Quotes from Ted Chiang

We experienced events in an order, and perceived their relationship as cause and effect. They experienced all events at once, and perceived a purpose underlying them all.

The hand's dexterity is the physical manifestation of the mind's ingenuity,

For people like him, Hell was where you went when you died, and he saw no point in restructuring his life in hopes of avoiding that. And

The priests led a prayer to Yahweh; they gave thanks that they were permitted to see so much, and begged forgiveness for their desire to see more.

What did bother him was the tone of the meetings themselves, when participants spoke about their reaction to the visitation: most of them talked about their newfound devotion to God, and they tried to persuade the bereaved that they should feel the same.

Albert Einstein once said, "Insofar as the propositions of mathematics give an account of reality they are not certain; and insofar as they are certain they do not describe reality.

It's funny: when you're tranquil,

Free will is a kind of miracle; when we make a genuine choice, we bring about a result that cannot be reduced to the workings of physical law. Every act of volition is, like the creation of the universe, a first cause.

No one knew why the aliens wouldn't talk to us in person; fear of cooties, maybe.

Though I am long dead as you read this, explorer, I offer to you a valediction. Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have a right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.

For the first time, he knew night for what it was: the shadow of the earth itself, cast against the sky. After

People are made of stories

It seemed to me that a perfect memory couldn't be a narrative any more than unedited security-cam footage could be a feature film.

Porque si la duración de un universo es calculable, no lo es la variedad de vida que se genera. […] nada de eso puede predecirse, porque nada de eso era inevitable

She sees that Derek has a very different idea of high expectations than she has. More than that, she realizes that his is actually the better one. "You're right," she says, after a pause.

No es ninguna coincidencia que <> signifique al mismo tiempo tener esperanza y el acto de respirar. Cuando hablamos, usamos el aliento de nuestros pulmones para darle a nuestros pensamientos una forma física. Los sonidos que emitimos son simultáneamente nuestras intenciones y nuestra fuerza vital. Hablo, Luego soy.

Help me to know when it's appropriate to keep looking and when it's better to ignore my doubts. Let me always be inquisitive, but never be suspicious. Amen.

Comprendo la Palabra, y los medios por los que opera, y de esta forma me disuelvo

We all keep spare sets of full lungs in our homes, but when one is alone, the act of opening one's chest and replacing one's lungs can seem little better than a chore.

now lets me provoke precise reactions in others. With pheromones and muscle tension, I can cause another

Some humans theorize that intelligent species go extinct before they can expand into outer space. If they're correct, then the hush of the night sky is the silence of a graveyard.

He offered an explanation, speaking of his search for tiny pores in the skin of reality, like the holes that worms bore into wood, and how upon finding one he was able to expand and stretch it the way a glassblower turns a dollop of molten glass into a long-necked pipe, and how he then allowed time to flow like water at one mouth while causing it to thicken like syrup at the other.

Blinding, joyous, fearful symmetry surrounds me. So much is incorporated within patterns now that the entire universe verges on resolving itself into a picture. I'm closing in on the ultimate gestalt: the context in which all knowledge fits and is illuminated, a mandala, the music of the spheres, kosmos.

I am a lover of beauty, he of humanity. Each