Your Original Quotes
Posted on: January 4, 2011 - 7:54pm
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Your Original Quotes
Brian37 asked me to start this since his computer is an abacus.
Quote:
"The difference between mental ejaculation and real ejaculation is a Petri dish"...
This is why all God claims fail, because they rely on marketing and not on testing.
Feel free to contribute any 'quotable quotes' you feel are worthy...
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
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My Claims have not failed. You have yet to refute them. Since you have yet to refute them, you resort to mental Temper Tantrums.
And then when I demonstrated your attempts as utterly absurd, you then threw up your hand and said, Waaaa, Waaaa, I don't like labels. I don't care what ABC said.
I have an intellectual NUK here for you Bob. But even that NUK will burn in the fire with you in the end.
All in good spirit.
Your Friend,
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
A Rational Christian of Intelligence (rare)with a valid and sound justification for my epistemology and a logical refutation for those with logical fallacies and false worldviews upon their normative of thinking in retrospect to objective normative(s). This is only understood via the imago dei in which we all are.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
...well, I guess that encapsulates your posting style, so that might be considered a quotable quote. Good work!
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
Hi Jean.
Have you offered something new or are you talking about those claims of inconsistency that you can't even stick to consistently?
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason - Benjamin Franklin
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education and social ties. No religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death --Albert Einstein
I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of Heaven and Hell, of future life for individuals or of a personal god - Thomas Edison
What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy --George Orwell
A casual stroll through a lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything- Nietzsche
Faith means the will to avoid knowing what is true --Nietzsche
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad --Nietzsche
No amount of belief makes something a fact--James Randi
I am in a very peculiar business, I travel all over the world telling people what they should already know -James Randi (spoken at an Atheist convention)
As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so their creeds are a disease of the intellect --Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
It's odd how your god hates/loves all the same things that you hate/love, and you can twist/interpret your holy scriptures to justify it....and yet you claim your god isn't created by humans huh?
I have been insulted by far more better people than you....and I still didn't give a shit.
It's fascinating that 1000's of gods are all false yet yours is somehow true, yet they all have the same claims by all the followers.....that their god/s are true and real....what makes yours any different?
100 billion galaxies with 100 billion solar systems and your god cares about a sliver of land on this planet and a select few people.
Education the best way to rid yourself of old superstitions, and a few gods as well.
Creationism -The belief that a magic invisible man of unknown origin living in the sky created everything out of nothing, using materials that did not exist.
Christianity- The belief that a cosmic jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
You are right, your claims haven't so much failed, they just never amounted to anything consistent and coherent enough to be worth taking seriously.
If you seriously think any of us here regard you as anymore than a sad joke, a thing of ridicule, a standing example of the depths of delusion religious ideas can lead an apparently intelligent individual to, then you are even more confused than your professed world-view suggests.
You have demonstrated nothing more than the inadequacy of your intellectual tools to deal with the contemporary state of understanding based on the findings of science, reinforced by the tools of probability theory, non-linear analysis, non-euclidean geometry, topology, etc, etc.
Now, have you got any original quotes for us?
Maybe if your handle was a little catchier, it would become a quick description to apply any pompous ass theist who comes on here trying to tell us how absurd we are, and then goes on to reference real absurdities such as 'God' and 'Hell'.
Do you really admire Calvin?
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Way to hijack a thread.
There is no hell. There is no invisible sky daddy with magical super powers. Not yours not any. Never was, never will be. There is no Allah/Yahweh/God. These are all merely old goat herder tribal gang myths still believed to be fact.
There is no such thing a s Godsperm or zombie gods. We are not impressed with your threats of hell. I would be no more impressed if you threatened me with Lex Luthor.
This thread is for atheists to post their quotes. You are already "debating"(actually just spewing tripe) in other threads. Please DO NOT spam every thread with your bullshit.
Our patience is wearing very thin with you. Other believers are much more well behaved than you have been so far. I would suggest you shape up if you expect to stay here longer.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'entrate."
A few from Richard Dawkins :
So powerful is the illusion of design, it took humanity until the mid-19th century to realise that it is an illusion
Next time somebody tells you something that sounds important, think to yourself, 'Is this the kind of thing that people probably know because of evidence or is it the kind of thing that people only believe because of tradition, authority or revelation?' And next time somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them, 'What kind of evidence is there for that?' And if they can't give you a good answer, I hope you'll think very carefully before you believe a word they say.
Natural selection is the only workable explanation for the beautiful and compelling illusion of 'design' that pervades every living body and every organ. Knowledge of evolution may not be strictly useful in everyday commerce. You can live some sort of life and die without ever hearing the name of Darwin. But if, before you die, you want to understand why you lived in the first place, Darwinism is the one subject that you must study.
More generally it is completely unrealistic to claim, as Gould and many others do, that religion keeps itself away from science's turf, restricting itself to morals and values. A universe with a supernatural presence would be a fundamentally and qualitatively different kind of universe from one without. The difference is, inescapably, a scientific difference. Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims.
There may be some deep questions about the cosmos that are forever beyond science. The mistake is to think that they are therefore not beyond religion too.
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.
Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
Today the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Alas, the last stand for the God of the Gaps. All answers to questions we can't yet answer are GOD. And what more debated and subjective topic then Morals and Values. I like this quote, what specific work of Dawkins' is it?
The argument I like regarding God of the Gaps and causation is that by simply adding God to the equation you have just added a multitude of possible outcomes. Complicating a concept with God doesn't eloquently offer an answer to any questions but raises a host of other questions, so if you're planning to arrive at a solution, why complicate things further.
"Don't seek these laws to understand. Only the mad can comprehend..." -- George Cosbuc
I found them when I was looking for some excerpts from his book, The Blind Watchmaker. A personal favorite of mine.
Sources are right here :
http://bevets.com/equotesd3.htm
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
That's a good link, thank you.
"Don't seek these laws to understand. Only the mad can comprehend..." -- George Cosbuc
A cult is a religion with no political power.
Tom Wolfe
The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
Sir Richard F Burton
I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction.
Ian McKellen
A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.
James Feibleman
Those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Steven Weinberg
The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine
I believe there is something out there watching over us. Unfortunately, it's the government.
Woody Allen
I like this...
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
This was supposed to be quotes from members or laypersons who are not famous that you have made elsewhere or here.
But now that the famous have been brought into it, I;m going to post my favorite quote of all and give my take on it,
Ann Frank, "............ in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."
How insightful.
If it were not for the beefs of adults and governments and their clannish tribalism, we really do all want the same thing in the end.
I would tweak her quote. I think it is a bit of a utopia. But when we take politics and religion out of the mix, there are far more good people, who, if it were not for labels, do want to be peaceful and are good.
The German people were victims too. If the west had helped rebuild Germany after the first world war, Hitler would most likely been nothing but a homeless nut rambling on the street corner.
Even the people I hate, such as Glen Beck and Limbaugh, are still human beings with families and loved ones. The conflict is caused in humanity clawing to be in the drivers seat because we as individuals think we have the right way to drive.
Where we can get along, isn't in trying to silence others, our use fear to divide , or stop blasphemy, but to always remember all of us have one life, and in the end we all want the goal of old age.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Labels are taught, politics are taught, religions are taught. Babies are not born with these things in their brains and humans need to learn not to pass their own baggage down to the next generation.
Once we realize that conflict is merely the result of a threat to the patterns we are used to, we can find common ground in the overlap of humanity.
We are all capable of the same range of human emotions and actions both good and bad. The world is far too small to ignore this, and there is no more land to conquer. We live on one planet and it is way past time for us to continue to demand taboos or the submission of others.
Labels and borders will always exist, and 7 billion people will not always say nice things about each other, but once we work towards the end of "my way or the highway", we can live with our differences and blasphemy without fear of harm.
It isn't the end of a religion or a state that is pragmatic, but our priorities as it should be is not the overlap. We have more in common as a species than we do differences. We all love, we all hate, we all want food and shelter, and we all want to reach old age.
Fear keeps humanity divided and labels are the way we do it. Overlap is the way we overcome it.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
How true. A theist's real god is always their own convenience.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.
Robert Green Ingersoll
And if I can take part in it by transforming my own consciousness, then someone else's, I'm happy to do it.
Bill Hicks
Your picture looks like a priest who has spotted his next rape victim. Very frightening actually.
My quote:
Corruption breeds the pedophile
Don't pray for the priest
Confession finds the lonely child
God preys on the weak
You think your soul can still be saved
I think you're fucking miles away
Scream out loud, heres where you begin
Forgive me Father for I have sinned!
Religion is hate
Religion is fear
Religion is war
Religion is rape
Religion's obscene
Religion's a whore
-SLAYER
If we did a good act merely from the love of god and a belief that it is pleasing to him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist ? Their morality must have some other foundation other than the love of God. --Thomas Jefferson
Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined or imprisoned.Yet, we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion ? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error over all the Earth.
It is surely the time for men to think for themselves and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified.
No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, or ministry whatsoever. Nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested or burdened in his body or goods nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief. But that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.
I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance, or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.
I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808) ME 16:320. This is his second kown use of the term "wall of separation," here quoting his own use in the Danbury Baptist letter. This wording of the original was several times upheld by the Supreme Court as an accurate description of the Establishment Clause: Reynolds (98 US at 164, 1879); Everson (330 US at 59, 1947); McCollum (333 US at 232, 1948)
To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. Papers, 2: 546 (see Positive Atheism's Historical Section)
The impious presumption of legislators and and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical;...
-- Thomas Jefferson, expressing concern over the authoritarian interpretation of religious views, and advocating, rather, that states allow an individual to use her or his own reason to establish or settle these opinions, in the opening passage to Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786), quoted from Merrill D Peterson, editor, Thomas Jefferson: Writings (1984), page 346
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/qframe.htm
(The site states that you can feel free to grab as many quotes as you wish from there)
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
To the serious non-believer, blasphemy is not a crime but a duty. - Me
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
How droll...
"I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's." -Sam Clemens/Twain
"A true friend stabs you in the front" -Oscar Wilde
"When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion." -Voltaire
"Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard." -Temujin/Genghis Khan
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
Confucius say...
Man with one chopstick go hungry.
Baseball is wrong: man with four balls cannot walk.
Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.
Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.
Wise man never play leapfrog with unicorn.
Man who fly airplane upside-down bound to have crack up.
Man who fall in vat of molten glass make spectacle of self.
Confucius say too damn much.
Man who take sleeping pill and laxative on the same night will wake up in deep shit.
Man who cut self while shaving, lose face.
He who eats too many prunes, sits on toilet many moons.
Foolish man give wife grand piano, wise man give wife upright organ.
Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house.
Don't drink and park, accidents cause people.
Dumb man climb tree to get cherry, wise man spread limbs.
Man who lay girl on hillside is not on the level.
Man who lay woman on ground gets piece on earth.
Man who fish in other man's well often catch crabs.
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
To go by faith is to be BLIND to reason
---Benjamin Franklin
"When I die, I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.....No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever....I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it." H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
That reminds me of what Hunter Thompson said when he committed suicide. His suicide note was titled "Football Season is Over""
No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun -- for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax -- This won't hurt."
Click here to find out why Christianity is the biggest fairy tale ever created!! www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm www.JesusNEVERexisted.com
God creates people that he supposedly loves, hides all the evidence of his existence, gives people the natural curiousity to ask questions and draw their own conclusions, provides "miracles" that are easily explained by perfectly natural phenomenon, refuses to confirm his reality, refuses to reveal himself to anyone, punishes people for their human nature, and at the very end is supposed to tell me that he only wants me to be with him so long as I praise and thank him for all of my existence ? I'll pass on that type of thinking.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
I like that. Those kinds of obvious questions should be addressed and hopefully answered in more concrete terms than is currently offered by biblical apologists and defenders of doctrine. They usually rely upon conjecture and hopeful assumptions and other terms of imprecision....ie,scripture + imagination= answer ? Anyway, good quote.
"Droll" in what context? I fully recognize the ability of humanity to be cruel. All I am pointing out is the positive side of our nature that when we have what we need and enough space, we usually do the right thing. Most of the 7 billion alive today are not criminals or warmongers, but products of the climate of our arbitrary existence.
I am quite sure if the west had rebuilt Germany the first time, Hitler never would have had the ability to do what he did. The German people of his time were as much victims as those he oppressed.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
If I put a gun to your head and told you to suck my dick or die, you might do it, but you certainly wouldn't call it love.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
"I think one should default to civility, courtesy, hospitality, and other such fine things, but not respect. To respect someone is to hold them in higher esteem, as being more worthy of praise and special consideration, than the average person. To respect everyone equally is impossible. You must pick and choose. To do that without being arbitrary, you must set standards to which others must measure up to have your respect. If they want it, they should earn it. To think of respect some other way is to think it ought to be arbitrary or impossible, which is to lack respect for respect itself." -- me.
Stultior stulto fuisti, qui tabellis crederes!
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Then it isn't so insightful when taken literally, now is it? There are individuals beyond any imaginable sort of atonement, are there not?
Droll in the sense that despite likely having having seen her fair share of monsters on the way to death, at the well-experienced age of 13 she had the sage wisdom to say
"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."
This also isn't insightful in the sense of "logic-based, and well-thought out", nor does this nonsense arise from being "well-studied" as Bobspence1 calls it. This is simply what a young teenager wants to believe... that despite what she's experienced, there aren't such a thing as a monster. It's prime example of self-deception.
(To say anything about "good" and "evil" being fairly subjective)
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
"Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman--a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under. I love those who do not know how to live, for they are those who cross over."
"Companions the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators the creator seeks--those who write new values on new tablets. Companions the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest."
-Nietzsche, "Thus Spoke Zarathrustra"
"Scientific theories are judged by the coherence they lend to our natural experience and the simplicity with which they do so. The grand principle of the heavens balances on the razor's edge of truth."
"Once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance he left. Motion, of necessity, involves a change in perspective."
"There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn nonetheless for the latter."
"Man has killed man from the beginning of time, and each new frontier has brought new ways and new places to die. Why should the future be different?"
"If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself."
-Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)