Category: Quotes

Q: What is the difference between “I like you” and “I love you”?

A: When you like a flower, you just pluck it. But when you love a flower, you water it daily.

Anonymous

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.

George Bernard Shaw

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

Richard Tirendi [Maybe]

It is only when you see a mosquito landing on your testicles that you realize that there is always a way to solve problems without using violence.

Anonymous

Kid: Are there other people out there in the universe?
Ellie Arroway: That’s a good question. What do you think?
Kid: I don’t know.
Ellie Arroway: That’s a good answer. Skeptic, huh? The important thing is that you all keep searching for your own answers. One thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us… it seems like an awful waste of space. Right?

from Contact

Ellie Arroway: Because I can’t. I… had an experience… I can’t prove it, I can’t even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever… A vision… of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how… rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater then ourselves, that we are *not*, that none of us are alone! I wish… I… could share that… I wish, that everyone, if only for one… moment, could feel… that awe, and humility, and hope. But… That continues to be my wish.

from Contact

David Drumlin: I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that’s an understatement. What you don’t know is I agree. I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, where the kind of idealism you showed at the hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world.
Ellie Arroway: Funny, I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.

from Contact

Panel member: If you were to meet these Vegans, and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?
Ellie Arroway: Well, I suppose it would be, how did you do it? How did you evolve, how did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?

from Contact

Ellie Arroway: I got one for you. Occam’s Razor. Ever heard of it?
Palmer Joss: Occam’s Razor. Sounds like some slasher movie.
Ellie Arroway: No, Occam’s Razor is a basic scientific principle which says: Things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be right.
Palmer Joss: Makes sense to me. So what’s more likely?
Ellie Arroway: An all-powerful God created the universe … then decided not to give any proof of His existence? Or that He doesn’t exist at all and that we created Him so we wouldn’t feel so small and alone.
Palmer Joss: I don’t know. I couldn’t imagine living in a world where God didn’t exist. I wouldn’t want to.
Ellie Arroway: How do you know you’re not deluding yourself? I mean, for me … I’d need proof.
Palmer Joss: Proof? Did you love your father?
Ellie Arroway: What?
Palmer Joss: Your dad, did you love him?
Ellie Arroway: Yes. Very much.
Palmer Joss: Prove it.

from Contact

Ellie Arroway: You know, there are four hundred billion stars out there, just in our galaxy alone. If only one out of a million of those had planets, and just of out of a million of those had life, and just one out of a million of those had intelligent life; there would be literally millions of civilizations out there.
Palmer Joss: [looking the night sky] Well, if there wasn’t, it’ll be an awful waste of space.
Ellie Arroway: [looking him] Amen.

from Contact