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Linus Pauling

Linus Carl Pauling (February 28 1901 – August 19 1994) was an American chemist and biochemist, a pioneer in the application of quantum mechanics to chemistry, and one of the founders of molecular biology. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962; he is the only person in history to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes.

Quotes

 * A substance showing resonance between two or more valence-bond structures does not contain molecules with the configurations and properties usually associated with these structures.
 * The Nature of Chemical Bond (1939), Ch 14. A Summarizing Discussion of Resonance and Its Significance for Chemistry.

1940s-1970s

 * Science cannot be stopped. Man will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences – and we cannot predict what they will be. Science will go on — whether we are pessimistic, or are optimistic, as I am. I know that great, interesting, and valuable discoveries can be made and will be made… But I know also that still more interesting discoveries will be made that I have not the imagination to describe — and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm.
 * Lecture at Yale University, "Chemical Achievement and Hope for the Future." (October 1947) Published in Science in Progress. Sixth Series. Ed. George A. Baitsell. 100-21, (1949).

 * We may, I believe, anticipate that the chemist of the future who is interested in the structure of proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides, and other complex substances with high molecular weight will come to rely upon a new structural chemistry, involving precise geometrical relationships among the atoms in the molecules and the rigorous application of the new structural principles, and that great progress will be made, through this technique, in the attack, by chemical methods, on the problems of biology and medicine.
 * Nobel Lecture (11 December 1954).

 * We must not have a Nuclear war. We must begin to solve international disputes by the application of man's power of reason in a way that is worthy of the dignity of man. We must solve them by arbitration, negotiation, and the development of international law, the making of international agreements that will do justice to all nations and to all peoples and will benefit all nations and to all people. Now is the time to start.
 * Debating Edward Teller, in The Nuclear Bomb Tests...Is Fallout Overrated? : Fallout and Disarmament KQED-TV, San Francisco (20 February 1958).

 * The power to destroy the world by the use of nuclear weapons is a power that cannot be used - we cannot accept the idea of such monstrous immorality. The time has now come for morality to take its proper place in the conduct of world affairs; the time has now come for the nations of the world to submit to the just regulation of their conduct by international law.
 * The only sane policy for the world is that of abolishing war.
 * Nobel Lecture for The Nobel Peace Prize 1962 (11 December 1963).
 * Everyone should know that the "war on cancer" is largely a fraud, and that the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society are derelict in their duties to the people who support them.
 * Everyone should know that the "war on cancer" is largely a fraud, and that the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society are derelict in their duties to the people who support them.

1990s

 * I realized that more and more I was saying, "It seems to me that we have come to the time war ought to be given up. It no longer makes sense to kill 20 million or 40 million people because of a dispute between two nations who are running things, or decisions made by the people who really are running things. It no longer makes sense. Nobody wins. Nobody benefits from destructive war of this sort and there is all of this human suffering." And Einstein was saying the same thing of course. So that is when we decided — my wife and I — that first, I was pretty effective as a speaker. Second, I better start boning up, studying these other fields so that nobody could stand up and say, "Well, the authorities say such and such "
 * Interview at Big Sur, California (11 November 1990).

 * I've been asked from time to time, "How does it happen that you have made so many discoveries? Are you smarter than other scientists?" And my answer has been that I am sure that I am not smarter than other scientists. I don't have any precise evaluation of my IQ, but to the extent that psychologists have said that my IQ is about 160, I recognize that there are one hundred thousand or more people in the United States that have IQs higher than that. So I have said that I think I think harder, think more than other people do, than other scientists. That is, for years, almost all of my thinking was about science and scientific problems that I was interested in.
 * Interview at Big Sur, California (11 November 1990).

 * As far as women are concerned, I am old-fashioned enough to like the idea of a woman's managing the household. This is an important activity. A woman does not have to be a bank vice-president to find happiness. I should think routine work like sitting at a desk writing letters, making reports, or punching data into computers would be much less interesting and satisfying than running a home.
 * A Lifelong Quest for Peace (1992) by Linus Pauling and Daisaku Ikeda
 * If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.
 * As quoted by Francis Crick in his presentation "The Impact of Linus Pauling on Molecular Biology" (1995).

 * I have always wanted to know as much as possible about the world.
 * Linus Pauling In His Own Words (1995) by Barbara Marinacci ISBN 0684813874.

 * Only when I began studying chemical engineering at Oregon Agricultural College did I realize that I myself might discover something new about the nature of the world.
 * Linus Pauling In His Own Words (1995) by Barbara Marinacci.

 * When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him carefully and with respect — but do not believe him. Never put your trust into anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter whether he has gray hair or has lost his hair, no matter whether he is a Nobel laureate — may be wrong. The world progresses, year by year, century by century, as the members of the younger generation find out what was wrong among the things that their elders said. So you must always be skeptical — always think for yourself.
 * Linus Pauling: Scientist and Peacemaker (2001) by Clifford Mead and Thomas Hager.

 * What astonished me was the very low toxicity of a substance that has such very great physiological power. A little pinch, 5 mg, every day, is enough to keep a person from dying of pellagra, but it is so lacking in toxicity that ten thousand times as much can be taken without harm.'''
 * Statement about vitamin B3, (either niacin or niacinamide), in How to Live Longer and Feel Better (1986), Avon Books, ISBN 0-380-70289-4, p. 24.

 * I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this: "Do unto others twenty-five percent better than you expect them to do unto you." … The twenty-five percent is for error.
 * Pauling's reply to an audience question about his ethical system, following his lecture circa 1961 at Monterey Peninsula College, in Monterey, California.

 * Just think of the differences today. A young person gets interested in chemistry and is given a chemical set. But it doesn't contain potassium cyanide.  It doesn't even contain copper sulfate or anything else interesting because all the interesting chemicals are considered dangerous substances.  Therefore, these budding young chemists don't get a chance to do anything engrossing with their chemistry sets. As I look back, I think it is pretty remarkable that Mr. Ziegler, this friend of the family, would have so easily turned over one-third of an ounce of potassium cyanide to me, an eleven-year-old boy.
 * Linus Pauling In His Own Words (1995) by Barbara Marinacci, p. 29.

Quotes about Pauling

 * Alphabetized by author

 * He combined scientific brilliance, political courage, and a stubborn, quirky single-mindedness in ways that... will probably always resist simple explanation.
 * Jeremy Bernstein, in The New York Review of Books (16 November 1995).

 * Linus Pauling was not always right in his ideas. But my belief is that, in most cases, if somebody is always right in his ideas you find that he does not have much to say. It is an expression of somebody's fertility that he does produce quite a number of ideas, and I think Linus Pauling's score is pretty high... I do not think, as I said earlier, that it is right to discuss the impact of Linus Pauling on molecular biology. Rather, he was one of the founders of molecular biology. It was not that it existed in some way, and he simply made a contribution. He was one of the founders who got the whole discipline going.
 * Francis Crick, "The Impact of Linus Pauling on Molecular Biology" (1995).

 * Whatever the context and whatever the audience, he was clear, he was committed, he was compassionate, and, far more often than most, he was right — or if not, at least on the side of the angels.
 * Derek A. Davenport, The Many Lives of Linus Pauling: A Review of Reviews. Derek A. Davenport. J. Chem. Educ. 1996. 73, A212.

 * If there is a need for a universal hero, it is easy to see why Linus Pauling would be nominated for the role. In many ways he seemed larger than life.
 * Ted and Ben Goertzel, "Introduction", in Linus Pauling : A Life in Science and Politics.

 * While still in his twenties, he became a world famous scientist... His work in chemical biology, done during the middle years of his life, was almost equally outstanding... Pauling was also acclaimed for his activism as a citizen, although his activities were controversial.
 * Ted and Ben Goertzel, "Introduction", in Linus Pauling : A Life in Science and Politics.

 * He used his scientific credentials to challenge the government's claims that fallout from nuclear testing was not harmful.
 * Ted and Ben Goertzel, "Introduction", in Linus Pauling : A Life in Science and Politics.

 * The right wing of the 1950s denounced Pauling as a Communist, or at the least a fellow traveler. Pauling and his wife were, in fact, openly active in several organizations dominated by Soviet sympathizers, as well as dozens of others. But they were never apologists for the Soviet party line, or any other organizational dogma, nor did Pauling refrain from challenging the Soviets when he thought them wrong.
 * Ted and Ben Goertzel, "Introduction", in Linus Pauling : A Life in Science and Politics.

 * Then, at the peak of his prestige and renown, instead of settling into a comfortable elder statesman role, Pauling shocked his friends and admirers by launching a crusade to prove that vitamin C would cure the common cold... While Pauling quickly recognized his error on DNA, accepting it as the kind of mistake any scientist can make and more or less discarding his previous ideas about vitamin treatment of schizophrenia, he never abandoned his claims about vitamin C and the treatment of cancer, and in the last years of his life he felt vindicated when a national medical conference gave him a standing ovation, claiming that "Pauling was right all along."
 * Ted and Ben Goertzel, "Introduction", in Linus Pauling : A Life in Science and Politics.

 * Pauling was not superhuman, but he was a very great man, with an extraordinarily sharp and creative mind, a firm inner determination, and a strong moral sense. His life holds many lessons and poses many intriguing questions for all of us.
 * Ted and Ben Goertzel, "Introduction", in Linus Pauling : A Life in Science and Politics.

 * Pauling scooped out a hollow on the narrow ledge and covered himself with a big map he carried in his pocket. He dared not sleep because of the cold. He counted in French and German and Italian to keep himself awake; he exercised as he lay in his narrow quarters. He told the unheeding ocean about the nature of the chemical bond. When the stars came out, he sighted the end of his walking stick and tried to tell time by the constellations. He recited the periodic table of the elements. He grew more and more anxious, not for himself, since he knew he would eventually be found, but for Ava Helen, whom he could not tell that he was uncomfortable, but unharmed. He was chagrined by his predicament….
 * Ted and Ben Goertzel, recounting an incident on a cliff at Pauling's ranch, in Linus Pauling : A Life in Science and Politics.

 * Linus Pauling undoubtedly stands as one of the most influential scientists of the twentieth century.
 * Zelek S. Herman, The Chemical Intelligencer (1996). Herman, Z. S., 2(2), 57–58. Quoted in: The Many Lives of Linus Pauling: A Review of Reviews, by Derek A. Davenport. Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 73, No. 9, September 1996, p. A212.

 * Although Pauling was often controversial and was sometimes criticized in both scientific and political arenas, it is incontrovertible that he had a major impact on science, education, and international peace.
 * Harden M. McConnell, Science (1990) 271, 603–604. Quoted in: The Many Lives of Linus Pauling: A Review of Reviews, by Derek A. Davenport. Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 73, No. 9, September 1996, p. A212.

 * As my father's son I am certainly among his fondest admirers. Now I have ample evidence that all over the nation, and elsewhere in the world, innumerable people share my affection and admiration in their own ways. They not only admire but love him. They have read his books and articles, have seen him on television, have attended meetings where he spoke, or by chance sat next to him at a banquet or on the airplane. A number have received personal messages from him or talked with him over the phone. They feel a personal connection, a strong bond, with his values-his valiant anti-nuclear-testing stance, his dedication to world peace, his emphasis on vitamin C as a valuable nutrient for both prevention and treatment of disease, his compassion for the human condition of suffering. For a number of our supporters, Linus Pauling may be the closest embodiment, in this age of uncertainty, amorality, and constant conflict, of a living universal hero.
 * Linus Pauling, Jr., 1993, quoted in Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics by Ted Goertzel and Ben Goertzel with the assistance of Mildred Goertzel, Victor Goertzel.

 * From time to time throughout his long life, scientists and commentators dismissed him as a showman. Would that we had a whole troupe of such scientific showmen.
 * John Allen Paulos, “Pauling’s Prizes”, The New York Times Book Review (5 November 1995).

 * The esteem with which he was regarded was vividly illustrated to me in 1951 when, as a postdoctoral fellow of Pauling's, I visited Albert Einstein in Princeton. Einstein's comment to me was "Ah, that man is a real genius!"
 * Alexander Rich, "Obituary: Linus Pauling (1901–1994)", Nature, Vol. 371 (22 September 1994), p. 285.

 * An extraordinary person — a scientist, educator, humanist, and statesman with worldwide impact in each of these roles.
 * John D. Roberts, Chemical & Engineering News (1996), 74(17), 47–49. Quoted in: The Many Lives of Linus Pauling: A Review of Reviews, by Derek A. Davenport. Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 73, No. 9, September 1996, p. A212.

 * In spite of our advances... there is no scientific evidence that can convince... more potently than a sincere and emotional testimonial. Such... does not always come from the regular guy... Linus Pauling... was said to believe in vitamin C's medicinal properties, himself ingesting massive doses. With his bully pulpit, he contributed to the common belief in vitamin C's curative properties. Many medical studies, unable to replicate Pauling's claims, fell on dear ears as it was difficult to undo the testimonial by a "Nobel Prize winner," even if he was not qualified to discuss matters related to medicine.
 * Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (2001), Nine: It is Easier to Buy and Sell than to Fry an Egg | Comparative Luck | Cancer Cures.

 * If we stay strong, then I believe we can stabilize the world and have peace based on force. Now, peace based on force is not as good as peace based on agreement, but in the terrible world in which we live, in the world where the Russians have enslaved many millions of human beings, in the world where they have killed men, I think that for the time being the only peace we can have is the peace based on force. Furthermore, I do not think that this peace based on force is, can be, or should be, an ultimate end. Our ultimate end must be precisely what Dr. Pauling says, peace based on agreement, on understanding, on universally agreed and enforced law. I think this is a wonderful idea, but peace based on force buys the necessary time, and in this time we can work for better understanding, for closer collaboration, first with the countries which are closest to us, which we understand better, our allies, the western countries, the NATO countries, which believe in human liberties as we do. Then, as soon as possible, with the rest of the free world, and eventually, I hope, with the whole world, including Russia, even though it may take many years to come.
 * Edward Teller, Debating Linus Pauling, in The Nuclear Bomb Tests...Is Fallout Overrated? : Fallout and Disarmament KQED-TV, San Francisco (20 February 1958)

 * I don't want to kill anybody. I am passionately opposed to killing, but I'm even more passionately fond of freedom. The freedom of Dr. Pauling and of myself expressing our opinions freely on any subject, however broad, however far removed of our proper competence, but particularly, to be able to express our opinions in the fields we really know; this would not be possible in Russia.
 * Edward Teller, Debating Linus Pauling, in The Nuclear Bomb Tests...Is Fallout Overrated? : Fallout and Disarmament KQED-TV, San Francisco (20 February 1958)

title: Linus Pauling


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Peter Agre

Peter Agre (born 30 January 1949) is an American biologist and winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with Roderick MacKinnon.

Quotes

 * The need for general scientific understanding by the public has never been larger, and the penalty for scientific illiteracy never harsher… Lack of scientific fundamentals causes people to make foolish decisions about issues such as the toxicity of chemicals, the efficacy of medicines, the changes in the global climate.
 * Peter Agre's speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 2003

 * Our single greatest defense against scientific ignorance is education, and early in the life of every scientist, the child's first interest was sparked by a teacher.
 * Peter Agre's speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 2003

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Peter Agre


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Justus von Liebig

Justus von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry and worked on the organization of organic chemistry.

Quotes

 * Chemistry, in its application to animals and vegetables. Endeavours jointly with physiology to enlighten us respecting the mysterious processes and sources of organic life.
 * Familiar Letters on Chemistry (London, 1854).

 * The acquisition of a new truth is like the acquisition of a new sense, which renders a man capable and recognizing a large number of phenomena that are hidden from another, as they were from him originally.
 * Chemische Briefe (1851) Full Text (quote's translation probably by Martin H. Fischer); quoted in Physical Chemistry in the Service of Medicine (1907), Wolfgang Pauli, p. 71, tr. by Martin H. Fischer. Full Text.

 * To investigate the essence of a natural phenomenon, three conditions are necessary: We must first study and know the phenomenon itself, from all sides; we must then determine in what relation it stands to other natural phenomena; and lastly, when we have ascertained all these relations, we have to solve the problem of measuring these relations and the laws of mutual dependence—that is, of expressing them in numbers. In the first period of chemistry, all the powers of men's minds were devoted to acquiring a knowledge of the properties of bodies; it was necessary to discover, observe, and ascertain their peculiarities. This is the alchemistical period. The second period embraces the determination of the mutual relations or connections of these properties; this is the period of phlogistic chemistry. In the third period, in which we now are, we ascertain by weight and measure and express in numbers the degree in which the properties of bodies are mutually dependent. The inductive sciences begin with the substance itself, then come just ideas, and lastly, mathematics are called in, and with the aid of numbers, complete the work.
 * Familiar Letters on Chemistry, Tr. Blythe, 4th ed., London, 1859, p. 60 as quoted by John Theodore Merz, A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century Vol.1 (1903).

title: Justus von Liebig


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Michio Kaku

Michio Kaku (ミチオ カク) (born 24 January 1947) is a Japanese American theoretical physicist, tenured professor and co-creator of string field theory.

Quotes

 * If you could meet your grandkids as elderly citizens in the year 2100 … you would view them as being, basically, Greek gods… that's where we're headed.
 * "Captain Michio and the World of Tomorrow" in The Wall Street Journal (9 March 2012)

 * We actually have a candidate for the mind of God. The mind of God we believe is cosmic music, the music of strings resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace. That is the mind of God.
 * Math is the Mind of God (29 December 2012)

 * I say looking at the next 100 years that there are two trends in the world today. The first trend is toward what we call a type one civilization, a planetary civilization... The danger is the transition between type zero and type one and that’s where we are today. We are a type zero civilization. We get our energy from dead plants, oil and coal. But if you get a calculator you can calculate when we will attain type one status. The answer is: in about 100 years we will become planetary. We’ll be able to harness all the energy output of the planet earth. We’ll play with the weather, earthquakes, volcanoes. Anything planetary we will play with. The danger period is now, because we still have the savagery. We still have all the passions. We have all the sectarian, fundamentalist ideas circulating around, but we also have nuclear weapons. ...capable of wiping out life on earth. So I see two trends in the world today. The first trend is toward a multicultural, scientific, tolerant society and everywhere I go I see aspects of that birth. For example, what is the Internet? Many people have written about the Internet. Billions and billions of words written about the Internet, but to me as a physicist the Internet is the beginning of a type one telephone system, a planetary telephone system. So we’re privileged to be alive to witness the birth of type one technology... And what is the European Union? The European Union is the beginning of a type one economy. And how come these European countries, which have slaughtered each other ever since the ice melted 10,000 years ago, how come they have banded together, put aside their differences to create the European Union? ...so we’re beginning to see the beginning of a type one economy as well...
 * "Will Mankind Destroy Itself?" (29 September 2010)

 * What happened before the Big Bang? Are there other universes? What lies on the other side of creation? The other side of a black hole? Are s possible? s? s? Do we live in a multiverse? All these questions cannot be answered with our present-day understanding.
 * (quote at 0:54 of 5:41 in video — BBC interview with Michio Kaku explaining "why he thinks string theory is the best way to understand how the universe works.")

Hyperspace (1995)

 * Oxford University Press ISBN 038547705

 * When Physicists speak of "beauty" in their theories, they really mean that their theory possesses at least two essential features: 1. A unifying symmetry 2. The ability to explain vast amounts of experimental data with the most economical mathematical expressions.
 * Ch.5 Quantum Heresy

 * Maxwell's equations... originally consisted of eight equations. These equations are not "beautiful." They do not possess much symmetry. In their original form, they are ugly. ...However, when rewritten using time as the fourth dimension, this rather awkward set of eight equations collapses into a single tensor equation. This is what a physicist calls "beauty," because both criteria are now satisfied.
 * Ch.5 Quantum Heresy

 * It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. In fact, some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it is that it is unquestionably correct.
 * Ch.12 Colliding Universes

 * There are many examples of old, incorrect theories that stubbornly persisted, sustained only by the prestige of foolish but well-connected scientists. … Many of these theories have been killed off only when some decisive experiment exposed their incorrectness. .. Thus the yeoman work in any science, and especially physics, is done by the experimentalist, who must keep the theoreticians honest.

 * No other theory known to science [other than superstring theory] uses such powerful mathematics at such a fundamental level. ...because any unified field theory first must absorb the Riemannian geometry of Einstein's theory and the Lie groups coming from quantum field theory... The new mathematics, which is responsible for the merger of these two theories, is topology, and it is responsible for accomplishing the seemingly impossible task of abolishing the infinities of a quantum theory of gravity.
 * Ch.15 Conclusion

 * Remarkably, only a handful of fundamental physical principles are sufficient to summarize most of modern physics.
 * Ch.15 Conclusion

 * Mathematics... is the set of all possible self-consistent structures, and there are vastly more logical structures than physical principles.
 * Ch.15 Conclusion

 * It is sometimes helpful to differentiate between the God of Miracles and the God of Order. When scientists use the word God, they usually mean the God of Order. ...The God of Miracles intervenes in our affairs, performs miracles, destroys wicked cities, smites enemy armies, drowns the Pharaoh's troops, and avenges the pure and noble. ...This is not to say that miracles cannot happen, only that they are outside what is commonly called science.
 * Ch.15 Conclusion

The Future of Humanity (2018)

 * The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780385542760.

 * It is as inescapable as the laws of physics that humanity will one day confront some type of extinction-level  event. But will we, like our ancestors, have the drive and determination to survive and even flourish? . . . On a scale of decades, we face threats that are not natural but are largely self-inflicted [including]  global warming . . . modern warfare as  nuclear weapons proliferate in some of the most unstable regions of the globe, [or]  weaponized microbes [that could conceivably] wipe out 98 percent of the human race. . . . On a scale of thousands of years, we face  the onset of another ice age [or] the possibility that  the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park may awaken from its long slumber . . . . On a scale of millions of years, we face the threat of another  meteor or cometary impact . . . . We now know that there are several thousand  NEOs (near-Earth objects) that cross the orbit of the Earth and pose a danger to life on our planet. . . . If there is one lesson we can learn from our history, it is that humanity, when faced with life-threatening crises, has risen to the challenge and reached for even higher goals. In some sense, the spirit of exploration is in our genes and hardwired into our soul. [So] now we face perhaps the greatest challenge of all: to  leave the confines of Earth and soar into outer space. . . . Perhaps our fate is to become a multiplanet species that lives  among the stars.
 * Prologue, pages 3 to 6.

 * "Killer asteroids are nature's way of asking, 'How's that space program coming along?'" - Anonymous
 * Headline quote at the beginning of Chapter 3, "Mining the Heavens," page 54.

Quotes about Kaku

 * Michio Kaku... will talk, waxing rhapsodically, about the Mind of God and how everything is encrypted and encoded, and if we can get to the multiverse, and that really would be the singularity... I like Michio. He's very good as an entertainer, but I think the selling of physics is going to come back to haunt us... Just touting this stuff, and I'm guilty of it at times too, but I won't utter... "The Mind of God." What do you think about the danger that we, as people that are publicly facing, have of potentially compromising the true appreciation of the most magnificent things in the universe, which take a lot of background. You can't dumb it down, and you shouldn't. I will never do that with my audience.
 * , "Max Tegmark & : AI, Aliens, Theories of Everything, and New Year’s Resolutions!" (Dec 31, 2020) 1:05:30.

title: Michio Kaku


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Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman (born October 7, 1948) is an American author, poet, and naturalist most famous for her work A Natural History of the Senses. She has taught at various universities, including Columbia and Cornell, and her essays regularly appear in distinguished popular and literary journals.

Quotes

 * “When I set a glass prism on a windowsill and allow the sun to flood through it, a spectrum of colors dances on the floor. What we call "white" is a rainbow of colored rays packed into a small space. The prism sets them free. Love is the white light of emotion.”
 * I don't want to be a passenger in my own life.
 * On Extended Wings (1985)

 * I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to live the width of it as well.
 * As quoted in Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much (1991) by Anne Wilson Schaef

 * I plan my garden as I wish I could plan my life, with islands of surprise, color, and scent. A seductive aspect of gardening is how many rituals it requires.
 * (2002 pbk edition of 2001 hbk edition)

 * Human beings are sloshing sacks of chemicals on the move.
 * An Alchemy of Mind : The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain (2004) ISBN 0743246721

 * ... you don't have to be larger than life to come to the aid of somebody in trouble. All you need to be able to be compassionate, put your own troubles on hold while someone else's are taking the forefront, and, maybe the toughest part, you have to be wholly nonjudgemental.
 * (quote at 6:14 of 27:54 in video)

 * ... extinction is happening very fast, because we've been destroying habitats — and polluting things. And there may come a time when we want to bring back animals, or we could use the just to the enrich the gene pool of animals that are very close to extinction.
 * (quote at 4:10 of 27:49 in video)

A Natural History of the Senses (1990)

 * All quotes from this trade paperback edition
 * All quotes from this trade paperback edition

 * Why humans feel pain has been the subject of theological debate, philosophical schisms, psychoanalytical edicts, and mumbo jumbo for centuries. Pain was the punishment for wrongdoing in the Garden of Eden. Pain was the price one paid for not being morally perfect. Pain was a self-affliction brought about by sexual repression. Pain was dished out by vengeful gods, or was the result of falling out of harmony with nature…The purpose of pain is to warn the body about possible injury. Millions of free nerve endings alarm us; whenever they’re hit, we feel pain.
 * Chapter 2 “Touch” (p. 106; ellipsis represents the elision of the etymology of the word "pain")

 * What I’m really wondering is why notices were posted and invitations sent out at all: If it’s a psychics’ convention, shouldn’t everyone just know where and when to meet?
 * Chapter 2 “Touch” (p. 115)

 * We tend to see our distant past through a reverse telescope that compresses it: a short time as hunter-gatherers, a long time as "civilized" people. But civilization is a recent stage of human life, and, for all we know, it may not be any great achievement. It may not even be the final stage. We have been alive on this planet as recognizable humans for about two million years, and for all but the last two or three thousand we’ve been hunter-gatherers. We may sing in choirs and park our rages behind a desk, but we patrol the world with many of a hunter-gatherer’s drives, motives, and skills. These aren’t knowable truths. Should an alien civilization ever contact us, the greatest gift they could give us would be a set of home movies: films of our species at each stage in our evolution.
 * Chapter 3 “Taste” (pp. 129-130)

 * Consciousness, the great poem of matter, seems so unlikely, so impossible, and yet here we are with our loneliness and our giant dreams.
 * Chapter 3 “Taste” (p. 130)

 * But, as sages have long said, the sexiest part of the body and the best aphrodisiac in the world is the imagination.
 * Chapter 3 “Taste” (p. 131)

 * But we rarely taste the real thing. The vanilla flavoring we buy in the spice section of grocery stores, the vanilla we find in most of our ice creams, cakes, yogurts, and other foods, as well as in shampoos and perfumes, is an artificial flavor created in laboratories and mixed with alcohol and other ingredients. Marshall McLuhan once warned us that we were drifting so far away from the real taste of life that we had begun to prefer artificiality, and were becoming content with eating the menu descriptions rather than the food.
 * Chapter 3 “Taste” (p. 158)

 * The Dutch carried vanilla to Indonesia, and the British to India. “Tincture of vanilla” didn’t appear in the United States until the 1800s, but when it did, it appealed to the American impatience and aversion to fuss, that sprint through life whose byword is convenience. Europeans use the vanilla bean, luxuriating in its textures, tastes, and aromas, but we preferred it reduced and already bottled. By the nineteenth century, demand flourished, vanilla became synthesized, and the world floated on a mantle of cheap flavoring.
 * Chapter 3 “Taste” (p. 160)

 * Though it has a certain Russian-roulette quality to it, eating fugu is considered a highly aesthetic experience. That makes one wonder about the condition that we, in chauvinistic shorthand, referred to as “human.” Creatures who will one day vanish from the earth in the ultimate subtraction of sensuality that we call death, we spend our lives courting death, fomenting wars, watching sickening horror movies in which maniacs slash and torture their victims, hurrying our own deaths in fast cars, cigarette smoking, suicide. Death obsesses us, as well it might, but our response to it is so strange. Faced with tornadoes chewing up homes, with dust storms ruining crops, floods and earthquakes swallowing up whole cities, with ghostly diseases that gnaw at one’s bone marrow, cripple, or craze—rampant miseries that need no special bidding, but come freely, giving their horror like alms—you’d think human beings would hold out against the forces of Nature, combine their efforts and become allies, not create devastation of their own, not add to one another’s miseries. Death does such fine work without us. How strange that people, whole countries sometimes, wish to be its willing accomplices.
 * Chapter 3 “Taste” (p. 170)

 * We hallucinate sounds more often than sights. There are auditory mirages, which vanish without trace; auditory illusions that turn out to be something other than they seemed; and, of course, voices that speak to saints, seers, and psychotics, telling them how to act and what to believe.
 * Chapter 4 “Hearing” (p. 180)

 * Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret: You are looking into a predator’s eyes. Most predators have eyes set right on the front of their heads, so they can use binocular vision to sight and track their prey.
 * Chapter 5 “Vision” (p. 229)

 * The color we see is always the one being reflected, the one that doesn’t stay put and get absorbed. We see the rejected color, and say “an apple is red.” But in truth an apple is everything but red.
 * Chapter 5 “Vision” (p. 252)

 * That evening, as I watched the sunset’s pinwheels of apricot and mauve slowly explode into red ribbons, I thought: The sensory misers will inherit the earth, but first they will make it not worth living on.
 * Chapter 5 “Vision” (p. 256)

 * We may pretend that beauty is only skin deep, but Aristotle was right when he observed that "beauty is a far greater recommendation than any letter of introduction.” The sad truth is that attractive people do better in school, where they receive more help, better grades, and less punishment; at work, where they are rewarded with higher pay, more prestigious jobs, and faster promotions; in finding mates, where they tend to be in control of the relationships and make most of the decisions; and among total strangers, who assume them to be interesting, honest, virtuous, and successful. After all, in fairy tales, the first stories most of us hear, the heroes are handsome, the heroines are beautiful, and the wicked sots are ugly. Children learn implicitly that good people are beautiful and bad people are ugly, and society restates that message in many subtle ways as they grow older. So perhaps it’s not surprising that handsome cadets at West Point achieve a higher rank by the time they graduate, or that a judge is more likely to give an attractive criminal a shorter sentence.
 * Chapter 5 “Vision” (pp. 271-272)

 * For large minds, the Earth is a small place. Not small enough to exhaust in one lifetime, but a compact home, cozy, buoyant, a place to cherish, the spectral center of our life. But how could we stay at home forever?
 * Chapter 5 “Vision” (p. 281)

 * Most of all, the twentieth century will be remembered as the time when we first began to understand what our address was. The “big, beautiful, blue, wet ball” of recent years is one way to say it. But a more profound way will speak of the orders of magnitude of that bigness, the shades of that blueness, the arbitrary delicacy of beauty itself, the ways in which water has made life possible, and the fragile euphoria of the complex ecosystem that is Earth, an Earth on which, from space, there are no visible fences, or military zones, or national borders.
 * Chapter 5 “Vision” (p. 285)

 * My muse is male, has the silvery complexion of the moon, and never speaks to me directly.
 * Chapter 6 “Synesthesia” (p. 299)

 * Out-of-body experiences aim to shed the senses, but they cannot. One may see from a new perspective, but it’s still an experience of vision.
 * Postscript (p. 301)

 * In the Bible, God instructs Moses to burn incense sweet and to His liking. Does God have nostrils? How can a god prefer one smell of this earth to another? The rudiments of decay complete a cycle necessary for growth and deliverance. Carrion smells offensive to us, but delicious to those animals who rely on it for food. What they excrete will make the soil rich and the crops abundant. There is no need for divine election. Perception is itself a form of grace.
 * Postscript (p. 301)

 * Not everything we feel is felt powerfully enough to send a message to the brain; the rest of the sensations just wash over us, telling us nothing. Much is lost in translation, or is censored, and in any case our nerves don’t all fire at once. Some of them remain silent while others respond. This makes our version of the world somewhat simplistic, given how complex the world is. The body’s quest isn’t for truth, it’s for survival.
 * Postscript (p. 304)

 * So much of our life passes in a comfortable blur. Living on the senses requires an easily triggered sense of marvel, a little extra energy, and most people are lazy about life. Life is something that happens to them while they wait for death.
 * Postscript (p. 305)

 * It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
 * Postscript (p. 309)

A Natural History of Love (1994)

 * When art separates this thick tangle of feelings, love bares its bones.

 * We think of it as a sort of traffic accident of the heart. It is an emotion that scares us more than cruelty, more than violence, more than hatred. We allow ourselves to be foiled by the vagueness of the word. After all, love requires the utmost vulnerability. We equip someone with freshly sharpened knives; strip naked; then invite him to stand close. What could be scarier?

The Inevitable: Contemporary Writer Confront Death (2011) Edited by David Shields & Bradford Morrow

 * What would dawn have been like, had you awakened? It would have sung through your bones. All I can do this morning is let it sing through mine.
 * Silence and Awakening

Misattributed

 * There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.
 * Sometimes attributed to Ackerman this actually originates with Nicolas Chamfort, as quoted in The Cynic's Breviary : Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort (1902) as translated by William G. Hutchison, p. 37

title: Diane Ackerman