Comparative Analysis Quotes

“Indirect inferences about causation can sometimes be drawn from the absence of variations in a comparative analysis. The lack of variation in certain features against a background of system-level change can suggest that these features are constrained or subject to strong evolutionary pressure against deviation. These are evolution's 'dogs that didn't bark,' immortalized in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes memoir Silver Blaze:
Gregory: Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night time.
Holmes: That was the curious incident.”
― Eric Smith, The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth: The Emergence of the Fourth Geosphere

“Why should you hate me, who you do not know? First learn who I am, and then if you have reason, let hate come to the fore.

This phrase appeared in my brain after waking from very clear dream in which I was asked in a very nasty manner if I hated the Jewish people, replied to with a straight out “No, I do not.” (See: “Living with ‘the other’” in my blog.)”
― Geoff Olton, The Way We Are

“See others and see yourself.” “See yourself and see others.”
― Geoff Olton

“In answer to: What is rational? (Think Ukraine.)
At best you might get a reason (logically (?) expounded to the speaker’s advantage). At worst, almost certainly, a (worse than lame) excuse.”
― Geoff Olton, The Way We Are

“What is SATORI. (Enlightenment).
Understanding your own and the passing nature of all around you and developing an awareness of everything that you are not.”
― Geoff Olton, The Way We Are

“What is SATORI. (Enlightenment).
The (relatively easy) acceptance of the interdependency of all things in the universe, and, beyond that, (the rather more complex) how you as an individual choose to deal with that fact.”
― Geoff Olton, The Way We Are

“In 2006 the federal government expended more than $100 million over a five-year period for marriage and fatherhood education. Interestingly, it is not until recently that the United States is doing something that African peoples have been doing for thousands of years through rites of passage programs -- preparing young people for life and the challenges of marriage and family. Because U.S. society generally takes an interventive approach to marriage, where couples seek help after the marriage is in trouble, rather than a preventive proactive approach, where couples are prepared for the challenges of marriage, most people are not prepared for a monogamous marriage, let alone a polygynous one.”
― Patricia Dixon, We Want for Our Sisters What We Want for Ourselves: Polygyny: A Relationship, Marriage and Family Alternative