If the weather is too cold or rainy, I take shelter in the Regence Cafe, where I entertain myself by watching chess being played. Paris is the world center, and this cafe is the Paris centre for the finest skill at this game.
Denis DiderotRead
Science will never be able to reduce the value of a sunset to arithmetic. Nor can it reduce friendship to formula. Laughter and love, pain and loneliness, the challenge of beauty and truth: these will always surpass the scientific mastery of nature.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that human experiences and emotions cannot be quantified or fully understood through science alone.
Louis Orr's quote reflects on the idea that while science can explain and measure many aspects of the natural world, it falls short in capturing the depth of human experiences such as friendship, love, beauty, and truth. These elements of life, rich in emotional and subjective significance, transcend mathematical and scientific expressions, reminding us that there are facets of existence that defy reduction to mere numbers or formulas.
In practice
A closing speech at a graduation ceremony to highlight the importance of human connections.
If the weather is too cold or rainy, I take shelter in the Regence Cafe, where I entertain myself by watching chess being played. Paris is the world center, and this cafe is the Paris centre for the finest skill at this game.
When it comes to my own turn to lay my weapons down, I shall do so with thankfulness and fatigue, and whatever be my destiny afterward, I shall be glad to lie down with my fathers in honor. It is human at least, if not divine.
The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law.
It's true that most American citizens think of themselves as living in a democratic country. But when was the last time that any Americans actually sat down and came to a collective decision? Maybe if they are ordering pizzas, but basically never.
Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity.
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