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Life, inventions, and business career
Early life
Ray Kurzweil grew up in the New York City borough of Queens. He was born to secular Jewish parents who had escaped Austria just before the onset of World War II, and he was exposed via Unitarian Universalism to a diversity of religious faiths during his upbringing. His father was a musician and composer and his mother was a visual artist. His uncle, an engineer at Bell Labs, taught young Ray the basics of computer science. In his youth, he was an avid reader of science fiction literature. In 1963, at age fifteen, he wrote his first computer program. Designed to process statistical data, the program was used by researchers at IBM. Later in high school he created a sophisticated pattern-recognition software program that analyzed the works of classical composers, and then synthesized its own songs in similar styles. The capabilities of this invention were so impressive that, in 1965, he was invited to appear on the CBS television program I’ve Got a Secret, where he performed a piano piece that was composed by a computer he also had built. Later that year, he won first prize in the International Science Fair for the invention, and he was also recognized by the Westinghouse Talent Search and was personally congratulated by President Lyndon B. Johnson during a White House ceremony.
Mid-life
In 1968, during his sophomore year at MIT, Kurzweil started a company that used a computer program to match high school students with colleges. The program, called the Select College Consulting Program, was designed by him and compared thousands of different criteria about each college with questionnaire answers submitted by each student applicant. When he was 20, he sold the company to Harcourt, Brace & World for $100,000 (roughly $500,000 in 2006 dollars) plus royalties. He earned a BS in Computer Science and Literature in 1970 from MIT.
In 1974, Kurzweil started the company Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc. and led development of the first omni-font optical character recognition system computer program capable of recognizing text written in any normal font. Before that time, scanners had only been able to read text written in a few fonts. He decided that the best application of this technology would be to create a reading machine, which would allow blind people to understand written text by having a computer read it to them aloud. However, this device required the invention of two enabling technologieshe CCD flatbed scanner and the text-to-speech synthesizer. Under his direction, development of these technologies was completed, and on January 13, 1976, the finished product was unveiled during a news conference headed by him and the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind. Called the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the device covered an entire tabletop. It gained him mainstream recognition: on the day of the machine’s unveiling, Walter Cronkite used the machine to give his signature soundoff, “And that’s the way it is, January 13, 1976.” While listening to The Today Show, musician Stevie Wonder heard a demonstration of the device and purchased the first production version of the Kurzweil Reading Machine, beginning a lifelong friendship between himself and Kurzweil.
According to former Kurzweil Computer Products employees, the Kurzweil Reading Machine’s designer was engineer Richard Brown, a KCP employee at the time.
Kurzweil’s next major business venture began in 1978, when Kurzweil Computer Products began selling a commercial version of the optical character recognition computer program. LexisNexis was one of the first customers, and bought the program to upload paper legal and news documents onto its nascent online databases.
Two years later, Kurzweil sold his company to Xerox, which had an interest in further commercializing paper-to-computer text conversion. Kurzweil Computer Products became a subsidiary of Xerox formerly known as Scansoft and now as Nuance Communications, and he functioned as a consultant for the former until 1995.
Kurzweil’s next business venture was in the realm of electronic music technology. After a 1982 meeting with Stevie Wonder, in which the latter lamented the divide in capabilities and qualities between electronic synthesizers and traditional musical instruments, Kurzweil was inspired to create a new generation of music synthesizers capable of accurately duplicating the sounds of real instruments. Kurzweil Music Systems was founded in the same year, and in 1984, the Kurzweil K250 was unveiled. The machine was capable of imitating a number of instruments, and in tests musicians were unable to discern the difference between the Kurzweil K250 on piano mode from a normal grand piano. The recording and mixing abilities of the machine, coupled with its abilities to imitate different instruments made it possible for a single user to compose and play an entire orchestral piece.
Kurzweil Music Systems was sold to Korean musical instrument manufacturer Young Chang in 1990. As with Xerox, Kurzweil remained as a consultant for several years.
Later life
Concurrent with Kurzweil Music Systems, Ray Kurzweil created the company Kurzweil Applied Intelligence (KAI) to develop computer speech recognition systems for commercial use. The first product, which debuted in 1987, was the world’s first large-vocabulary speech recognition program, allowing human users to dictate to their computers via microphone and then have the device transcribe their speech into written text. Later, the company combined the speech recognition technology with medical expert systems to create the Kurzweil VoiceMed (today called Clinical Reporter) line of products, which allow doctors to write medical reports by speaking instead of writing. KAI exists today as Nuance Communications.
Kurzweil started Kurzweil Educational Systems in 1996 to develop new pattern-recognition-based computer technologies to help people with disabilities such as blindness, dyslexia and ADD in school. Products include the Kurzweil 1000 text-to-speech converter software program, which enables a computer to read electronic and scanned text aloud to blind or visually-impaired users, and the Kurzweil 3000 program, which is a multifaceted electronic learning system that helps with reading, writing, and study skills.
Raymond Kurzweil at the Singularity Summit at Stanford in 2006
During the 1990s Ray Kurzweil founded the Medical Learning Company. The company’s products included an interactive computer education program for doctors and a computer-simulated patient. Around the same time, Kurzweil started KurzweilCyberArt.com website featuring computer programs to assist the creative art process. The site used to offer free downloads of a program called AARON visual art synthesizer developed by Harold Cohennd of “Kurzweil’s Cybernetic Poet”, which automatically creates poetry. During this period he also started KurzweilAI.net, a website devoted towards showcasing news of scientific developments, publicizing the ideas of high-tech thinkers and critics alike, and promoting futurist-related discussion among the general population through the Mind-X forum.
In 1999, Kurzweil created a hedge fund called “FatKat” (Financial Accelerating Transactions from Kurzweil Adaptive Technologies) http://www.fatkat.com, which began trading in 2006. He has stated that the ultimate aim is to improve the performance of FatKat’s A.I. investment software program, enhancing its ability to recognize patterns in “currency fluctuations and stock-ownership trends.” He predicted in his 1999 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, that computers will one day prove superior to the best human financial minds at making profitable investment decisions. In 2001, Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace released an album, titled Spiritual Machines, based on Kurzweil’s book. Kurzweil’s voice was featured in the album, reading excerpts from his book.
In June 2005, Ray Kurzweil introduced the “Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader” (K-NFB Reader) pocket-sized device consisting of a digital camera and computer unit. Like the Kurzweil Reading Machine of almost 30 years before, the K-NFB Reader is designed to aid blind people by reading written text aloud. The newer machine is portable and scans text through digital camera images, while the older machine is large and scans text through flatbed scanning.
Ray Kurzweil is currently making a movie due for release in 2010 called The Singularity is Near: A True Story About the Future based, in part, on his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near. Part fiction, part non-fiction, he interviews 20 big thinkers like Marvin Minsky, plus there is a B-line narrative story that illustrates some of the ideas, where a computer avatar (Ramona) saves the world from self-replicating microscopic robots.
In addition to Kurzweil’s movie, an independent, feature-length documentary was made about Kurzweil, his life, and his ideas called Transcendent Man. Filmmakers Barry and Felicia Ptolemy followed Kurzweil, documenting his global speaking tour. Premiered in 2009 at the Tribeca Film Festival, Transcendent Man documents Ray’s quest to reveal mankind’s ultimate destiny and explores many of the ideas found in his New York Times bestselling book, The Singularity is Near, including his concept of exponential growth, radical life expansion, and how we will transcend our biology. The Ptolemys documented Ray’s stated goal of bringing back his late father using AI. The film also features critics who argue against Kurzweil’s predictions.
Kurzweil said during a 2006 C-SPAN2 interview that he was working on a new book that focused on the inner workings of the human brain and how this could be applied to building AI.
While being interviewed for a February 2009 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Kurzweil expressed a desire to construct a genetic copy of his late father, Fredric Kurzweil, from DNA within his grave site. This feat would be achieved by deploying various nanorobots to send samples of DNA back from the grave, constructing a clone of Fredric and retrieving memories and recollectionsrom Ray’s mindf his father.
Books
Kurzweil’s first book, The Age of Intelligent Machines, was published in 1990. The nonfiction work discusses the history of computer AI and also makes forecasts regarding likely future developments. Other experts in the field of AI contribute heavily to the work in the form of essays. The Association of American Publishers’ awarded it the status of Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1990.
Next, Kurzweil published a book on nutrition in 1993 called The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life. The book’s main idea is that high levels of fat intake are the cause of many health disorders common in the U.S., and thus that cutting fat consumption down to 10% of the total calories consumed would be optimal for most people.
In 1998, Ray Kurzweil published The Age of Spiritual Machines, which focuses heavily on further elucidating his theories regarding the future of technology, which themselves stem from his analysis of long-term trends in biological and technological evolution. Much focus goes into examining the likely course of AI development, along with the future of computer architecture.
Kurzweil’s next book published in 2004, returned to the subject of human health and nutrition. Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever was co-authored by Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, a medical doctor and specialist in alternative medicine.
The Singularity Is Near was published in 2005. The book is currently being made into a movie starring Pauley Perrette (NCIS), and scheduled for 2010 release.
In February 2007, Ptolemaic Productions acquired the rights to The Singularity is Near, The Age of Spiritual Machines and Fantastic Voyage including the rights to Kurzweil’s life and ideas for the film Transcendent Man. The feature length documentary was directed by Barry Ptolemy.
Kurzweil’s newest book, Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever, a follow-up on Fantastic Voyage, was released on April 28, 2009.
The book he’s currently working on is called “How The Mind Works and How To Build One”.
Recognition and awards
Kurzweil has been called the successor and “rightful heir to Thomas Edison”, and was also referred to by Forbes as “the ultimate thinking machine.”
Kurzweil has received these awards, among others:
First place in the 1965 International Science Fair for inventing the classical music synthesizing computer.
The 1978 Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery. The award is given annually to one “outstanding young computer professional” and is accompanied by a $35,000 prize. Ray Kurzweil won it for his invention of the Kurzweil Reading Machine.
The 1990 “Engineer of the Year” award from Design News.
The 1994 Dickson Prize in Science. One is awarded every year by Carnegie Mellon University to individuals who have “notably advanced the field of science.” Both a medal and a $50,000 prize are presented to winners.
The 1998 “Inventor of the Year” award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 1999 National Medal of Technology. This is the highest award the President of the United States can bestow upon individuals and groups for pioneering new technologies, and the President dispenses the award at his discretion. Bill Clinton presented Ray Kurzweil with the National Medal of Technology during a White House ceremony in recognition of Kurzweil’s development of computer-based technologies to help the disabled.
The 2000 Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology. Two other individuals also received the same honor that year. The award is presented yearly to people who “exemplify the life, times and standard of contribution of Tesla, Westinghouse and Nunn.”
The 2001 Lemelson-MIT Prize for a lifetime of developing technologies to help the disabled and to enrich the arts. Only one is meted out each year to highly successful, mid-career inventors. A $500,000 award accompanies the prize.
Kurzweil was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002 for inventing the Kurzweil Reading Machine. The organization “honors the women and men responsible for the great technological advances that make human, social and economic progress possible.” Fifteen other people were inducted into the Hall of Fame the same year.
The Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award on April 20, 2009 for lifetime achievement as an inventor and futurist in computer-based technologies.
In 2008, the Arizona-Based experimental band “The Singularity Is Near” was formed, later changing their name to “Ray Kurzweil’s Face” in 2009. They are now respected as one of the most influential musical groups in Arizona over the past several years, raising awareness about Ray’s world-changing ideas and inventions, more specifically how humans will relate to technology and the universe in the coming 4060 years.
Kurzweil has received sixteen honorary degrees from as many institutions:
Type of degree
College
Year awarded
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters
Hofstra University
1982
Honorary Doctorate of Music
Berklee College of Music
1987
Honorary Doctorate of Science
Northeastern University
1988
Honorary Doctorate of Science
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1988
Honorary Doctorate of Engineering
Merrimack College
1989
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters
Misericordia University
1989
Honorary Doctorate of Science
New Jersey Institute of Technology
1990
Honorary Doctorate of Science
Queens College, City University of New York
1991
Honorary Doctorate of Science
Dominican College
1993
Honorary Doctorate in Science and Humanities
Michigan State University
2000
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters
Landmark College
2002
Honorary Doctorate of Science
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
2005
Honorary Doctorate of Science
DePaul University
2006
Honorary Doctorate of Science
Bloomfield College
2007
Honorary Doctorate of Science
McGill University
2008
Honorary Doctorate of Science
Clarkson University
2009
Involvement with futurism and transhumanism
This section is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (June 2009)
After several years of closely tracking trends in the computer and machine industries, Kurzweil came to a realization: the innovation rate of computer technology was increasing not linearly but rather exponentially. With this, Kurzweil formed a method of predicting the course of technological development. As a computer scientist, Kurzweil also understood that there was no technical reason that this type of performance growth could not continue well into the 21st century.
Since growth in so many fields of science and technology depends upon computing power, such improvements translate into improvements to human knowledge and to non-computer sciences like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and materials science. Considering the ongoing exponential growth in computer capabilities, this means many new technologies will become available long before the majority of peopleho intuitively think linearly about technological advancexpect. This core idea is expressed by Kurzweil’s “Law of Accelerating Returns”.
Kurzweil projects that between now and 2050 medical advances will allow people to radically extend their lifespans while preserving and even improving quality of life as they age. The aging process could at first be slowed, then halted, and then reversed as newer and better medical technologies became available. Kurzweil argues that much of this will be due to advances in medical nanotechnology, which will allow microscopic machines to travel through one’s body and repair all types of damage at the cellular level. But equally consequential developments will occur within the realm of computers as they become increasingly powerful, numerous and cheap between now and 2050. Kurzweil predicts that a computer will pass the Turing test by 2029, by demonstrating to have a mind (intelligence, self awareness, emotional richness) indistinguishable from a human’s. He predicts that the first AI is built around a computer simulation of a human brain, which is made possible by previous, nanotech-guided brainscanning. An AI machine could handle the full range of human intellectual tasks and would be both emotional and self-aware. Kurzweil suggests that AIs will inevitably become far smarter and more powerful than un-enhanced humans. He suggests that AIs will exhibit moral thinking and will respect humans as their ancestors. According to his predictions, the line between humans and machines will blur as a natural part of technological evolution. Cybernetic implants will greatly enhance human cognitive and physical abilities, and allow direct interface between humans and machines.
Kurzweil’s standing as a leading futurist and Transhumanist has gained him positions of prominence within pertinent organizations:
In December 2004, Kurzweil joined the advisory board of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
In October 2005, Kurzweil joined the scientific advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation.
On May 13, 2006, Kurzweil was the first speaker at the Stanford University Singularity Summit.
In February 2009, Kurzweil, in cooperation with Google and the NASA Ames Research Center, announced the creation of Singularity University. The University’s self-described mission is to “assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity grand challenges”. Using Kurzweil’s Singularity concept as a foundation, the University, whose initial class of 40 Fellows began their nine-week graduate program in June, 2009, provides students the skills and tools to guide the process of the Singularity “for the benefit of humanity and its environment”. Singularity U encompasses cross-disciplinary studies in ten different scientific and future-oriented tracks, taught by industry experts.
Stand on nanotechnology
Wikinews has related news:
Climate change
Kurzweil is on the Army Science Advisory Board, has testified before Congress on the subject of nanotechnology, and sees considerable potential in the science to solve significant global problems such as poverty, disease, and climate change, viz. Nanotech Could Give Global Warming a Big Chill (July, 2006).
He predicts nanobots will be used to maintain the human body and to extend the human lifespan.
Kurzweil has stressed the extreme potential dangers of nanotechnology, but argues that in practice, progress cannot be stopped, and any attempt to do so will retard the progress of defensive and beneficial technologies more than the malevolent ones, increasing the danger. He says that the proper place of regulation is to make sure progress proceeds safely and quickly. He applies this reasoning to biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and technology in general.[citation needed]
The Law of Accelerating Returns
Main article: Accelerating change
In his controversial 2001 essay, “The Law of Accelerating Returns”, Kurzweil proposes an extension of Moore’s law that forms the basis of the concept of “Technological Singularity”.
Predictions
Main article: Predictions made by Raymond Kurzweil
This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (December 2007)
The Age of Intelligent Machines
Arguably, Kurzweil gained a large amount of credibility as a futurist from his first book The Age of Intelligent Machines. It was written from 1986 to 1989 and published in 1990. Building on Ithiel de Sola Pool’s “Technologies of Freedom” (1983), Kurzweil forecast the demise of the Soviet Union due to new technologies such as cellular phones and fax machines disempowering authoritarian governments by removing state control over the flow of information. In the book Kurzweil also extrapolated preexisting trends in the improvement of computer chess software performance to predict correctly that computers would beat the best human players by 1998, and most likely in that year. In fact, the event occurred in May 1997 when chess World Champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue computer in a well-publicized chess tournament. Perhaps most significantly, Kurzweil foresaw the explosive growth in worldwide Internet use that began in the 1990s. At the time of the publication of The Age of Intelligent Machines, there were only 2.6 million Internet users in the world, and the medium was unreliable, difficult to use, and deficient in content, making Kurzweil’s realization of its future potential especially prescient, given the technology’s limits at that time. He also stated that the Internet would explode not only in the number of users but in content as well, eventually granting users access “to international networks of libraries, data bases, and information services”. Additionally, Kurzweil correctly foresaw that the preferred mode of Internet access would inevitably be through wireless systems, and he was also correct to estimate that the latter would become practical for widespread use in the early 21st century.
Kurzweil also accurately forecast that, by the end of the 1990s, many documents would exist solely in computers and on the Internet, and that they would commonly be embedded with sounds, animations, and videos that would inhibit their transfer to paper format. Moreover, he foresaw that cellular phones would grow in popularity while shrinking in size for the foreseeable future.
The Age of Spiritual Machines
In 1999, Kurzweil published a second book titled The Age of Spiritual Machines, which goes into more depth explaining his futurist ideas. The third and final section of the book is devoted to elucidating the specific course of technological advancements Kurzweil predicts the world will experience over the next century. Titled “To Face the Future”, the section is divided into four chapters respectively named “2009″, “2019″, “2029″, and “2099″. In each chapter, Kurzweil makes predictions about what life and technology will be like in that year.
While the veracity of Kurzweil’s predictions beyond 2009 cannot yet be determined, many of the ideas of the “2009″ chapter have been scrutinized. To begin, Kurzweil’s claims that 2009 would be a year of continued transition as purely electronic computer memory continued to replace older rotating memory seems to be disproved by continued rapid growth in hard-disk capacity and unit sales, while high-capacity flash drives have yet to catch on in high-volume applications. Nonetheless, solid state storage is the preferred means of storage in low-volume applications such as MP3 players, handheld gaming systems, cellular phones and digital cameras. Many companies produce a 256 GB solid state drive for use in laptops and desktops, but these drives will cost over $600, making storage on them cost roughly five times the price of comparable hard-disk storage. On the other hand, Kurzweil correctly foresaw the growing ubiquity of wireless Internet access and cordless computer peripherals. Perhaps of more importance, Kurzweil presaged the explosive growth in peer-to-peer filesharing and the emergence of the Internet as a major medium for commerce and for accessing media such as movies, television programs, newspaper and magazine text, and music. He also claimed that three-dimensional computer chips would be in common use by 2009 (though older, “2-D” chips would still predominate). But although IBM has recently developed the necessary chip-stacking technology and announced plans to begin using three-dimensional chips in its supercomputers and for wireless communication applications, chip stacking remains a low-volume technology in 2009.
The Singularity is Near
While this book focuses on the future of technology and the human race as did The Age of Intelligent Machines and The Age of Spiritual Machines, Kurzweil makes very few concrete, short-term predictions in The Singularity is Near, though longer-term visions are present in abundance. He recently discussed the singularity with Vice Magazine and was filmed for a documentary on the magazine online network VBS.tv.
Work on nutrition, health and lifestyle
Ray Kurzweil admits that he cared little for his health until age 35, when he was diagnosed with a glucose intolerance, an early form of type II diabetes (a major risk factor for heart disease). Kurzweil then found a doctor that shares his non-conventional beliefs to develop an extreme regimen involving hundreds of pills, chemical i.v. treatments, red wine and various other methods to attempt to live longer.
Kurzweil believes that the radical technological advances made throughout the 21st century will ultimately culminate with the discovery of means to reverse the aging process, cure any disease, and repair presently unrepairable injuries. Kurzweil has thus focused himself towards following a lifestyle intended to heighten his odds of living to see the day when science can make him immortal. Kurzweil calls this the “Bridge to a Bridge to a Bridge” strategy: The first bridge to longer life is Kurzweil’s regimen, whereas the second- and third bridges are based on advanced biotechnologies and nanotechnologies, respectively, that have not yet been invented. Kurzweil believes they will allow for progressively longer human lifespans to the point of immortality and that successfully implementing the first “bridge” now allows one to reach the second in the future, which then allows one to reach the third.
Some elements of Kurzweil’s lifestyle are conventional. He exercises frequently, does not eat to excess, and does not abuse recreational drugs. Many others, however, are controversial and may be explained by his obsession with living as long as possible. Kurzweil ingests “250 supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea” every day and drinks several glasses of red wine a week in an effort to “reprogram” his biochemistry. Lately, he has cut down the number of supplement pills to 150.
Although not supported by science, Kurzweil and many others believe that consuming large amounts of water is necessary for flushing toxins out of the body, and that alkaline water allows the body to preserve important enzymes used for neutralizing acidic metabolic wastes. For this reason, Kurzweil abhors soft drinks and coffee, which are both acidic. Kurzweil believes that acidic drinks drain detoxifying enzyme reserves. Kurzweil has taken criticism from nutritionists and scientists for his advocacy of alkaline water’s alleged health benefits and other unconventional beliefs, and he responded to this over the Internet. Green tea and red wine contain antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Kurzweil also consumes red wine because it contains the compound resveratrol, which may help to fight heart disease according to some evidence, but it is also a potentiator of breast carcinomas which may prove to out-weigh any suggested benefit. Kurzweil also takes pills containing high concentrations of the chemical because the amount in red wine is extremely inconsistent.
On weekends, Kurzweil also undergoes intravenous transfusions of chemical cocktails at a clinic which he believes will reprogram his biochemistry. He routinely measures the chemical composition of his own bodily fluids, undergoes preemptive medical tests for many diseases and disorders, and keeps detailed records about the content of all the meals he eats. On that last note, Kurzweil only eats organic foods with low glycemic loads and claims it has been years since he last consumed anything containing sugar. Kurzweil considers foods rich in sugars and carbohydrates to be unhealthy since they spike the levels of glucose and insulin in the bloodstream, leading to health problems in the long term. He instead eats mainly vegetables, lean meats, tofu, and low glycemic load carbohydrates, and only uses extra virgin olive oil for cooking. Kurzweil also diligently eats foods rich with Omega-3 fatty acids (including small, wild salmon).
Moreover, Kurzweil makes it a priority to get sufficient sleep for physical and psychological health, and he maintains low stress levels in part by meditating and getting massages weekly. He exercises daily with walking, bike-riding and using workout machines, but advises against high-impact forms of exercise. Kurzweil claims that his rigorous efforts have yielded positive results, pointing to his vitamin-selling business partner who claims his “biological age” is more than a decade younger than his chronological age. In fact, Kurzweil claims that his personal health regimen has actually slowed down his rate of aging. He also advocates maintaining a slightly below-average body weight on the grounds that it imparts some of the life-extension benefits of full caloric restriction.
Kurzweil joined the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics company. In the event of his death, Kurzweil’s body will be chemically preserved, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at an Alcor facility in the hope that future medical technology will be able to revive him.
Kurzweil has authored three books on the subjects of nutrition, health and immortality: The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever and TRANSCEND: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever. In all, he recommends that other people emulate his health practices to the best of their abilities.
Kurzweil and his current “anti-aging” doctor, Terry Grossman, MD., now have two websites promoting their first and second book, and sells their “longevity products”, many of which can be found on medical scam warning sites.
Stance on religion
Though Kurzweil’s parents were Jewish, they raised him as a Unitarian and exposed him to many different faiths during his youth. Kurzweil gave a 2007 keynote speech to the United Church of Christ in Hartford, Connecticut, alongside Barack Obama, who was then a Presidential candidate. In The Singularity is Near he expresses a need for a new religion based on the principle of mutual respect between sentient life forms, and on the principle of respecting knowledge. This religion would not have a leader, instead being purely personal to adherents.
According to Kurzweil he primary role of traditional religion is deathist rationalizationhat is, rationalizing the tragedy of death as a good thing. In order to benefit from what the Singularity can bring, we need to overcome our deathist rationalization. We need to sweep traditional religion out of our road.59]
“Religious tradition might attempt to slow down technological innovation, transhumanists accuse religious representatives of holding a vested interest in provenance over matters of death and immortality. One of the impediments to the advance toward cybernetic immortality is religion, they say. Religion stands in the way. Religion threatens to block progress. This is because religion has traditionally sought to provide a palliative for people faced with death. Religion brings acceptance of death, and comfort with that acceptance. Ready to engage in combat with traditional religion, in Promethean style Kurzweil wants to defy death and use nanotechnology as a weapon to defeat death.”
Criticism
Even beyond philosophical arguments over whether a machine can “think” (see Philosophy of artificial intelligence), Kurzweil’s ideas have generated much criticism within the scientific community and in the media. Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, has called the notion of a technological singularity “intelligent design for the IQ 140 people…This proposition that we’re heading to this point at which everything is going to be just unimaginably differentt’s fundamentally, in my view, driven by a religious impulse. And all of the frantic arm-waving can’t obscure that fact for me.”
VR pioneer Jaron Lanier has been one of the strongest critics of Kurzweil ideas, describing them as ybernetic totalism (totalitarianism), and has outlined his views on the culture surrounding Kurzweil predictions in an essay for Edge.org entitled One Half of a Manifesto.
Pulitzer Prize winner Douglas Hofstadter, author of Gdel, Escher, Bach, has said of Kurzweil’s and Hans Moravec’s books: “It as if you took a lot of very good food and some dog excrement and blended it all up so that you can’t possibly figure out what’s good or bad. It’s an intimate mixture of rubbish and good ideas, and it’s very hard to disentangle the two, because these are smart people; they’re not stupid.”
Although the idea of a technological singularity is a popular concept in science fiction, some authors such as Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling have voiced scepticism about its real-world plausibility. Sterling expressed his views on the singularity scenario in a talk at the Long Now Foundation entitled The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole. Other prominent AI thinkers and computer scientists such as Daniel Dennett, Rodney Brooks, and David Gelernter have also criticized Kurzweil projections.
Bill Joy, cofounder of Sun Microsystems, agrees with Kurzweil’s timeline of future progress, but thinks that technologies such as AI, nanotechnology and advanced biotechnology will create a dystopian world.
Daniel Lyons, writing in Newsweek, criticized Kurzweil for some of his predictions which turned out to be wrong; such as the economy continuing to boom from the 1998 dot-com through 2009, a US company having a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, a supercomputer achieving 20 petaflops, speech recognition being in widespread use and cars that would drive themselves using sensors installed in highways; all by 2009. To the charge that 20 petaflop supercomputer was not produced in the time he predicted, Kurzweil responded that he considers Google a giant supercomputer, and that it is capable of 20 petaflops.
Biologist P.Z. Myers has criticized Kurzweil’s predictions as being based on “New Age spiritualism” rather than science and says that Kurzweil does not understand basic biology. Myers also says that Kurzweil picks and chooses events that appear to demonstrate his claim of exponential technological increase leading up to a singularity, and ignores events that do not.
See also
Accelerating change
Paradigm shift
Simulated reality
Singularity University
Technological singularity
Transhumanism
Transcendent Man (film)
Predictive medicine
Full Genome Sequencing
References
^ Inventor of the Week
^ KurzweilAI.net
^ Piano performance is seen at the beginning of his C-SPAN interview on CSPAN-2 Book TV, November 5, 2006
^ a b Intel Science Talent Search (STS): STS Alumni & Their Honors
^ http://www.kurzweiltech.com/raybio.html
^ links.jstor.org
^ See details at: http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=542059.
^ The smartest (or the nuttiest) futurist on Earthay 14, 2007
^ a b Raymond Kurzweil at the Internet Movie Database
^ KUSHNER, David (February 19, 2009), “When Man & Machine Merge”, Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/25939914/when_man__machine_merge
^ Era of smart people is dawning
^ “Coming Soon to a Theater Near You: The Singularity”. http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2007/11/kurzweil_qa. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
^ Singularity The Movie release date
^ “Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever”. http://www.rayandterry.com/transcend/.
^ “Interview H+ Magazine Winter 2009″. http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/ai/ray-kurzweil-h-interview.
^ http://www.kurzweiltech.com/rayspeakerbio.html
^ Survival of the Machines
^ http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS106533+03-Jan-2008+PRN20080103
^ ACM Awards: Grace Murray Hopper Award
^ ACM: Fellows Award / Raymond Kurzweil
^ Engineer of the Year Hall of Fame, 6/12/2007
^ Dickson Prize
^ Corporation names new members
^ National Medal of Technology Recipients, Technology Administration
^ The National Medal of Technology
^ Telluride Tech Festival
^ Winners’ Circle: Raymond Kurzweil
^ Lemelson-MIT Prize
^ Ray Kurzweil Inventor Profile
^ Hall of Fame Overview
^ Hall of Fame 2002
^ http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id=10468
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n http://www.kurzweiltech.com/raycv.html
^ http://www.planetpatent.com/Articles/RayKurzweilLandmarkInventions.htm
^ http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=100220
^ http://www.clarkson.edu/news/view.php?id=2249
^ singinst.org
^ lifeboat.com
^ sfgate.com
^ http://singularityu.org/about/faq/
^ Nanotech Could Give Global Warming a Big Chill (July, 2006)
^ “Machines ‘to match man by 2029′”. BBC News. 2008-02-16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7248875.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
^ a b “In Depth: Ray Kurzweil”. CSPAN-2. Book TV. 2006-11-05. Archived from the original on 2007-02-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20070220014203/http://www.booktv.org/feature/index.asp?segid=7515&schedID=457. Retrieved 2008-02-17. at 85, 147, 167 and 173 minutes into 3 hour interview
^ “In Depth: Ray Kurzweil” (RealAudio). Book TV. http://www.booktv.org/ram/feature/1106/arc_btv110506_4.ram. Retrieved 2008-02-17. direct link to 3 hour Kurzweil interview
^ “The Law of Accelerating Returns”
^ Fleeing the dot.com era: decline in Internet usage
^
^ IBM Extends Moore’s Law to the Third Dimension
^ RAY KURZWEIL- That Singularity Guy Vice magazine. April 2009
^ Youtube video :The Singularity of Ray Kurzweil
^ Wired News: ” Never Say Die: Live Forever”
^ Glenn Beck Interview with Ray Kurzweil
^ Five Myths About Water
^ Ray Kurweil Discusses Alkaline and Ionized Water
^ Quackwatch.org article about resveratrol
^ Fantasic Voyage
^ Ray and Terry’s
^ Quackwatch.org’s list of supplements, etc.
^ a b Simon Young and Robert A. Freitas (2005). Designer Evolution, p. 372, Prometheus Books, ISBN 13-9781591022909.
^ O’Keefe, Brian (2007-05-02). “The smartest (or the nuttiest) futurist on Earth”. Fortune. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/14/100008848/. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
^ Lanier, Jaron. “One Half of a Manifesto”. Edge.org. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier/lanier_p1.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
^ Ross, Greg. “An interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter”. American Scientist. http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hofstadter. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
^ Miller, Robin (2004-10-20). “Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor”. Slashdot. http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/1518217. Retrieved 2008-08-28. “My thoughts are more in line with those of Jaron Lanier, who points out that while hardware might be getting faster all the time, software is shit (I am paraphrasing his argument). And without software to do something useful with all that hardware, the hardware’s nothing more than a really complicated space heater.”
^ Brand, Stewart (2004-06-14). “Bruce Sterling – “The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole”". The Long Now Foundation. http://blog.longnow.org/2004/06/14/bruce-sterling-the-singularity-your-future-as-a-black-hole/. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
^ Sterling, Bruce. “The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole” (MP3). http://media.longnow.org/seminars/salt-0200406-sterling/salt-0200406-sterling.mp3. “It an end-of-history notion, and like most end-of-history notions, it is showing its age.”
^ Dennett, Daniel. “The Reality Club: One Half Of A Manifesto”. Edge.org. http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#dennett. “”I’m glad that Lanier entertains the hunch that Dawkins and I (and Hofstadter and others) ‘see some flaw in logic that insulates [our] thinking from the eschatalogical implications’ drawn by Kurzweil and Moravec. He right. I, for one, do see such a flaw, and I expect Dawkins and Hofstadter would say the same.”"
^ Brooks, Rodney. “The Reality Club: One Half Of A Manifesto”. Edge.org. http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks. “I do not at all agree with Moravec and Kurzweil’s predictions for an eschatological cataclysm, just in time for their own memories and thoughts and person hood to be preserved before they might otherwise die.”
^ Transcript of debate over feasibility of near-term AI (moderated by Rodney Brooks): “Gelernter, Kurzweil debate machine consciousness”. KurzweilAI.net. http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks.
^ Joy, Bill (April 2000). “Why the future doesn’t need us”. Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html. Retrieved 2008-09-21. “…it was only in the autumn of 1998 that I became anxiously aware of how great are the dangers facing us in the 21st century. I can date the onset of my unease to the day I met Ray Kurzweil…”
^ a b Lyons, Daniel (May 2009). “I, Robot”. Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/197812/page/2. Retrieved 2009-05-22. “During the height of the dotcom boom in 1998, Kurzweil predicted that the economy would keep on booming right through 2009 (and on to 2019, for that matter) and that one U.S. company (he didn’t say which) would have a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. Not even close. Kurzweil also predict-ed that by 2009 a top supercomputer would be capable of performing 20 quadrillion operations per second (20 petaflops in computer jargon), the same as the human brain. In fact, the top supercomputer just broke the one-petaflop markhough Kurzweil says he considers all of Google to be a giant supercomputer and that it is, indeed, capable of performing 20 petaflops. Kurzweil also predicted that by now our cars would be able to drive themselves by communicating with intelligent sensors embedded in highways, and that speech recognition would be in widespread use.”
^ Lyons, Daniel (May 2009). “I, Robot”. Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/197812. Retrieved 2009-07-24. “Still, a lot of people think Kurzweil is completely bonkers and/or full of a certain messy byproduct of ordinary biological functions. They include P. Z. Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who has used his blog to poke fun at Kurzweil and other armchair futurists who, according to Myers, rely on junk science and don’t understand basic biology. “I am completely baffled by Kurzweil’s popularity, and in particular the respect he gets in some circles, since his claims simply do not hold up to even casually critical examination,” writes Myers. He says Kurzweil’s Singularity theories are closer to a deluded religious movement than they are to science. “It’s a New Age spiritualismhat’s all it is,” Myers says. “Even geeks want to find God somewhere, and Kurzweil provides it for them.”"
^ Myers, Paul Zachary (February 2009). “Singularly silly singularity”. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/02/singularly_silly_singularity.php. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Raymond Kurzweil
Kurzweil Companies web site
KurzweilAI.net – a vast resource, including some of his books for free
Raymond Kurzweil’s IP – all of Raymond Kurzweil’s US patents & patent applications
Ray and Terry’s Longevity Program
Singularity University, Ray Kurzweil, Chancellor
Transcendent Man – Official Site. Movie about Ray Kurzweil
Singularity is Near Movie (2009) – Official Site
The Singularity A comprehensive documentary about the Singularity (2010) – Official Site
Big Think official Ray Kurzweil page
Machine Dreams – CIO Magazine interview, October 15, 2004
Warfighting in the 21st Century – The Remote, Robotic, Robust, Size-Reduced, Virtual Reality Paradigm – Keynote address, 24th Army Science Conference, November 29, 2004
TED Talks: Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us at TED in 2005 (audio/video)
Robot Wars – news@nature site interview, February 8, 2005
The future, just around the bend, The Economist, 10 March 2005
The Council on Foreign Relations; An Exponentially Expanding Future From Exponentially Shrinking Technology, November 30 2005
Interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation Science Friday – December 23, 2005
The Singularity Summit at Stanford, May 2006
Human v 2.0: Ray Kurzweil vs. Hugo de Garis October 24, 2006
25th Annual Army Science Conference November 27, 2006 Web Hosted Presentation, Slides, Video
Debate between Ray Kurzweil and David Gelernter at MIT on November 30 2006
Web 3.0 – How the next version of the Web will prepare us for the Singularity December 11, 2006
- The Edge Annual Question – 2007; What are you Optimistic About? Why?
Interview with Ray Kurzweil and Sample of Ray Kurzweil keynote from Interwoven’s GearUp Podcast
Ray Kurzweil interview on C-SPAN2 Book TV, 3 hours in length
The smartest futurist on earth – CNN Money article May 2, 2007
Accelerating Change presentation from Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), Third Conference, Queens’ College, Cambridge, England, 9 September 2007
Glenn Beck interview of Ray Kurzweil, May 30, 2008 and transcript of the interview.
Interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation Science Friday – June 6, 2008
Audio: Ray Kurzweil in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum
Raymond Kurzweil at the Internet Movie Database
Persondata
NAME
Kurzweil, Raymond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Author, Scientist, & Futurist
DATE OF BIRTH
February 12, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH
Queens, New York, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Categories: 1948 births | American health and wellness writers | American science writers | American technology writers | Artificial intelligence researchers | Austrian-American Jews | Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery | Futurologists | Grace Murray Hopper Award laureates | Lemelson-MIT Prize | Life extensionists | Living people | Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni | National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees | National Medal of Technology recipients | Singularitarianism | Transhumanists | ImmortalityHidden categories: Articles with hCards | Wikipedia articles needing style editing from June 2009 | All articles needing style editing | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from January 2008 | Articles that may contain original research from December 2007 | All articles that may contain original research | Articles with obsolete information | Cleanup from section | Wikipedia external links cleanup | Wikipedia spam cleanup
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TENZIN GYATSO, 14TH DALAI LAMA –“I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence.â€
TENZIN GYATSO, THE DALAI LAMA –“Spend some time alone every day. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.â€
TERENCE- “As each one wishes his children to be no they are.â€
TERENCE –“You will have words for your punishment, but for me there will be blows.â€
TERRY PRATCHETT –“Light thinks it travels faster than any thing but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.â€
TERRY PRATCHETT –“Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out till too late that he’s been playing with two queens all along.â€
TERRY WAITE –“The terrible thing about terrorism is that ultimately it destroys those who practice it. Slowly but surely, as they try to extinguish life in others, the light within them dies.â€
TEXAS GUINAN –“A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.â€
TH HUXLEY –“The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land.â€
THACKERAY –“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.â€
THACKEREY –“Next to the very young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.â€
THALES –“The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.â€
THALES- “The most universal thing is hope.â€
THAOMAS HARDY- “As everybody knows, fine feathers make fine birds.â€
THAYER –“As are families, so is society. If well ordered, well instructed, and well governed, they are the springs from which go forth the streams of national greatness and prosperity… of civil order and happiness.â€
THE ART OF HAPPINESS –“The Dalai Lama replied: I think there are two kinds of desire. Certain desires are positive. A desire for happiness. It’s absolutely right. The desire for peace… But at some point, desires can become unreasonable. That usually leads to trouble… Self-satisfaction alone cannot determine if a desire or action is positive or negative… I think excessive desire leads to greed… When you reflect upon the excesses of greed, you’ll find that it leads an individual to a feeling of frustration, disappointment, a lot of confusion, and a lot of problems… Although the underlying motive is to seek satisfaction, the irony is that even after obtaining the object of your desire, you are still not satisfied. The true antidote of greed is contentment.â€
THE ARTHASHASTRA –“It is difficult, though not impossible; to stop government officials from hiding their corrupt take.â€
THE BEATLES –“And when the brokenhearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be. For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see, there will be an answer. Let it be. Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.â€
THE BERLIN DECLARATION –“For centuries Europe has been an idea, holding out hope of peace and understanding. That hope has been fulfilled.â€
THE BLIDDKO –“What you are is what you have been, and what you will be is what you do now.â€
THE BOOK OF DRUIDRY –“Grant, 0 God, Thy Protection; And in protection, strength; And in strength, understanding; And in understanding, knowledge; And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice; And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it; And in that love, the love of all existences; And in the love of all existences, the love of God. God and all goodness.â€
THE BRAHMA VIHARCIS –“May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes, May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes, May all sentient beings never be separated from bliss , without suffering, May all sentient beings be in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.â€
THE CHRISTMAS ALPHABET –“C is for the candle sticks around the Christmas tree H is for the happiness with all the family P is for the reindeer dancing by the windowpane I is all the icing on the sweets, the cakes, the sugar cane S is for the stocking on the chimney wall T is for the toys beneath the tree so tall M is for the mistletoe where everyone kissed A is for the angels who up the Christinas-list S is for old Santa who brings everyone a gift.â€
THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING –“No man should be judged by others here in this life, for the good or evil deeds that they do. Nevertheless deeds may lawfully be judged, but not the men, whether they be good or evil.â€
THE COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA –“According to Shankara, the ultimate reality is Brahman or the Self, which is pure reality, pure consciousness, and pure bliss. The world has come into be ing from Brahman and is wholly dependent on it. The criteria of reality are immutability and permanence. Since the world is constantly changing, and since its existence is not absolute but dependent on Brahman, the world is called illusion or maya. Brahman exists as the Absolute, without qualities (nirguna), and also exists with qualities (saguna) as a personal god, Ishvara, who presides over the world of appearance.â€
THE COMPLETE ANGLER –“Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy.â€
THE CURE D’ARS –“Humility is to the virtues what the chain is to the rosary; remove the chain, and all the beads escape; take away humility, and all the virtues disappear.â€
THE DHAMMAPADA –“Conquer the angry man by love. Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the miser with-generosity. Conquer the liar with truth.â€
THE DHAMMAPADA –“One is one’s own destiny. Therefore one should train oneself.â€
THE ECONOMIST –“Confronted by Asia’s technological rise and the financial crisis, corporate America is losing its self-confidence. It should not.â€
THE ECONOMIST –“Modest proposals are better than grand designs: They serve the political function of registering concerns, but are too small to provoke opposition.â€
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ZEN –“Spring has its hundred flowers,/ Autumn its moon,/ Summer has its cooling breezes,/ Winter its snow./ If you allow no idle concerns/ To weight on your heart,/ Your whole life will be one/ Perennial good season.â€
THE GOSPEL –“Jesus said: Whoever knows the All but fails to know himself lacks everything.â€
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW –“Then Peter began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, don’t know the Man!”
THE GOSPEL, STTHOMAS –“Raise the stone and there thou shall find me. Cleave the wood and there am I.â€
THE HITOPADESA –“The spirit in thee is a river. Its sacred bathing place is contemplation; its waters are truth; its banks are holiness; its waves are love. Go to that river for purification; thy soul cannot be made pure by mere water.â€
THE HOLY BIBLE –“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God give the thee.â€
THE IMITATION OF CHRISTY –“Some there are who resign themselves, but with exceptions: for they put not their whole trust in God, therefore they study how to provide for themselves.â€
THE INTERVAL –“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.â€
THE KINKS –“Girls will be boys and boys will be girls/It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world.â€
THE LORD’S PRAYER –“Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.â€
THE MOTHER –“Nothing, not even the darkest falsehood can stop the ultimate triumph of truth…. To stand for the truth in all circumstances, to declare it if necessary in the teeth of the worst opposition and to be ready to do all you can for its sake, is the definition of heroism.â€
THE MOTHER, PONDICHERRY –“Never grumble. All sorts of forces enter you when you grumble and they pull you down. We find in others what is in us… If we always find mud around us, it proves that there is mud somewhere in us.â€
THE MYSTERY PLAY –“God is in the details, after all. Or… perhaps, the details are in God.â€
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY –“A work in progress, the Earth still shakes with the forces of creation. Earthquakes occur when shifting pieces of the surface overcome friction at their edges and cause the ground to shudder — with sometimes disastrous results.â€
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY –“Seen from the safe distance of a satellite, it can be a thrilling spectacle. But as anyone caught in the middle of a hurricane knows, the place that poets call Mother Earth is not always such a gentle parent. Extreme weather events… are expressions of a living planet, still changing after billions of years of existence.â€
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY –“When they occur at sea, earthquakes can generate seismic waves called tsunamis, which travel great distances at speeds equalling those of commercial jetliners. Tsunamis are barely noticeable —often just ripples on the surface — until they approach shores, when they become monsters.â€
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY –“Wildfire — an ancient lord of the wilderness — can create life as well as destroy it. Destructive outbreaks in recent years due to changing climate and human activities have revived controversies over how best to manage forests.â€
THE PANCHATANTRA –“Inspect a matter with utmost care before jumping to conclusions and rushing headlong into actions; else, bitter remorse is let loose.â€
THE PANCHATANTRA –“When enterprise is a man’s second nature, Mount Meru is not too lofty, The Abyss not too low, nor the Great Ocean impassable. Perseverance, not wishes, gets work done; deer do not walk into the mouth of a sleeping lion.â€
THE PANCHATANTRA –“Who are friendly? What’s the cost, and what’s the gain? Time and again, one should ponder over these.â€
THE PEORIA JOURNAL STAR –“Not dead to us who loved him, -Not lost but gone before; He lives with us in memory, and will for evermore.â€
THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM –“When a ship is wrecked at sea, those who do not hold onto a timber, a plank, or other solid support will drown in the water, never reaching the shore. Subhuti, those that do hold onto a timber, or plank, or other solid support will not drown in the water Happily unhindered, they may reach the shore, where they will stand safe and sound on firm ground. Similarly, Subhuti, a bodhisattva who is endowed with a full measure of faith and purity, of kindness and intentions, but without taking hold of the perfection of wisdom, can fall along the way Not reaching all-embracing knowledge, he remains only a disciple, or a pratyekabuddha.â€
THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLOTINUS –“A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it.â€
THE QUOTE GARDEN –“You cannot discover the purpose of life by asking someone else – the only way you’ll ever get the right answer is by asking yourself.â€
THE SERENITY PRAYER –“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.â€
THE SEVEN VALLEYS AND THE FOUR VALLEYS –“0 my brother! A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God, that the true sun may shine within it and the eternal morning dawn.â€
THE SEX PISTOLS –“When there’s no future how can there be sin? Were the flowers in the dustbin.â€
THE SIRI SINGH SAHIB –“There is no liberation without labour and there is no freedom which is free.â€
THE SOPHIC HYDROLITH –“For let me tell you that he on whom the Most High has conferred the knowledge of this Mystery (of transmutation) esteems mere money and earthly riches as lightly as the dirt of the streets. His heart and all his desires are bent upon seeing and enjoying the heavenly reality of which all these things are but a figure.â€
THE SPLENDOUR –“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action,â€
THE TALMUD –“A dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that is not read.â€
THE TALMUD –“A parent should never make distinctions between his children.â€
THE TALMUD –“He who is without a wife •dwells without blessing, life, joy help, good, and peace.â€
THE TALMUD –“Let thy house be a place of meeting for the wise, and dust thyself with the dust of their feet, and drink their words with thirst.â€
THE TALMUD –“Never exposes yourself unnecessarily to danger, a miracle may not save you, and if it does it will be deducted from your share of luck or merit.â€
THE TALMUD –“The noblest charity is to prevent a man from accepting charity; and the best alms are to show and to enable a man to dispense with alms.â€
THE TALMUD –“We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.â€
THE TALMUD –“When a man has compassion for others, God has compassion, for him.â€
THE TALMUD –“Would that life were like the shadow cast on a wall by a tree, but it is like the shadow of a bird in flight.â€
THE TAO OF NEGOTIATION- “Conflict in and of itself is not a negative experience…. It is how we choose to respond to conflict that determines whether its effect will be positive or negative…â€
THE UPANISHADS –“Who sees all being in his own self, and has own self in all beings, loses all fear.â€
THE VEDAS –“At first there was neither Being nor Non-being. There was not air nor yet sky beyond. What was its wrapping? Where? On whose protection? Was Water there, unfathomable and deep?â€
THE WASHINGTON POST –“As the 2006 (US) campaign staggered to an angry close, national security and the Iraq war dominated the final-day debate of midterm elections.â€
THE WISDOM OF THE SUFIS –“A sprinkling note of mirth Cascades from heaven to earth: 0 weary hearts be gay, this is your day today.â€
THE XIV DALAI LAMA –“Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source both of inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival Of our species.â€
THE XIV DALAI LAMA –“We cannot learn real patience and tolerance from a guru or a friend. They can be practiced only when we come in contact with someone who creates unpleasant experiences. According to Shantideva, enemies are really good for us as we can learn a lot from them and build our inner strength.â€
THE XTV DALAI LAMA –“Disregard for our natural inheritance has brought about the danger that now threatens the peace of the world…. Such destruction of the environment and life depending upon it is a result of, ignorance, greed and disregard for the richness of all living things. This disregard is gaming great influence. If peace does not become a reality in the world and if the destruction of the environment continues as it does today, there is no doubt that future generations will inherit a dead world.â€
THEBEATLES –“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.â€
THEODONE MHESBUEGH –“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.â€
THEODORE GEISEL –“I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.â€
THEODORE H. WHITE- “The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy.â€
THEODORE M. HESBURGH –“Faith is not an easy virtue but in the broad world of man’s total voyage through time to eternity, faith is not only a gracious companion, but an essential guide.â€
THEODORE ROETHKE –“What the world needs are more people who specialize in the impossible.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT -“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT- “ A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole rail road.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT- “ No man is above the law and no man below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT –“A sound body is a first-class thing; a sound mind is an even better thing; but the thing that counts for most in the individual as in the nation is character, the sum of those qualities which make a man a good man and a woman a good woman.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT –“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT –“In doing your work in the great world, it is a safe plan to follow a rule I once heard on the football field: Don’t flinch, don’t fall; hit the line hard.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT –“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows I achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT- “No man is above the law and no man below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT –“Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity; and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT- “The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT –“THE ONLY MAN WHO NEVER MAKE MISTAKES IS THE MAN WHO NEVER DOES ANYTHING.â€
THEODORE ROOSEVELT –“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell them, Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.â€
THEODORE ROSZAK –“People try non-violence for a week, and when it “doesn’t work”, they go back to violence, I .which hasn’t worked for centuries.â€
THEODORE TILTEN –““Struck with palsy, sore and old, / Waiting at the gates of gold, /Said he with his dying breath/ “Life is done, but what is Death?”/ Then an answer to the king/ Fell a sunbeam on his ring; / Showing by a heavenly ray, / “Even this will pass away”.â€
THESE ARE BRAHMA’S WORLDS –“Fourteen worlds beginning with Patala and ending with Satya are evolved out of the five elements.â€
THICH NHA THANH –“Meditation is not to escape from society, but to come back to ourselves and see what is going on. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. With mindfulness, we know what to do and what not to do to help.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –‘Walking meditation is like eating. With each step, we nourish our body and our spirit. When we walk with anxiety and sorrow, it is a kind of junk food. The food of walking meditation should be of a higher quality. Just walk slowly and enjoy a banquet of peace.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“After you wake up, you probably open the curtains and look outside. You may even like to open the window and feel the cool morning air with the dew still on the grass. But is what you see really “outside”? In fact, it is your own mind. As the sun sends its rays I through the window, you are not just yourself. You are also the beautiful view from your window. You are the Dharmakaya.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“All of us have the power to change the situation if we care to practice mindful walking, mindful! breathing to encourage the energy of mindful- I ness and to practise looking deeply to understand. Because understanding when it comes, will liberate us. It will help us to get rid of our anger, our hate and so on. And love is something that can only be born on the ground of understanding. Prajna and karuna are words that point to the same reality Where there is understanding, prajna, there is love. Where there is true love, maitri and karuna, there already exists prajna. Where there is no understanding, there is no true love.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“All phenomena — the song of a bird, the warm rays of the sun, a cup of hot tea — are manifes- tations of the Dharmakaya. We, too, are of the same nature as these wonders of the universe.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Dharmakaya literally means the’body’or kaya of the Buddha’s teachings and Dharma), the way of understanding and love. Before passing away, the Buddha told his disciples, “Only my physical body will pass away. My Dharma body will remain with you forever.” In Mahayana Buddhism, the word has come to mean “the essence of all that exists”.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Happiness is only possible with true love. True love has the power to heal and transform the situation around us and bring a deep meaning to our lives.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“If you look deeply into impermanence, you will do your best to make her happy right now. Aware of impermanence, you become positive, loving and wise. Impermanence is good news. Without impermanence, nothing would be possible. With impermanence, every door is open for change. Impermanence is an instrument for our liberation.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“If you suffer, it is not because things are impermanent. It is because! you believe things are I permanent. When a flower dies, you don’t suffer much, because you understand that flowers are impermanent. But you cannot accept the impermanence of your beloved one, and you suffer deeply when she passes away.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos the trees, the clouds, everything.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Meditation is not to escape from society, but to come back to ourselves and see what is going on. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. With mindfulness, we know what to do and what not to do to help.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Meditation is not to escape from society, but to come back to ourselves and see what is going on.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments. The Buddha implored us not just to talk about impermanence, but to use it as an instrument to help us penetrate deeply into reality and obtain liberating insight. We may be tempted to say that because things are impermanent, there is suffering. But the Buddha encouraged us to look again. Without impermanence, life is not possible. How can we transform our suffering if things are not impermanent? How can the situation in the world improve? We need impermanence foil social justice and for hope.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Opening the window, I look out onto the Dharmakaya. How wondrous is life! Attentive to each moment, my mind is clear like a calm river.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong…Why not try arid see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“People today tend to take refuge in overwork so they can avoid confronting their inner turmoil.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But i think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognise: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the .black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“That path is you. That is why it will never tire of waiting Whether it is covered with red dust, autumn leaves, or icy snow, come back to the path. You will be like the tree of life. Your leaves, trunk, branches, and the blossoms of your soul will be fresh and beautiful, once you enter the practice of Earth Touching.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“The empty path welcomes you, fragrant with grass and little flowers. Walk leisurely, peacefully. Your feet touch the earth deeply. Don’t let your thoughts carry you away. Come back to the path every moment.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“Water flows from high in the mountains Water runs deep in the Earth Miraculously, water comes to us, And sustains all life.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts an actions should express our mind of compassion even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“When we open the window and look out onto the Dharmakaya, we see that life is infinitely marvellous. At that very moment, we can vow to be awake all day long, realising joy, peace, freedom and harmony throughout our lives. When we do this, our mind becomes clear like a calm river.â€
THICH NHAT HANH –“You are me, and I am you. Isn’t it obvious that we “inter-are”? You cultivate the flower in yourself, so that i will be beautiful. I transform the garbage in myself, so that you will not have to suffer I support you; you support me. I am in this world to offer you peace; you are in this world to bring me joy.â€
THICH NHAT HANT –‘It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles … but with our capacity of being peace that we can make peace.â€
THICH NHAT HANT –‘It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles … but with our capacity of being peace that we can make peace.â€
THICK NHAT HANH –“Keeping your body ‘ healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos — the trees, the clouds, everything.â€
THICK NHATHANH –“Dissolve Thoughts Meditation is not to escape from society but to come back to ourselves and see what is going on. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. With mindfulness, we know what to do and what not to do to help.â€
THIMVALLUVAR –“The chief blessing is an honourable home and its crowning glory is worthy offspring.â€
THOLUCK –“There is not a more repulsive spectacle than an old man who will not forsake the world, “which has already forsaken him.â€
THOMAS A EDISON –“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics which is the goal of evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.â€
THOMAS A KEMPIS –“0 everlasting Light, far surpassing all created things, send down the beams of Your brightness from above, and purify, gladden, and illuminate in me all the inward corners of my heart.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON – “Fail? I haven’t failed! I now know 3,800 ways not to make an electric storage battery.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON – “Until we stop harming all other living being, we are still savage.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“Fail? I haven’t failed! I now know 3800 ways not to make an electric storage battery.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.” Edison: “There ain’t any rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish somet’n!”
THOMAS A. EDISON –“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON –“There’s value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON- “Until we stop harming all other living being, we are still savage.â€
THOMAS A. EDISON:- “Fail? I haven’t failed! I now know 3,800 ways not to make an electric storage battery.â€
THOMAS A. KEMPIS- “Thy peace shall be in much patience.â€
Thomas a.KEMPIS- “First keep the peace within your self, than you can also bring peace to others.â€
THOMAS ADAMS –“Those bottled windy drinks that laugh in a man’s face and then cuts his throat.â€
THOMAS AQUINAS –“Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.â€
THOMAS AQUINAS –“Far graver is it to corrupt the faith that is the life of the soul than to counterfeit the money that sustains temporal life.â€
THOMAS ARNOLD –“Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun: as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost disappear at midday.â€
THOMAS B. ALDRICH –“To keep the heart unwrinkled, to he hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent — that is to triumph over old age.â€
THOMAS BABBINGTON MACAULAY –“Large promises, smooth excuses, chicanery, perjury, forgery are the weapons, offensive and defensive, of the people of the Lower Ganges.â€
THOMAS BERRY –“Gardening is an active participation in the deepest mysteries of the universe.â€
THOMAS CARLYLE –“All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.â€
THOMAS CARLYLE –“He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.â€
THOMAS CARLYLE –“Laissez-faire, Supply-and-demand, — one begins to be weary of all that. Leave all to egoism, to ravenous greed of money, of pleasure, of applause: it is the Gospel of Despair!â€
THOMAS CARLYLE –“Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.â€
THOMAS CARLYLE –“Silence is as deep as eternity; speech, shallow as time.â€
THOMAS CARLYLE –“Silence is more eloquent than words.â€
THOMAS CRANMER –“Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent. Create and make in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, we may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect forgiveness and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.â€
THOMAS CRUM –“Being willing to change allows you to move from a point of view to a viewing point – a higher, more expansive place, from which you can see both sides.â€
THOMAS DALY –“Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.â€
THOMAS ELLIOT- “It is by no means self-evident that human beings are most real when most violently excited; violent physical passions do not in themselves differentiate men from each other; but rather tend to reduce them to the same state.â€
THOMAS FULLER- “Adversity is easier borne than prosperity forgot.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“Health is not valued till sickness comes.â€
THOMAS FULLER- “Honest men fear neither the light nor the dark.â€
THOMAS FULLER- “Honesty is fine jewel but much out of fashion.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“If it were not for hopes, the heart would break.â€
THOMAS FULLER- “Law governs man and reasons the law.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“Never ant weary traveler complained that he come too soon to his journey’s end.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to runaway.â€
THOMAS FULLER –“Where villainy goes before, vengeance follows after.â€
THOMAS GRAY –“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.â€
THOMAS H. HUXLEY –“The great end of life is not knowledge but action.â€
THOMAS HARDY –“I traversed a Dominion Whose spokesmen spake out strong Their purpose and opinion Through pulpit, press, and song…. I saw, in web unbroken, Its history out wrought Not as the loud had spoken, But as the mute had thought.â€
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY –“The great end of life is not knowledge but action.â€
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY- “Veracity is heart of morality.â€
THOMAS HEYWOOD –“The world’s a theatre, the earth a stage, Which God and Nature do with actors fill.â€
THOMAS HOBBES- “No arts, no letters, no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.â€
THOMAS HOOD –“The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the average man can see better than he can think.â€
THOMAS HUSHES –“He never wants anything but what’s right and fair; only when you come to settle what’s right and fair, it’s ‘ everything that he wants and nothing that you want.â€
THOMAS HUXLEY –“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, I when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.â€
THOMAS HUXLEY –“The chess board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature and the player on the other side is hidden from us.â€
THOMAS J CARLISLE –“Help us to harness the wind, the water, the sun, and all the ready and renewable sources of power. Teach us to conserve, preserve, use wisely the blessed treasures of our wealth-stored earth. Help us to share your bounty, not waste it, or pervert it into peril for our children or our neighbours in other nations. You, who are life and energy and blessing, teach us to revere and respect your tender world.â€
THOMAS J PETERS –“Celebrate what you want to see more of.â€
THOMAS J PETERS –“The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.â€
THOMAS J WATSON –“If you want to achieve excellence you can get there today As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.â€
THOMAS J WATSON SR. –“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost. If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.â€
THOMAS J WATSON SR. –“The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.â€
THOMAS J WATSON SR. –“Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise… Quotas, when set up for us by others, are challenges which goad us on to surpass ourselves. The outstanding leaders of every age are those who set up their own quotas and constantly achieve them.â€
THOMAS J WATSON SR. –“You must guard constantly against those who lack vision. You must guard against the reactionary mind. Always cultivate and associate with persons of vision and with persons who believe that things are going to be better. When you do this, you take on the kind of vision, backed by the right kind of inspiration, that you need if you are going to grow in this business or any other business.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON – “Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on office, rottenness.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON- ‘I hope our wisdom will grow with our power and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.’
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater/it wills him.”
THOMAS JEFFERSON -“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“If people let governments decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“It is not by the consolidation, or concentration, of power, but by their distribution that good government is effected.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“No government can continue good but under the control of the people.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another… the laws ought to restrain him.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“The sword of the law should never fall but on those whose guilt is so apparent as to be pronounced by their friends as well as foes.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.â€
THOMAS JEFFERSON –“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.â€
THOMAS JONES –“Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.â€
THOMAS KE/Z –“Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bed.â€
THOMAS KINKADE –“Balance, peace, and joy is the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognising your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them.â€
THOMAS MACAULAY –“The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.â€
THOMAS MALTHUS –“A great emigration necessarily implies unhappiness of some kind or other in the country that is deserted.â€
THOMAS MANN- “He who loves most is the vanquished and must suffer.â€
THOMAS MANN- “I shall need to sleep three weeks on end to get rested from the rest I’ve had.’
THOMAS MANN –“Love is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the string remains forever.â€
THOMAS MANN –“Time goes, you say? Ah, no! Alas, Time stays, we go.â€
THOMAS MANN –“Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.â€
Thomas mann- “We came out of the dark and to go into the dark again and in between lie the experiences of our life.â€
THOMAS MANN –“We should know how to inherit, because inheriting is culture.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“And when the faculties are empty, then your whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind. Fasting of the heart empties the faculties, frees you from limitations and from preoccupations.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind, or the brutalities of our own will.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for “finding himself”. If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“It was said of Abbot Agatho that for three years he carried a stone in his mouth until he learned to be silent.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“The beginning of love is to let those we love be themselves, and not twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves in them.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.â€
THOMAS MERTON –“We cannot be happy if expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity Happiness is not a matter of intensity; but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.â€
THOMAS MOORE –“Every one should know that you can’t live in any other way than by cultivating the soul.â€
THOMAS MOORE- “Though an angel should write, still ‘tis devil must print.â€
THOMAS MORE –“These things, good Lord that we pray for give us Thy grace to labour for.â€
THOMAS NASHE –“Heaven is our heritage, Earthbuta players’ stage.â€
THOMAS PAINE –“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.â€
THOMAS PAINE –“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow creatures happy.â€
THOMAS PAINE –“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.â€
THOMAS PAINE –“Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and angels know of us.â€
THOMAS PAINE –“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.â€
THOMAS PAINE –“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.â€
THOMAS PAINE- “When the people fear the government, you have tyranny; when the government fears the people, you have freedom.â€
THOMAS PETERS & ROBERT WATERMAN, JR. –“The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.â€
THOMAS R DEWAR –“Minds are like parachutes: they only function when open.â€
THOMAS SOWELL –“Given that some social processes must convey inherent constraints, the Choice is among various mixtures of persuasion, force, and cultural inducement. The less of one, the more of the others. The degree of freedom that is possible is therefore tied to the extent to which people respond to persuasion or inducement.â€
THOMAS SOWELL –“Given that some social processes must convey inherent constraints, the choice is among various mixtures of persuasion, force, and cultural inducement. The less of one, the more of the others. The degree of freedom that is possible is therefore tied to the extent to which people respond to persuasion or inducement.â€
THOMAS SOWELL –“The first lesson of economics is scarcity There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.â€
THOMAS SZASZ –“A child becomes an adult when he realises that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.â€
THOMAS SZASZ –“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.â€
THOMAS SZASZ –“The self is not something that one finds. It is something that one creates.â€
THOMAS SZASZ –“When religion was strong and science weak. Men mistook magic for medicine, now when science is stronger and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.â€
Thomas szazs- “If you talk to god, you are praying; if god talks to you, you have schizophrenia.â€
THOMAS TUSSER- “Come some, some go; this life is so.â€
THOMAS W CRONIN –“”It’s unbelievably beautiful”, said Shiela. “I always thought a really beautiful place had to be green and rolling, with hills and valleys and lakes, and the sea pounding on rocks and beaches —”You mean like Ireland?” All right, I’m prejudiced”, said Shiela. “I always thought a place had to be something like that to be really beautiful. But this (on Mars) is an altogether different kind of beauty a rare red beauty, and so quiet and peaceful too”. “I agree”, said Don, “it’s one continuous pleasure just to look at it. I could stay here forever”. “But pleasure isn’t the only feeling I get looking at it”, said Shiela. “I also feel I’m like a fly that’s just landed on an exquisitely beautiful spider’s web — waiting for the spider to show up”.â€
THOMAS. A. KEMPIS –“Love is being able to walk arm in arm … even when you don’t see eye to eye.â€
THOMSON –“Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come; And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, While music wakes around, veiled in a shower Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.â€
THONAS JAFFERSON- “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.â€
THOREAU –“I never found the companion that was as companionable as solitude.â€
THOREAU –“Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify.â€
THOREAU –“The reader is nowhere raised into and sustained in a higher, purer, or rarer region of thought than in the Bhagavad Gita… Beside (it), even our Shakespeare seems sometimes youthfully green and practical merely.â€
THORNTON WILDER –“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.â€
THORSYEIN VEBLEN- “Conspicuous leisure and consumption… in the one case it is a waste of time and effort, in the other it is a waste of goods.â€
THUCYDIDES –“The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.â€
THUPTEN RINPOCHE –“To develop true compassion, first we must know that suffering is real, and that sufferings hurt.â€
THUR HUGH CLOUGH- “Grace is given of God, but knowledge is born in the market.â€
TIBULLUS –“Father Nile, why or in what lands can I say you have hidden your head? On your account your Egypt never sues for showers, nor does the dry grass bow to Jupiter the rain-bringer.â€
TIERNOBOKAR –“The beauty of the rainbow is due to the variety of its colours. In the same way, we regard the voices of the different believers which rise from all parts of the earth as a symphony of praises on behalf of God who can only be one.â€
TIM CLARK –“Leadership is influencing others to do the right thing.â€
TIM DU BOIS –“Always be “work in progress”.
TIM MCGRAW –“We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere.â€
TIM O’LEARY –“You are as old as the last time you changed your mind.â€
TIM WILEY –“Where you end up isn’t the most important thing. It’s the road you take to get there. The road you take is what you’ll look back on and call your life.â€
TIMOTHY –“If any one purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel consecrated and useful to the Master of the house, ready for any good work. So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.â€
TIMOTHY LEARY –“We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they’ve got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.â€
TIMOTHY THOMAS FORTUNE –“Mob law is the most forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion; it shows that society is rotten to the core.â€
TIMOYHY LEARY –“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.â€
TIORIO –“it is better to be old-fashioned and right than to be up-to-date and wrong.â€
TIRUMANTIRAM –“I’ll wreathe Him in garland. I’ll hug Him to heart. I’ll sing Him His name and dance with gifts of flowers. Singing and dancing, seek the Lord. This alone I know.â€
TITUS L CARUS –“As children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true.â€
TITUS M PLAUTUS –“Where there are friends, there is wealth.â€
TL MENCKEN –“Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.â€
TN TIEMEYER –“A man can make money but not vice versa.â€
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT –“Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.â€
TOLKIN, J.R.R. –“Never laugh at live dragon.â€
TOM BOBBINS –“We’re our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.â€
TOM BRADLEY –“The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.â€
TOM CONNELLY –“He who asks a question may be a fool for five minutes, but he who never asks a question remains a fool forever.â€
TOM HANKS –“Life is like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re gonna get.â€
TOM HANNAH –“Tolerance and celebration of individual differences is the fire that fuels lasting love.â€
TOM LEHRER- “Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put in to it.â€
TOM LEHRER- “Life is like A SEWER. What you get out of it depends on what you put in to it.â€
TOM MULLER –“Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.â€
TOM PETERS –“Formula for success: Under promise and over deliver.â€
TOM PETERS –“Leave no one out of the big picture. Involve everyone in everything of any consequence to all of you.â€
TOM ROBBINS –“Human beings were invented by water as a device for transporting itself from one place to another.â€
TOM ROBBINS –“There are many things worth living for, there are a few things worth dying for, but there is nothing worth killing for.â€
TOM ROBBINS –“We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.â€
TOM SNYDER –“If we’re not supposed to eat animals, how come they’re made out of meat?â€
TOM STOPPARD –“Every exit is an entry somewhere else.â€
TOM STOPPARD –“If an idea’s worth having once, it’s worth having twice.â€
TOM STOPPARD- “Life is a gamble at terrible cost- if it was a but, you wouldn’t take it.â€
TOM WAITS- “Hell is boiling over, and heaven is full, we’re chained to be the world and we all gotta pull.â€
TOM WILSON –“Mosquitoes remind us that we are not as high up on the food chain as we think.â€
TOM WILSON –“Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.â€
TOMMY LASORDA –“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination.â€
TONI MORRISON –“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves — a special kind of double.â€
TONI SCIARRA POYNTER –“You don’t need to be on the same wavelength to succeed in marriage. You just need to be able to ride each other’s wave.â€
TONY BENNEWORTH- “It’s been a very show and dull day, but it hasn’t been boring. It’s been a good, entertaining day’s cricket.â€
TONY BLAIR –“I have not suddenly woken up this week and decided that this is important. It seems a bit unfair for people to think so.â€
TONY BLAIR –“The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.â€
TONY BLAIR –“The principles of the Sikh faith are inspiring — equality, an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than themselves, tolerance and respect for other individuals, communities and faiths. During the festival of Baisakhi, we can all reflect on the valuable role that the Sikh community plays in Britain and the Sikh contribution to our economy, society and national life.â€
TONY ROBBINS –“Success is the result of good judgment, good judgment is result of experience, experience is often the result of bad judgment.â€
TONY SNOW –“Many people don’t give a rip about politics and know as much about public affairs as they know about the topography of Pluto.â€
TORAH –“Then the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.â€
TRADITIONAL HINDU PRAYER –“I prostrate to the dawn/dusk lamp, whose light is the Knowledge Principle (the Supreme Lord), which removes the darkness of ignorance and by which all can be achieved in life.â€
TRAVIS ENGEN –“We know that the profitable growth of our company depends on the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of our communities across the world. And we know it is in our best interests to contribute to the sustainability of those communities.â€
TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE –“Living is having ups and downs and sharing them with friends.â€
TRILOKINATH RAINA –“Whether my words have meaning tomorrow, Tomorrow’s critics will decide; But I’ll find the gushing waters eternal If they relieved you of present pain.â€
TRYON EDWARDS –“He that never changes his opinion never corrects mistakes and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.â€
TRYON EDWARDS –“Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.â€
TSAO-HSUEH-CHIN “Women… are made of water, with clear and mobile minds, while men are mostly made of mud, mere lumps of unformed clay.â€
TULKU THONDUP –“In order to help or heal others, we must first gain the benefit of healing blessings ourselves. It is like wanting to give money to a needy person: first we must have or make some money, because only then can we give it away The best spiritual training is to serve the needs of others, the mother beings, with no selfish motivations. That means that our purpose in generating peace and joy in ourselves must be for the sake of others, or at least that must be our aim. Thus we must create and feel peace and joy in ourselves with no hesitation. When we have gained these benefits, we must share them with others, with the greatest joy. If we have peace, spontaneously all our words and actions will be expressions of peace and joy. Then, even if we are not actively sharing peace or trying to help others, our good qualities will still have a positive effect on many around us.â€
TULSIDAS –“As a word and its meaning, water and its wave are said to be different but are not, I do homage to the feet of that Sita-Rama.â€
TULSIDAS –“’Bin sateang vivek na hoye, Ram kripa bin sulabh na soye’ — Without satsang, vivek or the power to discriminate does not come. It is difficult to obtain vivek without the grace of Rama and without participating in satsang. It is tough to live in this jungle we call life.â€
TULSIDAS –“Thou art Brahnm, I am Jiva. Thou art Master, I am servant. Thou art father, mother, guru, friend And well-wisher in all respects. From the different relationships between you and me, Acknowledge that which you prefer, So that Tulsi can somehow Take shelter at your merciful feet.â€
TUPAC SHAKUR –“Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.â€
TURKISH PROVERB –“A fool dreams of wealth; a wise man, of happiness.â€
TURKISH PROVERB –“A fool dreams of wealth; a wise man, of happiness.â€
TYRON EDWARDS –“Age does not depend on years, hut upon temperament and health. Some men are horn old, and some never grow so.â€
TYRON EDWARDS –“Some men are born old, and some never seem so. If we keep well and cheerful we are always young, and at last die in youth, even when years would count us old.â€
TZES SILESIUS –“Man, if thou wishes to see God, there or here on earth. Thy heart must first become a pure mirror.â€
UCILLE S HARPER –“The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people.â€
UDANA –“He who successfully fulfils his vow Of continence in body and in mind, And has achieved the final knowledge, he Acquires the right to declare To others who would walk the Path; he may Give to himself the n
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