“Purpose, like time, only exists when observed.” — Alyssa Skyes Quote

“Purpose, like time, only exists when observed.”

“Each of us a gear that turns another,”

“(On perspective and mortality) I realized: I have forever after to know what comes next. Let us say I have death in the bag already—we all do, it’s our absolute and only guarantee. But this tiny blur of time where I get to be conscious, with my particular collection of memories, is beyond precious.”

“(On time) Time is not a standalone entity, it is the measure of change. Therefore, without form, time is nil.”

“We are each like a grain of sand, thinking we are not the shore.”

“in the name of beliefs”

“Every forward ends up behind, every back shortcuts to some labyrinth; time as predictable as a crossword set by a sadist.”

“Most living entities and systems on this planet obviously do not live by the Western human clock (though some, like the crows who memorize a city's daily garbage truck route, do of course adapt to the timing of human activities). To watch a brown creeper as it inches up and down, peering into crevices and extracting bugs with its little dentist beak, is thus a way of catching a ride out of the grid and toward a time sense so different that it is barely imaginable to us. In Jennifer Ackerman's book The Bird Way, I learned that the male black manakin, a South American songbird, can do somersaults so fast that a human can see them only in slowed-down video. Some birdsong contains notes that are sung too quickly or are too high-pitched for us to hear. Veeries, a species related to the American robin, can predict hurricanes months in advance and adjust their migration route accordingly, and no one currently knows how. Birds own bodies and their movements are an entanglement of time and space: If a loon is in the higher latitudes, it's summer, and the bird is mostly black with a striking pattern of white stripes. If the same loon is near my studio in Oakland, it's winter, and the bird is almost unrecognizably different, a dull grayish brown.”

“The only way to live a life without regret is to make sure each unit of time that passes is being converted into product”

“A liberal to me is one who - and it suits some of the dictionary definitions - is unbeholden to any specific belief or party or group or person, but makes up his or her mind on the basis of the facts and the presentation of those facts at the time. That defines what I am.”