As I understand it, a universe is a ... well, a totality. A universe is everything that is, as far as the inside of the thing. Alan Lightman More Quotes by Alan Lightman More Quotes From Alan Lightman I would think that you are more fluent with the rational. It has its appeal. But the irrational permits a greater exercise of ... shall we say, power. Alan Lightman permit exercise thinking As human beings, don't we need questions without answers as well as questions with answers, questions that we might someday answer and questions that we can never answer? Alan Lightman answers might needs 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? Alan Lightman future life two I think Joe Leiberman has been one of the leaders of the country... people have such a broad respect for him as a moral force. Alan Lightman country people thinking Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free. Over time, some have determined that the only way to live is to die. In death, a man or a woman is free of the weight of the past [and the future]. Alan Lightman cost men past No one ever expects poetry to sell... Alan Lightman sells The time-deaf are unable to speak what they know. For speech needs a sequence of words, spoken in time. Alan Lightman speech speak needs Unfortunately, public debates do not have much room for subtlety. The audience wants a quick thrust at your opponent, not a slow and convoluted series of moves. Whenever Obama uses subtleties in discussing a complex issue, he gets creamed. Alan Lightman issues rooms moving 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. Alan Lightman brain love-is thinking Music is, of course, a universal emotional experience, cutting across cultures and languages. I studied piano for ten years as a child and consider that experience one of the most valuable in my life. Alan Lightman cutting emotional children Time is the clarity for seeing right and wrong. Alan Lightman clarity seeing I have a family and you know very well the time that that takes. That's good time. I have a couple hobbies. I'm a runner and play tennis. In the summer my family and I uproot ourselves and go live in Maine for the summer. We have a house on a very tiny island in Maine. Which is really my spiritual center. We've been going there for ten years, and it has no ferry service, no bridges, no telephone service. It's really isolated. Alan Lightman couple spiritual summer So many little lives, amounting to nothing. I ask you: What is infinity multiplied by zero? It is hardly worth our discussion. Alan Lightman zero littles life In a world without future, each parting of friends is a death. In a world without future, each loneliness is final. In a world without future, each laugh is the last laugh. In a world without future, beyond the present lies nothingness, and people cling to the present as if hanging from a cliff. Alan Lightman future loneliness lying For it is only habit and memory that dulls the physical passion. Without memory, each night is the first night, each morning is the first morning, each kiss and touch are the first. Alan Lightman passion morning memories I think all tragedies are best told with some humor. You have to relieve the darkness to let the reader get through it. Also, that life has happiness and sadness mixed together. If you told a story that was all darkness, it wouldn't be real. Alan Lightman sadness real thinking A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable. While people can be doubted, time cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back. In the coffee houses, in the government buildings, in boats of Lake Geneva, people look at their watches and take refuge in time. Each person knows that somewhere is recorded the moment she was born, the moment she took her first step, the moment of her first passion, the moment she said goodbye to her parents. Alan Lightman passion coffee goodbye I've taken a philosophical position on e-mail. Although I think it's a wonderful communication technology, and it has a lot of good uses, it is abused quite a lot. Alan Lightman philosophical communication taken I spend a lot of time just listening to the ospreys. I watch them go through their life cycle. They spend the winter in South America. The mother and father osprey stay together. It's a monogamous relationship. And every summer they raise a new brood of children. They came back to the nest in the middle of April. They take separate vacations in the winter - the mother and father. Alan Lightman mother summer children One day I'm going to write a book about osprey. It has really gotten deep into my bloodstream. So when you ask what else I do, I feel like this is part of what I do....is to watch these birds. Alan Lightman writing bird book
