Lewis Thomas Quotes

It is not so bad being ignorant if you are totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance.

It's just plain learning something that you didn't know. There is a real aesthetic experience in being dumbfounded.

Chemical waste products are the droppings of science.

I will confess that I have no more sense of what goes on in the mind of mankind than I have for the mind of an ant.

We are spectacular splendid manifestations of life. We have language. We have affection. And finally, and perhaps best of all, we have music.

The whole dear notion of one's own Self-marvelous old free-willed, free- enterprising, autonomous, independent, isolated island of a Self- is a myth.

We are educated to be amazed by the infinite variety of life forms in nature. We are, I believe, only at the beginning of being flabbergasted by its unity.

Given any new technology for transmitting information, we seem bound to use it for great quantities of small talk. We are only saved by music from being overwhelmed by nonsense.

Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions. It is time to acknowledge this perhaps even to learn to do it better.

Most things get better by themselves. Most things in fact are better by morning.

Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions. It is time to acknowledge this, perhaps even to learn to do it better.

Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that the mere fact of our existence should keep us all in a state of contented dazzlement.