Shared by Graham

“ That’s what I tell my PhD students: Don’t do any reading. Figure out why you wake up in the morning, what you’re passionate about, and then read the literature. But don’t figure out what’s interesting based on what other people say. ”

“ Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own. ”

“ Atheism does have comfort to offer in the face of death. Among other things, it offers the idea that a finite life can be seen as more valuable, not less: that the impermanence of life can inspire us to see it as precious, and to savor it and treasure it as much as we possibly can. ”

“ Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. ”

“ There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause. ”