Gelernter Quotes & Sayings

Sometimes you have to walk through the fire, in order to reach your calling. — Shannon L. Alder

My name is Arsenio. That's a very unique name for a black man. In Greek, it means Leroy. — Arsenio Hall

I think the universities as we know them will be dead in a future years. I'd like to see them replaced by something better, instead of something worse, and it's not clear which way it will go. — David Gelernter

While we bemoan the decline of literacy, computers discount words in favor of pictures and pictures in favor of video. While we fret about the decreasing cogency of public debate, computers dismiss linear argument and promote fast, shallow romps across the information landscape. While we worry about basic skills, we allow into the classroom software that will do a student's arithmetic or correct his spelling. — David Gelernter

The prime motivation in making almost any film is success, because film is the art form of the 20th century. — Charlton Heston

Nuclear weapons are intrinsically neither moral nor immoral, though they are more prone to immoral use than most weapons. — Herman Kahn

In that sense, what a great way to live, if you could always do things that interest you, and do them with people who interest you. — Anthony Bourdain

I like technology. I mean, I have surround at home so I can listen to the Lakers. — Kevin Weisman

Gelernter says, "If there is to be justice in the world, America must create it."17 When I read things like that, I usually have my jumpin' Jehoshaphat reaction. Did he really say that? Yes, he did, but the reason he is able to get away with it is because of the massive loss of confidence and faith that Christians have in Scripture. How can we be appalled when he says that if we are not willing to counter immediately with, "No, if there is to be justice in the world, and in this nation, Jesus must do it"? The — Douglas Wilson

For some unknown reason, this [antiabortion] branch of Christianity cherishes the unborn and hates the living person. — Vine Deloria Jr.

If this is the information age, what are we so well-informed about? — David Gelernter

Good programmers know what's beautiful and bad ones don't. — David Gelernter

At the end of every tournament, to review every stroke and every hole, seeing what I can learn from the experience. — Tiger Woods

There are certain subjects which seem to me can be taught very effectively online, although they aren't. — David Gelernter

Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity ... The geniuses of the computer field, on the the other hand, are the people with the keenest aesthetic senses, the ones who are capable of creating beauty. Beauty is decisive at every level: the most important interfaces, the most important programming languages, the winning algorithms are the beautiful ones. — David Gelernter

The "paperless office" is a bad idea because paper is one of the most useful and valuable media ever invented. "On paper" is a good place for information you want to use; a bad place for information you want to store. — David Gelernter

Without commenting on the legal aspects, which I'm not capable of doing, those are lifestreams and there are other companies that have done similar things. That makes me angry personally, not because of the money, but because of the deliberate failure to acknowledge work that we would have made freely available as academics. — David Gelernter

Really good ideas are always good beyond what you anticipated originally. — David Gelernter

Similarly for marking exercises, quantitative exercises, maybe not so much in mathematics, but certainly problem sets in physics, chemistry, and engineering and things like that where answers and methods are clear cut, absolutely. I would like to see that done online. — David Gelernter

The book is a form in which some of the greatest masterpieces that mankind has ever achieved are expressed; — David Gelernter

Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity. — David Gelernter

The first step is always to succeed in becoming surprised - to notice that there is something funny going on. — David Gelernter

I would love to see writing taught online because at university like Yale, there are not enough teachers who are able to teach writing well, or in some cases, there are none. — David Gelernter

I think it's just a lack of ability, we're incapable of writing hits. — Kenny Hickey

Surprise is the beginning of wisdom. — David Gelernter

A striking man stood in the doorway behind him: perhaps sixty-five, with a great shock of white hair. The hair was the only thing that looked at all old about him; he was close to six and a half feet tall, with a craggy, handsome face bronzed by the sun, a trim, athletic bearing, wearing a blue blazer over a crisp white cotton shirt and tan slacks. He radiated good health and vigorous living. His hands were massive. — Douglas Preston

Software unification. So that I no longer care what computing device I pick up, whether it's a laptop or desktop, whether it's one I own or one in a public place, whether it has a small screen or a large screen. — David Gelernter

For years, computer scientists were treating operating systems design as sort of an open-reserch issue, when the field's direction had been decided by commercial operations. Computer science has become completely cut off from reality. — David Gelernter

The future was and remains the quintessential American art form. Other nations sit back and let their futures happen; we construct ours. We can let the future happen, or take the trouble to imagine it. We can imagine it dark or bright-and in the long run, that's how it will be. — David Gelernter

Discouragement is a moral state, a failure of heart; you treat it by taking courage, not Prozac. — David Gelernter

When I first started on 'Medium,' they didn't like me growing my hair too long. But I was freaked out when the hairdresser cut off even an inch. — Sofia Vassilieva

The sun was already behind the western hills, and the light was failing. Two of Maggot's sons and his three daughters came in, and a generous supper was laid on the large table. The kitchen was lit with candles and the fire was mended. Mrs. Maggot bustled in and out. One or two other hobbits belonging to the farm-household came in. In a short while fourteen sat down to eat. There was beer in plenty, and a mighty dish of mushrooms and bacon, besides much other solid farmhouse fare. The — J.R.R. Tolkien

At the same time, on the networks, there are thousands of groups that are building lifestreams, or lifestreaming for themselves in their own way. We'd love to see this activity. — David Gelernter

It's so tedious writing cookbooks or writing the recipes because I've never been much of a measurer. But to write a book, you have to measure everything. — Maya Angelou

Object-oriented programming as it emerged in Simula 67 allows software structure to be based on real-world structures, and gives programmers a powerful way to simplify the design and construction of complex programs. — David Gelernter

If we were forced to choose just one, there would be no way to deny that Judaism is the most important intellectual development in human history. — David Gelernter

Computers make people stupid. — David Gelernter

We can't share the earth with pure evil anymore than we can share the earth with smallpox. — David Gelernter

The best computer scientists are ... technologists who crave beauty. — David Gelernter

The God Delusion is a rather disorganized collage of arguments and pastiche of assertions which cannot be said to advance those ideas or enhance their critical edge, but rather harnesses them in the service of the advocacy of atheism. — Alister E. McGrath

One: Make Congress and the White House obey the same Obamacare rules you do. Two: Obama let business off for a year; we want workers to be let off for a year too. That's the GOP plan. What part don't you like? — David Gelernter

Abolishing the book is like abolishing the symphony, or sonata form, or the sonnet, or the wall painting. — David Gelernter