Rationality Quotes 19
“I don’t know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something—or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it’s just an ego trip.”
-- Roger Zelazny, Prince of Chaos
“Many assumptions that we have long been comfortable with are lined up like dominoes.”
-- Omega
“I know of no law of logic demanding that every event have a cause.”
-- John K. Clark
“It’s perfectly accurate, the accuracy only possessable by subjunctive syllogisms.”
-- Damien R. Sullivan
“Money makes the world go round. Love just barely keeps it from blowing up.”
-- Unknown
“Soon things got out of hand, where they have remained ever since.”
-- Larry Gonick, The Cartoon History of the Universe
“Finally, ask yourself this: Are you sure you’ve really been abducted by aliens? Do you really want to know? For peace of mind and serenity of spirit, you may only need to remember the following: Ignorance is bliss, Prozac is cheap.”
-- Pat Krass
“So it was that on the ninety-fifth day of false winter in the year 2929 since the founding of Neverness, we vowed above all else to seek wisdom and truth, even though our seeking should lead to our death and to the ruin of all that we loved and held dear.”
-- David Zindell, Neverness
“Money makes the world go round. Love just barely keeps it from blowing up.”
I wonder if the attribution here should read “Anonymous,” or “unknown” with a lowercase-u, to avoid confusion with our Unknown.
I know of no law of logic demanding that every event have a cause Doesn’t your Occamian or Laplacian assumption have something to do with that? It ain’t logic though, I suppose.
Sweet! I’d lost a copy of my exact syllogistic wording.
Who or what is the Omega cited for the quote “Many assumptions that we have long been comfortable with are lined up like dominoes.” ?
Who or what is the Omega cited for the quote “Many assumptions that we have long been comfortable with are lined up like dominoes.” ?
On Zelazny’s quote, the fact that you realize wanting to be a writer is an ego trip, and not as admirable as wanting to write, makes you want to want to write, vs. wanting to want be a writer. But wanting to want X does not mean you want X.
“But wanting to want X does not mean you want X.”
I agree, but would add that having the second-order desire to want to want some noble X is surely nobler than to not have any X-related desires whatsoever. Also, wanting to want X could be an important first step on a journey towards eventually wanting X.
cf. Keith Stanovich