--- title: "3 Cause and effect Quotes By Alan Lightman" description: "3 Cause and effect quotes by Alan Lightman. Plus more from Alan Lightman and more Cause and effect sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5fb/alan-lightman-2270_cause-and-effect_a-person-who-cannot-imagine-the-future-i_394356.jpg" --- > [“A person who cannot imagine the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions. Some are thus paralyzed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/a-person-who-cannot-imagine-the-future-is-a-person-who-cannot/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5fb/alan-lightman-2270_cause-and-effect_a-person-who-cannot-imagine-the-future-i_394356.jpg) > [“Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic. Sometimes the first precedes the second, and sometimes the second the first.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/consider-a-world-in-which-cause-and-effect-are-erratic-sometimes-the/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cac/alan-lightman-2270_cause-and-effect_consider-a-world-in-which-cause-and-effe_1106808.png) > [“Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic. Sometimes the first precedes the second, sometimes the second the first… Each…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/consider-a-world-in-which-cause-and-effect-are-erratic-sometimes-the-2/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f42/alan-lightman-2270_cause-and-effect_consider-a-world-in-which-cause-and-effe_1247548.jpg) ## Other authors on Cause and effect - [Dada Bhagwan 94 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cause-and-effect/dada-bhagwan/) - [Ralph Waldo Emerson 13 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cause-and-effect/ralph-waldo-emerson/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b007/author-david-hume-27582.jpg) David Hume 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cause-and-effect/david-hume/) ## More by Alan Lightman > [“In a world of fixed future, there can be no right or wrong. Right and wrong demand freedom of choice, but if each action…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/in-a-world-of-fixed-future-there-can-be-no-right-or-wrong-right-and/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/i-ve-decided-that-has-been-the-great-achievement-of-our-age-to-so/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [Every reader gets something different from a book and every reader, in a sense, completes it in a different way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/every-reader-gets-something-different-from-a-book-and-every-reader-in/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > ["The Diagnosis" is by far my most ambitious book. I such great hopes for it... there was so much I wanted to do with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/the-diagnosis-is-by-far-my-most-ambitious-book-i-such-great-hopes-for/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [As long as God does not intervene in the contemporary universe in such a way as to violate physical laws, science has no way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/as-long-as-god-does-not-intervene-in-the-contemporary-universe-in/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [Except for a God who sits down after the universe begins, all other gods conflict with the assumptions of science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/except-for-a-god-who-sits-down-after-the-universe-begins-all-other/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/each-person-who-gets-stuck-in-time-gets-stuck-alone/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [A writer is someone who has a one-man tent in the desert and occasionally he sees the footprint of an other writer - in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/a-writer-is-someone-who-has-a-one-man-tent-in-the-desert-and/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [Time is a rigid, bonelike structure, extending infinitely ahead and behind, fossilizing the future as well as the past.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/time-is-a-rigid-bonelike-structure-extending-infinitely-ahead-and/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [For me, spirituality includes the belief in things larger than ourselves, an appreciation of nature and beauty, a sensitivity to the world, a feeling…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/for-me-spirituality-includes-the-belief-in-things-larger-than/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [Writers are a loosely knit community - community is an overstated word. Writers don't see each other very much.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/writers-are-a-loosely-knit-community-community-is-an-overstated-word/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [Imagine a world in which there is no time. Only images.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/imagine-a-world-in-which-there-is-no-time-only-images/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [Time is the clarity for seeing right and wrong.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/time-is-the-clarity-for-seeing-right-and-wrong/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [In this world, time has three dimensions, like space. Just as an object may move in three perpendicular directions, corresponding to horizontal, vertical, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/in-this-world-time-has-three-dimensions-like-space-just-as-an-object/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) > [In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time." "They do not keep clocks in their houses.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-lightman/in-this-world-there-are-two-times-there-is-mechanical-time-and-there/) [Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-lightman/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cause-and-effect/alan-lightman/#itemlist", "name": "3 Cause and effect Quotes By Alan Lightman", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“A person who cannot imagine the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions. Some are thus paralyzed into inaction. They lie in their beds through the day, wide awake but afraid to put on their clothes. They drink coffee and look at photographs. Others leap out of bed in the morning, unconcerned that each action leads into nothingness, unconcerned that they cannot plan out their lives. 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