Quote Of The Week

2nd Quote of the Week 22 “AI is the anthropomorphium of the people. ” ― Alan Bipe Triggered by several discussions about the (future) impact of AI on society.

Quote of the Week 22 “There is nothing more abstract than the visible. ” ― Giorgio Morandi Also quoted as “Nothing is more abstract than reality. ” Triggered by a visit to the “ Metafisica ” exhibition in Milano. “I believe that nothing can be more abstract, more unreal, than what we actually see. We know that all we can see of the objective world, as human beings, never really exists as we see and understand it. Matter exists, of course, but has no intrinsic meaning of its own, such as the meaning that we attach to it. We can know only that a cup is a cup, that a tree is a tree.” Source: After The Art Natura morta con intelligenza artificiale

3rd Quote of the Week 21 “O nce you reach the top, there's nowhere to go but down.” ― Mauro Corona Alternative translation : “ From the summit, there’s nowhere to go but down.” Triggered by the use of another Mauro Corona quote here:  BUSIE di Moreno Togni “ Dalla vetta non si va in nessun posto, si può solo scendere.” ― Mauro Corona ( " Nel legno e nella pietra ") “ Vom Gipfel aus geht man nirgendwo hin, man kann nur absteigen.”

Quote of the Week 21 “Behind every beautiful thing, there's been some kind of pain. ” ― Bob Dylan (" Not Dark Yet ", song lyrics)      

Quote of the Week 20 “ The map is not the territory. ” ―  Alfred Korzybski   Triggered b y the growing gap between how things are described and how they actually are . Well, actually triggered by a road trip through the alps.   See also:  various quotes on perception vs. reality .   Quote of the Week 6/2020 " All models are wrong, but some models are useful. " ― George Box  

Quote of the Week 19 “ Doubt everything. ” ― Karl Marx   (his motto : " De omnibus dubitandum " by René Descartes ) “ An allem ist zu zweifeln. ” Triggered by the i nscription on the sidewalk of my & his native town  across the street of his  birthplace .

Quote of the Week 18 “ Dear Stone, I win. ” ― Paper Triggered by the use of the quote in Ronen Steinke‘s book „ Meinungsfreiheit “. Original wording: “ Dear Rock, I win. ” ― Paper

Quote of the Week 17 “ The future's uncertain, and the end is always near.” ―  The Doors , Roadhouse Blues (Lyrics) “Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, all night long.”

Quote of the Week 16 “ Nothing is swifter than rumor.” ―    Titus Livius  ( Livy ) Inspired by  A. Paul Weber's  Das Gerücht  -  interpreted in Keith Haring style: Related: “ A  lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on. ”

Quote of the Week 15 “ You can see AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” ― inspired by  Robert Solow ( Productivity Paradox rephrased) Triggered by Jon Hartley 's tweet : It also seems to be the case that AI adoption, while causing significant productivity changes in certain sectors, isn't showing up in macro productivity numbers yet. To rephrase Bob Solow: "You can see AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics." https://t.co/eUFx77EL1G — Jon Hartley (@Jon_Hartley_) March 27, 2026 Original quote: “ You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” ― Robert Solow

Quote of the Week 14 “ Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ―  Leonard Thiessen   Triggered by the mentioning of the Apple ad Apple II: Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication in  Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue: Sometimes misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci . Related: Quote of the Week 29/2024 "Simple can be harder than complex." ―  Steve Jobs Quote of the Week 4/2015 "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ―  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Quote of the Week 13 “ The prompt doesn’t make the image;   the eye for the extraordinary in the ordinary does.” ― Alan Bipe     Original German quote : “ Nicht der Prompt macht das Bild, sondern die Fähigkeit, das Besondere im Beliebigen zu erkennen. ” ― Gemini AI

Quote of the Week 12 “ The 'yes' needs the 'no' in order to hold up against the 'no'.” ―  Jürgen Habermas  (paraphrased)     Original German  paraphrase : “ Das Ja braucht das Nein, um gegen das Nein bestehen zu können. ”   The Power of the Productive "No" At first glance, this quote by the influential German philosopher  Jürgen Habermas  might sound like a riddle. However, it captures the heartbeat of a healthy democracy and meaningful conversation. For Habermas, a "Yes" (agreement) only has value if the person saying it had the genuine freedom to say "No" (dissent). If you aren't allowed to disagree, your agreement isn't a choice—it’s just submission. In his theory of  Communicative Action , Habermas argues that: True Consensus  must be "stress-tested" by counter-arguments. The "No"  acts as a filter that strains out weak ideas. The "Yes"  that emerges is stronger because it "held up...

Quote of the Week 11 “ To define is to limit.” ― Oscar Wilde ,  The Picture of Dorian Gray     Full quote : “What are you?" "To define is to limit.”            

Quote of the Week 10 “ To explain is to jam people's thinking.” ― Etel Adnan , Shifting the Silence     Triggered by the exibition " Shifting the Silence. Die Stille verschieben "  at the Lenbachhaus, Munich.

Quote of the Week 9 “ Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” ― Michael Jackson   Related: Quote of the Week 50 / 2020 " Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it. " ―  Jonathan Swift Full quote :

Quote of the Week 8 “ I may not always be right, but I’m never wrong.” ― attributed to  Samuel Goldwyn Triggered by a recent  QuoteInvestigator  review.

Quote of the Week 7 “ Don’t believe everything you think. ” ―  Sidney K. Bennett Triggered by a recent QuoteInvestigator review. Variants: “ Don’t believe everything you think, especially today. ” “ Don’t believe anything you think and only half what you know. ” Related : “ Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” ―  Edgar Allan Poe (Short story “ The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether ”)

Quote of the Week 6 “ A solution looking for a problem has found an artificial problem looking for a solution. ” ― Alan Bipe On the use of blockchain technology for Agentic AI .  

Quote of the Week 5 “ Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” ― Charles de Gaulle Triggered by the recent Quote Investigator research.