Chaotic Quotes - Page 12

• They resumed walking. Alex felt an ache in his eyes and throat. "I don't know what happened to me," he said, shaking his head. "I honestly don't." Bennie glanced at him, a middle-aged man with chaotic silver hair and thoughtful eyes. "You grew up, Alex," he said, "just like the rest of us.

  Jennifer Egan

  Eye, Thoughtful, Men

  Jennifer Egan (2010). “A Visit from the Goon Squad”, p.274, Anchor

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• Cities are never random. No matter how chaotic they might seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve a problem. In fact, a city is nothing more than a solution to a problem, that in turn creates more problems that need more solutions, until towers rise, roads widen, bridges are built, and millions of people are caught up in a mad race to feed the problem-solving, problem-creating frenzy.

  Neal Shusterman

  Race, Bridges, Cities

  Neal Shusterman (2012). “Downsiders”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

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• We seem to inhabit a universe made up of a small number of elements-particles-bits that swirl in chaotic clouds, occasionally clustering together in geometrically logical temporary configurations.

  Timothy Leary

  Clouds, Small Numbers, Together

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• Rust, corrosion, wind, rain. The nibbling teeth of mice and the acrid droppings of insects and the devouring jaws of years. The was of nature upon machines, of the planet's chaotic forces upon the works of humankind. The energy that man had pulled from the earth was being inexorably pulled back into it, sucked like water down a drain. Before long, if it hadn't happened already, not a single high-tension pole would be left standing on the earth. Mankind had built a world that would take a hundred years to die. A century for the last light to go out.

  Justin Cronin

  Rain, Men, Light

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• The possible redemption from the predicament of irreversibility──of being unable to undo what one has done──is the faculty of forgiving. The remedy for unpredictability, for the chaotic uncertainty of the future, is contained in the faculty to make and keep promises. Both faculties depend upon plurality, on the presence and acting of others, for no man can forgive himself and no one can be bound by a promise made only to himself.

  Hannah Arendt

  Men, Forgiving, Promise

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• I know of a wild region whose librarians repudiate the vain superstitious custom of seeking any sense in books and compare it to looking for meaning in dreams or in the chaotic lines of one's hands . . . They admit that the inventors of writing imitated the twenty-five natural symbols, but they maintain that this application is accidental and that books in themselves mean nothing. This opinion - we shall see - is not altogether false.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Dream, Book, Writing

  Jorge Luis Borges (1962). “Ficciones”, p.81, Grove Press

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• Artistic symbols and myths speak out of the primordial, preconscious realm of the mind which is powerful and chaotic. Both symbol and myth are ways of bringing order and form into this chaos.

  Rollo May

  Powerful, Speaks Out, Order

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• Calling is a 'yes' to God that carries a 'no' to the chaos of modern demands. Calling is the key to tracing the story line of our lives and unriddling the meaning of our existence in a chaotic world.

  Os Guinness

  Keys, Stories, Calling

  Os Guinness (2003). “The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life”, p.170, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• I warn the marauder dragging plunder, chaotic, rich beyond all rights: he'll strike his sails, harried at long last, stunned when the squalls of torment break his spars to bits.

  Aeschylus

  Rights, Long, Lasts

  Aeschylus (1984). “The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides”, p.216, Penguin

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• The amazing thing is that chaotic systems don't always stay chaotic," Ben said, leaning on the gate. "Sometimes they spontaneously reorganize themselves into an orderly structure." "They suddenly become less chaotic?" I said, wishing that would happen at HiTek. "No, that's the thing. They become more and more chaotic until they reach some sort of chaotic critical mass. When that happens, they spontaneously reorganize themselves at a higher equilibrium level. It's called self-organized criticality.

  Connie Willis

  Self, Wish, Levels

  Connie Willis (1996). “Futures Imperfect”, Doubleday Books

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• No doubt that anarchist ideas are frightening to those in power. People in power can tolerate liberal ideas. They can tolerate ideas that call for reforms, but they cannot tolerate the idea that there will be no state, no central authority. So it is very important for them to ridicule the idea of anarchism to create this impression of anarchism as violent and chaotic. It is useful for them.

  Howard Zinn

  Ideas, People, Doubt

  "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

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• There's nothing regular about my life at all, really. I don't keep a regular schedule and every day is different. It's all rather chaotic.

  Wallace Shawn

  Different, Schedules

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Behind the lens, I found refuge and freedom, distance and connection, an intoxicating way to tame the huge, chaotic world.

  Judith Kelman

  Photography, Distance, Way

  Judith Kelman (2002). “Summer of Storms”, Jove Publications

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• There's lots of people my age (and younger) that have grown up in chaotic environments and I just happen to be one of the first ones to make it to pro sports. It's more a societal thing than an athletics thing.

  Chris Kluwe

  Sports, People, Age

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• New York seems to be thriving, which I'm grateful for. But I would hope that they would figure out how to negotiate the traffic and limit the pedicabs, because it seems to me that it's becoming a more chaotic city.

  Patti LuPone

  New York, Grateful, Cities

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• Chance is the nature of our universe. [...] madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises. Some surprises can be valuable.

  Frank Herbert

  Chance, Madness, Surprise

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• Our day-to-day lives are pretty chaotic. So in terms of the writing part, you have to get pretty disciplined about finding quiet moments and making sure you're making time for the art side, on top of all the time-consuming business side.

  Sarah Kay

  Art, Writing, Quiet Moments

  Source: saseye.com

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• Life isn't perfect and that's the kind of world where Jesus showed up. He wasn't born in a palace on a perfect day. He was born in the middle of the night during tax season to an unwed couple in a stable or a cave in a sheep field. That was God's way of showing us that nothing is perfect. Life is chaotic. It's messy. That's what Jesus was stepping into.

  Louie Giglio

  Jesus, Couple, Night

  "A conversation with pastor, author and songwriter Louie Giglio". Interview with Chad Bonham, www.beliefnet.com.

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• my parents ... had decided early on that all of the problems in my family had somehow to do with me. All roads led to Roseyville, a messy, chaotic town where, as parents, they were required to visit, but could never get out of quick enough or find a decent parking place.

  Roseanne Barr

  Parent, Towns, Blame

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• The artist's work, it is sometimes said, is to celebrate. But really that is not so; it is to express wonder. And something terrible resides at the heart of wonder. Celebration is social, amenable. Wonder has a chaotic splendor.

  Patricia Hampl

  Art, Splendor, Celebration

  Patricia Hampl (1993). “Spillville: A Collaboration”, Milkweed Editions

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• An ideology can provide a satisfying narrative that explains chaotic events and collective misfortunes in a way that flatters the virtue and competence of believers, while being vague or conspiratorial enough to withstand skeptical scrutiny.

  Steven Pinker

  Events, Narrative, Way

  "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined". Book by Steven Pinker, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2011.

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• Lully's machine, Mill's fear and Lasswitz's chaotic library can be the subject of jokes, but they exaggerate a propensity which is common: making metaphysics and the arts into a kind of play with combinations.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Art, Play, Library

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• So before I start work on a book, I'm like a pregnant mole - I obsessively tidy and order my closets and everything in my study. Because there's such a cascade of images and ideas that I'm grapping with mentally, I couldn't also be in a chaotic setting.

  Diane Ackerman

  Book, Order, Ideas

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• Regular and simple life is the life of God; the chaotic and the complex one is the Devil's!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Life, Simple, Devil

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• He that has no present Christ has a future, dark, chaotic, heaving with its destructive ocean; and over it there goes forever--black-pinioned winging its solitary and hopeless flight, the raven of his anxious thoughts, and finds no place to rest, and comes back again to the desolate ark with its foreboding croak of evil in the present and evil in the future.

  Alexander MacLaren

  Ocean, Dark, Anxious Thoughts

  Alexander Maclaren (1859). “Sermons preached in Union chapel, Manchester”, p.289

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