"Causes often arrange themselves in a series. For example, let us suppose that we have a situation in which A is the cause of B. Next, we note that B is in turn the cause of C. We end up with a sequence that can be diagrammed as follows:  A--> B --> C.  Let us next suppose that C represents a problematic state of affairs that calls for a quick remedy. Knowing that C has been caused by B, we decide to concentrate our attention on B, guided by the principle that the correct way to deal with problems is to get at their causes. The logic being followed here is commendable as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. While it is true that B is the immediate cause of C, it is not its ultimate cause. The causal sequence begins with A, and therefore that is the source of the problem C." —from D. O. McInerny, On Being Logical, Random House, 2004, pp. 33-34

"Buckling of the web of steel beams may occur near the supports due to the compressive component of the shear.  The lower flange of a cantilevered wide-flange beam, being thin and compressed in bending by vertical loads, may also buckle.  This buckling occurs in a lateral direction, [...], and twists the beam, besides bending it." —from Mario Salvadori, in Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture, W. W. Norton & Company, 1980, p.88

"Lateral knowledge is knowledge that's from a wholly unexpected direction, from a direction that's not even understood as a direction until the knowledge forces itself upon one.  Lateral truths point to the falseness of axioms and postulates underlying one's existing system of getting at truth." —from Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974, 1999, HarperTorch, pp. 148-149

"At sunset the Jialing River flows east

and thousands of pear petals chase the river wind.

What twists my stomach as I watch the river flowers?

Half have fallen in the river, half drift on the air."  
—from Yuan Zhen, (779-831 Tang dynasty, northern China), "Petals Falling in the River," printed in The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry, Eds., Tony Barnstone & Chou Ping, Anchor Books, 2005, p.190

"Elephants recognize the skeletons of other elephants and will often spend hours curiously examining the bones [...], especially when the bones are those of a relative.  When they pass upon the remains of family members, they become especially anxious.  [...]  An elephant may seem tense when inspecting the skull and tusks, and they frequently rearrange the bones or even carry them off to another spot." —from Alan M. Heatwole, Elephants, Gallery Books, 1991, [publication lacks page numbers]

"The voyage to Guinea in the year 1554. The Captain whereof was Mr J.L__*.  [...]  They brought from thence at the last voyage four hundred pound weight and odd of gold, of two and twenty carats and one grain in fineness: also six and thirty butts of grains, and about two hundred and fifty elephants' teeth of all quantities.  Some of them were as big as a man's thigh above the knee, and weighed about four score and ten pound weight apiece.  These great teeth or tusks grow in the upper jaw downwards, and not in the nether jaw upwards, wherein the painters and arras [sic] workers are deceived.  At this last voyage was brought from Guinea the head of an elephant of huge bigness.  This head divers have seen in the house of the worthy merchant Sir A.J__**, where also I saw it, considering by the work, the cunning and wisdom of the workmaster:  without such consideration, the sight of such strange and wonderful things may rather seem curiosities than profitable contemplations." —from Richard Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries, Penguin, 1972, pp. 66-67 (original publication:  The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, printed in sixteenth-century England.  *John Lok, **Andrew Judde

"Often (breathes there a man?) I can work up some proud warmth about the fact that I indubitably am [a Texan]. A lot of the time, though, I'd as soon be forty other kinds of men I've known. I've lived much away from that region, and have liked most of the places I've lived in. I used to know who the good bullfighters were and why they were good. I'm familiar with the washed silent streets of Manhattan at five o'clock in the morning, and what Los Angeles promises in the evening when you're young with money on your hip, and once almost saw the rats change sewers swarmingly in Paris, and did see dawn wash the top of the old wall at Avila.... I've walked in the green freshness of mountain mornings in tropical lands, and have heard the strange birds cry, and the street vendors, and maybe music somewhere, and have felt the hit of it like a fist in my stomach, going sleepy-eyed out onto a balcony under the green mountains and above flame-flower trees to thank g__* for life and for being there. And I'm glad I have." —from John Graves, Goodbye to a River, Vintage, 1988, pp. 144-145.  *god.

Over 800 words comprise the definition of "time," including 22 noun-definitions, 14 adjective-definitions, and 17 idioms. —The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Ed., 2000,

"...It is commonly assumed that the Latin tense divisions of past, present and future are inevitable.  Yet one frequently meets languages which do not make this neat threefold distinction.  In some languages, it is more important to express the duration of an action - whether it is a single act or a continuig process - than to locate the action in time." —from Jean Aitchison, Teach Yourself Linguistics, Teach Yourself, 2003, p. 7

The Hopi "have no general notion or intuition of time as a smooth flowing continuum in which everything in the universe proceeds at an equal rate, out of a future, through a present, into a past; or, in which to reverse the picture, the observer is being carried in the stream of duration continuously away from a past and into a future," meaning that the Hopi don't conceive of time as a divisible entity, separate from experience.  —from Benjamin Lee Whorf, unpublished, unfinished article, 1950, p. 27

“Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle... the energy of a quantum particle can’t be measured with total precision at a specified instant.  Uncertainty in energy can be traded with uncertainty in time, but you will never eliminate everything about a quantum particle at once.” —from Paul Davies, Ph.D., About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, Touchstone, 1995, p. 164

“The more I stay in here / The more it's not so clear / The more I stay in here / The more I disappear. / [...] / As I lie here and stare / The fabric starts to tear / It's far beyond repair / And I don't really care / As far as I have gone / I knew what side I'm on / But now I'm not so sure / The line begins to blur.” —from Trent Reznor (writer, arranger, performer for the band, Nine Inch Nails), lyrics for “The Line Begins to Blur” on the album, "White Teeth," 2005, http://www.nin.com/with_teeth/

"Theories on mind and body" map, from The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Ed., T. Honderich, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 939 [Press Ctrl+ to zoom in]

"Philosophy of mind" map, from The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Ed., T. Honderich, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 938 [Press Ctrl+ to zoom in]

"Epistemlogy" map, from The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Ed., T. Honderich, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 938 [Press Ctrl+ to zoom in]

“In the 15th and 16th centuries, books were a source of imagination and wonder just as much as objects. All forms of education were considered an extravagance, only within reach of the aristocracy, gentry, and professional classes. By the middle of the fifteenth century, a strict minority of the male population of Europe possessed some measure of reading literacy in their own or in classical languages, and even fewer could write with any degree of proficiency." —from Earle Havens, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, Graduate Seminar, “Halls of Wonder: Art, Science, and Culture in the Age of the Marvelous, 1450-1750,” Summer, 2012

"To-day I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region. [...] My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer." —from the Chris & Anna Celenza Library, Baltimore, Maryland:  Francis Petrarch, “The Ascent of Mount Ventoux," in Petrarch: The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters, ca. 1350, Ed. & Trans., James Harvey Robinson, New York, Putnum, 1898