Lewis Thomas Quotes

Statistically the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you would think the mere fact of existence would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise. We are alive against the stupendous odds of genetics, infinitely outnumbered by all the alternates who might, except for luck, be in our places.

Lewis Thomas

• Small
• Luck

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Quotes to Explore

• I was so proud when I was commissioned into the Army.

  

  Tammy Duckworth
  • Proud
  • Army
  • Commissioned

• Appearance is something absolute, but reality is not that way - everything is interdependent, not absolute. So that view is very helpful to maintain a peace of mind because the main destroyer of a peaceful mind is anger.

  

  Dalai Lama
  • Mind
  • Reality
  • Peace

• I wasn't thinking of a sequel when I finished 'Life Class.' What changed my mind was the perception that the characters had a lot of life left in them, a lot of unresolved conflicts, and also I became interested in the Tonks pastel portraits of facially disfigured soldiers and in the whole area of facial reconstruction.

  

  Pat Barker
  • Life
  • Thinking
  • Mind

• There comes a time when money doesn't matter.

  

  Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
  • Time
  • Money
  • Matter

• Every so often when I'm writing, a character might actually be a distinct person in my head - often not an actor or a face, literally a person who just seems to exist in my imagination. Then the challenge is finding somebody who is close enough to that to make me feel like I've ended up where I wanted to be.

  

  Callie Khouri
  • Up
  • Writing
  • Character

• It used to hurt me that people thought I didn't have the technique and the temperament to play Test cricket.

  

  Gautam Gambhir
  • People
  • Hurt
  • Thought

• The soul is part of the body. The mind is part of the body. When folks do physical violence to black people, to black bodies in this country, the soul as we construe it is damaged, too - the mind is damaged, too.

  

  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • People
  • Country
  • Mind

• Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career.

  

  Orison Swett Marden
  • Career
  • You
  • Analyzing

• You're either with me or you're not. And if you're not, you're out.

  

  Eddie Perez
  • You
  • Me
  • Either

• And I had a lot to play, which is what you want as an actor.

  

  Ted Shackelford
  • Want
  • You
  • Play

• I had a monumental idea this morning, but I didn't like it.

  

  Samuel Goldwyn
  • Morning
  • Like
  • Idea

• A journalist covering politics, most of us are aware of the necessity to try to be sure we're unbiased in our reporting. That's one of the fundamentals of good journalism.

  

  Walter Cronkite
  • Good
  • Politics
  • Journalism

• To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • True
  • Happy
  • Pain

• I was a boy with one dream and one dream only: I wanted - no, strike that, I was desperate for - a room of my own. You see, in those days I shared a room with my little brother, Jesse, and it wasn't pretty. He was the Oscar to my Felix: messy, careless, and just a little bit sticky - exactly the way a kindergartner is supposed to be.

  

  Nate Berkus
  • Pretty
  • Dream
  • Boy

• I've never been against women. That anti-feminist rap is bogus. I think men should be nice to women, buy them diamonds.

  

  Sam Kinison
  • Men
  • Women
  • Nice

• I wanted to make it a really strong point to not watch 'Battlestar Galactica' before starting 'Caprica' because I was afraid it was going to give me a lot of pressure and preconceived notions of what it was going to be like.

  

  Magda Apanowicz
  • Strong
  • Afraid
  • Pressure

• My parents, particularly my father, had been used by commentators, political journalists and political commentators, to attack me, and the collateral damage was the reputations of my father and my mother.

  

  Karl Rove
  • Mother
  • Father
  • Parents

• The greatest benefit of being a solo performer is that it is seriously frightening, but at the same time very empowering. It's just you and the audience. All the weight is on you to deliver the songs.

  

  Zola Jesus
  • Time
  • You
  • Greatest

• Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.

  

  W. Clement Stone
  • May
  • Star
  • Moon

• When you go in and do a cool, small character, it feels less like work and more like fun.

  

  Balthazar Getty
  • Work
  • Character
  • Fun

• I realized that I was African when I came to the United States. Whenever Africa came up in my college classes, everyone turned to me. It didn't matter whether the subject was Namibia or Egypt; I was expected to know, to explain.

  

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Up
  • College

• Some of the best scams that you get are the ones that pretend to come from friends of yours, because you can just say anything you want, because a scammer has no idea about your relationship with that person.

  

  James Veitch
  • Friends
  • Relationship

• Statistically the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you would think the mere fact of existence would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise. We are alive against the stupendous odds of genetics, infinitely outnumbered by all the alternates who might, except for luck, be in our places.

  

  Lewis Thomas
  • Small
  • Luck