Themes

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

"The theoretical view of the actual universe, if it is in correspondence to our reasoning, is the following. The curvature of space is variable in time and place, according to the distribution of matter, but we may roughly approximate it by means of a spherical space. ...this view is logically consistent, and from the standpoint of the general theory of relativity [is most obvious] lies nearest at hand; whether, from the standpoint of present astronomical knowledge, it is tenable, will not be discussed here. In order to arrive at this consistent view, we admittedly had to introduce an extension of the field equations of gravitation, which is not justified by our actual knowledge of gravitation. It is to be emphasized, however, that a positive curvature of space is given by our results, even if the supplementary term [] is not introduced. The term is necessary only for the purpose of making possible a quasi-static distribution of matter, as required by the fact of the small velocity of the stars."

"The classic example of an is that of plane geometry formulated by Euclid... It forms the model of all rigorous mathematical schemes. The axioms are the initial assumptions... From them, logical deductions can proceed under stipulated rules of reasoning... analogous to the scientists' laws of Nature, whilst the axioms play the role of s. We are not free to pick any axioms... They must be logically consistent..."

"1. Conspiracy to turn the world into a giant marketplace for the benefit of the wealthy elite... 2. Conspiracy by transnational corporations to turn billions of people into addicts... 3. Conspiracy to plunder the Global South for the benefit of the Global North... 4. Conspiracy to hide the effects of climate breakdown for corporate profit... 5. Conspiracy to grow the global economy indefinitely, while killing most of life on Earth and risking the collapse of civilization...."

"If there were a distinguished person whose life, by birth and conditions, belonged especially to the same earthly dissimilarity, a distinguished person who would not assent to this divisive conspiracy against the universally human, that is, against the neighbor, if he did not have the heart to do this, if, clearly perceiving the consequences, he still trusted in God for the strength to bear these consequences while he lacked the strength to harden his heart ... the distinguished corruption would accuse him of being a traitor and self-lover—because he wanted to love the neighbor."

"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match."

"Do not disturb my circles!"

"The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world."

"Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."

"A circle may be small, yet it may be as mathematically beautiful and perfect as a large one."

"All my life's a circle; But I can't tell you why; Season's spinning round again; The years keep rollin' by."

"If people stand in a circle long enough, they'll eventually begin to dance."

"Faith, that's as well said as if I had said it myself."

"Whoe'er imagines prudence all his own, Or deems that he hath powers to speak and judge Such as none other hath, when they are known, They are found shallow."

"Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, Brags of his substance, not of ornament: They are but beggars that can count their worth."

"I am not in the roll of common men."

"Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works."

"Conceit may puff a man up, but never prop him up."

"Circles and right lines limit and close all bodies, and the mortal right-lined circle must conclude and shut up all."

"Wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can tender a reason."

"In men this blunder still you find, All think their little set mankind."

"The world knows only two, that's Rome and I."

"For what are they all in their high conceit, When man in the bush with God may meet?"

"I've never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them."

"Remember, I have not appointed you as commanders and tyrants over the people. I have sent you as leaders instead, so that the people may follow your example. Give the Muslims their rights and do not beat them lest they become abused. Do not praise them unduly, lest they fall into the error of conceit. Do not keep your doors shut in their faces, lest the more powerful of them eat up the weaker ones. And do not behave as if you were superior to them, for that is tyranny over them."

"It was Mr. Greenaway's conceit, and a terrifically promising one, that in this "Tempest" Mr. Gielgud's Prospero should also be a mirror image of Shakespeare at the end of his career, with a further association to the actor himself, nearing the end of his career as an actor."

"We go and fancy that everybody is thinking of us. But he is not: he is like us; he is thinking of himself."

"Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve."

"Conceit is the most contemptible and one of the most odious qualities in the world. It is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration."

"Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him."

"Be not wise in your own conceits."

"Maths is really hard to define. ...Except I like to define maths as this{{center|1=\frac{\pi}{4} = 1 - \frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{5} - \frac{1}{7} + \frac{1}{9} - \frac{1}{11}\cdots}}This formula which links π to the odd numbers... It's true. It's always been there. It's absolutely wonderful. It connects odd numbers to the ratio of a circle, and... if you don't like that, then you have no mathematical soul."

"Nature in her whole drama never drew such a part; she has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making…"

"Circles are praised, not that abound In largeness, but the exactly round."

"A circle is a round straight line with a hole in the middle."

"On the lecture slate The circle rounded under female hands With flawless demonstration."

"I watch'd the little circles die; They past into the level flood."

"I'm up and down and round about, Yet all the world can't find me out; Though hundreds have employed their leisure, They never yet could find my measure."

"Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace."

"Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop."

"The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough, and uncover a miracle — another circle, drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal point. There would be richer messages farther in. It doesn't matter what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you come from. As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it. It's already here. It's inside everything. You don't have to leave your planet to find it. In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature. Standing over humans, gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe."

"As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes The sinking stone at first a circle makes; The trembling surface by the motion stirr'd, Spreads in a second circle, then a third; Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance, Fill all the watery plain, and to the margin dance."

"As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads."

"Rust Cohle: Someone once told me, 'Time is a flat circle.' Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again. And that little boy and that little girl, they're gonna be in that room again and again and again forever."

"Mathematics would certainly have not come into existence if one had known from the beginning that there was in nature no exactly straight line, no actual circle, no absolute magnitude."

"No one ever squared the circle with so much genius, or, excepting his principal object, with so much success."

"And the seasons they go round and round, And the painted ponies go up and down, We're all captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look behind From where we came And go 'round and 'round and 'round In the circle game."

"There must be a positive and negative in everything in the universe in order to complete a circuit or circle, without which there would be no activity, no motion."

"He drew a circle that shut me out — Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in."

"The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are: that good fortune I have enjoyed for nearly twenty years."