Quotessence
Home / Topics / Machines Quotes

Machines Quotes

Browse 2765 quotes about Machines.

Related topics

IfsPeopleMenHumansThinkingWayWorldKnowsUseNeedsComputerMadeTechnologyWantMindBodyLittlesGunRunningFirstsMeanMachine GunsFeelsWellsIdeasTime MachineYearsBigsDoeMayTryingWritingHuman BeingsScienceShouldHas BeensStillsGivingKindWarHandsTurnsWholeRealUsedBrainI CanPersonsLooksSoundEndsLongMovingWashingWashing MachinesAgeAnswering MachinesDifferentFactsArtBelieveTodayUniverseHomeProblemCarFormFunnyReasonBuiltMatterStatesSeemsChildrenProduceSometimesToolsTwoPoliticalAnimalDoneForceProcessShowsWould BeDreamEconomyImportantJobsOrderSlot MachinesCogsHardHelpingSaidSpaceAbleHeartMightPurposemore

Machines Quotes

“Organisms [...] are directed and limited by their past. They must remain imperfect in their form and function, and to that extent unpredictable since they are not optimal machines. We cannot know their future with certainty, if only because a myriad of quirky functional shifts lie within the capacity of any feature, however well adapted to a present role.”

IfsKnowsWellsPastFormLyingRolesCapacityMachinesFunctionCertaintyFeaturesImperfectOrganismsUnpredictableAdaptedQuirkyOptimal
Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History
Create image

“Tools arm the man. One can well say that man is capable of bringing forth a world; he lacks only the necessary apparatus, the corresponding armature of his sensory tools. The beginning is there. Thus the principle of a warship lies in the idea of the shipbuilder, who is able to incorporate this thought by making himself into a gigantic machine, as it were, through a mass of men and appropriate tools and materials. Thus the idea of a moment often required monstrous organs, monstrous masses of materials, and man is therefore a potential, if not an actual creator.”

IfsMenWorldWellsIdeasMomentsAbleLyingPrinciplesHe ManMaterialsArmsWeaponsMassCapableToolsMachinesCreatorAppropriateOrgansMachineryMonstrousSensoryCorrespondingWarships
Author:Novalis
Create image

“Ours has been called a culture of narcissism. The label is apt but can be misleading. It reads colloquially as selfishness and self-absorption. But these images do not capture the anxiety behind our search for mirrors. We are insecure in our understanding of ourselves, and this insecurity breeds a new preoccupation with the question of who we are. We search for ways to see ourselves. The computer is a new mirror, the first psychological machine. Beyond its nature as an analytical engine lies its second nature as an evocative object.”

WayFirstsHas BeensSelfLyingCultureUnderstandingBehindsObjectsAnxietyComputerMachinesMirrorsPsychologicalLabelsSelfishnessWho We AreInsecurityCaptureEnginesNarcissismInsecureMisleadPreoccupationAbsorptionSelf Absorption
Book:The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
Create image

“And still I look for the men who will dare to be roses of England wild roses of England men who are wild roses of England with metal thorns, beware! but still more brave and still more rare the courage of rosiness in a cabbage world fragrance of roses in a stale stink of lies rose-leaves to bewilder the clever fools and rose-briars to strangle the machine.”

MenWorldLooksStillsLyingHe ManFoolMachinesEnglandBraveRoseDareCleverMetalsFragranceThornsStinkStaleCabbageBriarsWild Roses
Book:Complete Poems by Lawrence: Easyread Super Large 24pt Edition
Create image

“Chess computers do not sweat during time pressure and commit costly blunders. Furthermore, the strength of these programs (over and above their faultless recall processes) lies in their capacity to make relatively superficial tactical decisions with incredible speed. Positional values, long-range strategy, aesthetic judgment, and political astuteness remain staples of human performance, man vs. machine results in the foreseeable future to the contrary not withstanding.”

MenHumansLongPoliticalLyingValuesProcessDecisionResultsJudgmentComputerCapacityProgramMachinesPerformancesPressureStrategyIncrediblesSpeedContraryChessCommitRangeSweatAestheticRecallsSuperficialBlundersStaplesTacticalWithstanding
Author:Ira Carmen
Create image

“The not-quite-sort-of lie works here too - often an ad will announce that "Congressman Johnson voted for a bill that gave tax breaks to companies like Enron." True - although the bill allowed all companies to accelerate depreciation of copying machines. Yes, Enron benefited, but Enron also benefited from the revolution of the Earth around the sun. Hardly an argument to freeze the planet in one spot.”

EarthLyingCompanyBreakSunPlanetsRevolutionTaxesArgumentMachinesBillsSpotsAdsJohnsonFreezeCongressmanCopyingAccelerateTax BreaksEnronDepreciation
Author:James Lileks
Create image

“I think the Trump thing is particularly egregious, and I think he's as much a product of the GOP lie machine in the era of Roger Ailes as he is of television. And also, of the Twitter era. Of the everything-is-as-reductive-as-it-can-be. To me, the most telling thing is we have a man who cannot complete a sentence. Certainly could never get to 140 characters, or past it. He thinks in tiny little bursts - the way he tweets.”

ThinkingMenWayLittlesCharacterPastLyingTelevisionProductsTrumpMachinesSentencesTinyErasTweetRogerGop140 Character
Author:Joss Whedon
Create image

“I saw a huge steam roller, It blotted out the sun. The people all lay down, lay down; They did not try to run. My love and I, we looked amazed Upon the gory mystery. "Lie down, lie down!" the people cried. "The great machine is history!" My love and I, we ran away, The engine did not find us. We ran up to a mountain top, Left history far behind us. Perhaps we should have stayed and died, But somehow we don't think so. We went to see where history'd been, And my, the dead did stink so.”

PeopleThinkingShouldTryingRunningLyingLeftBehindsSunSawsMysteryHugeMountainShould HaveMachinesDiedLaysRanEnginesCriedAmazedSteamStinkMountain Top
Book:Mother Night: A Novel
Create image

“Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy.”

PeopleTryingHardFeelingsLyingCoursesSpeakLanguageCasesMachinesAccurateFalsehoodShut UpDescribingSpeak The TruthInsufficientGravyFishy
Author:Iris Murdoch
Create image

“But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.”

HumansSometimesLyingHuman BeingsPowerfulPossibilityMachinesPressureIndependenceMovedHistoricalInjusticeDareConformityConform
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
Create image

“Maybe belief is the biggest lie. In ages past, the earliest philosophers tried to explain the stars in the sky and the world around them. One of them conceived of the notion that the universe was mounted on giant crystal spheres controlled by a giant machine, which explained the movements of the heavens. He was laughed at and told that such a machine would be so huge and noisy that everyone would hear it. He simply replied that we are born with that noise all around us, and that we are so used to hearing it that we cannot hear it at all.”

WorldWould BeAgePastUsedLyingUniverseBeliefHeavenStarsBornSkyMovementHugeMachinesNotionPhilosopherHearingNoiseGiantsControlledLaughedSpheresCrystalsNoisyStars In The Sky
Author:Dan Abnett
Create image