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  • Alan Lightman Quotes   148
  • In a world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room dark but prepared. We walk from room to room, look into the room that is lit, the present moment, then walk on. We do not know the rooms ahead, but we know we cannot change them. We are spectators of our lives.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Dark Quotes , Looks Quotes
  • I have a family and you know very well the time that that takes. That's good time. I have a couple hobbies. I'm a runner and play tennis. In the summer my family and I uproot ourselves and go live in Maine for the summer. We have a house on a very tiny island in Maine. Which is really my spiritual center. We've been going there for ten years, and it has no ferry service, no bridges, no telephone service. It's really isolated.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Summer Quotes , Spiritual Quotes
  • Although technology is proceeding at a dizzying pace, I believe that the human mind will always have control of itself. And since the human mind has a degree of infinity and imagination unlikely to be matched by a machine for a very, very long time, I don't think that we will become the machines of the machines.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Believe Quotes , Thinking Quotes
  • In this world, time has three dimensions, like space. Just as an object may move in three perpendicular directions, corresponding to horizontal, vertical, and longitudinal, so an object may participate in three perpendicular futures. Each future moves in a different direction of time. Each future is real. At every point of decision, the world splits into three worlds, each with the same people, but different fates for those people. In time, there are an infinity of worlds.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Real Quotes , Moving Quotes
  • I think people all over the institution recognize that different ways of understanding are valuable. Artists may think in a different way than biologists or chemists, but you can learn something from that. It is true that the arts at MIT don't have the same amount of funding or same status as the sciences or engineering.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Art Quotes , Thinking Quotes
  • In a world without future, each parting of friends is a death. In a world without future, each loneliness is final. In a world without future, each laugh is the last laugh. In a world without future, beyond the present lies nothingness, and people cling to the present as if hanging from a cliff.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Lying Quotes , Loneliness Quotes
  • My writings are an exploration, and I think a lot of writers would tell you this, but in writing, you're not simply putting down things that are already known to you. You're actually discovering in the writing process, you're actually creating knowledge.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Writing Quotes , Thinking Quotes
  • Order is the law of nature, the universal trend, the cosmic direction. If time is an arrow, that arrow points toward order. The future is pattern, organization, union, intensification; the past, randomness, confusion, disintegration, dissipation.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Past Quotes , Order Quotes
  • I oppose any belief that contradicts experimental evidence as determined by the methods of science. All beliefs not in such contradiction may be considered as faith. Whether faith in a particular belief is beneficial or not is another matter.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , May Quotes , Matter Quotes
  • Some make light of decisions, arguing that all possible decisions will occur. In such a world, how could one be responsible for his actions? Others hold that each decision must be considered and committed to, that without commitment there is chaos. Such people are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Commitment Quotes , Light Quotes
  • A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable. While people can be doubted, time cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back.
  • 6 years ago



    Tags : Alan Lightman Quotes , Time Quotes , People Quotes