Thomas Nagel Quotes
It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naïve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.
Quotes to Explore
-
Time has lost all meaning in that nightmare alley of the Western world known as the American mind.
-
You just try to play tough and focus point for point. Sounds so boring, but it's the right thing to do out there.
-
Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do.
-
Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude.
-
I love speaking at schools. That's always my favorite because I wish I'd had someone who was like me come speak at my school.
-
I live in a bus and go from place to place and sometimes feel very detached from what's going on.
-
I actually have no style whatsoever. I'm the worst. I have people I talk to, and I say, 'Please tell me how to dress because I don't know what I'm doing.' The biggest thing for me is my mom. I'm like, 'Mom, do I look good?' If she says yes, I'm good to go.
-
Nothing leads so straight to futility as literary ambitions without systematic knowledge.
-
I ain't want my kids to grow up and call me Thug. I don't want anybody to kind of look at me like that. So I'm gonna just use my real name.
-
There's been an unfortunate history of efforts to make sure Florida's votes don't count. Given that history, it's clear why people here would be especially concerned about efforts undertaken by Super PACs and the corporations that fund them to dictate the outcome of elections.
-
Machines built by human beings they will function correctly if we provide them with a very specific environment. But if that environment is changed, they won't function at all.
-
If I've inadvertently become some sort of role model for failed comedians, then it's really backfired very badly on me.
-
One of my favorite comedies is 'Groundhog Day' and 'Scrooged.' I love Bill Murray, and I think he's a great example of an actor who is funny.
-
I had a suit made for me when I was five. It was double-breasted, mohair and purple. My mother was very particular about clothing - it always used to have to go back into the plastic and it used to drive me insane.
-
Life would have been absolutely empty without imagination.
-
Patience is the secret to good food.
-
Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.
-
My coherence-creating groups are going to put out all this mischief-mongership in the world.
-
You reduce illegal immigration by making it harder to get jobs here, or easier to get jobs south of the border. This idea that we can't pass an immigration law until we hit some imaginary security target is just a way to derail reform.
-
My mother felt we'd be earning a living during our entire adult lives, and therefore believed we should spend summers in learning activities. Consequently, I got to see a plate glass factory in Pittsburgh, a U.S. Steel plant, and how Heinz made ketchup.
-
Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.
-
Let us get together with other people of our sort and make over the world into a great world-civilization that will enable us to realize the promises and avoid the dangers of this new time.
-
Seeing a patter doesn't mean you know how to put it all together. Take baby steps: don't focus on the folks whose skills are far beyond your own. When you're new to something-or you haven't tried it in a while-it can feel impossibly hard to get it right. Every misstep feels like a reason to quit. You envy everyone else who seems to know what they're doing. What keeps you going? The belief that one day you'll also be like that: Elegant. Capable. Confident. Experienced. And you can be. All you need now is enthusiasm. A little bravery. And-always-a sense of humor.
-
It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naïve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.
