Thomas Nagel Quotes

The universe has become not only conscious and aware of itself but capable in some respects of choosing its path into the future--though all three, the consciousness, the knowledge, and the choice, are dispersed over a vast crowd of beings, acting both individually and collectively.

Thomas Nagel

• Universe
• Choices
• Path
• Acting
• Consciousness
• Conscious
• Capable

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Quotes to Explore

• Going to rehearsals of school plays got me out of science. It became clear what inspired me and what dampened my spirit. The only other thing I could do at school was trampolining - it didn't seem to have much future in it.

  

  Tamsin Greig
  • School
  • Future
  • Science

• Humanity today possesses sufficient economic, cultural and spiritual resources to introduce a better global order.

  

  Hans Kung
  • Today
  • Humanity
  • Spiritual

• If you aren't taking a representative sample, you won't get a representative snapshot.

  

  Nate Silver
  • You
  • Get
  • Representative

• You play a part, and as soon as a movie is over and the camera stops, you go home and you're not really responsible for what you've done.

  Nastassja Kinski
  • Done
  • Home
  • Movie

• Sculpture is the art of the intelligence.

  

  Pablo Picasso
  • Art
  • Intelligence
  • Sculpture

• The pursuit of perfection always implies a definite aristocracy, which is as much a goal of effort as a noble philosophy, an august civil polity or a great art.

  

  Ralph Adams Cram
  • Great
  • Art
  • Effort

• You can't hold up a blog; you can hold up a magazine.

  

  Nancy Gibbs
  • Up
  • You
  • Hold

• But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

  

  Umberto Eco
  • World
  • Believe
  • Truth

• I think of myself as somebody who, in a moment-to-moment way, I'm quite happy. But I think I am a bit doubtful and wary of true happiness, and, like a lot of my friends, there's been a good degree of self-sabotage.

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Good
  • Friends
  • True

• Being an actress in China, I'm actually a very lucky actress... Especially now that Chinese movies are becoming more diverse with more viewers overseas.

  

  Zhou Xun
  • Movies
  • Chinese
  • Lucky

• Since I was 8 months old, till I was 12, I did commercials and ads and cute little stuff for kids. Then I had braces on my teeth. They took them off when I was 16, and then I started modeling more seriously and doing more fashion.

  

  Bar Refaeli
  • Kids
  • Fashion
  • Doing

• And you stood there in front of me justClose enough to touch,Close enough to hope you couldn't seeWhat I was thinking of.Drop everything now,Meet me in the pouring rain.Kiss me on the sidewalk,Take away the pain.'Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile.

  

  Taylor Swift
  • Thinking
  • Hope
  • Pain

• Even the gods cannot change destiny.

  

  Neil Gaiman
  • Destiny

• By and large these attempts to rewrite history were not taken seriously, but it was disconcerting to hear that they had gained even a toehold.

  

  Alastair Reynolds
  • History
  • Taken

• Don’t overestimate your familiarity with technologies you barely understand. It could be your undoing.

  

  Alastair Reynolds

• The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.

  

  Elizabeth Taylor
  • People
  • Pretty
  • Annoying

• My fans get passionate about certain songs.

  

  Jewel Kilcher

• The reason why I found acting is because my father passed away. He passed away really young. I was going to go to med school. My father's dream was that all of his kids become doctors. I realized in school I didn't like it. When he died, it was like a wake-up call. Life is too short to do something you don't want to do.

  

  Adepero Oduye
  • Life
  • Up
  • School

• Nothing is more important to national security and the making and conduct of good policy than timely, accurate, and relevant intelligence. Nothing is more critical to accurate and relevant intelligence than independent analysis.

  

  Dennis C. Blair
  • Good
  • Important
  • Independent

• I joined the board of the Santa Fe Institute.

  

  Esther Dyson
  • Board
  • Joined

• As to the most prudent logicians might venture to deduce from a skein of wool the probable existence of a sheep; so you, from the raw stuff of perception, may venture to deduce a universe which transcends the reproductive powers of your loom.

  

  Logic
  • May
  • Universe
  • Perception

• All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.

  

  Douglas Adams
  • Great
  • Logic

• The universe has become not only conscious and aware of itself but capable in some respects of choosing its path into the future--though all three, the consciousness, the knowledge, and the choice, are dispersed over a vast crowd of beings, acting both individually and collectively.

  

  Thomas Nagel
  • Universe
  • Choices
  • Path