George Sarton Quotes

You throw a rock in the water, and ripples spread out slowly. But they do go far.

Every person's every action has an effect.

Events, which, considered simply by themselves, seem to be of but little moment, assume a very different aspect when viewed in the light of their causes and consequences. Actions, either of individuals or of bodies of men, insignificant in their own proper nature, often start up into an unsuspected importance when viewed as indication of the state of heart from which they spring.

While we cannot predict the future, we will most surely live it. Every action and decision we take - or don't - ripples into the future. For the first time, we have the capability, the technology, and the knowledge to direct those ripples.

There's no way to know what makes one thing happen and not another. What leads to what. What destroys what. What causes what to flourish or die or take another course. But I was pretty certain as I sat there that tonight that if it hadn't been for Eddie, I wouldn't have found myself on the PCT. And though it was true that everything I felt for him sat like a boulder in my throat, this realization made the boulder sit ever so much lighter. He hadn't loved me well in the end, but he'd loved me well when it mattered.

We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why. Not until the future eats the present, anyway. We know when it's too late.

You start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others.

By your hand, millions - billions - of lives will be altered, caught up in a chain of events begun by you this day.

Your actions is like a raindrop; it falls into the pond making ripples and then its over.

We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.

What we call little things are merely the causes of great things.

I have listened to many tales in my life, and told a few of my own. If this has taught me anything, it is that there are some occurrences that change the course of things, that make an alteration far beyond their own apparent magnitude. It is like the throwing of a tiny pebble into a pool, how it makes an ever-expanding circle of ripples, spreading right across the water's surface.

Everything you do has some effect, some impact.

While it is true that most people never see or understand the difference they make, or sometimes only imagine their actions having a tiny effect, every single action a person takes has far-reaching consequences.

We live in a small world. Not a leaf falls that doesn't affect a myriad of things. When we reach out to someone in love and the effect is made - everyone, everything which comes in contact with the person we've effected is better for it. Of course, the converse is true, too.

Everything we do has consequences.

It may not have been fair, but it changed history.

What happened yesterday affects today; what happens today will affect tomorrow/

We have to live with the world that we helped to create.

Events are as much the parents of the future as they were the children of the past.

We believe that talented people with bad values can do far more damage than virtuous people with lesser talents.

We forget that everything has a meaning, everything has an impact on you. It's what we call soft power today. Nothing is innocent.

Everything you touch touches you.

Ideas have consequences.

There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.