“Very soon the heavens presented an extraordinary appearance, for all t...” — Olaf Stapledon Quote

“Very soon the heavens presented an extraordinary appearance, for all the stars directly behind me were now deep red, while those directly ahead were violet. Rubies lay behind me, amethysts ahead of me.”

“They were a remarkable company, each one of them a unique person, yet characterized to some extent by his particular national type. And all were distinctively “scientists” of the period. Formerly this would have implied a rather uncritical leaning towards materialism, and an affectation of cynicism; but by now it was fashionable to profess an equally uncritical belief that all natural phenomena were manifestations of the cosmic mind. In both periods, when a man passed beyond the sphere of his own serious scientific work he chose his beliefs irresponsibly, according to his taste, much as he chose his recreation or his food.”

“There is much in this vision that will remind you of your mystics; yet between them and us there is far more difference than similarity, in respect both of the matter and the manner of our thought. For while they are confident that the cosmos is perfect, we are sure only that it is very beautiful. While they pass to their conclusion without the aid of intellect, we have used that staff every step of the way. Thus, even when in respect of conclusions we agree with your mystics rather than your plodding intellectuals, in respect of method we applaud most your intellectuals; for they scorned to deceive themselves with comfortable fantasies.”

“Philosophy is an amazing tissue of really fine thinking and incredible, puerile mistakes. It's like one of those rubber 'bones' they give dogs to chew, damned good for the mind's teeth, but as food - no bloody good at all.”

“Bridging two cultures (Nigerian and American) and three professions and careers (Architecture, Business and Education) to literacy’s true freedom.”

“1800'lerin ortalarında Alman fizikçi ve hekim Hermann Hemholtz (1821-1894)), gözlerden beyne damla damla akmakta olan verilerin, yaşadığımız zengin görme deneyimini açıklayamayacak kadar zayıf olduğu yönünde bir kuşkuya kapılmıştı. Vardığı sonuç ise beynin, gelen verilerle ilgili varsayımlarda bulunuyor olması gerektiği ve bu varsayımların önceki deneyimlere dayalı olduğu yolundaydı. Bir başka deyişle beyin, kendisine gelen az miktardaki bilgiyi, en iyi tahminleri bir araya getirerek daha büyük bir şeye dönüştürmekteydi.”

“Trigonometry lets you use some known quantities about a triangle to determine its unknown quantities, we will interrupt ourselves right now because we can already hear you muttering, “Come on, when am I ever gonna use this?” Here is when you are going to use this: in navigation, astronomy, music, number theory, engineering, electronics, physics, architecture, optics, statistics, cartography, and more. You already need it just to build a proper sundial, hence the unofficial slogan of trigonometry: “Okay, fine, I guess this is actually pretty important after all.” Trigonometry deals only with right triangles (triangles with two edges that meet at 90 degrees, and we mark that angle with a little square), but since any non-right triangle can be divided into two right triangles (try it; it’s true), that’s not going to be a problem.”

“In hard moments, beauty still abounds, like being surrounded by unique creatures and sunlit silhouettes in an underwater canyon... The darkness is where we see the streams of light pour in, making the true shapes of things clear.”