The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I have too many friends who tell me that they spend the first hour of every morning going through their e-mail messages.… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
In a world in which time is a circle, every handshake, every kiss, every birth, every word, will be repeated precisely. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
The time-deaf are unable to speak what they know. For speech needs a sequence of words, spoken in time. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I wouldn't overall say that "The Diagnosis" is a funny book. I would say that it has comic moments. It's a modern… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
A person who cannot imagine the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions. Some are thus paralyzed… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Faith is the ability to honor stillness at some moments, and at others to ride the passion and exuberance. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I have always loved magic realism as a form of writing. I have also been fascinated for a long time with the… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Events, once happened, lose reality, alter with a glance, a storm, a night. In time, the past never happened. But who could… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
But what is the past? Could it be, the firmness of the past is just illusion? Could the past be a kaleidoscope,… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in atime of pain or of joy. The tragedy… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
For me, consciousness is the most interesting unsolved problem of science, and, in fact, we may never know what it is about… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
A life is a moment in season. A life is one snowfall. A life is one autumn day. A life is the… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I have for a long time loved fabulist, imaginative fiction, such as the writing of Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Michael Bulgakov, and… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
In a world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I have no opposition at all to technology. I think technology is a wonderful thing that has to be used thoughtfully, and… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
“Will these millions of children, for generations upon future generations, know that some of their atoms cycled through this woman? [...] Will… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Most people have learned to live in the moment. The argument goes that if the past has uncertain effect on the present,… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
“Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic. Sometimes the first precedes the second, sometimes the second the first… Each… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time." "They do not keep clocks in… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
“A person who cannot imagine the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions. Some are thus paralyzed… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
In this world, time has three dimensions, like space. Just as an object may move in three perpendicular directions, corresponding to horizontal,… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Time is a rigid, bonelike structure, extending infinitely ahead and behind, fossilizing the future as well as the past. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free. Over time, some have determined that the only… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I think e-mail is representative of our fast food mentality in the United States, where everything has gotten faster and faster, and… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Order is the law of nature, the universal trend, the cosmic direction. If time is an arrow, that arrow points toward order.… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
“The catchers delight in the moment so frozen but soon discover that the nightingale expires, its clear flutelike song diminishes to silence,… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time. The first is as rigid and… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
There is a place where time stands still ...illuminated by only the most feeble red light, for light is diminished to almost… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
“In a world of fixed future, there can be no right or wrong. Right and wrong demand freedom of choice, but if each action… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
“I've decided that has been the great achievement of our age: to so thoroughly flood the planet with megabits that every image and fact… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
Every reader gets something different from a book and every reader, in a sense, completes it in a different way. — Alan Lightman Copy Share
"The Diagnosis" is by far my most ambitious book. I such great hopes for it... there was so much I wanted to do with… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
As long as God does not intervene in the contemporary universe in such a way as to violate physical laws, science has no way… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
Except for a God who sits down after the universe begins, all other gods conflict with the assumptions of science. — Alan Lightman Copy Share
A writer is someone who has a one-man tent in the desert and occasionally he sees the footprint of an other writer - in… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
Time is a rigid, bonelike structure, extending infinitely ahead and behind, fossilizing the future as well as the past. — Alan Lightman Copy Share
For me, spirituality includes the belief in things larger than ourselves, an appreciation of nature and beauty, a sensitivity to the world, a feeling… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
Writers are a loosely knit community - community is an overstated word. Writers don't see each other very much. — Alan Lightman Copy Share
In this world, time has three dimensions, like space. Just as an object may move in three perpendicular directions, corresponding to horizontal, vertical, and… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time." "They do not keep clocks in their houses.… — Alan Lightman Copy Share
![“Will these millions of children, for generations upon future generations, know that some of their atoms cycled through this woman? [...] Will they feel what she felt in her life, will their memories have flickering strokes of her memories, will they recall that moment long ago when she stood by…” quote by Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/543/alan-lightman-2270_children_will-these-millions-of-children-for-gene_2114750.png)
![“Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free. Over time, some have determined that the only way to live is to die. In death, a man or a woman is free of the weight of the past [and the future].” quote by Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/c8d/alan-lightman-2270_cost_such-is-the-cost-of-immortality-no-perso_1378362.png)
