Brian Christian Quotes

Everything starts to break down, however, when a species gains language. What we talk about isn’t what we experience—we speak chiefly of interesting things, and those tend to be things that are uncommon.

Brian Christian

• Experience
• Language
• Breakdown

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Quotes to Explore

• If even in science there is no a way of judging a theory but by assessing the number, faith and vocal energy of its supporters, then this must be even more so in the social sciences: truth lies in power.

  

  Imre Lakatos
  • Power
  • Truth
  • Science

• The poorer people and criminals of Mexico who are not very religious but not quite atheists, either, worship Saint Death.

  

  Karl Pilkington
  • People
  • Death
  • Religious

• One reason why I don't drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time.

  

  Nancy Astor
  • Time
  • Good
  • Reason

• I tried the broadcasting thing, the coaching thing, but I'll never replace the competitive feeling of being out on the field when we were players.

  

  Gary Carter
  • Feeling
  • Never
  • Coaching

• What there is no dispute about is whether or not China is a currency manipulator. They are a currency manipulator. They actively intervene every single day to keep the value of their currency less than it would be against the dollar than if it floated freely. We think. Even China barely disputes that.

  

  Adam Davidson
  • Think
  • Single
  • Day

• The idea that modernisation makes for enhanced national power and rapid progress and helps everyone achieve greater happiness has its origins in the astonishing political, economic and military successes of western Europe in the 19th century.

  

  Pankaj Mishra
  • Power
  • Political
  • Happiness

• Thousands of years ago, civilizations flourished in Africa which suffer not at all by comparison with those of other continents. In those centuries, Africans were politically free and economically independent. Their social patterns were their own and their cultures truly indigenous.

  

  Haile Selassie
  • Free
  • Independent
  • Africa

• Those darker sides, the things that we don't want to admit about ourselves - that's what excites me.

  

  Tatiana Maslany
  • Want
  • Me
  • Admit

• It's like that Simpsons joke - they're filming a cow in a movie and they go, 'OK, we'll tape a bunch of cats together to make a cow', and it's like, 'Why don't you just use a cow?'. For some reason that is novel - like, 'Oh, my guitar sounds like a piano and now if I can just get my piano to sound like my guitar'.

  

  Ian Williams Battles
  • Why
  • Together
  • Movie

• I believe in a strong national defense. But it's my belief that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan poses a threat to national security, and we shouldn't be involved in either area.

  

  Gary Johnson
  • Believe
  • Strong
  • Security

• My stepdad is a Patriots fan, so I've become a Pats fan, too.

  

  Victoria Justice
  • Fan
  • Become
  • Patriots

• We have international standards regulating everything from t-shirts to toys to tomatoes. There are international regulations for furniture. That means there are common standards for the global trade in armchairs but not the global trade in arms.

  

  Ban Ki-moon
  • Everything
  • Furniture
  • Toys

• We've only made three investments: Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga.

  

  Yuri Milner
  • Made
  • Three
  • Facebook

• I think I've done everything on 'The X Factor' apart from the cleaning.

  

  Olly Murs
  • Done
  • Think
  • Cleaning

• Failure means a stripping away of the inessential.

  

  Joanne Rowling
  • Failure
  • Means
  • Away

• I just was mesmerized by all of this life everywhere I looked. And so I wanted to be a marine biologist.

  

  Edith Widder
  • Life
  • Wanted
  • Just

• Once, there was a time in Jerusalem of brotherhood and peace: cultures and languages lived side by side and not one at the expense of the other.

  

  Yitzhak Navon
  • Time
  • Peace
  • Brotherhood

• I do think that there is such a thing as human nature, and that the things that we have in common are perhaps greater than the things that divide us.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • Nature
  • Think
  • Human Nature

• Hell is gone and heaven's here,there’s nothing left for you to fear.

  

  Robbie Williams Take That
  • Fear
  • Heaven

• Weirdly, there have been a lot of critics of conservatism, but very few critics of innovation. As a culture, we are deeply paranoid about politics, but we gaze upon innovation with rapturous adulation.

  

  Jill Lepore
  • Culture
  • Innovation

• I was booed at the premiere of 'Miss Julie,' a remarkably stimulating experience.

  

  Ingmar Bergman
  • Experience
  • Miss
  • Julie

• Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.

  

  Anthony Robbins
  • Life
  • Experience
  • Friends

• When I became a 'rock musician,' I assumed pop music was easy to write and that interesting rock music, or alternative music, was hard. It was only later I realised that writing a pop song is the hardest thing musically.

  

  Kevin Parker Tame Impala
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Song

• Everything starts to break down, however, when a species gains language. What we talk about isn’t what we experience—we speak chiefly of interesting things, and those tend to be things that are uncommon.

  

  Brian Christian
  • Experience
  • Language
  • Breakdown