Prescience Quotes

All our knowledge hast its origins in our perceptions … In nature there is no effect without a cause … Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments … Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass.

He who asks fortune-tellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner intimation of coming events that is a thousand times more exact than anything they may say.

It's the ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year --- and to explain afterward why it didn't happen.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those who see it coming and jump aside.

Prophecy and prescience - How can they be put to the test in the face of unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What are the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of the knife?

Ever since the invention of gunpowder.. I continually tremble lest men should, in the end, uncover some secret which would provide a short way of abolishing mankind, of annihilating peoples and nations in their entirety.

The art of prophecy is very difficult, especially with respect to the future.

Memory has many conveniences, and, among others, that of foreseeing things as they have afterwards happened.

PROPHECY, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.

Newspapers tell beforehand what is going to happen - maybe.

I predict, not because I know, but because I'm asked.

The danger in regulating AI too early is comparable to defining airline regulations in the early 1900’s at the time of the Wright Brothers earliest flights: all flights must be limited to 400 yards (since no plane can safely fly further), no faster than 45 mph (faster puts the pilot at too much risk), no higher than 15′ (pilots can survive a 15′ fall but not a 50′ fall), shall be in a straight line (planes are too unstable in turns), requires a catapult launch into the wind and a wind speed of no less than 15 knots (for the safety of the pilot and bystanders), and no more than one passenger is allowed (since no engine or airframe can safely support more). Any one of these then “common-sense” rules would have severely impacted the evolution of the airline industry. Jurisdictions not subject to such rules would become the industry leaders. No one has the prescience necessary to successfully regulate an early-stage technology.

I am not going to say I told you so, but I did.

What I have figured out is that I can predict the future. I just can't predict when.

Among all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous.

Prophecy - To observe that which has passed, and guess it will happen again.

I looked at Putin and was terrified from the very beginning. That makes me look very prescient because he actually turned out to be exactly the monster that I thought he was.

Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

I think that any sort of fantasy or sci fi that is grounded in something that could ostensibly be real - 'Jurassic Park' being my favorite example - is that much more prescient because it means that much more. Maybe one day, what if?

All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us.

Oh definitely. It'll be in a hot tub, with my entire head squeezed into a jet. The photos are going to be hilarious. Man, I really hope the internet sticks around so people can reference this article in my obituaries and see that what sounds like a joke was actually amazingly prescient.

He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.

The difference between hearsay and prophecy is often one of sequence. Hearsay often turns out to have been prophecy.

We were extremely prescient in that we predicted the Soviet coup before it happened. That was kind of amazing.