Alan Lightman Quotes

Who thinks, at night, that morn will ever be? Who knows, far out upon the central sea, That anywhere is land? And yet, a shore Has set behind us, and will rise before: A past foretells a future.

Tell me, he said, "What is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. what are they waiting for?" "Well […] I guess people wait in order to make sure of what they feel." "And when you have waited—-has it made you sure?

History is full of people who thought they were right -- absolutely right, completely right, without a shadow of a doubt. And because history never seems like history when you are living through it, it is tempting for us to think the same.

Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)

A lot of people had doubts. I tried to tell people I never had doubts.

I'm still working out my opinions - it's always a question mark. I leave loads of space open, and people don't like that.

People would rather believe than know.

A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable. While people can be doubted, time cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back. In the coffee houses, in the government buildings, in boats of Lake Geneva, people look at their watches and take refuge in time. Each person knows that somewhere is recorded the moment she was born, the moment she took her first step, the moment of her first passion, the moment she said goodbye to her parents.

And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts... Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for.

Time trieth troth in every doubt.

Vast ills have followed a belief in certainty.

In this world, only winter is certain

We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. People are terrified — how can you live and not know? It is not odd at all. You only think you know, as a matter of fact. And most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge and you really don’t know what it is all about, or what the purpose of the world is, or know a great deal of other things. It is possible to live and not know.

Grown people know that they do not always know the way of things, and even if they think they know, they do not know where and how they got the proof.

Time...give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical.

That's a cute sentence: the years to come. Why are you so sure they're coming?

It is not certain that everything is certain, neither is it certain that everything is uncertain.

When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic.

People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence.

It’s difficult to ever go back to the same places or people. You turn away, even for a moment, and when you turn back around, everything’s changed.

If you walk backwards, you'll find out you can go forwards and people won't know if you're coming or going.

There's one thing that always interests me about you good people, not your certainty that the rest of us are swine, - no doubt we are, - but your certainty that your opinions are pearls.

The only people I've met in this world who never doubt are materialists and atheists.

We must be fully committed, but we must also be aware at the same time that we might possibly be wrong. People who claim to be absolutely convinced that their stand is the only right one...is a dead giveaway of unconscious doubt. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.