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Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton Quotes

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Famous Michael Crichton Quotes

“One of the most difficult features of direct experience is that it is unfiltered by any theories or expectations. It's hard to observe without imposing a theory to explain what we're seeing, but the trouble with theories, as Einstein said, is that they explain not only what is observed, but what can be observed. We start to build expectations based on our theories.”

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Author:Michael Crichton
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“Science is nothing more than a method of inquiry. The method says an assertion is valid - and will be universally accepted - only if it can be reproduced by others, and thereby independently verified. The impersonal rigor of the method has produced enormously powerful results for 400 years. The scientific method is utterly apolitical. A truth in science is verifiable whether you are black or white, male or female, old or young. It’s verifiable whether you know the experimenter, or whether you don’t.”

IfsMeanYoungBlackWhiteResultsStudyAcceptanceFemaleUniversalMethodMalesMeritInquiryAssertionRigorBlack Or WhiteApolitical
Author:Michael Crichton
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“The fact that the patients were complex human beings with a rich life beyond the hospital never really sank into the consciousness of the residents. Because they had no rich lives beyond the hospital, they assumed no one else did, either. In the end, what they lacked was not medical knowledge but ordinary life experience.”

HumansEndsFactsHuman BeingsConsciousnessRichOrdinaryComplexesPatientMedicalHospitalsLife ExperienceOrdinary LifeResidentsRich LifeMedical Knowledge
Book:Travels
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“The romantic view of the natural world as a blissful Eden is only held by people who have no actual experience of nature. People who live in nature are not romantic about it at all. They may hold spiritual beliefs about the world around them, they may have a sense of the unity of nature or the aliveness of all things, but they still kill the animals and uproot the plants in order to eat, to live. If they don't, they will die.”

PeopleIfsWorldMayStillsSpiritualOrderDiesBeliefNaturalAnimalViewsAll ThingsPlantUnityNatural WorldEdenSpiritual Beliefs
Author:Michael Crichton
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“The second reason to abandon environmental religion is more pressing. Religions think they know it all, but the unhappy truth of the environment is that we are dealing with incredibly complex, evolving systems, and we usually are not certain how best to proceed. Those who are certain are demonstrating their personality type, or their belief system, not the state of their knowledge.”

ThinkingKnowsStatesReasonCertainBeliefEnvironmentTypePersonalityComplexesEnvironmentalUnhappyEvolveAbandonBelief SystemsDemonstratingKnow It AllPersonality Types
Author:Michael Crichton
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“The experience of climbing Kilimanjaro affected me so powerfully that, for a long time afterward, if I caught myself saying, "I'm not a person who likes to do that activity, eat that food, listen to that music," I would automatically go out and do what I imagined I didn't like. Generally I found I was wrong about myself - I liked what I thought I wouldn't like. And even if I didn't like the particular experience, I learned I liked having new experiences.”

IfsPersonsLongFoundParticularActivityLong TimeCaughtLikesAffectedClimbingNew ExperiencesKilimanjaro
Author:Michael Crichton
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“Face the facts, all these environmental organizations are thirty, forty, fifty years old. They have big buildings, big obligations, big staffs. They may trade on their youthful dreams, but the truth is, they're now part of the establishment. And the establishment works to preserve the status quo. It just does.”

YearsMayDoeFactsDreamBigsFacesBuildingTruth IsOrganizationTradeEnvironmentalObligationPreservesThirtyFiftyFortyEstablishmentStatus QuoFifty Year Olds
Author:Michael Crichton
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“In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

IfsKnowsStoriesTurnsForgetCasesPagesErrorsAffairInternationalNewspapersAccurateMultiplePalestineAmusementExasperationInternational AffairsBaloney
Author:Michael Crichton
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“...scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step. You can do it very young...there is no mastery, old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature...Its a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are.”

PeopleKnowsDoneFormYoungNextCan DoWealthStepsHistoryRichHumilityDisciplineScientistMasteryIgnoredYou Can Do ItRich PeopleNext StepsInherited Wealth
Author:Michael Crichton
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“Praise not the day until evening has come, a woman until she is burnt, a sword until it is tried, a maiden until she is married, ice until it has been crossed, beer until it has been drunk.”

Has BeensMarriedPraiseDrunkIceEveningBeerMaidens
Book:The 13th Warrior.: The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan, Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in A.D. 922.
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“This is the gift of your species and this is the danger, because you do not choose to control your imaginings. You imagine wonderful things and you imagine terrible things, and you take no responsibility for the choice. You say you have inside you both the power of good and the power of evil, the angel and the devil, but in truth you have just one thing inside you - the ability to imagine.”

ChoicesEvilAbilityResponsibilityImagineWonderfulOne ThingDangerTerribleDevilAngelSpeciesJust OneWonderful ThingsTerrible Things
Book:Sphere
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“Malcolm: A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife. The person who kills is the person who has no discipline, no restraint, and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special. And that is why you think that to build a place like this is simple. Hammond: It was simple. Malcolm: Then why did it go wrong?”

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Author:Michael Crichton
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“People were so naive about plants, Ellie thought. They just chose plants for appearance, as they would choose a picture for the wall. It never occurred to them that plants were actually living things, busily performing all the living functions of respiration, ingestion, excretion, reproduction---and defense.”

PeopleWallFunctionPlantAppearanceDefensePerformingNaiveLiving ThingsReproductionRespirationActually Living
Book:Michael Crichton's Jurassic World
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