#v

The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive. ↗

— Niccolò Machiavelli

#nature

I wanted to give you a victory. But by their essential nature triumphs can’t be given. ↗

— Lois McMaster Bujold

#give #giving #nature #nature-of-things #triumph

In following your inclinations and moving toward mastery, you make a great contribution to society, enriching it with discoveries and insights, and making the most of the diversity in nature and among human society. ↗

— Robert Greene

#inclinations #societal-contribution #nature

For a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations, as in ancient Greece in the time of Homer, where there were gods of the sky and the Earth, the thunderstorm, the oceans and the underworld, fire and time and love and war; where every tree and meadow had its dryad and maenad. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#nature #religion #understanding #love

Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables. ↗

— Lawrence Lessig

#nature

Being on the moon is about harnessing science and technology. Waveless waterbeds are about harnessing nature and that, by definition, is not natural,” I shot back. “Babe, you’re not lyin’ on a miracle,” he said through a lip twitch. “No, I’m lying under one. ↗

— Kristen Ashley

#love-declaration #sweet #love

I am drawn to a fourth alternative, natural teleology, or teleological bias, as an account of the existence of the biological possibilities on which natural selection can operate. I believe that teleology is a naturalistic alternative that is distinct from all three of the other candidate explanations: chance, creationism, and directionless physical law. To avoid the mistake that White finds in the hypothesis of nonintentional bias, teleology would have to be restrictive in what it makes likely, but without depending on intentions or motives. This would probably have to involve some conception of an increase in value through the expanded possibilities provided by the higher forms of organization toward which nature tends: not just any outcome could qualify as a telos. That would make value an explanatory end, but not one that is realized through the purposes or intentions of an agent. Teleology means that in addition to physical law of the familiar kind, there are other laws of nature that are "biased toward the marvelous". ↗

— Thomas Nagel

#cosmos #mind #nature #teleology #motivational

Looters become looted, while time and tide make us mercenaries all. ↗

— Patrick Rothfuss

#looters #looting #mercenaries #theft #thieves

It ain't technology that enhances the civilization.. but the way mankind perceives nature from all standpoints. ↗

— Toba Beta

#perception #technology #nature

She watched with morbid fascination as they gathered at the stumps at the ends of the man's wrists, the old scar tissue the only place on him unclaimed by Fener, but the paths the sprites took to those stumps touched not a single tattooed line. The flies dance a dance of avoidance - but for all that, they were eager to dance. ↗

— Steven Erikson

#book-of-the-fallen #deadhouse-gates #laws-of-nature #life #malazan