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Your Quotes for 27 August 2005 - Explosion

Here in the Pacific Northwest we take a perverse pride in Mount Saint Helens which exploded with great force a quarter century ago, but that was nothing compared to an explosion on this day in 1883. The Indonesian volcano Krakatoa, having been visibly active for several months, exploded four times. Some say the early eruptions were the mountain clearing its throat for the main event, others believe that huge volumes of sea water cascaded into the mountain core and caused the dramatic finale, but in either case it was the greatest explosion known to man. The explosive force was the equivalent of 200 megatons of TNT, four times larger than the biggest hydrogen bomb ever built. Six cubic miles of rock and ash were expelled. The sound was heard 3,000 miles away. Over 35,000 were killed by the resulting tsunamis, and every bit of the visible portion of the mountain, and most of the rest of the island, were gone. On the other hand, sunsets around the world were more colorful for over a year.

Because a star explodes and a thousand worlds like ours die, we know this world is. That is the smile: that what might not be, is.
     - John Fowles, The Magus

When the habitually even-tempered suddenly fly into a passion, that explosion is apt to be more impressive that the outburst of the most violent amongst us.
     - Margery Allingham

The chemistry of dissatisfaction is as the chemistry of some marvelously potent tar. In it are the building stones of explosives, stimulants, poisons, opiates, perfumes, and stenches.
     - Eric Hoffer, 1902 - 1983

As the bomb fell over Hiroshima and exploded, we saw an entire city disappear. I wrote in my log the words: "My God, what have we done?"
     - Capt Robert Lewis, copilot of the Enola Gay

Genius as an explosive power beats gunpowder hollow; and if knowledge, which should give that power guidance, is wanting, the chances are not small that the rocket will simply run amuck among friends and foes.
     - Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825 - 1895

Wit is an explosion of the compound spirit.
     - Friedrich von Schlegel, 1772 - 1829

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