Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
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Trance opera—Spente le Stelle
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daily quotation server archives
In the late 90’s I started (a good decade for starts) a daily quotation server project at www.quoteserver.ca. The domain is now defunct—some pages are partially viewable at the Way Back Machine.
Below is the list of quotes I had collected by the end of the life of the project. Most are about love—duh—and a few are jolly jests from funny trenches. You know, that place where mustard gas makes your eyes water.
The quotes weren’t scraped from quote archives—each is meaningful and hand-picked.
the quote archive
And now for full list of 1,600 other things worth reading. Such as everything Dorothy Parker has written and ... yes, even the Pinky and Brain quotes, which are a special kind of special.
Quote collections about love, heart, desire, life, death, god, mind, science.
Feeling lucky? Read 10 random quotes. Well, will you, punk?
Quotes about desire
574
Fire and Ice
661
What is it men in women do require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women do in men require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women do in men require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
MS. Notebooks, 1793, p.99
849
I dare not ask a kiss;
I dare not beg a smile;
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire, shall be
Only to kiss the air,
That lately kissed thee.
I dare not beg a smile;
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire, shall be
Only to kiss the air,
That lately kissed thee.
To Electra
967
There are two tragedies in life.
One is to lose your heart’s desire.
The other is to gain it.
One is to lose your heart’s desire.
The other is to gain it.
991
Foeda est in coitu et brevis voluptas
Et taedet Veneris statim peractae.
[Delight of lust is gross and brief
And weariness treads on desire.]
Et taedet Veneris statim peractae.
[Delight of lust is gross and brief
And weariness treads on desire.]
1070
I do desire we may be better strangers.
As You Like It, I.vii.276
1127
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longham
1159
And Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits—and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire!
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits—and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire!
Rubaiyat, LXXII, trans. by Edward Fitzgerald (1st ed.)
1272
If I seek a lovelier part,
Where I travel goes my heart;
Where I stray my thought must go;
With me wanders my desire.
Best to sit and watch the snow,
Turn the lock, and poke the fire.
Where I travel goes my heart;
Where I stray my thought must go;
With me wanders my desire.
Best to sit and watch the snow,
Turn the lock, and poke the fire.
Hearthside
1471
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory out of desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in a forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory out of desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in a forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
The Waste Land
1581
Be thou my friend forever blest
Have friends selected from the best
Have all the sweethearts you desire
but be my sweetheart for this hour.
Have friends selected from the best
Have all the sweethearts you desire
but be my sweetheart for this hour.
Autograph Albums and Bible of Ella Beaver Calhoun
1587
Desire not to live long but to live well,
How long we live not years, but actions tell.
How long we live not years, but actions tell.
Autograph Albums and Bible of Ella Beaver Calhoun
1616
Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
news + thoughts
Scientific data visualization: Aesthetic for diagrammatic clarity
The scientific process works because all its output is empirically constrained.
My chapter from The Aesthetics of Scientific Data Representation, More than Pretty Pictures, in which I discuss the principles of data visualization and connect them to the concept of "quality" introduced by Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Yearning for the Infinite — Aleph 2
Discover Cantor's transfinite numbers through my music video for the Aleph 2 track of Max Cooper's Yearning for the Infinite (album page, event page).
▲ Yearning for the Infinite, Max Cooper at the Barbican Hall, London. Track Aleph 2. Video by Martin Krzywinski. Photo by Michal Augustini.
(more)
I discuss the math behind the video and the system I built to create the video.
Hidden Markov Models
Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.
—Rene Magritte
A Hidden Markov Model extends a Markov chain to have hidden states. Hidden states are used to model aspects of the system that cannot be directly observed and themselves form a Markov chain and each state may emit one or more observed values.
Hidden states in HMMs do not have to have meaning—they can be used to account for measurement errors, compress multi-modal observational data, or to detect unobservable events.
▲ Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Hidden Markov Models.
(read)
In this column, we extend the cell growth model from our Markov Chain column to include two hidden states: normal and sedentary.
We show how to calculate forward probabilities that can predict the most likely path through the HMM given an observed sequence.
Grewal, J., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2019) Points of significance: Hidden Markov Models. Nature Methods 16:795–796.
Background reading
Altman, N. & Krzywinski, M. (2019) Points of significance: Markov Chains. Nature Methods 16:663–664.
Hola Mundo Cover
My cover design for Hola Mundo by Hannah Fry. Published by Blackie Books.
▲ Hola Mundo by Hannah Fry. Cover design is based on my 2013 `\pi` day art.
(read)
Curious how the design was created? Read the full details.
Markov Chains
You can look back there to explain things,
but the explanation disappears.
You'll never find it there.
Things are not explained by the past.
They're explained by what happens now.
—Alan Watts
A Markov chain is a probabilistic model that is used to model how a system changes over time as a series of transitions between states. Each transition is assigned a probability that defines the chance of the system changing from one state to another.
▲ Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Markov Chains.
(read)
Together with the states, these transitions probabilities define a stochastic model with the Markov property: transition probabilities only depend on the current stateâthe future is independent of the past if the present is known.
Once the transition probabilities are defined in matrix form, it is easy to predict the distribution of future states of the system. We cover concepts of aperiodicity, irreducibility, limiting and stationary distributions and absorption.
This column is the first part of a series and pairs particularly well with Alan Watts and Blond:ish.
Grewal, J., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2019) Points of significance: Markov Chains. Nature Methods 16:663–664.