“The art of life consists in taking each event which befalls us with a contented mind, confident of good. ... With this method ... rejoice always, though in the midst of sorrows, and possess all things, though destitute of everything.” MindArtEventsSorrowAll ThingsMethodMidstRejoiceDestitute Book:Go up higher; or, Religion in common life (sermons). Source: Go up higher; or, Religion in common life (sermons).
“The methods of the natural sciences cannot be applied to human behavior because this behaviorlacks the peculiarity that characterizes events in the field of the natural sciences, viz., regularity.” HumansNaturalSocietyEventsFieldsBehaviorMethodHuman BehaviorNatural ScienceRegularity Author:Ludwig von Mises
“Historical science is not worse, more restricted, or less capable of achieving firm conclusions because experiment, prediction, and subsumption under invariant laws of nature do not represent its usual working methods. The sciences of history use a different mode of explanation, rooted in the comparative and observational richness in our data. We cannot see a past event directly, but science is usually based on inference, not unvarnished observation (you don't see electrons, gravity, or black holes either).” DifferentUsePastLawBlackAchieveEventsCapableMethodExperimentsHolesConclusionObservationDataFirmExplanationUsualGravityRootedPredictionsLaws Of NatureRichnessBlack HoleElectronsInferencePast Events Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“An understandable hunger for potential clients tempts many [career counseling therapists] to overpromise, like creative writing teachers who, out of greed or sentimentality, sometimes imply that all of their students could one day produce worthwhile literature, rather than frankly acknowledging the troubling truth, anathema to a democratic society, that the great writer, like the contented worker, remains an erratic and anomalous event, immune to the methods of factory farming.” WritingSometimesLiteratureCareersCreativeTeacherEventsStudentsProduceOne DayMethodRemainsDemocraticWorkersGreedHungerFactoriesWorthwhileClientsCreative WritingFarmingImmuneTherapistsGreat WritersSentimentalityCounselingDemocratic SocietyFactory FarmingErraticAnathema Author:Alain de Botton
“There are a whole other range of sciences that must deal with the narrative reconstruction of the inordinately complex events of history that can occur but once in their detailed glory. And for those kinds of sciences, be it cosmology, or evolutionary biology, or geology, or palaeontology, the experimental methods, simplification, quantification, prediction and repetition of the experimental sciences don't always work. You have to go with the narrative, the descriptive methods of what? Of historians.” KindWholeDealsEventsGloryMethodComplexesNarrativeRangeBiologyHistorianRepetitionPredictionsCosmologyGeologyReconstructionSimplificationEvolutionary BiologyExperimental Science Author:Richard Lewontin
“I spent the first forty years of my life making major interventions into other people's lives, and I have an idea of the limitations of that method. I see a major event as rather like major surgery. It is a moment, but whether people use it, whether people go with it, needs to be seen.” PeopleNeedsYearsFirstsIdeasMomentsUseEventsMajorsMethodLimitationFortySurgeryIntervention Author:Rachel Naomi Remen
“Much more than an entertaining set of exaggerated facts, fiction is a metaphoric method of describing, dramatizing and condensing historical events, personal actions, psychological states and the symbolic knowledge encoded within the collective unconscious; things, events and conditions that are otherwise too diffuse and/or complex to be completely digested or appreciated by the prevailing culture.” StatesFactsActionCultureFictionConditionsEventsMethodHistoricalComplexesPsychologicalUnconsciousCollectivesEntertainingAppreciatedSymbolicDescribingExaggeratedPrevailingCollective UnconsciousHistorical EventsMetaphoric Author:Tom Robbins
“Oral history is a research method. It is a way of conducting long, highly detailed interviews with people about their life experiences, often in multiple interview sessions. Oral history allows the person being interviewed to use their own language to talk about events in their life and the method is used by researchers in different fields like history, anthropology and sociology.” PeopleWayPersonsLongDifferentUseUsedLanguageEventsFieldsResearchMethodInterviewsLife ExperienceMultipleSociologySessionAnthropologyResearchersConductingOral History Author:Patricia Leavy
“When you're writing a book that is going to be a narrative with characters and events, you're walking very close to fiction, since you're using some of the methods of fiction writing. You're lying, but some of the details may well come from your general recollection rather than from the particular scene. In the end it comes down to the readers. If they believe you, you're OK. A memoirist is really like any other con man; if he's convincing, he's home. If he isn't, it doesn't really matter whether it happened, he hasn't succeeded in making it feel convincing.” IfsMenFeelsWritingBelieveWellsMayBookEndsMatterCharacterHomeLyingFictionHappenedEventsParticularReaderWalkingSceneMethodDetailsNarrativeConvincingWriting A BookRecollectionFiction Writing Author:Samuel Hynes
“A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method.” WorldRealMightPastUnderstandingFictionEventsMethodScience FictionDefinitionsSignificanceRealisticReal WorldSpeculationAdequateThoroughScientific MethodPast And PresentHandyFuture EventsThorough UnderstandingAdequate Knowledge Author:Robert A. Heinlein
“I do not believe that there is any person, method, or tool that can consistently and reliably predict specific human events, X- or otherwise.” BelieveHumansPersonsEventsToolsMethodConsistently Author:John L. Casti