Sayings

"The stars are made of the same atoms as the earth." I usually pick one small topic like this to give a lecture on. Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars -- mere gobs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere." I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination -- stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern -- of which I am a part -- perhaps my stuff was belched from some forgotten star, as one is belching there. Or see them with the greater eye of Palomar, rushing all apart from some common starting point when they were perhaps all together. What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the *why?* It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined! Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?
Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), American physicist and Nobel Prize winner

This quote sums up my feelings about people who can't see the beauty in a thing after they understand the science behind it. Science does not say "why", just how. And even scientific explanations do not change the thing they explain. Just because we know that fireflies glow because of a chemical reaction doesn't change the beauty of little points of light flying around in the night. I've found that my knowledge of science has only increased my appreciation of the beauty of the universe.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
- George Washington in a Speech to both Houses of Congress, Jan. 8, 1790.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
- Albert Einstein

So which is it? I think I must go with the statesman rather than the physicist. I know that Albert Einstein was intelligent, but he had little experience running a country. Other statesmen seem to agree with Washington ("Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1901). I always have to laugh when people quote an expert or a genius outside of their own area. That's like taking a star football player's investment advice or an actor's advice on nutrition

Look before you leap
He who hesitates is lost

Hmmm... so which is it? Should you look before you leap or is that hesitation and you'll be lost? This is only the first in my collection of contradictory sayings and is just an example of how if you make something sound like a saying, it somehow becomes more credible.

To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be.
- Miguel de Unamuno

Habit is . . . the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance.
- William James

The first quote is on August 29 of my Franklin Planner while the second is on August 31. I'm so confused. Are habits good or bad? These aren't really sayings, just quotes, but a good example. What is Franklin Covey trying to tell me, here?

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right

This is only one of many sayings which essentially say that you should give everything 100% effort and do it the best you can. Well, personally, my life is only so long and I just don't have time to do everything the best that I possibly can. An example from my childhood: I played football on my high school football team. I enjoyed the game and liked winning. One thing that got me in trouble with the coaches, though, was that I was not particularly interested in being the best football player I could be. I was interested in playing a game and having fun. I'd work in practice and do my best in games, but when I wasn't at practice or at a game, I was doing other stuff. I'm sure I could have been a better player, but I had other interests. I'll stop here because this web page is another example... ;-)