Islomjon

“It has been determined that luminous matter—the stars and hot gas we see in the sky by eye and instrument—constitutes a mere 0.5 percent of the total mass of our universe. Another 4.5 percent is nonluminous matter, such as planets and dead stars, made of the same familiar atoms. In addition, 26 percent is composed of something different than atoms or their constituent elementary particles. Dubbed dark matter, it remains unidentified. The remaining, dominant 69 percent of the universe is an even more mysterious dark energy that has resulted in an accelerating expansion of the universe that will continue indefinitely into the future, making the universe increasingly dilute.”
― Victor J. Stenger, God and the Multiverse: Humanity's Expanding View of the Cosmos

“I have only to renew my pact with Solitude, to which I have tried to be unfaithful.”
― Joris-Karl Huysmans, Là-Bas

“All but the most heroically strong among us would slip another step lower in the face of this loss. It is true that hope, no matter how irrational, can sustain us in the darkest of times. But nothing can break us more effectively than hope given and then taken away capriciously. Manipulating these psychological variables is a powerful but double-edged sword.”
― Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

“Four and a half billion is a number almost beyond reckoning. The current Guinness world record for longevity is held by a French woman who lived to celebrate her 122nd birthday—so humans fall far short of living even for 4.5 billion seconds (about 144 years). All of recorded human history is much less than 4.5 billion minutes. And yet geologists claim that Earth has been around for more than 4.5 billion years.”
― Robert M. Hazen, The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet