, makes itslef comfortable, and eats its host's gonads.”
― Matt Simon, The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar: Evolution's Most Unbelievable Solutions to Life's Biggest Problems

“[W]ith world electricity consumption pushing 2 terawatts, it would take a hundred million Yodas to meet our demands.”
― Randall Munroe, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

“To make Harry Potter invisible, one would have to liquefy him, boil him to create steam, crystallize him, heat him again, and the cool him, all of which would be quite difficult to accomplish, even for a wizard”
― Michio Kaku, Physics of the Impossible

“[L]iking" something is very important evolutionarily, because most things are harmful to us. Of the millions of objects that we bump into every day, only a handful are beneficial to us. Hence to "like" something is to make a decision between one out of the tiny fraction of things that can help us over against the millions of things that might harm us.”
― Michio Kaku, Physics of the Impossible

“Critical thinking is essential to make sense of our world, especially with advertisers and politicians all telling us loudly that they know best. We need to be able to look at the evidence and work out whether we agree with them.”
― Helen Czerski, Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life

“There have been many studies claiming to demonstrate the occurrence of paranormal phenomenon, but none of them have really stood up to scientific investigation. In every case, the findings can be explained by poor experimental procedures, selective publication, or even downright cheating.”
― David Groome, The Psychology of the Paranormal

“Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?"
Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”
― Isaac Asimov

“To my way of thinking, there is every bit as much evidence for the
existence of UFOs as there is for the existence of God. Probably far
more. At least in the case of UFOs there have been countless taped
and filmed and, by the way, unexplained sightings from all over the
world, along with documented radar evidence seen by experienced
military and civilian radar operators.>>”
― George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?