-- L'universo non è solo più strano di quanto immaginiamo, è più strano di quanto possiamo immaginare
(J. B. S. Haldane)

-- Una volta che ha realizzato di essere in prigione, allora, e solo allora, un essere umano può progettare la sua fuga.
(Dan Millman)

-- La Saggezza non arriva in regalo, ma deve essere perseguita, rincorsa, conquistata.
(Lo Sfidante)

-- La cultura è tutto ciò che rimane quando si è dimenticato tutto ciò che si è appreso.

-- Isn't a miserable reality better than the most interesting illusion?
(Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Chapter eight)

-- Il tempo
è un galantuomo.
(Giuseppe Ventre)

-- "Maybe I shouldn't have told you - about it being electrical." She put her hand out, touched his arm; she felt guilty, seeing the effect it had on him, the change.
        "No," Rick said. "I'm glad to know. Or rather -" He became silent. "I'd prefer to know."
(Philip K. Dick, Do androids dream of electric sheep? - Chapter twenty-two)

-- I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.
(G. H. Hardy)

-- In ogni ricerca, qualunque essa sia, non si passa mai dall'errore alla Verità. Si passa sempre da una verità più piccola a una Verità più Grande.

-- I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, they do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be.
(Philip K. Dick - Ubik)

-- La matematica è la regina delle scienze e la teoria dei numeri è la regina della matematica.
(C. F. Gauss)

-- When he had gone, Amar lay wide-eyed, staring into the empty night. A light rain had begun to fall; beyond its soft sound there was only silence.
(Paul Bowles - The Spider's House - Chapter 11)

-- My Lord God I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
         But I believe that my desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
         Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
(Thomas Merton)

-- Perché vede, al mondo ci sono varie categorie di scienziati; gente di secondo e terzo rango, che fan del loro meglio ma non vanno molto lontano. C'è anche gente di primo rango, che arriva a scoperte di grande importanza, fondamentali per lo sviluppo della scienza (e qui si ha netta l'impressione che in quella categoria volesse mettere se stesso). Ma poi ci sono i geni, come Galileo e Newton. Ebbene, Ettore era uno di quelli. Majorana aveva quel che nessun altro al mondo ha; sfortunatamente gli mancava quel che invece è comune trovare negli altri uomini, il semplice buon senso.
(E. Fermi)

-- His parents had told him: "We know there is a force for good in the world, but no one knows what that force is."
...
"Some people in this world have strange beliefs, like Ida with her rabbit's foot, and Mrs. Connor with her crucifix. We know those things don't mean anything, but we must have respect for everyone's beliefs and be very careful never to offend anyone."
(Paul Bowles, The Spider's House, Chapter 19)

-- A man cannot fashion his beliefs according to his fancy.
(P. Bowles, The Spider's House, Chapter 19)

-- The world was something different from what he had thought it. It had come nearer, but in coming nearer it had grown smaller. As if an enormous piece of the great puzzle had fallen unexpectedly into place, blocking the view of distant, beautiful countrysides which had been there until now, dimly he was aware that when everything had been understood, there would be only the solved puzzle before him, a black wall of certainty. He would know, but nothing would have meaning, because the knowing was itself the meaning; beyond that there was nothing to know.
(P. Bowles, The Spider's House, Chapter 34)