A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing QUOTES

1 " The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way they could get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

2 " If we wish to draw philosophical conclusions about our own existence, our significance, and the significance of the universe itself, our conclusions should be based on empirical knowledge. A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa, whether or not we like the implications. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

3 " Of course, supernatural acts are what miracles are all about. They are, after all, precisely those things that circumvent the laws of nature. A god who can create the laws of nature can presumably also circumvent them at will. Although why they would have been circumvented so liberally thousands of years ago, before the invention of modern communication instruments that could have recorded them, and not today, is still something to wonder about. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

4 " In 5 billion years, the expansion of the universe will have progressed to the point where all other galaxies will have receded beyond detection. Indeed, they will be receding faster than the speed of light, so detection will be impossible. Future civilizations will discover science and all its laws, and never know about other galaxies or the cosmic background radiation. They will inevitably come to the wrong conclusion about the universe......We live in a special time, the only time, where we can observationally verify that we live in a special time. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

5 " Metaphysical speculation is independent of the physical validity of the Big Bang itself and is irrelevant to our understanding of it. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

6 " Now, almost one hundred years later, it is difficult to fully appreciate how much our picture of the universe has changed in the span of a single human lifetime.

As far as the scientific community in 1917 was concerned, the universe was static and eternal, and consisted of a one single galaxy, our Milky Way, surrounded by vast, infinite, dark, and empty space.

This is, after all, what you would guess by looking up at the night sky with your eyes, or with a small telescope, and at the time there was little reason to suspect otherwise. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

7 " [I]n science we have to be particularly cautious about 'why' questions. When we ask, 'Why?' we usually mean 'How?' If we can answer the latter, that generally suffices for our purposes. For example, we might ask: 'Why is the Earth 93 million miles from the Sun?' but what we really probably mean is, 'How is the Earth 93 million miles from the Sun?' That is, we are interested in what physical processes led to the Earth ending up in its present position. 'Why' implicitly suggests purpose, and when we try to understand the solar system in scientific terms, we do not generally ascribe purpose to it. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

8 " We need to live our experience as it is and with our eyes open. The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

9 " I cannot overstress the importance of the fact that, once gravity is included in our considerations of nature, one is no longer free to define the total energy of a system arbitrarily, nor the fact that there are both positive and negative contributions to this energy…I say this because it have been argued that the statement that the average total Newtonian gravitational energy in a flat, expanding universe is arbitrary, and that any other balue would be just as good, but that scientists ‘define’ the zero point to argue against God. So claimed Dinesh D’Souza, anyway, in his debates with Christopher Hitchens on the existence of God. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

10 " Once you assume a creator and a plan, it makes humans objects in a cruel experiment whereby we are created to be sick and commanded to be well. —CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

11 " I like to say that while antimatter may seem strange, it is strange in the sense that Belgians are strange. They are not really strange; it is just that one rarely meets them. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

12 " We live at a very special time. . . the only time when we can observationally verify that we live at a very special time! "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

13 " ...nuestro universo desaparecerá tan abruptamente como, probablemente, empezó. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

14 " Forget Jesus, the stars died so you could be born. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

15 " The universe is the way it is , whether we like
it or not. The existence or nonexistence of a creator is independent
of our desires . A world without God or purpose may seem harsh
or pointless, but that alone doesn ' t require God to actually exist. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

16 " Reality doesn’t owe us comfort. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

17 " One of the most poetic facts I know about the universe is that essentially every atom in your body was once inside a star that exploded. Moreover, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than did those in your right. We are all, literally, star children, and our bodies made of stardust. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

18 " I don’t mind not knowing. It doesn’t scare me. —RICHARD FEYNMAN "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

19 " I should point out, nevertheless, that even though incomplete data can lead to a false picture, this is far different from the (false) picture obtained by those who choose to ignore empirical data to invent a picture of reality (young earthers, for example), or those who instead require the existence of something for which there is no observable evidence whatsoever (like divine intelligence) to reconcile their view of creation with their a priori prejudices, or worse still, those who cling to fairly tales about nature that presume the answers before questions can even be asked. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

20 " Dream or nightmare, we have to live our experience as it is, and we have to live it awake. "

― Lawrence M. Krauss , A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing