Georg Wilhelm on Passion

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion

Jacob Bronowski on Civilization from The Ascent of Man

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. Civilization is not a collection of finished artifacts, it is the elaboration of processes. In the end, the march of man is the refinement of the hand in action.

The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better. You see it in his science. You see it in the magnificence with which he carves and builds, the loving care, the gaiety, the effrontery. The monuments are supposed to commemorate kings and religions, heroes, dogmas, but in the end the man they commemorate is the builder.

Jacob Bronowski on Science & Magic

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature.

Jacob Bronowski on Conformity

Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.

Jacob Bronowski on Reality

Dream or nightmare, we have to live our experience as it is, and we have to live it awake. We live in a world which is penetrated through and through by science and which is both whole and real. We cannot turn it into a game simply by taking sides.

The Dalai Lama on Reason & Evidence from The Universe in a Single Atom

There is a dictum in Buddhist philosophy that to uphold a tenant that contradicts reason is to undermine ones credibility. To contradict empirical evidence is a still greater fallacy.

Sam Harris on Conceptual Revolutions from The End of Faith

A few minutes spent wandering the graveyard of bad ideas suggests that such conceptual revolutions are possible. Consider the case of alchemy: it fascinated human beings for over a thousand years, and yet anyone who seriously claims to be a practicing alchemist today will have disqualified himself for most positions of responsibility in our society. Faith-based religion must suffer the same slide into obsolescence. What is the alternative to religion as we know it? As it turns out, this is the wrong question to ask. Chemistry was not an “alternative” to alchemy; it was a wholesale exchange of ignorance at its most rococo for genuine knowledge.