Vaclav Smil Quotes
A useful analogy is to see traditional societies as relying on instantaneous (or minimally delayed) and constantly replenished solar income, while modern civilization is withdrawing accumulated solar capital at rates that will exhaust it in a tiny fraction of the time that was needed to create it.
Quotes to Explore
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Weirdly, often the more I write, the more ideas I have.
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The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.
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I've really been writing a lot of country songs. I used to get criticized for doing a 'Bump & Grind,' then turning around and doing a gospel song. But the truth is I'm glad I have a gift that allows me to switch lanes.
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Because of our social circumstances, male and female are really two cultures and their life experiences are utterly different.
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Some people feel that what we're doing makes no sense, that it's just a waste of money. But it's working.
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My mind boggles at the amount of violence inflicted upon children in today's society.
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Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.
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The hardest thing about being an unpublished writer is that there's always that voice in your head that asks if you're really being a fool. You might just really stink and not know it. You have to have a lot of blind faith in the process. You have to like it so much that you're going to do it anyway.
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That is the effect of my sculptures in the public domain: people are making contact with each other again.
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I'm terrified of walking into a room full of people. Sitting down at a dinner table with 15 strangers brings me out in a sweat.
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I didn't want to do a zoo show. I didn't want to do a study of someone with mental illness. I just wanted to show someone who was trying to live their life.
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Deception can cost billions. Think Enron, Madoff, the mortgage crisis. Or in the case of double agents and traitors, like Robert Hanssen or Aldrich Ames, lies can betray our country. They can compromise our security. They can undermine democracy. They can cause the deaths of those that defend us.
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Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.
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If you don't feel comfortable in a plunging sweater, skin-tight jeans and killer heels, go home and change.
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Science has killed religion. There's no hope for the future with seven billion of us on the planet, and the only thing you can do is to laugh in the face of it all.
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Recently, a friend sent me the online musings of a televangelist who advised his thousands of followers that the Federal Reserve achieved satanic ends by manipulating the world's money supply. Paranoia has replaced piety.
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There's always a theme I'm drawn to, that we humans are not good or bad. We're all a mixture of both. We can have great compassion or commit great violence.
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I never really ate that bad, I just ate too much. It wasn't like I had to switch to whole wheat bread or something like that. I really just had to eat less of what I was eating, and I had to exercise more.
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In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom.
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Try not to have Emily exposed to hours and hours of TV. It is a vile drug which permeates the nervous system, especially in the young.
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It's good to be busy on a film set because there is a lot of sitting around, so if you've got two roles to play at one time, then that's great to do.
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For me, the more time you can take and the more care you can take with songs, the better off you're going to be.
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When you go to a political convention, the best place to spend time is at the numerous parties put on by lobbyists. And you don't go for food. You go to beg for money.
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A useful analogy is to see traditional societies as relying on instantaneous (or minimally delayed) and constantly replenished solar income, while modern civilization is withdrawing accumulated solar capital at rates that will exhaust it in a tiny fraction of the time that was needed to create it.
