John Burdon Sanderson Haldane Quotes

Fear of nothingness is fear of a certain physicality, a physicality whose phenomena I cannot predictably demarcate from its reality in advance.

The truth is not delicate and it does not suffer from denial—the truth only dies when true stories are untold.

Few sometimes may know, when thousands err.

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition.

It’s education that’s meant to take us into this future that we can’t grasp.

At the same time, you don't want to be blindsided at some point because you've taken too much comfort from knowing nothing. So you try to keep a little store of practical knowledge. At a certain point you have to pretend that something is true in order to have a relationship with the world.

In this new world, you and I make it up as we go along, not because we lack expertise or planning skills, but because that is the nature of reality. Reality changes shape and meaning because of our activity. And it is constantly new. We are required to be there, as active participants. It can't happen without us and nobody can do it for us.

Once we've learned enough about the universe we will admit to ourselves that we will never know everything.

We know lots of things we didn't use to know but we don't know any way to prevent 'em from happening.

Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down".

No one knows anything for sure.

The smaller your reality, the more convinced you are that you know everything.

The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose

But to live in ignorance on such a point was impossible.

No one knows anything, really. It's all rented, or borrowed.

We know nothing in reality; for truth lies in an abyss.

We're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive. It's pretty dense kids who haven't figured that out by the time they're ten.... Most kids can't afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed.

Smart people understand that there is no such thing as paranoia. It is just another mask for ignorance.

What is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth.

The world is not a solid continent of facts sprinkled by a few lakes of uncertainties, but a vast ocean of uncertainties speckled by a few islands of calibrated and stabilized forms

All you really need to know for the moment is that the universe is a lot more complicated than you might think, even if you start from a position of thinking it's pretty damn complicated in the first place.

I always think it's not what we know that's terrifying; it's what we don't know. That's sort of pervasive with everything in life.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people in the world?

The world never leaves one in ignorance or in peace.