The Fifth Science Quotes

“Hell isn't a fire pit but a museum of regrets.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“I fear that on my last day, on my deathbed, that is when the meaning of things will enter the room and kiss my forehead and whisper into my ear what it was I should have done with my life, and how I should've conducted myself. Hell isn't a fire pit but a museum of regrets.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“It's funny, you don't convince the living to behave in a proper way; you just wait for them to die and hope their children grow up a little kinder and wiser than their parents.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Most humans were not malicious, only drastically misguided and desperate in their loneliness. They learned at some point that there was an eccentric core to their personality and that it was possible no one else shared their own brand of eccentricity. They put up screens around that core to shield from embarrassment and shame. For all the pompous forms in which writers and musicians have described it, love was surely that moment when the screens might come down in front of another human, if only for a moment, and freely give them a long, unfettered look into the true middle where the fear and anguish lives.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they’ll never sit in.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“In all things, across all avenues, a choice must be made: whether to follow love, truth, or power. That choice will consume the chooser. If he follows only love then his wellbeing will be constantly at the mercy of another, though his highs will be sublime. If he follows truth then it will be a lonely journey, but potentially a noble one. If he should follow power though, not only will he come to know a desperate and revolting loneliness, but he will also never experience even a drop of satisfaction in anything”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“With the right ears even a lesser creature can hear the song. It is sung constantly, from the heart of each atom and star. The galaxies hum of shape and form in their essence. That is their secret. The particles whisper of the nature of proper interactions. That is their game. And during a storm, in the forest, on the right night, it is no secret that the leaves all sing of God.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Inaction is the primary refuge of those who prefer their own constructed realities to the beautiful chaos of the real world.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“If philosophers gave clear answers then surely the whole field would've died out with the Greeks.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Humans are the only animals that build zoos for themselves.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Beauty is nice and virtue is attractive, but nothing is more gorgeous than meeting another creature who shares your deepest values.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“self-consciousness was the product of a positive feedback loop between perception and reflection, the two eventually amplifying each other into a cycle that occurred so quickly neither could be separated from the other.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. — Carl Jung”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Live out the rest of your life in a constant and quietly sad state of What If? Inaction is the primary refuge of those who prefer their own constructed realities to the beautiful chaos of the real world.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“It is safe to say that the message spoke of a common shape to all the processes of the world, and insisted there was a unity to all explanations. It confirmed that all phenomena are expressions of a single phenomenon, and while all droplets consider themselves independent, they are nonetheless still ocean through and through.
In that message the great suspicions were vindicated and the old cliches were jettisoned. The hymn of the world was notated and an invitation to join the choir extended. The shape of Being was outlined in all its myriad forms and the whole was expressed in the part.
With the right ears even a lesser creature can hear the song. It is sung constantly, from the heart of each atom and star.
The galaxies hum of shape and form in their essence. That is their secret.
The particles whisper of the nature of proper interactions. That is their game.
And during a storm, in the forest, on the right night, it is no secret that the leaves all sing of God.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Look, here.” It was a mound and inside the mound were black insects, popping out of the mound then crawling back in. Some were skirting the surrounding dirt, bringing back sticks and pebbles. “They're called mitwicks. Do you like them?” “I thought you'd found something,” Ushko muttered. “I have. Look at them. Do you know what they do?” “No.” “They live for about four hundred days. They choose a queen. She doesn't have babies, but she can give orders. She orders them all about to pick things up and bring them back. They build a mound together and inside they fill it with the best sticks and pebbles they can find. And when it's perfect, when they've built the perfect home and everything's just right, do you know what they do?” “No.” “They die.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Where there are tyrants, we’ll bring death. Where there are no tyrants, we'll call them tyrants and we’ll bring death. Where there is anarchy, we’ll bring laws. Where there is no anarchy, we’ll call it anarchy and we'll bring laws.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“People who spend all their time taking photos will just remember taking photos. Souvenirs only make you think of buying them, don’t they.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“As far as I’m aware there has never been a point in history when a village, a society, or a planet has come together for a day and said, “What is it we’re all going after?” There has never been a vote about our collective purpose.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“There is a special problem in communications theory. We call it ‘narrative collapse’. When a planet is very connected, a time inevitably arrives when it becomes difficult to work out what is actually going on. Video and audio can be faked. Testimony isn’t reliable. All truths fall into a relative flatness.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“In the face of an intangible problem, ignorance is generally the safest option.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“We call it ‘narrative collapse’. When a planet is very connected, a time inevitably arrives when it becomes difficult to work out what is actually going on. Video and audio can be faked. Testimony isn’t reliable. All truths fall into a relative flatness. This is more dangerous than any doomsday weapon. You”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“If buying new socks or doing the washing up he found it amazing that she, a creature so gorgeous and perfect, would undertake tasks just as mundane in her daily life—as though realising Jesus pissed”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Whatever happens, however clever we eventually become, there will be an end to our trials and projects. Whether we’re superseded by our creations or just put to sleep by exhaustion, the end of history will approach eventually. When that occurs, all the statues and books and paintings in the world won’t save our legacy. Better then that we just enjoy the time we have, living in a wonderful age like the one we find ourselves in now.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“love was surely that moment when the screens might come down in front of another human, if only for a moment, and freely give them a long, unfettered look into the true middle where the fear and anguish lives.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Consciousness is a pattern, he mused. An ocean of sorts.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“A lifetime of almosts. Almost kissing Abigail Payne only to go back inside. Almost giving his father a piece of his mind just before the old man died. Almost pursuing his true dream of becoming a railway driver, only to go into academia instead out of a stupid sense of duty. Humans must be the only animals who build zoos for themselves.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“One day your science will find a use, perhaps even open up the frontier of consciousness. Great thinking machines will be built, out in the black no less. It couldn't have been done without your work. But the means... the means you bastards...”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“is safe to say that the message spoke of a common shape to all the processes of the world, and insisted there was a unity to all explanations. It confirmed that all phenomena are expressions of a single phenomenon, and while all droplets consider themselves independent, they are nonetheless still ocean through and through. In that message the great suspicions were vindicated and the old cliches were jettisoned. The hymn of the world was notated and an invitation to join the choir extended. The shape of Being was outlined in all its myriad forms and the whole was expressed in the part. With the right ears even a lesser creature can hear the song. It is sung constantly, from the heart of each atom and star. The galaxies hum of shape and form in their essence. That is their secret. The particles whisper of the nature of proper interactions. That is their game. And during a storm, in the forest, on the right night, it is no secret that the leaves all sing of God.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science

“Go home and write me, tell me how it was, leave a review. Go home, you bunch of absolute, absolute oxygen thieves.”
― Exurb1a, The Fifth Science