(1) irreversible processes are as real as reversible ones. (2) irreversible processes play a fundamental constructive role in the physical world. (3) irreversibility is deeply rooted in dynamics. Ilya Prigogine More Quotes by Ilya Prigogine More Quotes From Ilya Prigogine The world is richer than it is possible to express in any single language. Ilya Prigogine language world The future is uncertain... but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity. Ilya Prigogine future creativity heart We grow in direct proportion to the amount of chaos we can sustain and dissipate Ilya Prigogine chaos proportion grows The statistical probability that organic structures and the most precisely harmonized reactions that typify living organisms would be generated by accident, is zero. Ilya Prigogine zero would-be knowledge The idea of spontaneous generation of life in its present form is therefore highly improbable even to the scale of the billions of years during which prebotic evolution occurred. Ilya Prigogine generations years ideas The main character of any living system is openness. Ilya Prigogine main-characters openness character Entropy is the price of structure. Ilya Prigogine entropy structure The more we know about our universe, the more difficult it becomes to believe in determinism. Ilya Prigogine determinism difficult believe The irreversibility of time is the mechanism that brings order out of chaos. Ilya Prigogine mechanism chaos order It is a remarkable fact that the second law of thermodynamics has played in the history of science a fundamental role far beyond its original scope. Suffice it to mention Boltzmann's work on kinetic theory, Planck's discovery of quantum theory or Einstein's theory of spontaneous emission, which were all based on the second law of thermodynamics. Ilya Prigogine hard-work discovery science Now we see evolutionary trends in a variety of areas ranging from atomic and molecular physics through fluid mechanics, chemistry and biology to large scale systems of relevance in environmental and economic sciences Ilya Prigogine environmental chemistry trends The real is only one realization of the possible. Ilya Prigogine realization real In far from equilibrium conditions, the concept of probability that underlies Boltzmann's order principle is no longer valid if the structures we observe do not correspond to a maximum of complexions Ilya Prigogine structure principles order