Matter

Antelope Canyon 2009

"As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent spirit (orig. geist). This spirit is the matrix of all matter."

Max Planck [1858-1947, German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918]

from Das Wesen der Materie [The Nature of Matter], speech at Florence, Italy (1944) (from Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Abt. Va, Rep. 11 Planck, Nr. 1797)

the tonic of wildness

Walden - the book

We need the tonic of wildness — to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.

Henry David Thoreau [Walden: Or, Life in the Woods, 1854] 

(free e-book on Project Gutenberg)

όσο μας επιτρέπουν οι χαραμάδες της φυλακής μας

Alcatraz cell / © I.A. Daglis

Αν το γυαλί απ' όπου βλέπουμε και αντιλαμβανόμαστε τον κόσμο ήταν πιο καθαρό, το καθετί θα φαινότανε στον άνθρωπο τέτοιο που πραγματικά είναι, δηλαδή χωρίς αρχή και τέλος.

Όμως ο άνθρωπος πήγε και κλείστηκε από μόνος του και περιορίστηκε σε τέτοιο σημείο, που να μη βλέπει παρά μόνον όσο τού επιτρέπουν οι χαραμάδες της φυλακής του.

Οδυσσέας Ελύτης [Εν λευκώ, 1992]

crazy

Hieronymus Bosch - Creatures in the Garden of Earthly Delights

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.

Charles Bukowski [1920-1994, German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer]

ειρηνικά

Ο ντροπαλός τριαντάρης τον άκουσε με κατανόηση, αποσύρθηκε σε μια γωνιά να μην πολυφαίνεται και σκέφτηκε ότι ήρθε η ώρα να καθαρίσει ένα πεντόκιλο τσουβαλάκι σουσάμι, να υπάρχει, για ψωμιά και κουλούρια, προσεχώς. Στις δικές του φλέβες το αίμα πήγαινε παρακάτω ειρηνικά, δεν ήθελε να μπαίνει σε κουβέντες που ξεκινούσαν για να βγάλουν νικητή και νικημένο ...

Ιωάννα Καρυστιάνη [Σουέλ, 2006]

Universe joy

pure joy - plane tree clung to the rocks next to the Klidosi waterfall, Samothraki

I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!

Louise Bogan [American poet, August 1897 - February 1970]

words are unnecessary

"painted" cliffs, Samothraki 2018

Words are very unnecessary
...
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable 
...

Martin Gore [Enjoy the silence, 1990]

stretched mind

Keanae waves, Maui

A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension.

Oliver Wendell Holmes [American jurist, 1841-1935]

όλα αυτά που αναμένουμε

Κυότο 2017

Η ζωή μας είναι γεμάτη από όλα αυτά που αναμένουμε αλλά τελικά δε λένε να συμβούν, δε μας δίδεται η χάρις.

Ιωάννα Καρυστιάνη [Σουέλ, 2006]

The NASA way

When a link to a NASA document does not lead anywhere ...

Beauty

The plastic bag scene from American Beauty; music by Thomas Newman

It was one of those days, when it's a minute away from snowing, and there's this electricity in the air. You can almost hear it, right? And this bag was just dancing with me, like a little kid begging me to play with it, for fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know, but it helps me remember. I need to remember. Sometimes there is so much... beauty... in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.

Alan Ervin Ball [American Beauty, 1999]

frontiers

Yukon Territory aurora / © Paul Nicklen

Everyday work at the frontiers of modern physics usually involves complex concepts and extreme conditions. We speak of quantum fields, entanglement, or supersymmetry, and analyse the ridiculously small or conceptualize the incomprehensibly large. Just as Willie Sutton famously explained that he robbed banks because "that's where the money is", so we do these things because "that's where the Unknown is".

from Fantastic Realities, Frank Wilczek (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004)

child

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.


Heraclitus

αισιοδοξία

αισιοδοξία sideways

Είμαστε πεπερασμένοι σαν άτομα και πεπερασμένοι σαν ανθρώπινο είδος. Κάποτε θα πεθάνει το είδος μας. Αυτό μας κάνει περισσότερο συνετούς. Ξέρουμε ότι δεν γράφουμε για την αιωνιότητα αλλά για τον κόσμο που ζει τώρα, μήπως κερδίσουν μια αισιοδοξία.

Ευτύχης Μπιτσάκης (Έλληνας ακαδημαϊκός, φυσικός, χημικός, φιλόσοφος)

cross the sea

Staring at the Aegean Sea from Evia Island

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, Bengali polymath, 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature)

Reconciliation

Fushimi Inari 2013

Συμφιλίωση
Προφέρεται Εύκολα
Πραγματοποιείται Δύσκολα
Γαληνεύει Απέραντα

Reconciliation:
easy to utter, 
difficult to achieve, 
offering immense tranquility