I recently stumbled on an old article. It was a nice read about the scientific pursuit, a treasure trove of neverending question that need answers. Read Why the Pursuit of Scientific Knowledge Will Never End.
It also reminded me of a quote I had read some time back, which I think is relevant here.
Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.
– Carl G. Jung
A beautiful quote about the transience and purpose of things in nature.
One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made. That this is still the morning of creation. That mountains, long conceived, are now being born, brought to light by the glaciers, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes.
– John Muir, Travels in Alaska
Searching for oneself is an ongoing journey of a lifetime. Life is what happens in between.
– Unknown. Some movie or a series watched in a half asleep state.
A stern and level headed quote by the man of Physics on expectations and assumptions.
I have no responsibility to live up to what others expect of me. That’s their mistake, not my failing.
– Richard Feynman
Well written and a nice weekend read. Philosophy, in my opinion, is an all encompassing search for the reasons driving action, the science behind our so called evolved mind and the never ending quest to understand the ways of the universe. Yes it is science. And it is abstract. I would like to think there is a reason why one of the highest forms of scientific degrees is called a `PhD’. I could talk more about the topic but read the article and develop your own philosophy that makes sense to you.
“In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, and his fame doubtful. In short, all that is of the body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapours; like a warfare, a brief sojourning in an alien land; and after repute, oblivion. Where, then, can man find the power to guide and guard his steps? In one thing and one alone: Philosophy.”
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
I love life. But I don’t love life because it is pretty. Prettiness is only clothes-deep. I am a truer lover than that. I love it naked. There is beauty to me even in its ugliness. In fact, I deny the ugliness entirely, for its vices are often nobler than its virtues, and nearly always closer to a revelation… To me, the tragic alone has that significant beauty which is truth. It is the meaning of life — and the hope. The noblest is eternally the most tragic. The people who succeed and do not push on to a greater failure are the spiritual middle-classers. Their stopping at success is the proof of their compromising insignificance. How petty their dreams must have been!
— Eugene O’Neill
Beautiful perspective. Optimism at its zenith. Portrays the difference between looking at life skin deep vs without mirrors.
We must believe in free will — we have no choice.
— Isaac Bashevis Singer
Ironically funny, but my thoughts exactly, especially in this time when every nook and crook wants to emphasize fate and destiny.
There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It’s a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you ‘play’ with them!
— Richard Feynman
Ha, another one bites the dust.
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This is a timeless observation. More true than ever, now.
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Here’s my take.