Tuesday, February 24, 2004

"The French poet Paul Valéry once spoke of “producing future”. I like to think that’s what brains are for: they are for producing future. You extract information from the past and use it to produce future, and the more future you can produce the more freedom you have."

Daniel Dennett, New Scientist interview, 24 May 2003, p 39/40, “Free will, but not as we know it”
"This world is a bridge. Pass over it; but do not build your dwelling there."

Attrib. to Jesus Christ.

Courtesy Sheelagh de Vries.
From Jesus and Christian Origens Outside the New Testament, p. 130: "The most famous instance of their ascription to Jesus in Muslim tradition is on the main gateway of the mosque erected in 1601 at Fathpur-Sikri, south of Delhi, by the Moghul Akbar the Great; it bears the inscription: 'Jesus, on whom be peace, said: "This world is a bridge. Pass over it; but do not build your dwelling there."'"
See also http://www.gospelthomas.com/gospelthomas42.html
"If the basic idea is too complicated to fit on a T-shirt, it's probably wrong."

Leon Lederman
Physics aphorisms: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~panagiot/aphorisms_physics.htm
"Physics is not a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money."

Leon Lederman
Physics aphorisms: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~panagiot/aphorisms_physics.htm

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

"The important thing is to keep playing, to play against weak opponents and to play for big stakes."

Warren Buffett, Nov. 2002 talking with students at Gaston Hall
Courtesy of Tren Griffin, 10 Feb 2004, who also cited this by Buffett: "Charlie and I decided long ago that in an investment lifetime it's too hard to make hundreds of smart decisions. ... we have adopted a strategy that required our being smart - and not too smart at that - only a very few times..."