AtomicQuote

Dan Simmons Quote

[Once Ummon asked a lesser light Are you a gardener> Yes it replied Why have turnips no roots> Ummon asked the gardener who could not reply Because said Ummon rainwater is plentiful] I think about this for a moment. Ummon’s koan is not difficult now that I am regaining the knack of listening for the shadow of substance beneath the words. The little Zen parable is Ummon’s way of saying, with some sarcasm, that the answer lies within science and within the antilogic which scientific answers so often provide. The rainwater comment answers everything and nothing, as so much of science has for so long. As Ummon and the other Masters teach, it explains why the giraffe evolved a long neck but never why the other animals did not. It explains why humankind evolved to intelligence, but not why the tree near the front gate refused to.

Dan Simmons

[Once Ummon asked a lesser light Are you a gardener> Yes it replied Why have turnips no roots> Ummon asked the gardener who could not reply Because said Ummon rainwater is plentiful] I think about this for a moment. Ummon’s koan is not difficult now that I am regaining the knack of listening for the shadow of substance beneath the words. The little Zen parable is Ummon’s way of saying, with some sarcasm, that the answer lies within science and within the antilogic which scientific answers so often provide. The rainwater comment answers everything and nothing, as so much of science has for so long. As Ummon and the other Masters teach, it explains why the giraffe evolved a long neck but never why the other animals did not. It explains why humankind evolved to intelligence, but not why the tree near the front gate refused to.

Related Quotes

It's great that people are basically spending their two weeks of vacation to come out and be with us in some weird part of the world. And I think we owe it to them to take 'em to some cool places.

Jeff Ament

It's great that people are basically spending their two weeks of vacation to come out and be with us in some weird part of the world. And I think we owe it to them to take 'em to some cool places.

Tags: cool

We demand privacy, yet we glorify those that break into computers.

Bill McCollum

We demand privacy, yet we glorify those that break into computers.

Tags: computers, privacy, break, demand

All women do have a different sense of sexuality, or sense of fun, or sense of like what's sexy or cool or tough.

Angelina Jolie

All women do have a different sense of sexuality, or sense of fun, or sense of like what's sexy or cool or tough.

Tags: cool, women, fun, sexy

You are worth more than what people say or think of you.

Auliq Ice

You are worth more than what people say or think of you.

Tags: aim, change, choices, courage, creativity, decision making, life, motivational, self motivational, self realization

There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnit...

Arthur Schopenhauer

There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnit...

Tags: age, great, absurdity, indoctrination, youth

You are what you post. Proper netiquette makes you a good user. NetworkEtiquette.net

David Chiles

You are what you post. Proper netiquette makes you a good user. NetworkEtiquette.net

Tags: digital etiquette, etiquette, excellent, good, great, netiquette, social media, social network

Through challenge and difficulty, we learn to see life differently than before.

Auliq Ice

Through challenge and difficulty, we learn to see life differently than before.

Tags: challenges, challenges in life, failure, inspirational, learning from mistakes, life, life challenges, life lessons, life trials, motivational

To create well I have to be in a good mood, happy and cool.

Marc Newson

To create well I have to be in a good mood, happy and cool.

Tags: cool, happy, good, mood

No offense but a seller will say whatever it takes to sell a product but if you sum it up, it comes down to hard work.

Auliq Ice

No offense but a seller will say whatever it takes to sell a product but if you sum it up, it comes down to hard work.

Tags: advertisements, advertising, branding, career development, career, careers, inspirational, job seeking, joblessness, marketing

I don't have a lot of patience for stories in which women are rescued by men.

Neil Gaiman

I don't have a lot of patience for stories in which women are rescued by men.

Tags: bravery, courage, fairy tales, feminism, self, valour, women
About Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel. Simmons's genre-intermingling Song of Kali (1985) won the World Fantasy Award. He also writes mysteries and thrillers, some of which feature the continuing character Joe Kurtz.