Assumption

"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it."

"Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury – to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."

"... Whenever you see a sweeping statement that a tremendous amount can come from a very small number of assumptions, you always find that it is false. There are usually a large number of implied assumptions that are far from obvious if you think about them sufficiently carefully. ..."

"Assumptions can simplify the complex world and make it easier to understand. To study the effects of international trade, for example, we might assume that the world consists of only two countries and that each country produces only two goods. In reality, there are numerous countries, each of which produces thousands of different types of goods. But by assuming two countries and two goods, we can focus our thinking on the essence of the problem. Once we understand international trade in this simplified imaginary world, we are in a better position to understand international trade in the more complex world in which we live. The art in scientific thinking — whether in physics, biology, or economics—is deciding which assumptions to make."

"This doesn’t mean we have to go around in circles, though. Zeilinger tells me an instructive story. While a college student, he and a cousin backpacked around France on motor scooters. One night they pulled up to a youth hostel recommended by their guidebook, only to find it closed and abandoned. They decided to sneak in and sleep there anyway. As they settled in for the night, Zeilinger opened a window for air. A short while later, his cousin got up to close it. A while later, Zeilinger reopened it. And so it went all night. “I was convinced it was stuffy; he was convinced it was drafty,” Zeilinger remembers. Only in the morning did they notice that the window didn’t have any glass in it. Their nocturnal passive-aggressiveness had been pointless. For Zeilinger, the moral is that you always need to question your own assumptions."