Ted Chiang Quotes
What made it possible for me to exercise freedom of choice also made it impossible to know the future. Conversely, now that I know the future, I would never act contrary to that future. ... Those who've read the Book of Ages never admit to it.
Quotes to Explore
-
We say God and the imagination are one... How high that highest candle lights the dark.
-
I love Harlem, it's like a second home to me.
-
Even complex passwords are getting easy to break if they're too short. That's because today's inexpensive computer chips have the power of supercomputers from the year 2000.
-
I have absolutely no regret about my vote against this war. The same questions remain. The cost in human lives, the cost to our budget, probably 100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less.
-
It is by a wise economy of nature that those who suffer without change, and whom no one can help, become uninteresting. Yet so it may happen that those who need sympathy the most often attract it the least.
-
I made my parents crazy. As a kid, I redecorated my bedroom every month. I would literally save my allowance and go buy things.
-
The interaction of the variation in our genes is what's responsible for lots of our attributes and vigor.
-
I was afraid I would see someone from my past who thought I was this big athlete, and then I end up being just normal.
-
Don't underestimate your opponent, but don't overestimate them, either.
-
I think sometimes if you are too interested in day-to-day politics, you lose sight of the long term.
-
Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.
-
There was one man in the Labour government, Robin Cook, whom I had a very high regard for. He had the courage to speak out and to resign over Iraq. He was an admirable man. But resignation over a matter of principle is not a very fashionable thing in our society.
-
Whenever I did sitcoms, that always happened on your show. Once the show was on the air, it takes on a life of its own. It develops, and it becomes something else.
-
Heard in full sound, the Gospels tell about the establishment of a theocracy, and portray what theocracy looks like with Jesus as king.
-
I have a pickup truck. And I prefer to be with dogs or on my sailboat than in a car - actually, more than any other place on Earth.
-
Each generation of scientists stands upon the shoulders of those who have gone before.
-
Dance has always been my number one. I started when I was seven years old and I've had the opportunity to work with some really amazing artists.
-
The good romances are as good as anything.
-
Angry people are not beautiful.
-
Plato's philosophy is a dignified preface to future religion.
-
Academics love to make theories about a body of work, but each book consumes the writer and is the sum of his or her world.
-
We really can't tell the difference between people who might seek power for some greater good and people who seek power just to aggrandize themselves. For example, all revolutionaries say that they want to uplift the downtrodden.
-
Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent; it came from the pit, no matter how beautiful it sounds.
-
What made it possible for me to exercise freedom of choice also made it impossible to know the future. Conversely, now that I know the future, I would never act contrary to that future. ... Those who've read the Book of Ages never admit to it.
