Harold Urey Quotes

The complexity of the world is so overwhelming and so present to everyone.

Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.

It's a waste to chase the pipe dream of a magical tiny theory that allows us to make quick and detailed calculations about the future. We can't predict and we can't control. To accept this can be a source of liberation and inner peace. We're part of the unfolding world, surfing the chaotic waves.

No matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all the salient facts about any one of them.

Nature doesn't move in a straight line, and as part of nature, neither do we.

I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder.

Everything is contingent, and there is also chaos.

Life is like a cobweb, not an organization chart.

Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development.

I frequently hear our present period described as uncertain, confused, chaotic.

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.

Nature provides exceptions to every rule.

Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests.

There is no order in the world around us, we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead

… history turns out as always to be too messy, contingent and subject to the vagaries of human agency to be slotted into neat boxes.

History is messy, undetermined, and layered.

When you think about the complexity of our natural world - plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example - a smartphone begins to look like a pretty dumb object.

If we had the fundamental laws of nature tomorrow, we still wouldn't understand consciousness. We wouldn't even understand turbulence.

Life is full of ironies and absurdities.

This industry is too bonkers to understand. Every single part is completely different.

Nature hates calculators.

What is imponderable in the world is greater than what we can handle.

We're dealing with the chaos of life, and we're rubbing it down. The deeper you rub, the more patterns you can see until you realize that it's really an organized chaos. There isn't really ever any chance to understand it all, but we're here to keep rubbing.

It was inevitable for people to try to create a sense of normalcy in a place where nothing was normal. It helped one get through the day, to add predictability to a life that was inherently unpredictable.

One must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.