Reviews and Comments

If I ever meet Sir Isaac Newton in person, I think I wouldn't like his personality. The way he used Flamsteed's observational data without giving due credit or appreciation, and the way he took revenge from Leibniz for co-inventing Calculus appear distasteful to me. After all, we all are human and every "great" human including Sir Isaac Newton is prone to human fallibility. So, I make peace with this great man and move on.

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy, playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself, in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me" - Sir Isaac Newton.

In the year 1632, Galileo Galilei wrote this book called "Dialogue", arguing that the Earth rotates around the Sun instead of the vice versa as described in religious scriptures. Within a year, his book was banned and Galileo was kept under house arrest till his death in 1642.


"Take note, theologians, that in your desire to make matters of faith out of propositions relating to the fixity of sun and earth, you run the risk of eventually having to condemn as heretics those who would declare the earth to stand till and the sun to change position - eventually, I say, at such a time as it might be physically or logically proved that the earth moves and the sun stands still."

- Galileo Galilei, Dialogue (1632)

"So warm. His right hand once more more slowly went over again: choice blend, made of the finest Ceylon brands. The far east. Lovely spot it must be: the garden of the world, big lazy leaves to float about on, cactuses, flowery meads, snakly lianas they call them. Wonder is it like that. Those Cinghalese lobbing around in the sun, in "dolce far niente". Not doing a hands turn all day, Sleep six months out of twelve. Too hot to quarrel. Influence of the climate. Lethargy. Flowers of idleness. The air feeds most. Azotes. Hothouse in botanic gardens. Sensitive plants. Waterlilies. Petals too tired to. Sleeping sickness in the air. Walk on rose leaves." - Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce.

"The art of killing cannot be our finest achievement"

I understand the struggle of Marc whose life is stuck in between his father Lee and his grandfather Eldon on war and killing. While living in a war-torn world, pacifism sounds like the way to go if we really want to save our planet for the future human civilizations. But... deep inside, I'm confused as much as Marc on when to fight for your life, when to fight for other lives by killing some others and when to run away or stay neutral doing nothing. Perhaps, we will never stop killing each other and there's no point worrying about it.