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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index E > Barbara Ehrenreich Quotes

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Barbara Ehrenreich
(1941 - )

American writer who studied theoretical physics but changed interest to cell biology, started teaching, then turned to full-time writing. She has been a frequent contributor to a number of magazines, and published many books.

Science Quotes by Barbara Ehrenreich (6 quotes)


From an entertainment point of view, the Solar System has been a bust. None of the planets turns out to have any real-estate potential, and most of them are probably even useless for filming Dune sequels.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Bust (2)  |  Dune (4)  |  Entertainment (19)  |  Filming (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Planet (402)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Potential (75)  |  Real Estate (2)  |  Sequel (2)  |  Solar System (81)  |  System (545)  |  Turn (454)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  View (496)

I used to get so depressed about the environment. … But I feel much better since I joined my Environmental Grief Counseling Group, which is a wonderful New Age approach to gaining the personal serenity you need in a world of melting ice caps, shrinking rain forests, and toxic lakes.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
In 'Stop Beaching, Think Positive', Mother Jones Magazine (Oct 1988), 14, No. 8, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Approach (112)  |  Better (493)  |  Depressed (3)  |  Environment (239)  |  Feel (371)  |  Forest (161)  |  Grief (20)  |  Ice (58)  |  Join (32)  |  Lake (36)  |  Melting (6)  |  New (1273)  |  New Age (6)  |  Personal (75)  |  Rain (70)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Serenity (11)  |  Toxic (3)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

If that's how it all started, then we might as well face the fact that what's left out there is a great deal of shrapnel and a whole bunch of cinders (one of which is, fortunately, still hot enough and close enough to be good for tanning). Trying to find some sense and order in this mess may be as futile as trying to … reconstruct the economy of Iowa from a bowl of popcorn. [On searching for evidence of the Big Bang.]
— Barbara Ehrenreich
From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Bang (29)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Bowl (4)  |  Bunch (7)  |  Cinder (6)  |  Close (77)  |  Deal (192)  |  Economy (59)  |  Enough (341)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Futile (13)  |  Futility (7)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hot (63)  |  Left (15)  |  Mess (14)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin Of The Universe (20)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Sense (785)  |  Start (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Tanning (3)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)

Imagine spending four billion years stocking the oceans with seafood, filling the ground with fossil fuels, and drilling the bees in honey production—only to produce a race of bed wetters!
— Barbara Ehrenreich
In 'Stop Beaching, Think Positive', Mother Jones Magazine (Oct 1988), 14, No. 8, 8. [Note: drilling = training, like math drill.]
Science quotes on:  |  Bee (44)  |  Billion (104)  |  Fill (67)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Fossil Fuel (8)  |  Ground (222)  |  Honey (15)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Produce (117)  |  Production (190)  |  Race (278)  |  Seafood (2)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spending (24)  |  Stock (7)  |  Train (118)  |  Year (963)

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, to us insiders) has so far only proved that no matter what you beam up—the Pythagorean theorem, pictures of attractive nude people, etc.—the big 800 number in the sky does not return calls.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Attractive (25)  |  Beam (26)  |  Call (781)  |  Extraterrestrial Life (20)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nude (3)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Picture (148)  |  Proof (304)  |  Return (133)  |  Search (175)  |  SETI (3)  |  Sky (174)  |  Theorem (116)

Thus will the fondest dream of Phallic science be realized: a pristine new planet populated entirely by little boy clones of great scientific entrepreneurs free to smash atoms, accelerate particles, or, if they are so moved, build pyramids—without any social relevance or human responsibility at all.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accelerate (11)  |  Atom (381)  |  Boy (100)  |  Build (211)  |  Clone (8)  |  Dream (222)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Entrepreneur (5)  |  Fond (13)  |  Free (239)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Little (717)  |  Move (223)  |  New (1273)  |  Particle (200)  |  Planet (402)  |  Populate (4)  |  Pristine (5)  |  Pyramid (9)  |  Realize (157)  |  Relevance (18)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Smash (5)  |  Social (261)  |  Will (2350)


See also:
  • Barbara Ehrenreich - context of quote “The big 800 number in the sky does not return calls” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Barbara Ehrenreich - context of quote “The big 800 number in the sky does not return calls” - Large image (800 x 600 px)

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
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- 90 -
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Richard Feynman
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