Entropy Quotes

• Heretics are the only bitter remedy against the entropy of human thought.

  Yevgeny Zamyatin

  Bitterness, Remedy, Humans

  Yevgeny Zamyatin (2007). “We”, p.9, Modern Library

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• You may see a cup of tea fall off a table and break into pieces on the floor... But you will never see the cup gather itself back together and jump back on the table. The increase of disorder, or entropy, is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.

  Stephen Hawking

  Fall, Past, Giving

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• Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy.

  Vaclav Havel

  Life, Struggle, Hero

  Open letter to Dr. Gustáv Husák, Communist President, April 08, 1975.

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• Entropy is the normal state of consciousness - a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Normal, Consciousness, States

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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• Only entropy comes easy.

  Anton Chekhov

  Adversity, Easy, Difficulty

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• In high school, when I first heard of entropy, I was attracted to it immediately. They said that in nature all systems are breaking down, and I thought, What a wonderful thing; perhaps I can make some small contribution to this process, myself.

  George Carlin

  Humorous, School, Firsts

  George Carlin (2002). “Napalm & Silly Putty”, Hyperion

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• The increase of disorder or entropy with time is one example of what is called an arrow of time, something that distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.

  Stephen Hawking

  Past, Giving, Increase

  "A Brief History of Time". Book by Stephen Hawking, 1988.

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• One thinks one's something unique and wonderful at the center of the universe, when in fact one's just a slight interruption in the ongoing march of entropy.

  Aldous Huxley

  Death, Suicide, Unique

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• Entropy makes things fall, but life ingeniously rigs the game so that when they do they often fall into place.

  John Tooby

  Fall, Games, Rigs

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• Entropy requires no maintenance.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Maintenance

  Robert Anton Wilson (1992). “Reality is what You Can Get Away with: A Screenplay”, Dell Books

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• Question: Who governs the governors? Answer: Entropy

  Frank Herbert

  Answers, Thrive, Governors

  Frank Herbert (2017). “The Dosadi Experiment and The Eyes of Heisenberg: Two Classic Works of Science Fiction”, p.123, Tor Science Fiction

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• Entropy and optimism: the twin forces that make the world go around.

  Neil Gaiman

  Optimism, World, Twins

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• The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.

  Rudolf Clausius

  Maximum, Universe

  Rudolf Clausius (1867). “The Mechanical Theory of Heat: With Its Applications to the Steam-engine and to the Physical Properties of Bodies”, p.365

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• It sometimes seems as if curbing entropy is our quixotic purpose in this universe.

  James Gleick

  Purpose, Sometimes, Quixotic

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• Entropy increases. Things fall apart.

  John Green

  Hipster, Fall, Increase

  John Green (2015). “Looking For Alaska Special 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.149, Penguin

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• If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

  Arthur Eddington

  Hope, Science, Errors

  "The Nature of the Physical World" by Arthur Eddington, (Ch. 4), 1928.

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• The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.

  Rudolf Clausius

  Increase, Equilibrium, Isolated

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• The organism feeds on negative entropy.

  Erwin Schrodinger

  Negative, Organisms

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• Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases.

  Norman Ralph Augustine

  Science, Law, Literature

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• The fact that you can remember yesterday but not tomorrow is because of entropy. The fact that you're always born young and then you grow older, and not the other way around like Benjamin Button - it's all because of entropy. So I think that entropy is underappreciated as something that has a crucial role in how we go through life.

  Sean M. Carroll

  Thinking, Yesterday, Benjamin Button

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• Entropy shakes its angry fist at you for being clever enough to organize the world. (p 2)

  Brandon Sanderson

  Clever, World, Fists

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• Humanity enveloped in entropy desperately seeking symmetry for peace of mind

  Dean Cavanagh

  Humanity, Mind, Symmetry

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• We could not, for example, arrive at a principle like that of entropy without introducing some additional principle, such as randomness, to this topography.

  Michael Polanyi

  Example, Topography, Principles

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• If we knew exactly what animal life was like before the fall into sin and knew what nature was like before the law of entropy invaded it, we would already be living in heaven.

  Walter Lang

  Fall, Animal, Ghouls

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• The energy of the universe is constant.

  Rudolf Clausius

  Energy, Constant, Universe

  "Ueber Verschiedene fur die Anwendung Bequeme Formen der Hauptgleichungen der Mechanischen Warmetheorie" (1865).

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