Predictions Quotes - Page 11

• If to enjoy even an enjoyable present we must have the assurance of a happy future, we are “crying for the moon.” We have no such assurance. The best predictions are still matters of probability rather than certainty, and to the best of our knowledge every one of us is going to suffer and die. If, then, we cannot live happily without an assured future, we are certainly not adapted to living in a finite world where, despite the best plans, accidents will happen, and where death comes at the end.

  Alan Watts

  Moon, Suffering, World

  Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

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• There has been a good deal of comment — some of it quite outlandish — about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post- Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army — hard to imagine.

  Paul Wolfowitz

  War, Army, Iraq

  House Budget Committee testimony on Iraq, February 27, 2003.

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• Jeff Selingo is one of the most respected observers of American higher education...Not all will agree with his observations, conclusions, predictions and recommendations, but all will gain from this thoughtful, well-written, provocative volume. I highly recommend it.

  David J. Skorton

  Thoughtful, Gains, Provocative

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• If you go by other people's opinions or predictions,
  you'll just end up talking yourself out of something.
  If you're running down the track of life thinking that
  it's impossible to break life's records,
  those thoughts have a funny way of sinking into your feet.

  Carl Lewis

  Running, Thinking, Talking

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• Human nature is not amenable to prediction based on the trends or tendencies prevailing at the time. It is amenable to startling creativity of the kind practiced by great artists, directors, writers, musicians, actors, who know how to touch a chord in humans everywhere.

  Maurice Saatchi

  Creativity, Artist, Musician

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• I think science fiction is very bad at prediction.

  China Mieville

  Thinking, Fiction, Science Fiction

  "China Mieville: 'My job is not to try to give readers what they want but to try to make readers want what I give' - interview". Interview with SkellieScar, www.theguardian.com. September 20, 2012.

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• The chief point we must remember is that the great and rapid advance of the physical sciences took place in fields where it proved that explanation and prediction could be based on laws which accounted for the observed phenomena as functions of comparatively few variables - either particular facts or relative frequencies of events.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Law, Events, Variables

  Friedrich August von Hayek's Prize Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1974.

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• the truth and value of a theory does not depend on the number of people who are interested in it - otherwise you might compare the number of people who follow the predictions of astrologers in the daily press with those who attend lectures by Einstein, and conclude that astrology was more valuable and true than physics.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Numbers, Astrology, People

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• Of course, Jastrow's comment is exaggerated at best; theologians hardly predicted the Big Bang. If our universe turns out to be closed, hence with an end, this does not mean apocalyptic visions of the end of the world were on target. And even if a beginning for the universe is a successful prediction of one version of theism, this is still not that impressive. After all, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. The Big Bang becomes strong support for God only with an argument showing that such a beginning requires a Creator.

  Taner Edis

  Strong, Mean, Successful

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• The one prediction that never comes true is, 'You'll thank me for telling you this.

  Judith Martin

  Conversation, Busybodies

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• Control of space means control of the world.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Future, Mean, Space

  Lyndon B. Johnson (1964). “A Time for Action”

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• When I think of the flag.... I see alternate strips of parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice, and stripes of blood to vindicate those rights, and then, in the corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim which stands for these great things.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Thinking, Rights, Blue

  Woodrow Wilson, Ray Stannard Baker, Howard Seavoy Leach (1926). “The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson: College and state; educational literary and political papers (1875-1913)”

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• I hate to make predictions, but I think the economy is going to be permanently changed for the worse. I think our foreign policy is going to lead to changes that will be definitely for the worse, particularly if we drift into a nuclear Iran, which I gather that's what the administration is doing.

  Thomas Sowell

  Hate, Thinking, Nuclear Iran

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• Prophecy and prescience - How can they be put to the test in the face of unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What are the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of the knife?

  Frank Herbert

  Blow, Knives, Decision

  "Dune: The Gateway Collection". Book by Frank Herbert, 2012.

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• Historical science is not worse, more restricted, or less capable of achieving firm conclusions because experiment, prediction, and subsumption under invariant laws of nature do not represent its usual working methods. The sciences of history use a different mode of explanation, rooted in the comparative and observational richness in our data. We cannot see a past event directly, but science is usually based on inference, not unvarnished observation (you don't see electrons, gravity, or black holes either).

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Past, Law, Data

  "Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History". Book by Stephen Jay Gould, p. 279, 1989.

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• If there is a lesson in our story it is that the manipulation, according to strictly self-consistent rules, of a set of symbols representing one single aspect of the phenomena may produce correct, verifiable predictions, and yet completely ignore all other aspects whose ensemble constitutes reality.

  Arthur Koestler

  Reality, Self, May

  "The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe". Book by Arthur Koestler, 1959.

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• Prediction is not just one of the things your brain does. It is the primary function of the neo-cortex, and the foundation of intelligence.

  Jeff Hawkins

  Brain, Foundation, Doe

  Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee (2007). “On Intelligence”, p.89, Macmillan

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• I am cocky in prediction, I am confident in preparation but I am always humble in victory or defeat.

  Conor McGregor

  Humble, Cocky, Ufc

  YouTube Chanel "MMAWeekly.com"/ "The Conor McGregor Show (UFC 178 Post Press)", www.youtube.com. September 28, 2014.

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• Predictions are preposterous.

  Jackie Mason

  "Everything Bold Is New Again: An Interview with Jackie Mason". Interview with Bernard Chapin, spectator.org. April 18, 2007.

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• Never believe a prediction that does not empower you.

  Sean Stephenson

  Believe, Empowering, Doe

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• Predictions are uttered by prophets (free of charge); by clairvoyants (who usually charge a fee, and are therefore more honored in their day than prophets); and by futurologists (salaried). Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelist's business is lying.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Lying, Novelists, Prophet

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2000). “The Left Hand of Darkness”, p.8, Penguin

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• You don't need to predict the future. Just choose a future -- a good future, a useful future -- and make the kind of prediction that will alter human emotions and reactions in such a way that the future you predicted will be brought about. Better to make a good future than predict a bad one.

  Isaac Asimov

  Future, Needs, Way

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• Prediction can never be absolutely valid and therefore science can never prove some generalization or even test a single descriptive statement and in that way arrive at final truth.

  Gregory Bateson

  Finals, Tests, Way

  "Mind and Nature - a Necessary Unity". Book by Gregory Bateson, new edition, 1988.

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• The usefulness of the models in constructing a testable theory of the process is severely limited by the quickly increasing number of parameters which must be estimated in order to compare the predictions of the models with empirical results.

  Anatol Rapoport

  Numbers, Order, Theory

  Anatol Rapoport, Albert M. Chammah (1965). “Prisoner's Dilemma: A Study in Conflict and Cooperation”, p.150, University of Michigan Press

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• Science is progressing at such a rapid rate that when you make a prediction and think you are ahead of your time by 100 years you may be ahead of your time by 10 at most.

  Leo Szilard

  Thinking, Years, Progress

  "Some Szilardisms on War, Fame, Peace". Life magazine, Vol. 51, No. 9, p. 79, September 01, 1961.

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