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"Comparing what we're looking for misses the point. It's wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we're going out the way we came in. That's why you can't believe in the afterlife, Valentine. Believe in the after, by all means, but not the life. Believe in God, the soul, the spirit, the infinite, believe in angels if you like, but not in the great celestial get-together for an exchange of views. If the answers are in the back of the book I can wait, but what a drag. Better to struggle on knowing that failure is final."
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"Is Virgin you trying to fathom me."
"What does that quote mean to you? Can you explain the concept behind it and not just repeat the pretty phrase to me?"
"A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it can't be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics."
"Carter and Helene still ask questions. I used to ask questions, and I got the answer: nothing. The answer is 'nothing."
"One of the greatest tragedies I can think of is for a person to die having never fully questioned the life he was born into."
"In philosophy it is always good to put a question instead of an answer to a question. For an answer to the philosophical question may easily be unfair, disposing of it by means of another question is not."
Explore more quotes by Tom Stoppard
"If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would have changed the history of music and of aviation."
"My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful."
"Chater: You dare to call me that. I demand satisfaction!Septimus: Mrs Chater demanded satisfaction and now you are demanding satisfaction. I cannot spend my time day and night satisfying the demands of the Chater family."
"He's never known anything like it! But then, he has never known anything to write home about, so this is nothing to write home about."
"Free to move, speak, extemporize, and yet. We have not been cut loose. Our truancy is defined by one fixed star, and our drift represents merely a slight change of angle to it: we may seize the moment, toss it around while the moments pass, a short dash here, an exploration there, but we are brought round full circle to face again the single immutable fact."
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