Accidental Quotes

The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life. (Arthur Miller)
I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe - because, like Spinoza's God, it won't love us in return. View quote
Bertrand Russell
I've come to accept that the life of a frontrunner is a hard one, that he will suffer more injuries than most men and that many of these injuries will not be accidental. View quote
Pelé
You must do over the same subject ten times, a hundred times. In art nothing must appear accidental, even a movement. View quote
Edgar Degas
I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him. View quote
Abraham Lincoln
The world is but an assembly of present, past, and possible sensations; the affair of science is to analyze and co-ordinate them by separating their accidental from their constant relations. View quote
Alfred Binet
I still think my whole career was accidental. I didn't pursue it. I feel like I'm cheating sometimes. View quote
Ben E. King
I wish, naturally to prevent the possibility that someone may write an accidental, superficial, incomplete and perhaps untrue picture of me. View quote
Conrad Veidt
The historical order is very interesting, but accidental and capricious; if we would to understand the growth of knowledge, we cannot be satisfied with accidents, we must explain how knowledge was gradually built up. View quote
George Sarton
One can derive the same fun from print-making as from making mud pies and great subtlety can be achieved through the use of transparent inks, half-tone screens and even accidental colour combinations, which is often where the art hides. View quote
Ralph Steadman
The highest ensign that men ever met and embraced under, the Cross itself, had no meaning save an accidental extrinsic one. (Thomas Carlyle)
It has therefore been justly observed that however honestly the coin of a country may conform to its standard, money made of gold and silver is still liable to fluctuations in value, not only to accidental, and temporary, but to permanent and natural variations, in the same manner as other commodities. View quote
David Ricardo
Steady faith is stronger than destiny. Destiny is the result of causes, mostly accidental, and therefore loosely woven. Confidence and good hope will overcome it easily. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
War most often promotes the internal unity of each state involved. The state plagued by internal strife may then, instead of waiting for the accidental attack, seek the war that will bring internal peace. View quote
Kenneth Waltz
I'm kind of an accidental instrument, really, through which I hope that the judgment and the will of this nation can be expressed. View quote
Eugene McCarthy
It is not accidental that all phenomena of human life are dominated by the search for daily bread - the oldest link connecting all living things, man included, with the surrounding nature. View quote
Ivan Pavlov
[If] there is mercy in nature, it is accidental. Nature is neither kind nor cruel but indifferent. View quote
Richard Dawkins
She loved with so much passion as she loved with ignorance. She did not know whether it were good or evil, beneficent or dangerous, necessary or accidental, eternal or transitory, permitted or prohibited: she loved. View quote
Victor Hugo
Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion. View quote
Daniel J. Boorstin
The State is only one of the forms assumed by society in the course of history. Why then make no distinction between what is permanent and what is accidental? View quote
Peter Kropotkin
I am still hopeful. A falcon, Time. But the coincidence is probably accidental. (Leonardo da Vinci)
Names have a mysterious transforming power. Like a ring on a finger, a name may at first seem merely accidental, committing you to nothing; but before you realize its magical power, it's gotten under your skin, become part of you and your destiny. View quote
Stefan Zweig
Nothing which consists of corporeal matter is absolutely light, but that is comparatively lighter which is rarer, either by its own nature, or by accidental heat. And it is not to be thought that light bodies are escaping to the surface of the universe while they are carried upwards, or that they are not attracted by the earth. They are attracted, but in a less degree, and so are driven outwards by the heavy bodies; which being done, they stop, and are kept by the earth in their own place. View quote
Johannes Kepler
In Darwin's theory, you just have to substitute 'mutations' for his 'slight accidental variations' (just as quantum theory substitutes 'quantum jump' for 'continuous transfer of energy'). In all other respects little change was necessary in Darwin's theory... View quote
Erwin Schrödinger
Accidental stacks considered harmful. View quote
Larry Wall