Theory Quotes - Page 8

• I think I've always had a certain amount of skepticism of this whole 'shut up and smile' theory. I haven't ever swallowed that pill so easily, although I tried.

  Amber Heard

  Thinking, Pills, Amber

  6 Copy quote

• I have very strong theories about magazine publishing. And I think that it is the most personal form of journalism. And I think that a magazine is an old friend.

  Hugh Hefner

  Strong, Thinking, Media

  4 Copy quote

• I wanted to make noise, not study theory.

  James Hetfield

  Noise, Study, Wanted

  8 Copy quote

• The mentally disturbed do not employ the Principle of Scientific Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of facts. They shoot for the baroque.

  Philip K. Dick

  Simple, Principles, Facts

  Philip K. Dick (2011). “VALIS”, p.16, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. If a kid is having trouble or is discouraged, the problem is not just inside the kid; it's also in the system, the society.

  James Hillman

  Kids, Problem, Trouble

  7 Copy quote

• Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.

  Aldous Huxley

  Art, Men, Europe

  Aldous Huxley (1956). “The collected works of Aldous Huxley”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals.

  Thomas Huxley

  Struggle, Science, Thinking

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.229, Cambridge University Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Dream, Doom And Gloom, Hopeful

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.85, Modern Library

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think voting for the lesser of two evils in game theory always leads to more evil.

  Penn Jillette

  Thinking, Games, Two

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

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

  Franz Kafka

  Happiness, Laughter, Believe

  Franz Kafka, Malcolm Pasley (1973). “Shorter works [of] Franz Kafka”, Harvill Secker

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.

  Charles Darwin

  Lying, Believe, Theory Of Evolution

  Charles Darwin (2012). “On the Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle”, p.162, Graphic Arts Books

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• The dismaying truth is that birtherism is part of a larger pattern of rejection of reality that has taken hold of intimidating segments of one of the two political parties that alternate in power in our governing institutions. It is akin to the view that global warming is a hoax, or that the budget can be balanced through spending cuts alone, or that contraception causes abortion, or that evolution is just another theory, on a par with the theory that the earth is six thousand years old.

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  Taken, Party, Cutting

  "Trumpery" by Hendrik Hertzberg, prod02.newyorker.com. May 2, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A script is like a theory of a movie.

  John C. Reilly

  Scripts

  "John C. Reilly & Marisa Tomei Interviews CYRUS". Press Day, collider.com. June 18, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• My work was fairly theoretical. It was in recursive function theory. And in particular, hierarchies of functions in terms of computational complexity. I got involved in real computers and programming mainly by being - well, I was interested even as I came to graduate school.

  Dennis Ritchie

  Real, School, Hierarchy

  5 Copy quote

• I think one of the reasons that we like conspiracy theories is I think that we like to feel like there is a group of people who are so smart and powerful that they can pull the wool over an entire country or in fact even an entire world's eyes. That certainly makes us feel like somehow we're protected, even if it's not in our best interest.

  Jason Ritter

  Country, Powerful, Smart

  "Blair Underwood & Jason Ritter talk 'The Event'". Interview with Morgan Jeffery, www.digitalspy.com. September 18, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's the theory that nudity doesn't really make something sexy; the characters and their relationship make it sexy.

  Tim Robbins

  Relationship, Sexy, Character

  "Weekly Meditations for Healthy Sex (Feb. 8-14)" by Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T., www.huffingtonpost.com. August 8, 2013.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral,' Smiley went on, more lightly. 'Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.

  John le Carre

  Cat, Compassion, Spy

  4 Copy quote

• He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.

  J. D. Salinger

  Religious, Agony, People

  "Zooey (1957)". "Franny and Zooey". Book by J. D. Salinger, 1961.

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• A saboteur in the house of art and a comedienne in the house of art theory, Lawler has spent three decades documenting the secret life of art. Functioning as a kind of one-woman CSI unit, she has photographed pictures and objects in collectors' homes, in galleries, on the walls of auction houses, and off the walls, in museum storage.

  Jerry Saltz

  Art, Wall, Home

  4 Copy quote

• Early-twentieth-century abstraction is art's version of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It's the idea that changed everything everywhere: quickly, decisively, for good.

  Jerry Saltz

  Art, Ideas, Century

  "Saltz: MoMA’s Inventing Abstraction Is Illuminating—Although It Shines That Light Mighty Selectively". www.vulture.com. January 6, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• To me, the writer's main job is to just make the story unscroll in such a way that the reader is snared - she's right there, seeing things happen and caring about them. And if you dedicate yourself to this job, the meanings more or less take care of themselves. That's the theory, anyway.

  George Saunders

  Jobs, Caring, Stories

  "The week in fiction: George Saunders" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. October 21, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In theory, cars are fairly simple. If they don't start, it's either the fuel system or the electrical system. Teach yourself about the path of each in your engine and tracing it is fairly straightforward. But at the beginning, mastering each new system seems like an unreachable shore. The car is effectively a black box.

  Adam Savage

  Simple, Car, Black

  "Potentially awesome outcomes: Adam Savage on the courage to try". www.wired.com. October 30, 2012.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena.

  Erwin Schrodinger

  Successful, Tests, Accepted

  18 Copy quote

• What the British seem to like are television historians and naturalists, not public intellectuals. You can't help feeling that's because one supplies narrative and the other supplies facts, and the British are traditionally empiricists so they/we have a resistance to theory and to theoreticians playing too prominent a role in public life.

  Will Self

  Feelings, Facts, Roles

  "Britain's intellectuals: leading thinkers have their say" by Alain de Botton, AC Grayling, Susie Orbach, Paul Gilroy, Will Self, Mary Beard, Brian Cox, Lionel Shriver, James Lovelock and Lisa Jardine, www.theguardian.com. May 7, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whenever you have dynamic interactions between 300 million people and the American economy acting in really complex ways, that introduces a degree of almost chaos theory to the system, in a literal sense.

  Nate Silver

  People, Acting, Degrees

  7 Copy quote