Eliezer Yudkowsky Quotes

A layman will no doubt find it hard to understand how pathological disorders of the body and mind can be eliminated by 'mere' words. He will feel that he is being asked to believe in magic. And he will not be so very wrong, for the words which we use in our everyday speech are nothing other than watered-down magic. But we shall have to follow a roundabout path in order to explain how science sets about restoring to words a part at least of their former magical power.

I want to leave something behind when I go; some small legacy of truth, some word that will shine in a dark place.

It isn't useful to curse the darkness; instead light your candle and let your light shine.

A magic dwells in each beginning, protecting us, telling us how to live.

My magic. That was at the heart of me. It was a manifestation of what I believed, what I lived. It came from my desire to see to it that someone stood between the darkness and the people it would devour.

Certainly everyone, in order to protect love, Certainly wishes to believe in something

Intellect takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue.

The warmth of his embrace soaked into me, a powerful charm against the dark things.

Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.

People agree to say that it is rationality and science which have eliminated what is called magic and religion. But ultimately, the ironic outcome of this techno-scientific development is a renewed need for the idea of God.

There is a light within each person, and it lights up the whole universe. If it does not shine, there is darkness.

When our minds are filled with light, there is no room for darkness

Have you, in truth, ever seen something so heartbreakingly lovely? What are we to make of a world where stars shine bright in the midst of so much darkness and gloom?

Show me the path I must walk and do not let me stumble in the dark places that lie ahead.

Dumbledore was on his feet again, pale as any of the surrounding Inferi, but taller than any too, the fire dancing in his eyes; his wand was raised like a torch and from its tip emanated the flames, like a vast lasso, encircling them all with warmth.

There is light in the world, and it is us!

The sun will shine again. No matter... how painful and hard the rain may beat down on me.

In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.

No matter how you are feeling, get up every morning and prepare to let your light shine forth.

She was chosen,' Mae insists. No, you're wrong,' I say. 'She was only a girl.'... She was gone for some time. You were the only force that kept her from turning completely. That's magic. Perhaps the most powerful I've seen.' -In response to Felicity's love for Pippa keeping her from turning into a Winterland creature.

Faith, Princess," the Prism Cat repeated. "It is a highly underrated weapon against the dark things in this world.

Magic and all that is ascribed to it is a deep presentiment of the powers of science.

Anything's possible in Human Nature," Chacko said in his Reading Aloud voice. Talking to the darkness now, suddenly insensitive to his little fountain-haired niece. "Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite joy." Of the four things that were Possible in Human Nature, Rahel thought that Infinnate Joy sounded the saddest. Perhaps because of the way Chacko said it. Infinnate Joy. With a church sound to it. Like a sad fish with fins all over.

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

There's tons of magic in the world, and it's all science.