Umberto Eco:

The list is the origin of culture.

What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order -- not always, but often. How, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible?

We have always been fascinated by infinite space, by the endless stars and by galaxies upon galaxies. How does a person feel when looking at the sky? He thinks that he doesn't have enough tongues to describe what he sees.

Michiru Hoshino:

Oh! I feel it. I feel the cosmos!

Rudy Rucker:

It is in the realm of infinity that mathematics, science, and logic merge with the fantastic. By closely examining the paradoxes that arise from this merging, we can learn a great deal about the human mind, its powers, and its limitations.

Found Magazine:

We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life.

Eco:

Schools ought to teach the high art of how to be discriminating.

Decius:

I'm going to file "Giddy Anticipation of an Apocalypse" next to actually having an AK-47 on your flag as God's way of telling you that you're bat shit crazy.

Alan Kay:

If the children are being instructed in the pink plane, can we teach them to think in the blue plane and live in a pink-plane society?

Eco:

Culture isn't knowing when Napoleon died. Culture means knowing how I can find out in two minutes.

We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die