On the World and Time, Life and Death
We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to
show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once
our eyes watered.
—Tom Stoppard, 1966
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us
is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
—Anatole France, 1881
Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.
—Anonymous
1
***
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
—Democritus, third century BC
God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.
—Paul Valéry, 1941
Eternal nothingness is OK if you happen to be dressed for it.
—Woody Allen, 1971
***
The whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad
attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
—Umberto Eco, 2014
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
—Albert Einstein, 1955
1
As quoted, without a date, in many collections, with attributions either to Jef Mallett or to Jim
Bishop. Unfortunately, I was unable to resolve this dilemma.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
K. K. Likharev (ed.), Essential Quotes for Scientists and Engineers,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63332-5_21
197
We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to
show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once
our eyes watered.
—Tom Stoppard, 1966
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us
is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
—Anatole France, 1881
Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.
—Anonymous
1
***
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
—Democritus, third century BC
God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.
—Paul Valéry, 1941
Eternal nothingness is OK if you happen to be dressed for it.
—Woody Allen, 1971
***
The whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad
attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
—Umberto Eco, 2014
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
—Albert Einstein, 1955
1
As quoted, without a date, in many collections, with attributions either to Jef Mallett or to Jim
Bishop. Unfortunately, I was unable to resolve this dilemma.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
K. K. Likharev (ed.), Essential Quotes for Scientists and Engineers,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63332-5_21
197