“Of course my moods change, but the average is serenity. I have a firm faith in art, a firm confidence in its being a powerful stream which carries a man to a harbor, though he himself must do his bit too; at all events, I think it such a great blessing when a man has found his work that I cannot count myself among the unfortunate. I mean, I may be in certain relatively great difficulties, and there may be gloomy days in my life, but I shouldn't like to be counted among the unfortunate, nor would it be correct if I were.” IfsThinkingMenMayMeanArtCertainCoursesFoundBitsPowerfulEventsBlessingDifficultyAverageMoodFirmStreamsCarrieSerenityUnfortunateHarborsGloomyMood Changes Book:Van Gogh's Source: Van Gogh's
“Most people are middle class. Most people do wish their lives were better than they are. And I think by making my main characters ordinary, average guys, it helps readers identify with their problems. It also helps ground the supernatural events that follow in a recognizable reality and perhaps gives some of my wilder scenarios a little verisimilitude.” PeopleThinkingGivingLittlesCharacterHelpingProblemRealityGuyWishClassMiddleEventsReaderOrdinaryAverageMiddle ClassScenariosMain CharactersWilder Author:Bentley Little
“Quantum events have a way of just happening, without any cause, as when a radioactive atom decays at a random time. Even the quantum vacuum is not an inert void, but is boiling with quantum fluctuations. In our macroscopic world, we are used to energy conservation, but in the quantum realm this holds only on average. Energy fluctuations out of nothing create short-lived particle-antiparticle pairs, which is why the vacuum is not emptiness but a sea of transient particles. An uncaused beginning, even out of nothing, for spacetime is no great leap of the imagination.” WorldWayUsedReligionEnergyCausesImaginationSeaEventsHappeningsAverageRealmsEmptinessPairsLeapAtomsVoidDecayQuantumConservationParticlesVacuumsTransientBoilingShort LivedFluctuationEnergy ConservationSpacetime Author:Taner Edis
“The events of September 11 would have been impossible if there were no airport security system at all. If average Americans were allowed to carry their personal firearms on board our aircraft ..., the chances that several passengers on each flight would have been armed-and thus able to shoot the hijackers, preventing the Trade Center and Pentagon hits-would have been quite substantial.” IfsHas BeensAbleChanceImpossibleSecurityEventsTradeAverageFlightBoardsSeptemberAirportsSeptember 11PassengersPreventingFirearmsAircraftPentagonSecurity SystemsAirport Security Author:Vin Suprynowicz
“I have no memory for things I have learned, nor things I have read, nor things experienced or heard, neither for people nor events; I feel that I have experienced nothing, learned nothing, that I actually know less than the average schoolboy, and that what I do know is superficial, and that every second question is beyond me. I am incapable of thinking deliberately; my thoughts run into a wall. I can grasp the essence of things in isolation, but I am quite incapable of coherent, unbroken thinking. I can't even tell a story properly; in fact, I can scarcely talk.” PeopleThinkingKnowsFeelsI CanFactsStoriesRunningMemoriesHeardEventsWallEssenceAverageIsolationI Have LearnedIncapableSuperficialMy ThoughtsEvery SecondUnbrokenNo Memory Author:Franz Kafka
“So confident am I that the number of deaths from violent storms will continue to decline that I challenge Mr. McKibben - or Al Gore, Paul Krugman, or any other climate-change doomsayer - to put his wealth where his words are. I'll bet $10,000 that the average annual number of Americans killed by tornadoes, floods and hurricanes will fall over the next 20 years. Specifically, I'll bet that the average annual number of Americans killed by these violent weather events from 2011 through 2030 will be lower than it was from 1991 through 2010.” YearsFallNextChallengesWealthNumbersEventsClimateClimate ChangeAverageStormViolentWeatherAlsDeclineFloodHurricanesGoreAnnualsTornadoes Author:Donald J. Boudreaux
“The average movie set is the least political arena on Earth. Nobody bothers talking about politics because, one, we all love the job so much. You don't talk about current events. You talk about old show business stories and whether or not there's gonna be French onion dip at the craft services table that day.” StoriesShowsEarthJobsPoliticalTalkingEventsTablesAverageCurrentsCraftsBotherArenaShow BusinessOnionsDipMovie SetsCurrent Events Author:Tom Hanks