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Beautiful is what we see, more beautiful is what we know, most beautiful is what we don’t.
— Nicolaus StenoProoemium (1673), translated
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
— Popularised by Carl SaganEarlier origins
Everything in moderation, including moderation.
— AnonymousAttribution disputed
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
— Carl SaganCosmos (1980), excerpt
The future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed.
— William GibsonOn the future, paraphrased
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
— Mark TwainNotebook, commonly quoted variant
I may not be a lot, but I’m all I have.
Source unverified
The lucky should look after the unlucky, everything else is just debate on how to do this.
Source unverified
The only reason you should look into your neighbour's bowl is to make sure they have enough to eat
— Louis C.K.Louie · “Pregnant” (2011), paraphrased
The dead outnumber us 14:1, ignoring them is at our own peril.
Source unverifiedRelated figure: Annie Dillard, For the Time Being
The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty.
— John Maynard KeynesLiberalism and Labour (1926)
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
— Isaac AsimovBook of Science and Nature Quotations (1988)
Wherever manners are gentle, there is commerce and wherever is commerce, manners are gentle.
— MontesquieuThe Spirit of the Laws, Book XX
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is hope, the other, wings.
— After Hodding Carter Jr.Original says “roots”, not “hope”
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
— Anonymous“Success” variant; often misattributed to Emerson
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
— Benjamin FranklinPoor Richard’s Almanack (1738)
How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
— The Other Side of the Mountain1975 · adapted dialogue
Those who can make you believe absurdities; can make you commit atrocities.
— VoltaireQuestions sur les miracles (1765), paraphrased
Isn’t everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?
— CélineBefore Sunrise (1995)
Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere, we find ourselves.
Source unverified
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
— Arthur SchopenhauerOn Genius, translated
Some cause happiness wherever they go, some whenever they go.
— AnonymousOften misattributed to Oscar Wilde
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
— Carl SaganThe Demon-Haunted World (1995)
Evolutionary biology can’t tell us the right thing to do. All it can tell us is why the right thing might be harder or easier to do.
— Alan LevinovitzHuman Progress interview (2021), recounting a biologist’s advice
Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV.
— Morty SmithRick and Morty · “Rixty Minutes” (2014)
Caste will one day become a symbol of ethnicity rather than hierarchy.
— M. N. SrinivasParaphrased by Gurcharan Das
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.
— Richard DawkinsBBC, Heart of the Matter (1996), paraphrased
State is the monopoliser of legitimate violence.
— Max WeberPolitics as a Vocation (1919), paraphrased
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
— Dylan ThomasDo Not Go Gentle into That Good Night (1951)
I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away.
— CélineBefore Sunrise (1995)
I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so they have made me.
— Attributed to Ralph Waldo EmersonExact wording unverified
What a loss to spend that much time with someone, only to find out that they’re a stranger.
— Joel BarishEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), adapted
If there is any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something.
— CélineBefore Sunrise (1995)
We are held hostage by our brain chemistry, by the dice roll of our birth conditions, by the constraints of our history.
Source unverified
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
— Winston ChurchillHouse of Commons (1945), adapted wording