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Function Quotes

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Function Quotes

“Be as though you don't exist. Let the bodily functions unfold, let thoughts come and go but don't follow them. Be only the awareness. Something is unplugged, but you are still fully here. Senses are functioning normally. This was never the trouble. The mind rises up as resistances and doubts but they are mere thoughts. Mind in its psychological aspect can come full power, but you are not to be a traffic policeman inside your own head.”

MindStillsWisdomSpiritualDoubtTroubleAwarenessAspectFunctionMereSensesResistancePsychologicalTrafficComes And GoesPolicemenBodily Functions
Author:Mooji
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“The world is too complicated in all parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone. I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order in each of its organisms is simply too well put together. Each part of a living thing depends on all its other parts to function. How does each part know? How is each part specified at conception? The more one learns of biochemistry the more unbelievable it becomes unless there is some type of organizing principle-an architect.”

KnowsWorldWellsDoeTogetherOrderChanceExistencePrinciplesKnow HowTypeDependsEvolutionFunctionComplicatedDuesConvincedConceptionArchitectOrganismsUnbelievableLiving ThingsInterconnectionBiochemistryExistence Of Life
Author:Allan Sandage
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“It struck me recently, that one should really consider the sequence of a protein molecule about to fold into a precise geometric form as a line of melody written in a canon form & so designed by Nature to fold back into itself, creating harmonic chords of interaction consistent with biological function”

ShouldInspirationFormLinesWrittenCreatingFunctionContemplationConsistentMelodyInteractionPreciseSequenceChordsFoldsMoleculesProteinCanonGeometric
Author:Christian B. Anfinsen
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“Disease is an abnormal state of the body which primarily and independently produces a disturbance in the normal functions of the body. It may be an abnormality of temperament or form (structure). Symptom is a manifestation of some abnormal state in the body. It may be harmful as a colic pain or harmless as the flushing of cheeks in peripneumonia.”

MayStatesBodyPainFormProduceHealthDiseaseNormalFunctionStructureManifestationCheeksSymptomsTemperamentAbnormalDisturbanceAbnormalityFlushingColic
Book:The Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn Fī'l-ṭibb)
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“The adoption of the required attitude of mind towards ideas that seem to emerge "of their own free will" and the abandonment of the critical function that is normally in operation against them seem to be hard of achievement for some people. The "involuntary thoughts" are liable to release a most violent resistance, which seeks to prevent their emergence. If we may trust that great poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, however, poetic creation must demand an exactly similar attitude.”

PeopleIfsMindMayIdeasHardSeemsAttitudeCreationPoetDemandAchievementFunctionPhilosopherCriticalViolentResistanceCraftsReleaseOperationsFree WillPoeticAdoptionAbandonmentLiableEmergenceGreat PoetInvoluntary
Book:The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud
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“A diverse ecosystem will also be resilient, because it contains many species with overlapping ecological functions that can partially replace one another. When a particular species is destroyed by a severe disturbance so that a link in the network is broken, a diverse community will be able to survive and reorganize itself... In other words, the more complex the network is, the more complex its pattern of interconnections, the more resilient it will be.”

AbleCommunityParticularBrokenFunctionSpeciesComplexesPatternsDestroyedComplexityLinksDiverseEcologySevereEcologicalResilientEcosystemsDisturbanceBiodiversityInterconnectionOverlapping
Author:Fritjof Capra
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“The trouble with science fiction is that you can write about everything: time, space, all the future, all the past, all of the universe, any kind of creature imaginable. That's too big. It provides no focus for the artist. An artist needs, in order to function, some narrowing of focus. Usually, in the history of art, the narrower the focus in which the artist is forced to work, the greater the art.”

NeedsWritingKindArtBigsPastArtistOrderUniverseSpaceFictionGreaterFocusTroubleCreaturesFunctionScience Fiction
Author:Philip J. Klass
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“When I say or write something, there are actually a whole lot of different things I am communicating. The propositional content (i.e., the verbal information I'm trying to convey) is only one part of it. Another part is stuff about me, the communicator. Everyone knows this. It's a function of the fact there are so many different well-formed ways to say the same basic thing, from e.g. "I was attacked by a bear!" to "Goddamn bear tried to kill me!" to "That ursine juggernaut did essay to sup upon my person!" and so on.”

KnowsWayWritingTryingWellsPersonsDifferentWholeFactsStuffInformationBearsFunctionCommunicateDifferent ThingsEssaysKill MeCommunicatorsBasic ThingsJuggernaut
Author:David Foster Wallace
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“The function of football, soccer, basketball and other passion-sports in modern industrial society is the transference of boredom, frustration, anger and rage into socially acceptable forms of combat. A temporary substitute for war; for nationalism; identification with something bigger than the self.”

WarSelfFormPassionSportsModernFootballBasketballFunctionBiggerRageSoccerBoredomFrustrationNationalismSubstitutesTemporaryCombatAcceptableIdentificationTransference
Author:Edward Abbey
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“It is the mission of the pedagogue, not to make his pupils think, but to make them think right, and the more nearly his own mind pulsates with the great ebbs and flows of popular delusion and emotion, the more admirably he performs his function. He may be an ass, but that is surely no demerit in a man paid to make asses of his customers.”

ThinkingMenMindMayEmotionTeachingFlowFunctionPaidMissionsCustomersAssDelusionPupilsEbb And Flow
Book:Mencken Chrestomathy
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“The Library is an open sanctuary. It is devoted to individual intellectual inquiry and contemplation. Its function is to provide free access to ideas and information. It is a haven of privacy, a source of both cultural and intellectual sustenance for the individual reader. Since it is thus committed to free and open inquiry on a personal basis, the Library must remain open, with access to it always guaranteed.”

IdeasIndividualHavensInformationSourceReaderIntellectualFunctionBasesLibraryCommittedAccessContemplationPrivacyCensorshipDevotedInquiryFirst AmendmentSanctuarySustenanceFreedom To Read
Author:Robert G. Vosper
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“The death penalty fulfills a preventive function, but it is also very clearly a form of revenge. It is an especially severe form of punishment because it is so final. The human life is ended and the executed person is deprived of the opportunity to change, to restore the harm done or compensate for it.”

HumansPersonsDoneFormLife IsOpportunityFunctionFinalsRevengeHarmPunishmentHuman LifePenaltiesSevereDeprivedDeath PenaltyOpportunity To Change
Author:Dalai Lama
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“One function of the librarian, as he saw it, was to blunt the edge of these differences and to provide a means whereby the rich and poor could live happily side by side. The public library was a great leveler, supplying a literature by which the ordinary man could experience some of the pleasures of the rich, and providing a common ground where employer and employee could meet on equal terms.”

MenMeanLiteratureSidesTermDifferencesPleasurePoorCommonDemocracyRichSawsEqualOrdinaryFunctionLibraryEdgesEmployeeProvidingEmployersLibrarianRich And PoorBluntCommon GroundOrdinary ManPublic Library
Author:Lewis Henry Steiner
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“Contemporary political theorists continue this type of thinking about democracy by arguing that the development of "public judgment" among regular citizens should be made the central concern of modern politics. Public judgment, in the words of Benjamin Barber, is a function of commonality that can be exercised only by citizens interacting with one another in the context of mutual deliberation and decision.”

ThinkingShouldMadePoliticalDecisionDemocracyModernTypeDevelopmentCitizensJudgmentConcernFunctionArguingContemporaryMutualInteractingTheoristsDeliberationCommonalityBarbersModern Politics
Book:Creating a Democratic Public: The Struggle for Urban Participatory Democracy During the Progressive Era
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“When the function of libraries is put in terms of their contributions to the community, people see their centrality. The challenge to us is to continue to help them see it in those terms to describe our larger purposes. We must assert that libraries are central to the quality of life in our society; that libraries have a direct role in preserving democratic freedoms. Free access to information and the opportunity of every individual to improve his or her mind, employment prospects, and lifestyle are fundamental rights in our society.”

PeopleMindHelpingPurposeOpportunityIndividualTermCommunityChallengesQualityRolesDemocracyRightsInformationDirectFunctionFundamentalsDemocraticLibraryAccessLifestyleEmploymentContributionOur SocietyQuality Of LifeProspectsAccess To InformationFundamental Rights
Author:Arthur Curley
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“A colleague saw the same model-calibrating the elasticity of demand facing a Cournot oligopolist as a function of the number of firms in the industry--described at the University of Chicago and at M.I.T. A Chicago economist derived the formula and said, "Look at how few firms you need to get close to infinite elasticities and perfect competition." An M.I.T. economist derived the same formula and said, "Look at how large n has to be before you get anywhere close to an infinite elasticity and perfect competition."”

NeedsLooksSaidPerfectNumbersSawsIndustryDemandModelsEconomicsFunctionInfiniteCompetitionUniversityFirmChicagoFormulasColleaguesEconomistElasticityPerfect Competition
Author:Matthew Rabin
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“In the model that we grew up with, governments rule physical territory in which national economies function, and strong economies support hegemonic military power. In the new model, already emerging under our noses, economic decisions don't pay much attention to national sovereignty in a world where more than half of the one hundred or two hundred largest economic entities are not countries but companies.”

WorldTwoCountryGovernmentStrongDecisionPayAttentionHalfCompanyPowerSupportEconomyEconomicMilitaryGrewGrew UpModelsHundredEconomicsFunctionNosesTerritoryEntitySovereigntyEmergingMilitary PowerNational SovereigntyStrong EconomyNational Economy
Author:Amory Lovins
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“The intellectual's hostility to the businessman presents no mystery, as the two have, by function, wholly different standards. While the businessman's motto is the customer is always right, the intellectual's task is to preserve his perceived standards against the weight of popular opinion.”

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Author:Bertrand de Jouvenel
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“It is in this mutual dependence of the functions and the aid which they reciprocally lend one another that are founded the laws which determine the relations of their organs and which possess a necessity equal to that of metaphysical or mathematical laws, since it is evident that the seemly harmony between organs which interact is a necessary condition of existence of the creature to which they belong and that if one of these functions were modified in a manner incompatible with the modifications of the others the creature could no longer continue to exist.”

IfsLawExistenceConditionsCreaturesEqualFunctionRelationHarmonyDetermineAidsMathematicalMutualOrgansDependenceEvidentMetaphysicalModification
Author:Georges Cuvier
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“The laws of Coexistence;-the adaptation of structure to function; and to a certain extent the elucidation of natural affinities may be legitimately founded upon the examination of fully developed species;-But to obtain an insight into the laws of development,-the signification or bedeutung, of the parts of an animal body demands a patient examination of the successive stages of their development, in every group of Animals.”

MayBodyLawScienceCertainNaturalAnimalGroupsStageDevelopmentDemandFunctionStructureSpeciesPatientInsightAdaptationExaminationAffinityCoexistence
Author:Richard Owen
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“We never really see time. We see only clocks. If you say this object moves, what you really mean is that this object is here when the hand of your clock is here, and so on. We say we measure time with clocks, but we see only the hands of the clocks, not time itself. And the hands of a clock are a physical variable like any other. So in a sense we cheat because what we really observe are physical variables as a function of other physical variables, but we represent that as if everything is evolving in time.”

IfsMeanHandsMovingScienceTimeObjectsFunctionEvolveClockCheatReally MeanMeasurementVariables
Author:Carlo Rovelli
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“A president is a high-level official who is elected to carry out a function. He is not a king, not a god. He is not the witch doctor of a tribe who knows everything. He is a civil servant. I think the ideal way of living is to live like the vast majority of people whom we attempt to serve and represent.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWayPresidentLevelsPowerfulKingsIdealsDoctorsFunctionMajorityHumbleServantOfficialsWitchTribesPoorestHigh LevelCivil ServantsWitch Doctors
Author:Jose Mujica
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“Human beings are compelled to adopt a belief system; some paradigm to provide meaning, purpose, and understanding to our lives. A quick survey of the world shows that pretty much any idea will do - it need not reflect reality or truth, merely function to fascinate, distract, and compel. We are designed for belief, not for truth.”

WorldNeedsHumansIdeasShowsRealityPurposeBeliefUnderstandingHuman BeingsOur LivesFunctionCompelledParadigmSurveysBelief Systems
Author:Terry Rossio
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“The ideal of a perfectly functioning democracy is one person, one vote; the ideal of a perfectly functioning market is one dollar, one vote.It's a hoary superstition that democratically elected governments invariably function as instruments of the collective will.A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste.”

PersonsGovernmentOrderDemocracyWasteCapitalismIdealsVoteFunctionInstrumentsDollarsProductionsCollectivesSuperstitionsConsumptionTrash
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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