bigthinkeditor
“We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster.”
Global Population Boom: Are People the Problem, the Solution, or Both? Professor Joel Cohen first asks and answers the question, “How did humans grow from small populations on the African […]
Sex may be enjoyable, but in evolutionary terms, it’s a very difficult way to reproduce.
The Roman philosopher had the following to say about ability and education: “Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.”
“The mathematician’s best work is art, a high perfect art, as daring as the most secret dreams of imagination, clear and limpid. Mathematical genius and artistic genius touch one another.”
Sir Richard Francis Burton, famed 19th century explorer, on world religions: “The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.”
If you’re learning, you’re being taught, no matter who is doing the teaching or where the lesson is taking place (and conversely, if you’re not learning, you’re not being taught).
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
“We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force.”
“No society has been able to abolish human sadness; no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.”
“Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.”
Student loans are intended to provide everyone with equal access to education, but the staggering amount of student loan debt that Americans currently hold is retarding economic growth and entrenching wealth inequality.
Internet service providers have filed suit against the FCC over its recent decision to regulate broadband internet as a public utility.
“Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad — but it does not carry instructions on how to use it. Such power has evident value — even though the power may be negated by what one does with it.”
“The defect of equality,” wrote the bombastic French dramatist, “is that we only desire it with our superiors.”
“The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man — that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense — has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading.”
“If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.”
“To deny political equality is to rob the ostracised of all self-respect; of credit in the market place; of recompense in the world of work; of a voice among those who make and administer the law; a choice in the jury before whom they are tried, and in the judge who decides their punishment.”
“I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others, but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.”
“Life is like riding a bicycle,” wrote the renowned theoretical physicist to his son Eduard. “To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
Governments and world citizens must commit themselves to common goals in order to reduce the risk of a global nuclear catastrophe.
“Science is a quest for understanding. A search for truth seems to me to be full of pitfalls. We all have different understandings of what truth is, and we’ll each believe, or we are in danger of each believing, that our truth is the one and only absolute truth…”
“If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He’s not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people; he’s really needed.”
“Everything abstract is ultimately part of the concrete. Everything inanimate finally serves the living. That is why every activity dealing in abstraction stands in ultimate service to a living whole.”
“There is no great harm in the theorist who makes up a new theory to fit a new event. But the theorist who starts with a false theory and then sees everything as making it come true is the most dangerous enemy of human reason.”
Author and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis explains how Uber’s business plan seeks to change the way the public perceives car ownership.
Teaching Girls to See Themselves as Leaders, with Tara Sophia Mohr In order to guide young women to achieve their full leadership potential, life coach and author Tara Sophia Mohr […]
“To be an artist is a blessing and a privilege. Artists must never betray their true hearts. Artists must look beneath the surface and show that there is more to this world than what meets the eye.”
PwC’s global talent manager recently visited Big Think to discuss his company’s Aspire to Lead initiative as well as to encourage men to pledge their support for gender equality.
“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”