Oliver Sacks Quotes

History goes out of control almost as often as nature does.

If there is a God, his plan is very similar to someone not having a plan.

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

With craziness, you can't predict it. There's very little defense you can have on craziness.

Strictly by the nature of 'Veep,' in any given moment, a lot can go wrong.

One thing you cannot control is nature.

Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.

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.

For all of nature's wonder and beauty, it is also hostile and unpredictable.

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

The best laid plans o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley

Blizzards, floods, volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes: They fascinate because they nakedly reveal that Mother Nature, afflicted with bipolar disorder, is as likely to snuff us as she is to succor us

The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and undoes the most carefully planned undertaking. The world's greatest events are not produced, they happen.

History is the unfolding of miscalculations

There are going to be screw-ups, mistakes, confusion, and missteps. One hopes they won’t be fatal.

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

There is no way to order chaos. It's the fundamental theory at the beginning and end of everything; it's the ultimate law of nature. There's no way to win against unpredictability, to suit up completely against accidents.

The reason my games are chaotic is that the world is chaotic, not me. I don't aim for bad endings - they just naturally come out.

Blind nature will nearly always select the most probable, but man can let the most improbable become actual.

The first steps of a creative act are like groping in the dark: random and chaotic, feverish and fearful, a lot of busy-ness with no apparent or definable end in sight.

You never can tell with bees.

If everything on earth were rational, nothing would happen.

The unpredictability inherent in human affairs is due largely to the fact that the by-products of a human process are more fateful than the product.

The fact that people will be full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable.

The life we all live is amateurish and accidental; it begins in accident and proceeds by trial and error toward dubious ends.