Alan Lightman Quotes, Writing Quotes, Our World Quotes

I have for a long time loved fabulist, imaginative fiction, such as the writing of Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Michael Bulgakov, and Salman Rushdie. I also like the magic realist writers, such as Borges and Marquez, and feel that interesting truths can be learned about our world by exploring highly distorted worlds.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Writing Quotes , Our World Quotes

It's the Platonic philosophy in The Republic that philosophers should lead the country.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Country Quotes , Philosophy Quotes

Unconditional love. That’s what he wants to give her and what he wants from her. People should give without wanting anything in return. All other giving is selfish. But he is being selfish a little, isn’t he, by wanting her to love him in return? He hopes that she loves him in return. Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing of rain?

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Selfish Quotes , Rain Quotes

I'm still happy with the way Einstein's Dreams came out. That book came out of a single inspiration. I really felt like I was not creating the words, that I was hearing the words. That someone else was speaking the words to me and I was just writing them down. It was a very strange experience. That can happen with a short book. I don't think it could happen with a long book.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Dream Quotes , Book Quotes

I think that the scienti?c way of looking at the world, and the humanistic way of looking at the world are complementary. There are important differences which should be preserved, and in trying to do away with those differences we would lose something the same way as if we tried to make all religions one religion or all races one race. There is a cultural diversity that's very valuable, and it's valuable to have different ways of looking at the world.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Differences Quotes

As both a scientist and a humanist myself, I have struggled to understand different claims to knowledge, and I have eventually come to a formulation of the kind of religious belief that would, in my view, be compatible with science.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Religious Quotes , Views Quotes

While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , People Quotes , Geneva Quotes

In fiction writing, I would say there are several different strands that have been woven through my own writing, and each influenced by a different group of writers.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Writing Quotes , Fiction Quotes

Oh, love is very much a physical thing.... I realize that it's very complicated, and I'm sure it can't be traced to individual neurons and hormones, but I think it's very much a physiological sensation that takes place in the brain.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Love Is Quotes , Thinking Quotes

Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives?

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Life Quotes , Future Quotes

I think e-mail is representative of our fast food mentality in the United States, where everything has gotten faster and faster, and we're required to respond to inputs more quickly with less time for thought and reflection. I believe that we need to slow down.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Believe Quotes , Reflection Quotes

Where are the one billion people who lived and breathed in the year 1800, only two short centuries ago?

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Two Quotes , Years Quotes

The history of science can be viewed as the recasting of phenomena that were once thought to be accidents as phenomena that can be understood in terms of fundamental causes and principles.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Principles Quotes , Fundamentals Quotes

I consider myself an essayist and a fiction writer. In the essays, I certainly have been influenced by some of the leading science essayists. Like Loren Eiseley, Stephen Jay Gould, Lewis Thomas.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Fiction Quotes , Jay Gould Quotes

Every essay - the subject matter of every essay - is ultimately about the essayist; him or herself. That ultimately, every essayist is writing about his or her view of the world.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Writing Quotes , Views Quotes

The world is moving faster and faster, but where are we going?

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Moving Quotes , World Quotes

I love the fact publishers are still publishing unprofitable material. It's a challenge to the powers that be. It's saying there is a real literature in this country and we will keep publishing it.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Country Quotes , Real Quotes

You've made something grand, but it will be grander if it has feeling and beauty and harmony.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Feelings Quotes , Harmony Quotes

It is a world of impulse. It is a world of sincerity. It is a world in which every word spoken speaks just to that moment, every glance given has only one meaning, each touch has no past or no future, each kiss is a kiss of immediacy.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Kissing Quotes , Past Quotes

In this world, time has three dimensions, like space. Just as an object may move in three perpendicular directions, corresponding to horizontal, vertical, and longitudinal, so an object may participate in three perpendicular futures. Each future moves in a different direction of time. Each future is real. At every point of decision, the world splits into three worlds, each with the same people, but different fates for those people. In time, there are an infinity of worlds.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Real Quotes , Moving Quotes