„how beautiful is the universe
when something digestible meets
with an eager digestion
how sweet the embrace
when atom rushes to the arms
of waiting atom“

„The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms.“

—  Muriel Rukeyser poet and political activist 1913 - 1980

"The Speed of Darkness"; this line is sometimes misquoted as "The Universe is made of stories not atoms."
The Speed of Darkness (1968)
Вариант: The universe is made up of stories, not atoms.

„Physiology does not teach us how to digest, nor logic how to discourse, nor esthetics how to feel beauty or express it, nor ethics how to be good. And indeed it is well if they do not teach us how to be hypocrites; for pedantry, whether it be pedantry of logic, or of esthetics, or of ethics, is at bottom nothing but hypocrisy.“

—  Miguel de Unamuno 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher 1864 - 1936

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), XI : The Practical Problem

„The theory of the "expanding universe" might also be called the theory of the "shrinking atom".“

—  Arthur Stanley Eddington British astrophysicist 1882 - 1944

The Expanding Universe (1933)
Контексте: All change is relative. The universe is expanding relatively to our common material standards; our material standards are shrinking relatively to the size of the universe. The theory of the "expanding universe" might also be called the theory of the "shrinking atom". <...>

„While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.“

—  Samuel Johnson English writer 1709 - 1784

April 10, 1776, p. 305
Vol III

„How beautiful it is when goodness succeeds badness; and how unappealing it is when evil succeeds goodness.“

—  Muhammad al-Baqir fifth of the Twelve Shia Imams 677 - 733

[Mizan al-Hikmah, Muhammadi Reishahri, Muhammad, Dar al-Hadith, 2010, 3, Qum, 114]

„He that prefers the beautiful to the useful in life will, undoubtedly, like children who prefer sweetmeats to bread, destroy his digestion and acquire a very fretful outlook on the world.“

—  Friedrich Nietzsche German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist 1844 - 1900

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Maxims

„How innocent, how beautiful thy sleep!
Sweet one, 'tis peace and joy to gaze on thee!“

—  Letitia Elizabeth Landon English poet and novelist 1802 - 1838

Sleeping Child
The Fate of Adelaide (1821)

„Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties.“

—  James Jeans, книга The Mysterious Universe

Источник: The Mysterious Universe (1930), p. 19, Pelican Books 1938 reprint of 1931 2nd ed.

„We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.“

—  Neil deGrasse Tyson American astrophysicist and science communicator 1958

„There’s as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe.“

—  Neil deGrasse Tyson American astrophysicist and science communicator 1958

Источник: Cosmos

„By space the universe encompasses me and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.“

—  Blaise Pascal French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher 1623 - 1662

„Atomism originally stood for iconoclasm, impiety, and atheism, because the Greek atomists conceived a universe under the reign of chance.“

—  Lancelot Law Whyte Scottish industrial engineer 1896 - 1972

p, 125
Essay on Atomism: From Democritus to 1960 (1961)

„A natural scientist, examining a single atom, might well be able to asseverate the structure and history of the entire universe!“

—  Jack Vance, Dying Earth

Bah!" muttered Hurtiancz. "By the same token, a sensible man need listen to but a single word in order to recognize the whole for egregious nonsense."
"Morreion", Ch. 8
Dying Earth (1950-1984), Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

„Funny how you notice how beautiful things are just when you're about to leave them.“

—  Laura Ruby American writer

Источник: Bone Gap

„When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!“

—  John Dryden, книга Fables, Ancient and Modern

Источник: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), Cymon and Iphigenia, Line 41.

„How many times have you become very anxious when forced to wait? There are a million things to see. There are a million beautiful sounds to hear. Open your eyes, see--as if for the first time. Find peace in moments of waiting, and you will witness that all life can be perfectly beautiful.“

—  Scott Shaw American actor 1958

About Peace

„I stand at the seashore, alone, and start to think.
There are the rushing waves
mountains of molecules
each stupidly minding its own business
trillions apart
yet forming white surf in unison.Ages on ages
before any eyes could see
year after year
thunderously pounding the shore as now.
For whom, for what?
On a dead planet
with no life to entertain.Never at rest
tortured by energy
wasted prodigiously by the sun
poured into space.
A mite makes the sea roar. Deep in the sea
all molecules repeat
the patterns of one another
till complex new ones are formed.
They make others like themselves
and a new dance starts.Growing in size and complexity
living things
masses of atoms
DNA, protein
dancing a pattern ever more intricate.Out of the cradle
onto dry land
here it is
standing:
atoms with consciousness;
matter with curiosity.Stands at the sea,
wonders at wondering: I
a universe of atoms
an atom in the universe.“

—  Richard Feynman American theoretical physicist 1918 - 1988

The Value of Science (1955)

„When I look at things, I always see the space they occupy. I always want the space to reappear, to make a comeback, because it's lost space when there's something in it. If I see a chair in a beautiful space, no matter how beautiful the chair is, it can never be as beautiful to me as the plain space.“

—  Andy Warhol American artist 1928 - 1987

Источник: 1975, Ch. 10: Atmosphere

„The trials of life will not wait for us. They come at their own time, not caring much to inquire how ready we may be to meet them.“

—  James Anthony Froude, книга The Nemesis of Faith

Arthur's commentary
The Nemesis of Faith (1849)