Book

Einstein's Dreams

Chinese workers in the third century b.c. created seven thousand life-sized terracotta soldiers to guard the tomb of the First Emperor. In the eleventh century a.d., Chinese builders constructed a pagoda from as many as thirty thousand separately carve

(9 total)

Characters

Alan Lightman (9)

“Suppose that time is not a quantity but a quality, like the luminescence of the night above the trees just when a rising moon has touched the treeline. Time exists, but it cannot be measured.”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: Time Exists But It Cannot Be Measured, Time As Quality Not Quantity

“It is a world of impulse. It is a world of sincerity. It is a world in which every word spoken speaks just to that moment, every glance given has only one meaning, each touch has no past or no future, each kiss is a kiss of immediacy.”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: A World That Favors Impulse, Impulsive World, Impulsivity Is Authentic And Sincere

“For it is only habit and memory that dulls the physical passion. Without memory, each night is the first night, each morning is the first morning, each kiss and touch are the first.”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: Memories, Memory Dulls Physical Passion, There Is A First For Everything, If You Could Experience Your Firsts All Over Again

“In fact, this is a world without future. In this world, time is a line that terminates at the present, both in reality and in the mind. In this world, no person can imagine the future. Imagining the future is no more possible than seeing colors beyond violet: the senses cannot conceive what may lie…”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: In A World With No Future, A World The Lacks The Concept Of Progression, Every Goodbye Is Death, Beyond The Present Lies Nothingness

“Some say it is best not to go near the center of time. Life is a vessel of sadness, but is noble to live life and without time there is no life. Others disagree. They would rather have an eternity of contentment, even if that eternity were fixed and frozen, like a butterfly mounted in a case.”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: To Be Stuck In Time, A World Where Time Stops, The Many Worlds Of Einstein, Theories Of Time

“Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives?”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: Living Two Lives, Denying The Future, Waiting To Live Life

“In a world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room dark but prepared. We walk from room to room, look into the room that is lit, the present moment, then walk on. We do not know the rooms ahead, but we know we cannot change them. We are spec…”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: Waiting To Live Life, A Life Of Fixed Future, Infinite Options That We Cannot Change, Living A Life We Have No Say In, Being A Spectator Of Your Life

“And at the place where time stands still, one sees lovers kissing in the shadows of buildings, in a frozen embrace that will never let go. The loved one will never take his arms from where they are now, will never give back the bracelet of memories, will never journey afar from his lover, will never…”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: Where Time Stands Still, If A Relationship Could Not Progress Or Decay

“The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or of joy. The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.”

— Alan Lightman, amazon.com

Tagged: To Be Stuck In Time, A World Where Time Stops, The Many Worlds Of Einstein, Theories Of Time