Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.

You, Ms. Lane, are a menace to others! A walking, talking catastrophe in pink!

I am nothing more than the consequence of catastrophe.

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable solutions are not.

The nature of catastrophe is after all reasonably unvarying in the way it ruins destroys wounds and devastates. But if something can be learned from the event - not least something as profound as the theory of plate tectonics - then it somehow puts the ruination into a much more positive light.

Sometimes you're not even sure which of your stories were failures. There are things I've written that I thought were complete catastrophes when I finished with them that have gone on to generate some of my most positive feedback.

My life had become a catastrophe. I had no idea how to turn it around. My band had broken up. I had almost lost my family. My whole life had devolved into a disaster. I believe that the police officer who stopped me at three a.m. that morning saved my life.

If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today we sigh.

In the Atlantean period there were many energies being used and information and knowledge being used which were for particular reasons of safety withdrawn shall we say to prevent complete catastrophe to prevent total destruction of your planet.

If you're under 26 you can stay on your parents' plan. You can go back to school or get extra training without fear of a health catastrophe bankrupting your family. Over three million previously uninsured young adults are now on their parents' plans.

The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.

I'm not one of those famous people flying round the world emoting over every catastrophe. I'm too feeble.

Catastrophes are often stimulated by the failure to feel the emergence of a domain and so what cannot be felt in the imagination is experienced as embodied sensation in the catastrophe.

Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

History is a race between education and catastrophe.

We worry about the seemingly ever-increasing number of natural catastrophes. Yet this is mainly a consequence of CNN - we see many more but the number is roughly constant and we manage to deal much better with them over time. Globally the death rate from catastrophes has dropped about fifty-fold over the past century.

If left unchecked global change will create violent conflict torrential storms shrinking coastlines and irreversible catastrophe.