Quotes About Complexity

Our behavior toward each other is the strangest, most unpredictable, and most unaccountable of all the phenomena with which we are obliged to live. In all of nature, there is nothing so threatening to humanity as humanity itself.

The most solid piece of scientific truth I know of is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature.

Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.

I have no more sense of what goes on in the mind of mankind than I have for the mind of an ant. Come to think of it, this might be a good place to start.

Finally, we can contemplate the evolution of our understanding of developmental biology. Progress has been impressive but due to the complexity of cells with all their proteins and other molecules interacting, there is still much to be learned. It is likely that in the next 50 years, given the genes and structure of a fertilized egg, it will be possible to reliably compute the details of that organism's development and just what the adult would be.

It wasn't logical, but the better you knew someone, the more blurry they became. The accumulation of facts made them disappear. It was more interesting wondering if someone did or didn't like country music than knowing one way or the other.

It was good to remember that for every horrible memory from her marriage, there was also a happy one. She wanted to see it clearly, to understand that it wasn't all black, or all white. It was a million colors. And yes, ultimately it hadn't worked out, but that was okay. Just because a marriage ended didn't mean that it hadn't been happy at times. She thought about that

It wasn't logical, but the better you knew someone, the more blurry they became. The accumulation of facts made them disappear.

My point is that things become weird and pointless if you examine them for too long.

She generally felt that the advice she offered was superior to the advice she received. Other people's problems were so simple; one's own problems tended to be so much more nuanced.

But then there were the other times, unexpected quiet moments, where they'd catch each other's eyes, and all the years of hurt and joy, bad times and good times, seemed to fuse into a feeling that she knew was so much stronger, more complex and real, than of those fledgling feelings for Dominick, or even the love she'd first felt for Nick in those early years.

You think love is black and white. All women think that. And they're wrong. Women are really intelligent except for when they're being really stupid.

things become weird and pointless if you examine them for too long.

She wanted to see it clearly, to understand that it wasn't all black, or all white. It was a million colors. And

But then there were the other times, unexpected quiet moments, where they'd catch each other's eyes, and all the years of hurt and joy, bad times and good times, seemed to fuse into a feeling that she knew was so much stronger, more complex and real, than any of those fledgling feelings for Dominick, or even the love she'd first felt for Nick in those early years.

It was as though he had an amazing skill, like playing a complicated musical instrument, that Alice could never hope to master.

I don't know how she feels about me, but I sort of like her. I mean, I'm sickened by her existence obviously, but I find her strangely compelling.

Domestic violence victims often don't look at all like you'd expect them to look," said Susi. "And their stories don't always sound as black-and-white as you'd expect them to sound.

He looked simultaneously very young and very old, as if all the past and future versions of himself were overlaid on his face.

Things aren't that simple," said Tiffany. "They are if we want them to be," said

it," finished Susi. "It's almost worth it." Celeste met Susi's raccoon eyes. "Yes." The blandness of Susi's gaze said nothing at all except, Got it. She wasn't being kind and maternal, and she wasn't reveling in the delicious superiority

It felt as if Gemma had moved up to a higher, more complex level of human emotions that Lyn couldn't even hope to understand. She didn't know the rules. She didn't know the right thing to say to make it better. It was like Gemma possessed a secret, terrible knowledge that Lyn could only clumsily guess at.

Bisexuals are like agnostics, trying to have it both ways.

Did she love him as much as she hated him? Did she hate him as much as she loved him? "We