Joel Achenbach Quotes

• Uncertainty is inevitable at the frontiers of knowledge.

  Joel Achenbach

  Inevitable, Frontiers, Uncertainty

  "What makes some people so suspicious of the findings of science?" by Joel Achenbach, www.theguardian.com. February 27, 2015.

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• There is nothing scarier than a mediocre man with a mission.

  Joel Achenbach

  Men, Missions, Mediocre

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• Girls were nice to me in the same way that they would be nice to a hamster. I fantasized about wild encounters with females but knew they'd never happen unless my own involvement could somehow go undetected.

  Joel Achenbach

  Girl, Nice, Encounters

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• Never has good weather felt so bad. Never have flowers inspired so much fear. Never has the warm caress of a sunbeam seemed so ominous. The weather is sublime, it's glorious, it's the end of the world.

  Joel Achenbach

  Flower, Weather, Sublime

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• Most geniuses are just talented people who get up really early in the morning.

  Joel Achenbach

  Morning, People, Genius

  Joel Achenbach (1991). “Why Things are: Answers to Every Essential Question in Life”

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• You might declare that global warming and energy insecurity, not to mention urban sprawl and pollution, have intensified the sin of indulging one's motoring desires. And I would not argue with that point. You're right. I am a bad man. But over the long term, if you want to develop a new transportation and energy policy, you'd probably want to err on the side of assuming that people won't change much. And it is human nature to like to be empowered.

  Joel Achenbach

  Men, Long, People

  "The Car of the Future". voices.washingtonpost.com. December 2, 2008.

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• Coffee is one of the special things I have, instead of a social life.

  Joel Achenbach

  Coffee, Special, Social

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• Lobbyists know that a 0 percent tax rate on capital income is not, in fact, the lowest possible rate. There can be negative tax rates. There can be subsidies. There can be allowances for depreciation. Lobbyists are adaptive creatures.

  Joel Achenbach

  Subsidies, Facts, Lobbyists

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• It depends on your specific conception of God, because belief can equally well leave you with this constant sense that you're coming up short and you're being judged and you're not doing quite the perfect thing. You know, I was brought up very religiously, and I never totally lost that sense, you know, that I'm screwing up.

  Joel Achenbach

  Perfect, Belief, Lost

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• The Enron scandal calls into question the integrity of the entire capitalist system, which previously we assumed was based on honest, straightforward greed.

  Joel Achenbach

  Integrity, Enron Scandal, Greed

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• Right-thinking people are not supposed to discuss any meteorological or geophysical event - a hurricane, a wildfire, a heat wave, a drought, a flood, a blizzard, a tornado, a lightning strike, an unfamiliar breeze, a strange tingling on the neck - without immediately invoking the climate crisis. It causes earthquakes, plagues and backyard gardening disappointments. Weird fungus on your tomato plants? Classic sign of global warming.

  Joel Achenbach

  Disappointment, Thinking, Earthquakes

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• Characters last. Beautiful writing lasts. A compelling narrative lasts. Art survives long after ideas go extinct.

  Joel Achenbach

  Beautiful, Art, Writing

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