Quotes About Reality

Nietzsche mourns the loss of "man's belief in his dignity, his uniqueness, his irreplace-ability in the scheme of existence." For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable.

Toda nuestra ciencia, comparada con la realidad, es primitiva e infantil… y sin embargo es lo más preciado que tenemos. ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)

We tell children about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy for reasons we think emotionally sound, but then disabuse them of these myths before they've grown. Why retract? Because their well-being as adults depends on them knowing the world as it really is. We worry, and for good reason, about adults who still believe in Santa Claus.

Whatever their neurological and molecular antecedents, hallucinations feel real. They are sought out in many cultures and considered a sign of spiritual enlightenment.

It is not hard to imagine serious public dangers emerging out of instances in which political, military, scientific or religious leaders are unable to distinguish fact from vivid fiction.

Pseudoscience is easier to contrive than science, because distracting confrontations with reality—where we cannot control the outcome of the comparison—are more readily avoided. The standards of argument, what passes for evidence, are much more relaxed. In part for these same reasons, it is much easier to present pseudoscience to the general public than science. But this isn't enough to explain its popularity.

in a dream one must be allowed the liberty of imagining occasionally that which never existed in the world of sense perception.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits? For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

science carries us towards an understanding of how the world is, rather than how we would wish it to be [...]

And because what we are doing is so horrifying, we tend not to think of it much.

The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence.

Evrim bir kuram deÄŸil bir olgudur.

what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?

True memories seemed like phantoms, while false memories were so convincing that they replaced reality. GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Strange Pilgrims (1992)

In] everyday life, it is very rare that we are confronted with new facts about events of long ago. Our memories are almost never challenged. They can, instead, be frozen in place, no matter how flawed they are, or become a work in continual artistic revision.

All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike—and yet it is the most precious thing we have. ALBERT EINSTEIN

Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred

la certeza absoluta siempre se nos escapará.

All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike—and yet it is the most precious thing we have. ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879–1955)

We worry, and for good reason, about adults who still believe in Santa Clause.

Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable

Cosmos is all That is, Or Ever Was, Or ever Will BE.

Perhaps when everyone knows that gods come down to Earth, we hallucinate gods; when all of us are familiar with demons, it's incubi and succibi; when fairies are widely accepted, we see fairies; in an age of spiritualism, we encounter spirits; and when the old myths fade and we begin thinking that extraterrestrial beings are plausible, then that's where our hypnogogic imagery tends.