Reality

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. ~ Philip K. Dick

Reality in everyday usage means "the state of things as they actually exist." The term Reality, in a wider sense indicates the whole of which everything is a part, including everything that exists, has existed, or can exist, whether it is observable, comprehensible, or contradictory in regard to various sciences, philosophies, or any system of perception or analysis.

Quotes

Reality has a well-known liberal bias. ~ Stephen Colbert

• Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality.
  • Ralph Marston, author and publisher of the Daily Motivator

• Reality can take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut.
  • Stephen King, in the introduction to Nightmares and Dreamscapes

• I reject your reality and substitute my own!
  • Paul Bradford, The Dungeonmaster; popularized by Adam Savage of MythBusters

• He who has the bigger stick has the better chance of imposing his definitions of reality.
  • Peter Berger, "The Social Construction of Reality", p. 109, 1966.

• Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
  • Stephen Colbert, at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner (2006)

• There's real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality.
  • Richard Dawkins, The Enemies of Reason, "Slaves to Superstition" [1.01], 13 August 2007, timecode 00:38:16ff

• Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
  • Philip K. Dick, in "How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978)

• The foolish read to escape reality; the wise surrender to it.
  • Tom Heehler The Well-Spoken Thesaurus

• Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
  • John Lennon, quoted in Sunday Herald Sun (19 January 2003)

• It is not the form of things that must be attended to but their spirit. The real is what matters, not the apparent. In politics, reality is that which is unseen.
  • José Martí, in The Monetary Conference of the American Republics (1891)

It is not the form of things that must be attended to but their spirit. The real is what matters, not the apparent. In politics, reality is that which is unseen. ~ José Martí

Psychologically speaking, this present moment is all we have. ~ Rollo May

Reality is what you make of it. ~ "Prot" in "K-PAX"

• I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal.
  • Groucho Marx, quoted in Philosophy on the Go‎ (2007) by Joey Green, p. 78

• The first thing necessary for a constructive dealing with time is to learn to live in the reality of the present moment. For psychologically speaking, this present moment is all we have.
  • Rollo May, in Man’s Search for Himself (1953)

• Consciousness is unquantifiable, a ghost in the machine, barely considered real at all, though in a sense this flickering mosaic of awareness is the only true reality that we can ever know.
  • Alan Moore in What Is Reality?

• Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish. They remain immortal, immaterial and everywhere, like all Divine things. Ideas are a golden, savage landscape that we wander unaware, without a map. Be careful: in the last analysis, reality may be exactly what we think it is.
  • Alan Moore in What Is Reality?

• There is no reality but God,
  says the completely surrendered sheik, who is an ocean for all beings.
  • Jelaluddin Rumi, in The Essential Rumi (1995) translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry and Reynold Nicholson; "The Grasses" in Ch. 4 Spring Giddiness, p. 44

• You knock at the door of Reality. You shake your thought wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.
  • Jelaluddin Rumi, in The Essential Rumi (1995) translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry and Reynold Nicholson; "The Gift of Water" Ch. 18 The Three Fish, p. 200

• Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind them...there is nothing.
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausia.

• Every human being relies on and is bounded by his knowledge and experience to live. This is what we call "reality". However, knowledge and experience are ambiguous, thus reality can become illusion. Is it not possible to think that, all human beings are living in their assumptions?
  • Itachi Uchiha in Naruto: Shippūden

• It from bit.
  • John Wheeler (Princeton University) Lloyd, Seth (November 2004). "Black Hole Computers". Scientific American. p. 53. Retrieved on 2006-08-21. 

• Reality... What A Concept!
  • Robin Williams, title of his 1979 comedy album.

• It from qubit.
  • Paola Zizzi (University of Padova) Lloyd, Seth (November 2004). "Black Hole Computers". Scientific American. p. 54.  Note: the quote does not appear in the on-line version that is freely available

• I have seen reality, and reality is an illusion.
  • GameMaster Loveshade The Book of Lies and Other Games

• Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why, then, should we desire to be deceived?
  • Joseph Butler, Human Nature and Other Sermons "Sermon VII" quoted in Matthew Arnold's St. Paul and Protestantism

See also

• Ontology
• Consensus reality