Present quotes

From Motley Bytes Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

General Aphorisms

Past History

"The Past Is History. The Future Is a Mystery. Today Is a Gift. That’s Why It’s Called the Present."
  • Source: Traditional. Not clearly identified. Sometimes attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara De Angelis, Joan Rivers, Bill Keane, Emily Dickinson, Liz Curtis Higgs, Babatunde Olatunji, Susan Barkdoll, Nicholas L. Santowassa, Abigail Van Buren, or Alice Morse Earle.
Keywords: Past_quotes History_quotes Future_quotes Mystery_quotes Call_quotes Present_quotes Today_quotes Gift_quotes

Marcus_Aurelius

Present Time

“Every man's life lies all within the present, which is but a point of time; for the past is spent, and the future is uncertain.”
Keywords: Man_quotes Life_quotes Present_quotes Point_quotes Time_quotes Past_quotes Spent_quotes Future_quotes Uncertain_quotes

Look Upon Reality

“If a man affronts you, do not accept his opinion or think just as he would have you do. No, look upon things as reality presents them.”
Keywords: Criticism_quotes Man_quotes Affront_quotes Accept_quotes Opinion_quotes Think_quotes Reality_quotes Present_quotes

Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

Religion

“Religions are only temporarily successful attempts to cope with the lack of meaning in life; they are not permanent answers... The form in which religions have presented their truths — myths, revelations, holy texts — no longer compels belief in an era of scientific rationality.”
  • Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “The Shields of Culture”, page 14. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
Keywords: Religion_quotes Temporary_quotes Success_quotes Attempt_quotes Cope_quotes Lack_quotes Meaning_quotes Life_quotes Permanent_quotes Answer_quotes Form_quotes Present_quotes Myth_quotes Truth_quotes Revelation_quotes Holy_quotes Text_quotes Compel_quotes Belief_quotes Era_quotes Scientific_quotes Rationality_quotes

David_Epstein

Haiku Way

“Haiku finds depth in the simple, and creativity in constraints that block the path of least resistance... Haiku is small, so you can try easily and iterate quickly. It is in present tense, so it forces you to be in the moment... Haiku is the simplest example of a helpful constraint... It is not a form, it is a way — an attitude. It is a way of being, of eagerly accepting unnecessary obstacles because of where they can lead.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 233. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
Keywords: Haiku_quotes Find_quotes Depth_quotes Simple_quotes Creativity_quotes Constraint_quotes Block_quotes Path_quotes Least_quotes Resistance_quotes Small_quotes Try_quotes Easy_quotes Iteration_quotes Quick_quotes Present_quotes Tense_quotes Force_quotes Moment_quotes Example_quotes Help_quotes Form_quotes Way_quotes Attitude_quotes Being_quotes Eager_quotes Accept_quotes Unnecessary_quotes Obstacle_quotes Because_quotes Where_quotes Lead_quotes

Thomas_Gold

Knowledge Rules

“In no subject is there a rule, compliance with which will lead to new knowledge or better understanding. Skilful observations, ingenious ideas, cunning tricks, daring suggestions, laborious calculations, all these may be required to advance a subject. Occasionally the conventional approach in a subject has to be studiously followed; on other occasions it has to be ruthlessly disregarded. Which of these methods, or in what order they should be employed is generally unpredictable. Analogies drawn from the history of science are frequently claimed to be a guide; but, as with forecasting the next game of roulette, the existence of the best analogy to the present is no guide whatever to the future. The most valuable lesson to be learnt from the history of scientific progress is how misleading and strangling such analogies have been, and how success has come to those who ignored them.”
  • Source: Thomas Gold, 'Cosmology', in Arthur Beer (ed.), Vistas in Astronomy (1956), Vol. 2, 1722.
Keywords: Rule_quotes Subject_quotes Compliance_quotes Knowledge_quotes Understanding_quotes Skill_quotes Observation_quotes Idea_quotes Trick_quotes Courage_quotes Labor_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Creativity_quotes Prediction_quotes Analogy_quotes History_quotes Science_quotes Game_quotes Success_quotes Ingenious_quotes Cunning_quotes Daring_quotes Suggest_quotes Calculation_quotes Conventional_quotes Approach_quotes Order_quotes Follow_quotes Ruthless_quotes Disregard_quotes Method_quotes Unpredictable_quotes Guide_quotes Forecast_quotes Roulette_quotes Existence_quotes Present_quotes Future_quotes Value_quotes Learn_quotes Progress_quotes Mislead_quotes Strangle_quotes Ignore_quotes

Yuval_Noah_Harari

AI and Religion

“At the heart of every religion lies the fantasy of connecting to a superhuman and infallible intelligence. This is why... studying the history of religion is highly relevant to present-day debates about AI.”
  • Source: Yuval Noah Harari writing in his book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. Published in 2024 by Random House. Kindle edition. Chapter 4 page 71. ISBN 978-0593734247.
Keywords: Artificial_Intelligence_quotes AI_quotes Artificial_quotes Intelligence_quotes Superhuman_quotes Infallible_quotes Study_quotes History_quotes Religion_quotes Relevant_quotes Present_quotes Day_quotes Debate_quotes God_quotes

Stephen_Hawking

Fine Tuning

“The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron.... The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.”
  • Source: Stephen Hawking in his book “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes”. Published by Bantam in 1990. ISBN: 9780553346145.
Keywords: Law_quotes Science_quotes Know_quotes Present_quotes Contain_quotes Fundamental_quotes Number_quotes Size_quotes Electric_quotes Charge_quotes Electron_quotes Ratio_quotes Mass_quotes Proton_quotes Remarkable_quotes Fact_quotes Value_quotes Fine_quotes Adjust_quotes Tune_quotes Possible_quotes Make_quotes Development_quotes Life_quotes Universe_quotes

Grace_Hopper

Never Take First No

“Never, never, never take the first no. There are a certain number of people in business, industry, and government who always say no the first time you suggest something new, because they're lazy. And if they say yes, they're going to have to do something about it. But there's another group, they are even more dangerous in a way, who always say no the first time you say something new or different because they want to see if you believe in it enough to come back and ask again. So never take the first no. Always go back and ask again. As a matter of fact, I take about four no's and then I figure out how to get around the guy, but that technique comes with age. I ran into one of these guys... I noticed he always said no to things the first time. So the next time I went in to suggest something I said ‘let's pretend this is the second time I'm presenting this’. I said, ‘you always say no the first time’. And he looked at me with the funniest expression. I had him over the barrel from then on because I'd just go and say, ‘this is the fourth time I'm requesting this, let's just say yes now’. So never, never, never take the first no on a new concept. It's terribly important that we listen to our youngsters.”
  • Source: Grace Hopper in a lecture delivered 1982-08-19 at the NSA (National Security Agency). Video available at YouTube as “NSA Releases Internal 1982 Lecture by Computing Pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper”, channel The Black Vault Originals, online at <https://youtu.be/_bP14OzIJWI?si=wcUTl04b4p4scY6k>, posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. Quote in video at 26:28.
Keywords: Never_quotes First_quotes Yes_quotes No_quotes Certain_quotes People_quotes Business_quotes Industry_quotes Government_quotes Always_quotes Say_quotes Time_quotes Suggest_quotes New_quotes Lazy_quotes Do_quotes Another_quotes Group_quotes Dangerous_quotes Different_quotes See_quotes Believe_quotes Enough_quotes Come_quotes Back_quotes Ask_quotes Figure_quotes Around_quotes Guy_quotes Technique_quotes Age_quotes Pretend_quotes Second_quotes Present_quotes Look_quotes Funny_quotes Expression_quotes Over_quotes Barrel_quotes Fourth_quotes Request_quotes Now_quotes Concept_quotes Terrible_quotes Important_quotes Listen_quotes Youngster_quotes

Pierre-Simon_Laplace

System of Nature

“The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what it was in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence that at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respective position, motions, and general affects of all these entities at any time in the past or future. Physical astronomy, the branch of knowledge that does the greatest honor to the human mind, gives us an idea, albeit imperfect, of what such an intelligence would be. The simplicity of the law by which the celestial bodies move, and the relations of their masses and distances, permit analysis to follow their motions up to a certain point; and in order to determine the state of the system of these great bodies in past or future centuries, it suffices for the mathematician that their position and their velocity be given by observation for any moment in time. Man owes that advantage to the power of the instrument he employs, and to the small number of relations that it embraces in its calculations. But ignorance of the different causes involved in the production of events, as well as their complexity, taken together with the imperfection of analysis, prevents our reaching the same certainty about the vast majority of phenomena. Thus there are things that are uncertain for us, things more or less probable, and we seek to compensate for the impossibility of knowing them by determining their different degrees of likelihood. So it was that we owe to the weakness of the human mind one of the most delicate and ingenious of mathematical theories, the science of chance or probability.”
  • Source: Pierre-Simon Laplace, 'Recherches, 1º, sur l'Intégration des Équations Différentielles aux Différences Finies, et sur leur Usage dans la Théorie des Hasards' (1773, published 1776). In Oeuvres complètes de Laplace, 14 Vols. (1843-1912), Vol. 8, 144-5, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 26.
Keywords: State_quotes Present_quotes System_quotes Nature_quotes Consequence_quotes Moment_quotes Precede_quotes Conceive_quotes Intelligence_quotes Instant_quotes Comprehension_quotes Relationship_quotes Universe_quotes Position_quotes Motion_quotes Causality_quotes Time_quotes Past_quotes Future_quotes Astronomy_quotes Knowledge_quotes Humanity_quotes Mind_quotes Idea_quotes Imperfect_quotes Law_quotes Celestial_quotes Body_quotes Mass_quotes Distance_quotes Analysis_quotes Determine_quotes Century_quotes Mathematics_quotes Velocity_quotes Observation_quotes Advantage_quotes Power_quotes Instrument_quotes Calculation_quotes Ignorance_quotes Cause_quotes Production_quotes Event_quotes Complexity_quotes Certainty_quotes Majority_quotes Phenomena_quotes Probability_quotes Impossibility_quotes Likelihood_quotes Weakness_quotes Theory_quotes Chance_quotes

Plato

Dreaming

“(Socrates) There's a question you must often have heard people ask - the question what evidence we could offer if we were asked whether in this present instant, at this moment, we are asleep and dreaming all our thoughts, or awake and talking to each other in real life.
(Theaetetus) Yes, Socrates, it certainly is difficult to find the proof we want here. The two states seem to correspond in all their characteristics. There is nothing to prevent us from thinking when we are asleep that we are having the very same discussion that we have just had. And when we dream that we are telling the story of a dream, there is an extraordinary likeness between the two experiences.”
  • Source: Plato, 'Theaetetus' 158bc
Keywords: Dreaming_quotes Reality_quotes Question_quotes Hear_quotes People_quotes Evidence_quotes Present_quotes Instant_quotes Moment_quotes Asleep_quotes Sleep_quotes Thought_quotes Awake_quotes Talk_quotes Real_quotes Life_quotes Difficult_quotes Find_quotes Proof_quotes State_quotes Correspond_quotes Characteristic_quotes Prevent_quotes Think_quotes Discussion_quotes Tell_quotes Story_quotes Extraordinary_quotes Likeness_quotes Experience_quotes Socrates(topic)_quotes Theaetetus(topic)_quotes

Michael_Polanyi

Scientific Method Elucidation

“Almost every major systematic error which has deluded men for thousands of years relied on practical experience. Horoscopes, incantations, oracles, magic, witchcraft, the cures of witch doctors and of medical practitioners before the advent of modern medicine, were all firmly established through the centuries in the eyes of the public by their supposed practical successes. The scientific method was devised precisely for the purpose of elucidating the nature of things under more carefully controlled conditions and by more rigorous criteria than are present in the situations created by practical problems.”
  • Source: Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge (1958), 183.
Keywords: Major_quotes System_quotes Error_quotes Delusion_quotes Humanity_quotes Year_quotes Practical_quotes Experience_quotes Horoscope_quotes Incantation_quotes Oracle_quotes Magic_quotes Witchcraft_quotes Cure_quotes Witch-Doctor_quotes Medical_quotes Practitioner_quotes Modern_quotes Medicine_quotes Firm_quotes Establish_quotes Century_quotes Eye_quotes Public_quotes Suppose_quotes Success_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Devise_quotes Precision_quotes Purpose_quotes Elucidate_quotes Nature_quotes Careful_quotes Control_quotes Condition_quotes Rigorous_quotes Criteria_quotes Present_quotes Situation_quotes Create_quotes Problem_quotes Thousand_quotes Doctor_quotes Science_quotes Method_quotes

Nicholas_Rescher

Inherent Unpredictability

“The inherent unpredictability of future scientific developments — the fact that no secure inference can be drawn from one state of science to another — has important implications for the issue of the limits of science. It means that present-day science cannot speak for future science: it is in principle impossible to make any secure inferences from the substance of science at one time about its substance at a significantly different time. The prospect of future scientific revolutions can never be precluded. We cannot say with unblinking confidence what sorts of resources and conceptions the science of the future will or will not use. Given that it is effectively impossible to predict the details of what future science will accomplish, it is no less impossible to predict in detail what future science will not accomplish. We can never confidently put this or that range of issues outside 'the limits of science', because we cannot discern the shape and substance of future science with sufficient clarity to be able to say with any assurance what it can and cannot do. Any attempt to set 'limits' to science — any advance specification of what science can and cannot do by way of handling problems and solving questions — is destined to come to grief.”
  • Source: Nicholas Rescher, The Limits of Science (1984), 102-3.
Keywords: Inherent_quotes Prediction_quotes Unpredictability_quotes Future_quotes Science_quotes Development_quotes Progress_quotes Inference_quotes Conclusion_quotes State_quotes Causality_quotes Importance_quotes Imply_quotes Issue_quotes Limitation_quotes Meaning_quotes Present_quotes Day_quotes Speak_quotes Principle_quotes Impossibility_quotes Substance_quotes Time_quotes Significance_quotes Differences_quotes Prospect_quotes Revolution_quotes Preclude_quotes Blink_quotes Confidence_quotes Resource_quotes Conception_quotes Detail_quotes Accomplish_quotes Range_quotes Shape_quotes Sufficient_quotes Clarity_quotes Assurance_quotes Attempt_quotes Specification_quotes Advance_quotes Handle_quotes Problem_quotes Solution_quotes Question_quotes Destiny_quotes Grief_quotes Secure_quotes Outside_quotes Discern_quotes

Erwin_Schrödinger

Measurement and Observation

“The state of affairs... is often described by saying that, as the technique of measuring is refined, the observer is gradually replaced by more and more elaborate apparatus. Now this is, certainly in the present case, not true; he is not gradually replaced, but is so from the outset... The observer's colourful impression of the phenomenon vouchsafes not the slightest clue to its physical nature.”
  • Source: Erwin Schrödinger in the book “Mind and Matter”, chapter 6. Contained within the anthology “What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches”. Published in 1992 and reprinted in 2013 by Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. ISBN: 9781107604667. Online at <http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/schrodinger-what-is-life-mind-matter-auto-sketches.pdf> retrieved 2024. Note: “Mind and Matter” originally published separately in 1944.
Keywords: State_quotes Affair_quotes Description_quotes Say_quotes Technique_quotes Measurement_quotes Refine_quotes Observation_quotes Observer_quotes Gradual_quotes Replace_quotes Elaborate_quotes Appartus_quotes Certain_quotes Present_quotes Case_quotes True_quotes Outset_quotes Color_quotes Impression_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Vouchsafe_quotes Slight_quotes Clue_quotes Physical_quotes Nature_quotes

Alfred_Tarski

Adequate Truth Definition

“Therefore we can say — considering the failure of previous attempts — that at present we can construct no correct and materially adequate definition of truth for the language under consideration.”
Keywords: Say_quotes Consider_quotes Failure_quotes Previous_quotes Attempt_quotes Present_quotes Construct_quotes Correct_quotes Material_quotes Adequate_quotes Definition_quotes Truth_quotes Language_quotes Under_quotes Consider_quotes

Eugene_Wigner

No Definite Evidence

“[F. Werner, while a student in Princeton,] came to me and expressed his bewilderment with the fact that we make a rather narrow selection when choosing the data on which we test our theories. ‘How do we know that, if we made a theory which focuses its attention on phenomena we disregard and disregards some of the phenomena now commanding our attention, that we could not build another theory which has little in common with the present one but which, nevertheless, explains just as many phenomena as the present theory?' It has to be admitted that we have no definite evidence that there is no such theory.”
  • Source: Eugene Paul Wigner, In 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,' Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics (Feb 1960), 13, No. 1 (February 1960). Collected in Eugene Paul Wigner, A.S. Wightman (ed.), Jagdish Mehra (ed.), The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1955), Vol. 6, 535.
Keywords: Come_quotes Express_quotes Bewilderment_quotes Fact_quotes Narrow_quotes Select_quotes Choose_quotes Data_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Knowledge_quotes Focus_quotes Attention_quotes Phenomena_quotes Disregard_quotes Command_quotes Build_quotes Present_quotes Explanation_quotes Admit_quotes Definite_quotes Evidence_quotes

Steven_Wright

Past Factory

“The Present is a Past factory.”
  • Source: Wright, Steven (2023). A book entitled "Harold". Published 2023 by Simon and Schuster, New York, NY. Page 117. ISBN 13: 978-166802271-9.
    • Weight, Steven (2024). A video clip entitled "I'm Like A Receptionist For My Mind - Steven Wright, After A Few Cups Of Coffee". Posted on [youtube.com] channel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". Posting date circa 2024-01. Video time 7:07.
Keywords: Present_quotes Past_quotes Factory_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Technology Leadership

“The questions that we face today are finally about leadership. Will there be leaders who are able to recognize the historical moment and the choices it presents? Will they find ways to create the organizational conditions in which new visions, new concepts, and a new language of workplace relations can emerge? Will they be able to create organizational innovations that can exploit the unique capacities of the new technology and thus mobilize their organization's productive potential to meet the heightened rigors of global competition? Will there be leaders who understand the crucial role that human beings from each organizational stratum can play in adding value to the production of goods and services? If not, we will be stranded in a new world with old solutions. We will suffer through the unintended consequences of change, because we have failed to understand this technology and how it differs from what came before.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 12. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Technology_quotes Leadership_quotes History_quotes Choice_quotes Organization_quotes Vision_quotes Innovation_quotes Workplace_quotes Language_quotes Exploitation_quotes Potential_quotes Competition_quotes Global_quotes Human_Resources_quotes Production_quotes Goods_quotes Services_quotes World_quotes Obsolescence_quotes Change_quotes Suffering_quotes Stranded_quotes Consequence_quotes Unintentional_quotes Failure_quotes Understanding_quotes Differences_quotes Question_quotes Today_quotes Present_quotes Find_quotes Create_quotes Condition_quotes Concept_quotes Relation_quotes Emerge_quotes Unique_quotes Capability_quotes New_quotes Mobilize_quotes Height_quotes Rigor_quotes Leader_quotes Crucial_quotes Role_quotes Human_quotes Stratum_quotes Play_quotes Add_quotes Value_quotes Old_quotes Solution_quotes
Retrieved from "https://motleybytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Present_quotes&oldid=49582"