Numbers Quotes - Page 13

• A “collective” mind does not exist. It is merely the sum of endless numbers of individual minds. If we have an endless number of individual minds who are weak, meek, submissive and impotent – who renounce their creative supremacy for the sake of the “whole” and accept humbly that the “whole’s” verdict – we don’t get a collective super-brain. We get only the weak, meek, submissive and impotent collective mind.

  Ayn Rand

  Creative, Mind, Brain

  Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff (1999). “The Journals of Ayn Rand”, p.102, Penguin

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• The first night Stephen and I slept together, he whispered numbers into my ear: long, high numbers -- distances between planets, seconds in a life. He spoke as if they were poetry, and they became poetry. Later, when he fell asleep, I leaned over him and watched, trying to picture a mathematician's dreams. I concluded that Stephen must dream in abstract, cool designs like Mondrian paintings.

  Peter Cameron

  Dream, Distance, Night

  Peter Cameron (2012). “One Way or Another: Stories”, p.63, Open Road Media

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• We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Rocks, Circles

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• Philosophy is a necessary activity because we, all of us, take a great number of things for granted, and many of these assumptions are of a philosophical character; we act on them in private life, in politics, in our work, and in every other sphere of our lives -- but while some of these assumptions are no doubt true, it is likely, that more are false and some are harmful. So the critical examination of our presuppositions -- which is a philosophical activity -- is morally as well as intellectually important.

  Karl Popper

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Character

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• Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.

  Frank Herbert

  Space, Molecules, Kind

  Frank Herbert (2011). “Dune Messiah: The Second Dune Novel”, p.141, Hachette UK

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• I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.

  Brian Selznick

  Mean, Machines, World

  Brian Selznick (2015). “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”, p.375, Scholastic Inc.

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• Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.

  Dorianne Laux

  Cutting, Important, Way

  Kim Addonizio, Dorianne Laux (1997). “The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry”, p.197, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.

  Terry Pratchett

  Peace, Military, War

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• Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted.

  Alberto Manguel

  Book, Space, Granted

  Alberto Manguel (2011). “The Library at Night”, p.68, Vintage Canada

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• Number of empty Ben & Jerry's containers: 3 - two mint chocolate cookie, one plain vanilla. (Who buys plain vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, anyway? Is there a greater waste?)

  Ally Carter

  Ice Cream, Two, Chocolate

  "I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You". Book by Ally Carter, April 1, 2006.

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• Enemies are somewhere else, as the fighting is almost always “over there,” with Islamic fundamentalism now replacing Russian and Chinese communism as the implacable, furtive menace. And “terrorist” is a more flexible word than “communist.” It can unify a larger number of quite different struggles and interests. What this may mean is that the war will be endless---since there will always be some terrorism.

  Susan Sontag

  War, Struggle, Islamic

  Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.200, Macmillan

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• If standard of living is your major objective, quality of life almost never improves, but if quality of life is your number one objective, your standard of living almost always improves.

  Zig Ziglar

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Zig Ziglar, Dwight "Ike" Reighard (2013). “The One Year Daily Insights with Zig Ziglar”, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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• I'm trying to remember how you tell the time by looking at the sun." -"I should leave it for a while, it's too bright to see the numbers at the moment.

  Terry Pratchett

  Trying, Sun, Remember

  Terry Pratchett (1998). “The Last Continent: A Discworld Novel”, Harpercollins

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• Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions.

  Primo Levi

  Believe, Asking Questions, Holocaust

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• I wanted to tell them that, in Kabul, we snapped a tree branch and used it as a credit card. Hassan and I would take the wooden stick to the bread maker. He'd carve notches on our stick with his knife, one notch for each loaf of naan he'd pull for us from the tandoor's roaring flames. At the end of the month, my father paid him for the number of notches on the stick. That was it. No questions. No ID.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Father, Flames, Knives

  Khaled Hosseini (2004). “The Kite Runner”, p.104, Penguin

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• There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Stars, Learning, Science

  "Richard P. Feynman, Teacher". David L. Goodstein, "Physics Today", Volume 42, No. 2, February 1989.

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• If we're mad, we're mad in large numbers, at least larger than yours.

  Shannon Hale

  Mad, Large Numbers, Ifs

  Shannon Hale (2010). “The Goose Girl”, p.80, A&C Black

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• In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools, and its becoming almost generally true, it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies, pragmatism and humanism were the early ones, and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face.

  Boyd K. Packer

  Philosophy, Educational, School

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• Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!

  David Sedaris

  Country, Queens, Two

  David Sedaris (2000). “Me talk pretty one day”

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• The paper does not provide the exact number of penises eaten by ducks, but the author says there have been enough over the years to prompt the coining of a popular saying: 'I better get home or the ducks will have something to eat.

  Mary Roach

  Sex, Home, Years

  Mary Roach (2009). “Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex”, p.192, W. W. Norton & Company

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• You mean they killed her?" asked David. They ate her," said Brother Number One. "With porridge. That's what 'ran away and was never seen again' means in these parts. It means 'eaten.'" Um and what about 'happily ever after'?" asked David, a little uncertainly. "What does that mean?" Eaten quickly," said Brother Number One.

  John Connolly

  Brother, Mean, Doe

  John Connolly (2006). “The Book of Lost Things: A Novel”, p.129, Simon and Schuster

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• It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their [the communists' ] terms. It was a deal; we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching. They were happy beating us, so everyone was happy.

  Richard Wurmbrand

  Pay The Price, Privilege, Communist

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• Tom had traveled around the sun eleven times when the delivery truck brought his mother's newest fridge, but a number doesn't really describe his age.

  N.D. Wilson

  Mother, Age, Sun

  N. D. Wilson (2008). “Leepike Ridge”, p.2, Random House Books for Young Readers

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• Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.

  Isaac Asimov

  Wise, Philosophy, Political

  Isaac Asimov (1991). “Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor: A Lifetime Collection of Favorite Jokes, Anecdotes, and Limericks with Copious Notes on how to Tell Them and why”, p.9, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Isn't it so weird how the number of dead people is increasing even though the Earth stays the same size, so that one day there isn't going to be room to bury anyone anymore?

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  People, One Day, Earth

  Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.3, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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