Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.
So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?
STEPHEN HAWKING, A Brief History of Time
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Just think, Vishnu sleeps in the cosmic ocean, and the lotus of the universe grows from his navel. On the lotus sits Brahma, the creator. Brahma opens his eyes, and a world comes into being, governed by an Indra. Brahma closes his eyes, and a world goes out of being. The life of a Brahma is 432,000 years. When he dies, the lotus goes back, and another lotus is formed, and another Brahma. Then think of the galaxies beyond galaxies in infinite space, each a lotus, with a Brahma sitting on it, opening his eyes, closing his eyes.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL, The Power of Myths
Maybe there isn't a God after all, maybe there's only a universe rotating by itself like a millstone.
GAO XINGJIAN, The Other Shore
It may be -- I hope it is -- redemption to guess and perhaps perceive that the universe, the hell which we see for all its beauty, vastness, majesty, is only part of a whole which is quite unimaginable.
WILLIAM GOLDING, A Moving Target
There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe and what can be more special than that there is no boundary?
STEPHEN HAWKING, attributed, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle
We seek an understanding of the laws of nature and of our particular universe in which everything makes sense to us. We do not want to be reduced to accepting the strange features of our universe as brute facts.
SEAN M. CARROLL, Scientific American, June 2008
The universe continually sends us sensory messages, which we can never quite decode.
SUSAN HUBBARD, The Society of S
The great soul that sits on the throne of the universe is not, never was, and never will be, in a hurry.
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND, Gold-Foil
The universe shows us the life of God, or rather it is in itself the life of God. We behold in it his permanent action, the scene upon which his power is exercised, and in which all his attributes are reflected. God is not out of the universe any more than the universe is out of God. God is the principle, the universe is the consequence, but a necessary consequence, without which the principle would be inert, unfruitful, impossible to conceive.
HENRI-DOMINIQUE LACORDAIRE, God: Conferences Delivered at Notre Dame in Paris
If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we would know the mind of God.
STEPHEN HAWKING, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
The universe has a sense of irony, and sometimes you get reminded just how sadistic that can be.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON, Narcissus in Chains
The universe is a vast system of exchange. Every artery of it is in motion, throbbing with reciprocity, from the planet to the rotting leaf. The vapor climbs the sunbeam, and comes back in blessings upon the exhausted herb. The exhalation of the plant is wafted to the ocean. And so goes on the beautiful commerce of nature. And all because of dissimilarity--because no one thing is sufficient in itself, but calls for the assistance of something else, and repays by a contribution in turn.
E. H. CHAPIN, Living Words
The universe is an intelligence test.
TIMOTHY LEARY, attributed, Cosmic Trigger
What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary.
STEPHEN HAWKING, Der Spiegel, Oct. 17, 1988
We must not look round on the universe with awe, and on man with scorn; for man, who can comprehend the universe and its laws, is greater than the universe, which cannot comprehend itself.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING, Thoughts
I don't pretend to understand the Universe -- it's a great deal bigger than I am.
The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, the mind itself being but a fact among others.
CORMAC MCCARTHY, Blood Meridian
All persons are contained within a single individual, just as all time is in a moment, and the entire universe is in a grain of sand.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON, Dune: House Atreides
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
DOUGLAS ADAMS, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
STEPHEN HAWKING, A Brief History of Time
It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe that is not arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what kind of thing the universe is.
JORGE LUIS BORGES, The Analytical Language of John Wilkins
Look inside yourself and you can see the universe.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON, Dune: House Harkonnen
- Perhaps the apparent favor of the universe
- is no more than the crocodile grin of a Doberman
- breathing hard and about to be hungry?
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
EDEN PHILLPOTTS, A Shadow Passes
|
