Quotes About Insight

When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don't state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint.

Leibniz is at the disadvantage of not having seen it. Or perhaps we should count this as an advantage, for anyone who sees it is dumbfounded by the brilliance of the geometry, and it is difficult to criticize a man's work when you are down on your knees shielding your eyes.

The Bibliotheque du Roi then gives you the closest thing that currently exists to God's understanding of the world. And yet with a bigger library we could come ever so much closer.

Reader, if you don't know what a database is, rest assured that an explanation of the concept would in no way increase your enjoyment in reading this account.

Actually, I've been thinking about that," Tristan said, and finally sat down again. "It's the dog that didn't bark.

But that's bullshit!" Doug says. "Jesus! Haven't you guys spent any time at all around people like Comstock? Can't you recognize bullshit? Don't you think it would be a useful item to add to your intellectual toolkits to be capable of saying, when a ton of wet steaming bullshit lands on your head, 'My goodness, this appears to be bullshit'?

I don't know how my face conveyed that information, or what kind of internal wiring in my grandmother's mind enabled her to accomplish this incredible feat. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance. Condense fact from the vapor of nuance. Hiro has never forgotten the sound of her speaking those words, the feeling that came over him as he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was.

His real job—the job that the Owners paid him for—was to be an observer of the human condition as it was so richly displayed from day to day within these walls.

Sergeant Major," Arjun said quietly, "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Yur snorted. "Is that a fancy way of saying it's above my pay grade, sir?

You're just clever enough to be stupider than if you weren't clever at all

What do you think Orolo saw, when he looked out thus?" Fraa Jad asked. "He was a great appreciator of beauty and loved to look at the mountains from the starhenge," I said. "You think he saw beauty? That is a safe answer, since it is beautiful. But what was he thinking about? What connections did the beauty enable him to perceive?" "I couldn't possibly answer that." "Don't answer it. Ask it.

penetrates your iris, tenderest of sphincters

The ineffable talent for finding patterns in chaos cannot do its thing unless he immerses himself in the chaos first.

It is just that — according to some who style themselves in the know — you are destitute.

in an unguarded moment.

It is what you don't expect," he'd said, "that most needs looking for." "Do

What they conceal tells you more than what they reveal.

An idea springs out of his forehead fully formed, with no warning. This is how all the best ideas arrive.

Then he got a look on his face as if he were thinking. Daniel had learned, in his almost seventy years, not to expect much of people who got such looks, because thinking really was something one ought to do all the time.

Avi thinks this over before issuing the carefully engineered statement: "It is as true as it ever was.

When I think of all the things I've worried about and been afraid of in my life—and now it's plain that I've been scared of the wrong things.

Condense fact from the vapor of nuance.

Good ideas are just there all of a sudden, like angels in the Bible. You cannot ignore them just because they are ridiculous.

They could not see what they could not imagine