UNIVERSE QUOTES
quotations about the Universe
Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect.
FREEMAN DYSON
"Progress in Religion"
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
EDEN PHILLPOTTS
A Shadow Passes
If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we would know the mind of God.
STEPHEN HAWKING
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes big round numbers.
SCOTT ADAMS
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me.
BLAISE PASCAL
Pensées
Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
ALAN WATTS
attributed, Use The Force: A Jedi's Guide to the Law of Attraction
All things are connected with all things throughout the universe, from the insect to the archangel; from the sand-grain to the mountain and the globe; from the dew-drop to the ocean; from the rain-drop to the rainbow; from the pebble on the shore to 'the sun that blazes in the firmament; from the zephyr that sings among the flowers of the field to the ocean that pours its wild bass in the great anthem of nature. Not only are all things connected with all things, but there is a concatenation of events, so that the character and effects of no one event can terminate in itself. As each event owes some portion of its nature to that which preceded it, so it imparts some of its nature to that which succeeds it, and thus perpetuates the blended good or evil of itself and its predecessors. The single event may thus live on in its influence along the line of all the ages, assuming new shapes, or if clothing itself in the drapery of new events, ever marching onward and upward in the continually growing affairs of time.
JOHN LANAHAN
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
C. S. LEWIS
Mere Christianity
It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil -- which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.
RICHARD FEYNMAN
attributed, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.
JOHN LENNON
"Across the Universe"
Look inside yourself and you can see the universe.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Harkonnen
The universe is like a river. The river keeps on flowing. It doesn't care whether you are happy or sad, good or bad; it just keeps flowing. Some people go down to the river and they cry. Some people go down to the river and they are happy, but the river doesn't care; it just keeps flowing. We can use it and enjoy it, or we can jump in and drown. The river just keeps flowing because it is impersonal, and so it is with the universe. The universe that we live in can support us or destroy us. It's our interpretation and use of the laws that determine our effects or results.
ROBERT ANTHONY
Beyond Positive Thinking
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
attributed, 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
The universe is a vast system of exchange. Every artery of it is in motion, throbbing with reciprocity, from the planet to the rotting leaf. The vapor climbs the sunbeam, and comes back in blessings upon the exhausted herb. The exhalation of the plant is wafted to the ocean. And so goes on the beautiful commerce of nature. And all because of dissimilarity--because no one thing is sufficient in itself, but calls for the assistance of something else, and repays by a contribution in turn.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.
CARL SAGAN
Cosmos
We must not look round on the universe with awe, and on man with scorn; for man, who can comprehend the universe and its laws, is greater than the universe, which cannot comprehend itself.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING
Thoughts
The universe is simmering down, like a giant stew left to cook for four billion years. Sooner or later we won't be able to tell the carrots from the onions.
HENRI BERGSON
The World Within the World
The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms.
LAO TZU
attributed, From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory
So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?
STEPHEN HAWKING
A Brief History of Time
Instead of being overwhelmed by the universe, I think that perhaps one of the deepest experiences a scientist can have, almost approaching a religious awakening, is to realize that we are children of the stars, and that our minds are capable of understanding the universal laws that they obey. The atoms within our bodies were forged on the anvil of nucleo-synthesis within an exploding star aeons before the birth of the solar system. Our atoms are older than the mountains. We are literally made of star dust. Now these atoms, in turn, have coalesced into intelligent beings capable of understanding the universal laws governing that event.
MICHIO KAKU
Hyperspace