Arcane Quotes

• Science is an integral part of culture. It's not this foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It's one of the glories of the human intellectual tradition.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Science, Intellectual, Culture

  1990 In The Independent, 24 Jan.

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• Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.

  Khalil Gibran

  Art, Native American, Steps

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• Having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be.

  Isaac Asimov

  Coincidence In Life, Coincidence, Unusual

  Isaac Asimov (1976). “The planet that wasn't”, Doubleday Books

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• The world rarely shrieks its meaning at you. It whispers, in private languages and obscure modalities, in arcane and quixotic imagery, through symbol systems in which every element has multiple meanings determined by juxtaposition.

  Gregory Maguire

  Elements, World, Juxtaposition

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• People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence.

  Isaac Asimov

  People, Coincidence

  Isaac Asimov (1976). “The planet that wasn't”, Doubleday Books

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• True literacy is becoming an arcane art, and the nation is steadily "dumbing down."

  Isaac Asimov

  Education, Art, Learning

  "It's Been a Good Life".

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• We seem to have set up some very arcane rules as to when it is actually OK to applaud.

  Emanuel Ax

  Seems

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• People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely rickety substance in order to avoid it. I, on the other hand, see coincidence everywhere as an inevitable consequence of the laws of probability, according to which having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be.

  Isaac Asimov

  Science, Hands, Order

  Isaac Asimov (1976). “The planet that wasn't”, Doubleday Books

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• I'll never be a minimalist. The fact that the prose is more tightly controlled doesn't for a minute mean that it's minimalist. I very much like arcane words and baroque sentence structure.

  China Mieville

  Mean, Facts, Minimalist

  Interview with Lou Anders, believermag.com. April 1, 2005.

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• We look about in puzzlement at our world, with a sense of unease and disquiet. We think of ourselves as scholars in arcane liturgies, single men trapped in worlds beyond our devising. The truth is far simpler: there are things in the darkness beneath us that wish us harm.

  Neil Gaiman

  Men, Thinking, Our World

  Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlín R Kiernan, Elizabeth Bear (2014). “Lovecraft's Monsters”, p.21, Tachyon Publications

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• For four years, I listened to stories of intelligence failures, and it wasn't due to incompetence of anyone in the system, but that the system is so arcane.

  Charles Bass

  Years, Stories, Four

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• In spite of the fact that religion looks backward to revealed truth while science looks forward to new vistas and discoveries, both activities produce a sense of awe and a curious mixture of humility and arrogance in their practitioners. All great scientists are inspired by the subtlety and beauty of the natural world that they are seeking to understand. Each new subatomic particle, every unexpected object, produces delight and wonderment. In constructing their theories, physicists are frequently guided by arcane concepts of elegance in the belief that the universe is intrinsically beautiful.

  Paul Davies

  Beautiful, Humility, Science

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• There is an air of unreality in debating these arcane points when the world is changing in such dramatic ways right in front of our eyes because of global warming.

  Al Gore

  Eye, Air, Way

  "What in the Hell Do They Think Is Causing It?". Interview with John Dickerson, www.slate.com. December 8, 2009.

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• The argument about marriage equality will one day seem as arcane and shocking to us as the fact that Rosa Parks had to get up and go to the back of the bus.

  Uma Thurman

  One Day, Parks, Facts

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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• Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.

  William Safire

  Taken, Jargon, Columnists

  "How to Read a Column" by William Safire, www.nytimes.com. January 24, 2005.

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• I’ve often wished that I had some suave and socially acceptable hobby that I could fall back on in times like this. You know, play the violin (or was it the viola) like Sherlock Holmes, or maybe twiddle away on the pipe organ like the Disney version of Captain Nemo. But I don’t. I’m sort of the arcane equivalent of a classic computer geek. I do magic, in one form or another, and that’s pretty much it. I really need to get a life, one of these days

  Jim Butcher

  Fall, Play, Magic

  Jim Butcher (2000). “Storm Front: Book one of The Dresden Files”, p.87, Penguin Group

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• I don't think I would worry about an oversaturation of information if it was indeed information. It is the slovenly, hasty traffic in cliché and sensationalism and bad reasoning that bothers me. I love finding arcane primary texts on the web. The people who think to put them up are heroes of mine.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Hero, Thinking, People

  "One of Obama’s Favorite Writers Redefines Spirituality". Interview with Gregory Barber, www.motherjones.com. October 25, 2015.

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• Film theory has nothing to do with film.

  Roger Ebert

  Film, Theory

  "Lights, Camera, Action. Marxism, Semiotics, Narratology." by David Weddle, articles.latimes.com. July 13, 2003.

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• The impediment to scientific thinking is not, I think, the difficulty of the subject. Complex intellectual feats have been mainstays even of oppressed cultures. Shamans, magicians and theologians are highly skilled in their intricate and arcane arts. No, the impediment is political and hierarchical.

  Carl Sagan

  Art, Thinking, Political

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.398, Ballantine Books

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• One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that you're constantly dredging up some arcane knowledge or long-forgotten experience, rediscovering old passions and interests.

  Christina Baker Kline

  Passion, Long, Wonderful

  "The Mystery Woman in the Field: Kristin Hannah Asks Christina Baker Kline About 'A Piece of the World'". Interview With Erin Kodicek, www.amazonbookreview.com. February 20, 2017.

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• What has emerged as I've gotten older is simplifying the characters I play, unless the role calls for something that is arcane or ornate.

  Stephen Lang

  Character, Play, Roles

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• (with trout) we are touching something unrestricted, wild and arcane, beyond the reach of those who carefully maintain one-dimensional lives. There is, I tell myself, someone in the city nearby whose one contact today with unreconstructed nature will be to step into a diminutive pile of poodle excrement

  Russell Chatham

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

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• The value of market esoterica to the consumer of investment advice is a different story. In my opinion, investment success will not be produced by arcane formulae, computer programs or signals flashed by the price behavior of stocks and markets. Rather an investor will succeed by coupling good business judgment with an ability to insulate his thoughts and behavior from the super-contagious emotions that swirl about the marketplace.

  Warren Buffett

  Investment Success, Advice, Succeed

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• Science, the largest religion of the twentieth century, had become tarnished by images of exploding space shuttles, crack babies, and a generation of complacent Americans who allowed the television to raise their children. People were looking for something - I think they just didn't know what. And even though they were once again starting to open their eyes to the world of magic and the arcane that had been with them all the while, they still thought I must be some kind of joke.

  Jim Butcher

  Baby, Children, Eye

  Jim Butcher (2010). “The Dresden Files Collection 1-6”, p.14, Penguin

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• Literary theory has become a parody of science, generating its own arcane jargon. In the process, tragically, it discourages love of literature for its own sake.

  Nancy Pearcey

  Literary Theory, Literature, Jargon

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