Thursday, December 16, 2010

Meandering here and there . . .

Today is the birthday of George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana

"An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world."
- George Santayana

"A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted."
- George Santayana

"We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible."
- George Santayana

"To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say."
- George Santayana

"Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim."
- George Santayana

"The dreamer can know no truth, not even about his dream, except by awaking out of it."
- George Santayana

Santayana image source (1)


Today is the birthday of Arthur Charles Clarke (December 16, 1917 – March 19, 2008), science fiction author, inventor, and futurist. He is best known for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"One cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal."
- Arthur C. Clarke

Clarke image source (1)

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