"There is only one good - knowledge; and one evil - ignorance."

Socrates

---

Consciousness is mysterious.
Quantum mechanics is mysterious.
By the 'Law of Minimization of Mystery',
if you find two mysteries, maybe they are the same.

David Chalmers at TOWARD A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR CONSCIOUSNESS
April 12-17, 1994 Tucson, AZ
reported by spotter@druggist.gg.caltech.edu (Steve Potter)

---

The term autopoiesis connotes the idea that certain types of system exist in a particular manner - they are self-producing systems. In their operations they continuously produce their own constituents, their own components, which then participate in these same production processes.

Ken Derham <100064.2201@compuserve.com>
(review of SELF-PRODUCING SYSTEMS by John Mingers)

---

"There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference at all."

William James, under the influence of nitrous oxide; 1882 (See also: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96may/nitrous/nitrous.htm and http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/jnitrous.html)

---

"The reasonable man will adjust to the demands of his environment.
The unreasonable man expects his environment to adjust to his own needs.
Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."

George Bernard Shaw

---

Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations we can perform without thinking about them.

Alfred North Whitehead

---

Every philosophy is tinged with the colouring of some secret imaginative background,
which never emerges explicitly into its trains of reasoning.

Alfred North Whitehead

---

God is subtle, but he is not malicious.

Albert Einstein

---

I never said it was possible. I only said it was true.

Charles Richet, Nobel Laureate in Physiology.

---

Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable.
But there it sits nonetheless, calmly licking its chops.

H. L. Mencken

---

Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.

John W. Tukey

---

Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes.

Bertrand Russell

---

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

Bertrand Russell

---

I strongly hold that, if an idea fits with common sense, then scientifically it is almost certain to be false.

Lewis Wolpert

---

"You know what a dumbshit the 'average man' on the street is?
Well, by definition, half of them are even dumber than that!"

J.R. "Bob" Dobbs

---

A little learning is a dangerous thing:
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

Alexander Pope

---

Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.

Epictetus, Discourses. Chap. xvii.

---

What is the first business of one who studies philosophy? To part with self-conceit. For it is impossible for any one to begin to learn what he thinks that he already knows.

Epictetus, How to apply general Principles to particular Cases. Chap. xvii.

---

Better to go in search of the truth than pretend it isn't there

Arthur Dent, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Radio Show, Quandry Phase), by Douglas Adams.

---

See also: My Collected Quotes