48 quotes
American environmental engineer
“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”
"The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead."
on Wisdom
"Don't panic and carry a towel"
"If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat."
on Philosophy
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."
on Time
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
"Anything that thinks logically can be fooled by something else that thinks at least as logically as it does."
"The story so far:In the beginning the Universe was created.This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
on Humor
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
on Leadership
"We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works."
on Technology
"If everyone knew exactly what I was going to say, then there would be no point in my saying it, would there?"
on Communication
"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
on Learning
"Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
on Imagination
"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day."
"The Guide says there is an art to flying", said Ford, "or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
"Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe."
on Art
"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws."
"He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which."
on Genius
"The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks."
"There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened."
on Truth