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A blog about ideas, popular culture, philosophy, and personal enthusiasms (or "springs of delight") of all kinds.
"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind." God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (and see Mr. Rogers, below)
"Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail."
Jailbird, prologue
When asked in 1978 about his writing process, Updike said, “I’ve never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think that pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them, you will never write again.”
After the birth of his third child, he had rented an office above a restaurant in Ipswich, and spent several hours each morning writing there. Throughout his 50-year career, he remained devoted to that schedule, writing about three pages every morning after breakfast, sometimes more if things were going well. He said: “Back when I started, our best writers spent long periods brooding in silence. Then they’d publish a big book and go quiet again for another five years. I decided to run a different kind of shop.” WA
Alain de Botton (@alaindebotton) | |
Why ‘Earthrise’ Matters thebookoflife.org/why- |
Five Books (@five_books) | |
The 'father of science fiction' HG Wells suffered terribly from class anxiety. Huxley and Woolf thought him 'vulgar' == Five books on... |
"And maybe this is what I have learned more than anything from my great-great-grandfather: to keep my eyes and my mind open, to enjoy the wonders of nature and never cease to ask questions." Sarah Darwin, foreword to "A Modest Genius: The story of Darwin's life and how his ideas changed everything" by Hanne Strager
3 comments:
I thought I would pass along this little gem as an addition to your “humility” cartoon. This is purported to be Carl Sagan’s last interview before his death. Charlie Rose presses Sagan to address those who insist that scientific claims are arrogant and science does not prove religion because religion is “faith-based.” The text of the quote is below and his statement about humility is in the latter part of the first of three sections of the interview.
“Who is more humble—the scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or someone who says everything in this book (the bible) must be considered the literal truth, and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved in the writing of this book?”
Wonderful! BTW: check out the Sagan music re-mixes on YouTube beginning with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc ...
Hah! Professor Oliver, this was not offensive or anything at all. Very chuckle-worthy. Also, I had heard, and read about Carl Sagan prior to enrolling in this class, but I admit, I was made aware of him more recently via the symphony of science digital remixes/musical renditions of his television show in tandem with various other science folks on youtube.
T_T
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