Rachel Carson - Mike Walker - Gerry Spence - Alfred Lord Tennyson - V S Ramachandran - Jim Al-Khalili TV - Michael Faraday - Anais Nin - Plato - Socrates - Proverbs - Neil Armstrong - Immanuel Kant - Helen Keller - Saint Augustine - Albert Einstein - Lao Tzu - Samuel Johnson - Sacred Wonders TV - Lost Worlds: Seven Wonders of the World TV -
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction. Rachel Carson
I just wonder what would have happened if the shirt had been on the other foot. Mike Walker
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. Gerry Spence, How to Argue & Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday
For I dipped into the Future, far as the human eye could see: saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be. Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1842
How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago. These particles drifted for eons and light-years until gravity and change brought them together here, now. These atoms now form a conglomerate – your brain – that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder. With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all. V S Ramachandran, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
The universe they were seeing was revealing itself to be one of dynamic complexity. A universe of natural organic motion. A place of endless wonder. Jim Al-Khalili, Everything & Nothing: Everything, BBC 2012
Let us consider for a little while how wonderfully we stand upon the world. Here it is that we are born and bred and live, and yet we view these things with an almost entire absence of wonder to ourselves respecting the way in which all this happens. Michael Faraday, Christmas Lecture 1854
The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery. Anais Nin
Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. Plato
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. Socrates
Wonders will never cease. Late 18th century proverb
Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand. Neil Armstrong
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, 1788
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, 1902
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. Saint Augustine
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. Albert Einstein
From wonder into wonder existence opens. Lao Tzu
All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance. Samuel Johnson
Many of the world’s best known landmarks have been inspired by faith. And today more worshippers than ever are flocking to these sacred places. But why do they continue to provoke such passion? Hundreds of years after they were first built, many of these places remain of deep spiritual significance and controversy. Sacred Wonders s1e1, BBC 2019
Angkor Wat, Cambodia: A man who believes these temples are home to his ancestral spirits risks his life to save them from the jungle … This vast complex of over seventy temples was once part of an ancient megacity. ibid.
At Al Aqsa in Jerusalem a young Muslim paramedic battles his own hunger and exhaustion to help thousands of other fasting worshippers during Ramadan. ibid.
At the Shaolin Temple in China a Buddhist monk faces a test that will change the course of his life for ever. ibid.
400 monks live and study here; 100 of those are warrior monks. ibid.
The great mosque of Djenne in Mali … a vast timber-framed building with walls up to two feet thick made of mud … A mosque has stood on this site since the thirteenth century. It is the largest mud building on Earth … Unless the mosque is given a new covering of mud every year, it will simply crumble to dust. Sacred Wonders s1e2
For some they are places of quiet contemplation; for others they are sites of astonishing acts of worship, dangerous challenges, and extraordinary deeds of devotion rarely seen by outsiders. Sacred Wonders s1e3
The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: An orthodox Christian must deliver a holy flame into the hands of his bishop … The Church of the Sepulchre: one of the most sacred sites in Christianity. ibid.
The Boudhanath in Nepal: A Buddhist painter battles the elements in order to honour Buddha’s birthday. ibid.
And at Lalish in Iraq a young Yazidi woman goes in search of salvation after being traumatised by recent conflict … The waters of a sacred spring are helping to heal women … ibid.
Kathmandu, Nepal: Boudhanath … One of the largest in the world … It houses holy relics said to include the bones of Buddha … In almost perfect condition because it’s constantly being repainted. ibid.
More than 2,000 years ago Greek writers began to compile lists of mankind’s most remarkable creations. These became known as the Seven Wonders of the World. In Egypt, there was the Great Pyramid of Giza; and Alexandria’s lighthouse the Pharos; on mainland Greece there was the ivory statue of Zeus at Olympia; and in defiance of nature the Hanging Gardens in the mighty city of Babylon; the shrine of Artemis at Ephesus in Turkey [Halicarnassus], once the most visited temple in the world; the tomb of King Nautilus, the museum was decorated with hundreds of life-size figures; and towering above the island state of Rhodes was the Colossus, the largest bronze statue ever made. All but one are gone. Lost Worlds s2e1: The Seven Wonders, History 2007