Boiled down to one sentence, my message is the unboundedness of life and the unboundedness of human destiny. Freeman Dyson More Quotes by Freeman Dyson More Quotes From Freeman Dyson Biology is now bigger than physics, as measured by the size of budgets, by the size of the workforce, or by the output of major discoveries; and biology is likely to remain the biggest part of science through the twenty-first century. Freeman Dyson size discovery firsts No matter how far we go into the future, there will always be new things happening, new information coming in, new worlds to explore, a constantly expanding domain of life, consciousness, and memory. Freeman Dyson information matter memories To me, mathematics is like playing the violin. Some people can do it - others can't. If you don't have it, then there's no point in pretending. Freeman Dyson violin mathematics people The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. A good example of a simple technology with profound historical consequences is hay. ... It was hay that allowed populations to grow and civilizations to flourish among the forests of Northern Europe. Hay moved the greatness of Rome to Paris and London, and later to Berlin and Moscow and New York. Freeman Dyson horse new-york science Technology without morality is barbarous; morality without technology is impotent. Freeman Dyson morality technology I'm prejudiced about education altogether. I think it's terribly overrated. Freeman Dyson overrated thinking Everything in my life was luck. The key to having an interesting life is to always say "yes" to anything crazy. Freeman Dyson crazy luck interesting Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences. Freeman Dyson mother life art I think it's a big mistake to decide too soon what you're going to do with your life. Freeman Dyson bigs mistake thinking It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear. Freeman Dyson Just because you see pictures of glaciers falling into the ocean doesn't mean anything bad is happening. This is something that happens all the time. It's part of the natural cycle of things. We know from measurements that glaciers have been melting for 200 years at least. Freeman Dyson ocean mean fall The media always tries to make everything into a disaster, but it's mostly rubbish. Freeman Dyson rubbish media trying All stable processes we shall predict. All unstable processes we shall control. Describing John von Neumann's aspiration for the application of computers sufficiently large to solve the problems of meteorology, despite the sensitivity of the weather to small perturbations. Freeman Dyson meteorology weather science I'm happy that I've raised six kids, and not one of them is a Ph.D. Freeman Dyson raised six kids Mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our understanding. Freeman Dyson understanding science reality I grew up in England at a time when England was winning Nobel Prizes right and left. I mean it was amazing how many Nobel Prizes England was winning in chemistry and physics and biology and all the sciences and at that time the teaching of science in the schools was really lousy. Freeman Dyson teaching mean school Intelligence may indeed be a benign influence creating isolated groups of philosopher-kings far apart in the heavens... On the other hand, intelligence may be a cancer of purposeless technological exploitation, sweeping across a galaxy as irresistibly as it has swept across our own planet. Freeman Dyson cancer kings hands New directions in science are launched by new tools much more often than by new concepts. The effect of a concept-driven revolution is to explain old things in new ways. The effect of a tool-driven revolution is to discover new things that have to be explained. Freeman Dyson old-things entrepreneur tools The total disorder in the universe, as measured by the quantity that physicists call entropy, increases steadily over time. Also, the total order in the universe, as measured by the complexity and permanence of organized structures, also increases steadily over time. Freeman Dyson increase structure order For some days I quietly worked out in my own mind the metaphysics of Cosmic Unity. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it was the living truth. It was logically incontrovertible. It provided for the first time a firm foundation for ethics. It offered mankind the radical change of heart and mind that was our only hope of peace at a time of desperate danger. Only one small problem remained. I must find a way to convert the world to my way of thinking. Freeman Dyson small-problems heart thinking
