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J. W. N. Sullivan Quotes

It is only in exceptional moods that we realize how wonderful are the commonest experiences of life. It seems to me sometimes that these experiences have an inner side, as well as the outer side we normally perceive. At

It is only in exceptional moods that we realize how wonderful are the commonest experiences of life. It seems to me sometimes that these experiences have an "inner" side, as well as the outer side we normally perceive. At such moments one suddenly sees everything with new eyes; one feels on the brink of some great revelation. It is as if we caught a glimpse of some incredibly beautiful world that lies silently about us all the time.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Life, Beautiful, Lying

It is much easier to make measurements than to know exactly what you are measuring

J. W. N. Sullivan
Measurement, Easier, Measuring

It is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware of what we are, and therefore of what the universe in which we live really is. And since mathematics, in its own way, also performs this function, it is not only aesthetically charming but profoundly significant. It is an art, and a great art.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Art, Real, Science

We have reached one of the great stages in the adventure of thought … We are required to see the universe with new eyes, and it is because it makes such demands and also holds out the promise of realizing them, that the study of science is so supremely worth while.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Eye, Adventure, Promise

To be willing to suffer in order to create is one thing; to realize that one's creation necessitates one's suffering, that suffering is one of the greatest of God's gifts, is almost to reach a mystical solution of the problem of evil.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Creativity, Order, Ideas

The hypothesis that life has developed from inorganic matter is, at present, still an article of faith.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Matter, Hypothesis, Articles

If a man in order to shoot a hare, were to discharge thousands of guns on a great moor in all possible directions; if in order to get into a locked room, he were to buy ten thousand casual keys, and try them all; if, in order to have a house, he were to build a town, and leave all the other houses to wind and weather - assuredly no one would call such proceedings purposeful and still less would anyone conjecture behind these proceedings a higher wisdom, unrevealed reasons, and superior prudence.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Gun, Men, Order
J. W. N. Sullivan (2018). “Contemporary Mind - Some Modern Answers”, p.7, Read Books Ltd

The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of the imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Math, Imagination, World

... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness

J. W. N. Sullivan
Art, Real, Self

The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of his imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases. What he is to imagine is a matter for his own caprice; he is not thereby discovering the fundamental principles of the universe nor becoming acquainted with the ideas of God.

J. W. N. Sullivan
Math, Ideas, Imagination

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