Jeff Sullivan

“Optimism (in the sense that I have advocated) is the theory that all failures – all evils – are due to insufficient knowledge.”
― David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

“Because even if the universe is lifespan is calculable, the variety of life that is generated within it is not. The buildings we have erected, the art and music and verse we have composed, the very lives we’ve led: none of them could have been predicted, because none of them was inevitable. Our universe might have slid into equilibrium admitting nothing more than a quiet hiss. The fact that it spawned such plenitude is a miracle, one that is matched only by your universe giving rise to you.
Though I am long dead as you read this, explorer, I offer to you a valediction. Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.” (56-57)”
― Ted Chiang, Exhalation

“The Principle of Optimism
All evils are caused by insufficient knowledge.”
― David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

“I would recognize you in total darkness, were you mute and I deaf.

I would recognize you in another lifetime entirely, in different bodies, different times.

And I would love you in all of this, until the very last star in the sky burnt out into oblivion.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles