The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. — Alan Lightman Being alone 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 Birth Copy Share Image
Except for a God who sits down after the universe begins, all other gods conflict with the assumptions of science. — Alan Lightman Assumption Copy Share Image
Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
In a world without future, each moment is the end of the world. — Alan Lightman Apocalypse Copy Share Image
My second novel, "Good Benito", was not finished. I wished that I had spent another year with it. — Alan Lightman Another year 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
As long as God does not intervene in the contemporary universe in such a way as to violate physical laws, science has… — Alan Lightman Belief Copy Share Image
No one knows the nature of God, or even if God exists. In a sense, all of our religions are literary works… — Alan Lightman God exists 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
Unfortunately, public debates do not have much room for subtlety. The audience wants a quick thrust at your opponent, not a slow… — Alan Lightman Audience 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 Book Copy Share Image
Oh, love is very much a physical thing… I realize that it's very complicated, and I'm sure it can't be traced to… — Alan Lightman Brain Copy Share Image
One day I'm going to write a book about osprey. It has really gotten deep into my bloodstream. So when you ask… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
If you over-plot your book you strangle your characters. Your characters have to have enough freedom and life to be able to… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I think people all over the institution recognize that different ways of understanding are valuable. Artists may think in a different way… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
I'm humbled and enormously grateful to be connected to [Franz] Kafka in a any way. He is one of the writers I… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Don't you feel something magical when you're in love?... I do, I certainly do ... but I think that feeling of magic… — 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
With infinite life comes an infinite list of relatives. Grandparents never die, nor do great grandparents, great-aunts…and so on, back through the… — Alan Lightman Advice Copy Share Image
Thoughts are no more than electrical surges in the brain. Sexual arousal is no more than a flow of chemicals to certain… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
“There were other, more subtle artistic effects. The slow shift of the light through each day caused shadows to drift, shorten and… — 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
“Something else gets under your skin, keeps you working days and nights at the sacrifice of your sleeping and eating and attention… — Alan Lightman Creative life Copy Share Image
“When a traveler from the future must talk, he does not talk but whimpers. He whispers tortured sounds. He is agonized. For… — Alan Lightman Philosophy of life Copy Share Image
“On one thing most physicists agree. If the amount of dark energy in our universe were only a little bit different than… — Alan Lightman Dark energy Copy Share Image
“On occasion a traveler will venture from one city to another. Is he perplexed What took seconds in Berne might take hours… — Alan Lightman Fall in love Copy Share Image
When the first mechanical clocks were invented, marking off time in crisp, regular intervals, it must have surprised people to discover that… — Alan Lightman Aging Copy Share Image
“Theoretical physicists are Platonists. Until the last few years, they believed that the entire universe, the one universe, was generated from a… — Alan Lightman Physicists Copy Share Image
Unconditional love. That’s what he wants to give her and what he wants from her. People should give without wanting anything in… — Alan Lightman Being selfish Copy Share Image
Scientists will forever have to live with the fact that their product is, in the end, impersonal. — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
You've made something grand, but it will be grander if it has feeling and beauty and harmony. — Alan Lightman Beauty Copy Share Image
Where are the one billion people who lived and breathed in the year 1800, only two short centuries ago? — 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 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/quotes/i/c8d/alan-lightman-2270_cost_such-is-the-cost-of-immortality-no-perso_1378362.png)
![“I'm humbled and enormously grateful to be connected to [Franz] Kafka in a any way. He is one of the writers I admire. I think he has been a big influence on me. I appreciate the idea of the individual person battling the society - which is true in all his books.” quote by Alan Lightman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/215/alan-lightman-2270_admire_i-m-humbled-and-enormously-grateful-to-b_1542144.png)
