#kindle

A few minutes after he arrived, Lee was talking to a group of astronomers eager to learn what news he could bring them, for there are few natural philosophers as frustrated as astronomers in a fog. ↗

— Philip Pullman

#nature

Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it also about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics is about the relation of words to reality—the way that speakers commit themselves to a shared understanding of the truth, and the way their thoughts are anchored to things and situations in the world. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#nature

There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all BEGIN freely--a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement. In nine cases out of ten a women had better show MORE affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on. ↗

— Jane Austen

#love

legal investigation. As Clinton noted, “My goal in this deposition was to be truthful, but not particularly helpful. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#nature

Isaac Asimov's remark about the infantilism of pseudoscience is just as applicable to religion: 'Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold.' It is astonishing, moreover, how many people are unable to understand that 'X is comforting' does not imply 'X is true'. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#religion

Seems to me-" Lee said, feeling for the words, "seems to me the place you fight cruelty is where you find it, and the place you give help is where you see it needed.... ↗

— Philip Pullman

#cruelty

You can't eat books, sweetheart. ↗

— Markus Zusak

#eating

If we don't learn to mythologize our lives, inevitably we will pathologize them. ↗

— Richard Rohr

#mythology

Play hard to get. You should be. ↗

— Addison Moore

#play

I failed math twice, never fully grasping probability theory. I mean, first off, who cares if you pick a black ball or a white ball out of the bag? And second, if you’re bent over about the color, don’t leave it to chance. Look in the damn bag and pick the color you want. ↗

— Janet Evanovich

#math