Quotes

A collection of quotes that I’ve found interesting at one point or another over the years.

Jupiter

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(Background: this exchange came about in 1994, when a comet was breaking up as it passed by Jupiter and falling into the planet.)

Saturday, July 30, 1994 6:36:03 PM
From: Rtist
Subject: Jupiter gone?
To: Science

So, does anyone know how Jupiter is doing? Is it still under attack? Are there any new holes in it? How’s it goin’ up there?

Monday, August 1, 1994 4:32:49 AM
From: Woodstock
Subject: Re: Jupiter gone?
To: Science

It’s gone. The force of all the chunks hitting it disrupted the rotation and magnetic fields enough that all the gases surrounding it have been sloughing away into space…some merging with the rings that used to surround Jupiter, some of the heavier material being caught in the gravitational fields of the moons, but most just drifting off through the solar system. Scientists predict that when the Earth starts moving through the fields, those of us lucky enough to live up here in Alaska should see some absolutely phenominal displays of the Northern Lights, as the foreign gases start to interact with those that normally produce the displays.

Meanwhile, there’s been some excitement about a certain picture the Hubble took…something about a large black slab at the center of where Jupiter used to be, the edges appear to have a ratio to each other of 1x3x9…(grin)

In case you’re wondering, yes, this is a load of crap. But it was fun to write. So there. Bleah. Let someone else tell you what’s really going on, I’m shooting for a job at the Weekly World News…

(big grin)

Woodstock

Heroes

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Except in the life of a hero, the whole world is meaningless. The hero sees values beyond what’s possible. That’s the nature of a hero. It kills him, of course, ultimately. But it makes the whole struggle of humanity worthwhile.

— John Gardner, Grendel

Fundamentalism

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Christian Fundamentalism: The doctrine that there is an absolutely powerful, infinitely knowledgeable, universe spanning entity that is deeply and personally concerned about my sex life.

— anrwlias (found on the ‘net)

Alexandar Diego Soli

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And so I learned this strange theology of Alexandar Diego Soli: It was known that the first Lord Cantor, the great Georg Cantor, with an ingenious proof array had demonstrated that the infinity of integers — what he called aleph null — is embedded within the higher infinity of real numbers. And he had proved that that infinity is embedded within the infinites of the higher alephs, a whole hierarchy of infinities, an infinity of infinities. The Simoom cantors believed that as it is with numbers, so it is with the hierarchies of the gods. Truly, as Alexandar had taught his son, Leopold, if a god existed, who or what had created him (or her)? If there is a higher god, call him god^2^, there must be a god^3^ and a god^4^, and so on. There is an aleph million and an aleph centillion, but there is no final, no highest infinity, and therefore there is no God. No, there could be no true God, and so there could be no true creation. The logic was as harsh and merciless as Alexandar of Simoom himself: If there is no true creation then there is no true reality. If nothing is real, then man is not real; man in some fundamental sense does not exist. Reality is all a dream, and worse, it is less than a dream because even a dream must have a dreamer to dream it. To assert otherwise is nonsense. And so to assert the existence of the self is therefore a sin, the worst of sins; therefore it is better to cut out one’s tongue than to speak the word “I.”

— Mallory, in Neverness, by David Zindell

Foolishness

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Who is more foolish — the child afraid of the dark, or the man afraid of the light?

— Maurice Freehill

That explains it

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I’m the commander. See, I don’t need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.

— Pres. George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward, in Bush at War

(via Tresy)