Quotes About Time

The extreme disparity between the outsider's and insider's perspectives arises because they have vastly different conceptions of time. Although the point is far from obvious, we'll now see what appears as endless time to an outsider appears as endless space, at each moment of time, to an insider.

I expect that regardless of where the search for the foundations of space and time may take us, regardless of modifications to string/M-theory that may be waiting for us around the bend, holography will continue to be a guiding concept.

Now, more often than not, contemplating the far future leaves me with a feeling of calm and connection, as if my own identity hardly matters because it has been subsumed by what I can only describe as a feeling of gratitude for the gift of experience

The first variation is called the delayed-choice experiment and was suggested in 1980 by the eminent physicist John Wheeler. The experiment brushes up against an eerily odd-sounding question: Does the past depend on the future?

Within the modified equations, Kaluza found the ones Einstein had already used successfully to describe gravity in the familiar three dimensions of space and one of time. But because his new formulation included an additional dimension of space, Kaluza found an additional equation. Lo and behold, when Kaluza derived this equation he recognized it as the very one Maxwell had discovered half a century earlier to describe the electromagnetic field.

in principle this kind of erasure could occur billions of years after the influence it is thwarting, in effect undoing the past, even undoing the ancient past.

The world of the everyday suddenly seemed nothing but an inverted magic act, lulling its audience into believing in the usual, familiar conceptions of space and time, while the astonishing truth of quantum reality lay carefully guarded by nature's sleights of hand.

If entropy has been steadily increasing since the big bang, then the entropy back at the bang must have been much lower than it is today.

According to special relativity, no longer can space and time be thought of as universal concepts set in stone, experienced identically by everyone. Rather, space and time emerged from Einstein's reworking as malleable constructs whose form and appearance depend on one's state of motion.

The big bang is a theory, partly described in the last two chapters, that delineates cosmic evolution from a split second after whatever happened to bring the universe into existence, but it says nothing at all about time zero itself.

These frozen moments are grouped into nows—into events that happen at the same time—in different ways by observers in different states of motion.

Each moment—each event or happening—exists, just as each point in space exists. Moments don't momentarily come to life when illuminated by the "spotlight" of an observer's present; that image aligns well with our intuition but fails to stand up to logical analysis. Instead, once illuminated, always illuminated. Moments don't change. Moments are. Being illuminated is simply one of the many unchanging features that constitute a moment.

General relativity provides the choreography for an entwined cosmic dance of space, time, matter, and energy.

The greatest relevancy can become irrelevant in the space of a heartbeat.

Do you know about the horrors during the Time of Titans? Or the Hrethgir Rebellions?" "I've read my father's memoirs in great detail—" "I don't mean Agamemnon's propaganda. Have you learned the real history?

Kwisatz Haderach: "Shortening of the Way." This is the label applied by the Bene Gesserit to the unknown for which they sought a genetic solution: a male Bene Gesserit whose organic mental powers would bridge space and time.

the next Age of Reason will not come easily in this time of magical beliefs and superstitious fear.

Every man dreams of the future, though not all of us will be there to see it. —TIO HOLTZMAN, Speculations on Time and Space

The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not . . . yet, I occurred. —PAUL ATREIDES, Memories of Muad'Dib

Night is a hole in yesterday, and a tunnel into tomorrow. —Zensunni fire poetry

The Spacing Guild has worked for centuries to surround our elite Navigators with mystique. They are revered, from the lowest Pilot to the most talented Steersman. They live in tanks of spice gas, see all paths through space and time, guide ships to the far reaches of the Imperium. But no one knows the human cost of becoming a Navigator. We must keep this a secret, for if they really knew the truth, they would pity us.

Each human being is a time machine. —Zensunni Fire Poetry

Memory and History are two sides of the same coin. In time, however, History tends to slant itself toward a favorable impression of events, while Memory is doomed to preserve the worst aspects.

Death can be a friend, but only if he comes calling at the right time. —Navachristianity text (disputed translation)