# Beyond Infinity

- Author: [Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md)
- Quotes: 31
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity

## Quotes

> Quantum uncertainty, chaos—these forever screen precise knowledge of the future from our eyes.

p. 386 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/quantum-uncertainty-chaos-these.md)

> Uncompromising zeal doesn’t look in the mirror much.

p. 189 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/uncompromising-zeal-doesnt.md)

> You need friends to keep you on your feet, and enemies to keep you on your toes.

p. 104 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/you-need-friends.md)

> “So many people, close-packed.”
>
> “Your kind apparently enjoys the crowding.”
>
> “I…I can sort of see why it might be exciting. Like a never-ending party.”
>
> Speaker grimaced. “Just the sort of horror I imagined, yes.”

p. 241 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/so-many-people.md)

> Nature’s nature was change. It was not a museum.

p. 250 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/natures-nature-was.md)

> “The price of such seeing will be death,” Seeker said quietly.
>
> She blinked. “We’ve done fine so far.”
>
> “A numerical series can have many terms yet be finite.”

p. 276 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/the-price-of-such.md)

> “How can you shrug off history?”…
>
> “By studied neglect.”

p. 106 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/how-can-you.md)

> Propaganda of sufficient age became art.

p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/propaganda-of-sufficient.md)

> Individual recollections of the past are easily shaped by others. After a while they need have little bearing on the once-lived events.

p. 119 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/individual-recollections-of-the.md)

> Evolution was still at work, pruning the failures from the gene pool with unblinking patience.

p. 234 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/evolution-was-still.md)

> When you know nothing, you are free to hope.

p. 264 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/when-you-know.md)

> Weeds sprouted in spaces where once-important people had proclaimed that their presumptions were imperishable.

p. 241 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/weeds-sprouted-in-spaces.md)

> But then, growing up was not supposed to be easy. One Mom remarked offhandedly, “It’s the toughest work you’ll ever do.”

p. 6 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/but-then-growing.md)

> The intellectual breeds of humans think in terms of abstractions. But most people have emotions and think they are having ideas.

p. 119 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/the-intellectual-breeds.md)

> “You humans have emotions,” Seeker said slowly, “but more often emotions have you.”

p. 97 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/you-humans-have.md)

> Great error, seen up close, can look like true greatness.

p. 231 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/great-error-seen.md)

> From birth it had integrated each experience with its innate sense of balance and appropriate scale—indeed, this was the sole purpose of its conscious being.

p. 43 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/from-birth-it-had.md)

> An animal that liked abstractions? Maybe that wasn’t all that bad a definition of being human.

p. 392 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/an-animal-that.md)

> Curious, how any tool properly made acquires a beauty.

p. 193 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/curious-how-any.md)

> In any case, caution outweighed theory, as mice knew about elephants.

p. 106 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/in-any-case.md)

> To us, most human morality is carefully thought-through self-congratulation.

p. 251 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/to-us-most.md)

> While a gigantic amount has been written or spoken, culture in the end is the fraction that gets remembered.

p. 203 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/while-a-gigantic.md)

> Seeker laughed. “You are so—well, human. You always think you are the ultimate.”
>
> “And…we’re not.”
>
> Seeker inspected the ceiling. “It seems unlikely.”

p. 120 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/seeker-laughed-you.md)

> For her it was a slippery descent into a labyrinth where twin urges fought, revenge versus survival. These two instincts, already ancient before the first hominid walked, rarely married with any security. Yet if she did not feel the pinch of their competition, she would not be, by her own judgment, a true human.

p. 53 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/for-her-it-was.md)

> History held counterexamples to any facile rule.

p. 97 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/history-held-counterexamples.md)

> “He was guilty of the heresy of humanism.”
>
> “How can that be heresy?”
>
> “The narcissistic devotion to things human? ‘Man is the measure of all things?’ Easily.”

p. 432 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/he-was-guilty.md)

> Naturals felt best in groups of a hundred or so, and better if only a few dozen were involved. Hunting parties had been about that size, for the long-extinct big game. Many important institutions were of the same rough scale: the ancient village, governing councils of nations, commanding elites of vast armies, teams playing games, orchestras, family fests. All human enterprises that worked were of that size, and nearly everything that failed was not.

p. 30 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/naturals-felt-best.md)

> In his view, the true deep human fantasy was the conviction of safety. Men believed their women were devoted; wives felt that their men were dependable. Both ignored contrary evidence.

p. 36 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/in-his-view.md)

> They all lived as ants in the shadow of mountains of millennia, and time’s sheer mass shaded every word.

p. 97 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/they-all-lived.md)

> Nothing is eternal—including prisons.

p. 110 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/nothing-is-eternal-including.md)

> Good food was like sex, one of life’s blessings, but they both lost their edge when talked about too much.

p. 102 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/good-food-was.md)