Rationality Quotes 24

Eliezer Yudkowsky24 Jan 2009 4:59 UTC
13 points
7 comments1 min readLW linkArchive

“A wizard may have subtle ways of telling the truth, and may keep the truth to himself, but if he says a thing the thing is as he says. For that is his mastery.”
-- Ursula K. Leguin, A Wizard of Earthsea

“Neurons firing is something even a slug can do, and has as much to do with thinking as walls and doors have to do with a research institute.”
-- Albert Cardona

“Mental toughness and willpower are to living in harmony with the Tao, as the ability to make clever arguments is to rationality.”
-- Marcello Herreshoff

“Destiny always has been something that you tear open with your own hands.”
-- T-Moon Complex X 02

“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then… The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”
-- Pascal, Pensees

“Goals of Man: ☑ Don’t get eaten by a lion ☑ Get out of Africa ☐ Get out of Earth ☐ Get out of Solar System ☐ Get out of Galaxy ☐ Get out of Local Group ☐ Get out of Earth-Visible Universe ☐ Get out of Universe”
-- Knome

Eliezer Yudkowsky24 Jan 2009 4:59 UTC
13 points
7 comments1 min readLW linkArchive