"He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares
not is a slave."
( Sir William Drummond, "Academical Questions" )
"Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat."
( John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy, 1981-1987 )
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded
state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war
is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight,
nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable
creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the
exertions of better men than himself."
( John Stewart Mill )
"More than any time in history, mankind now faces a crossroads. One path leads
to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray
that we have the wisdom to choose correctly."
( Woody Allen )
"The country that draws a broad line between its fighting men and its thinking
men will find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards."
( Sir William F. Butler )
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
( Robert F. Kennedy )
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work."
( Thomas Edison )
"There are no physicists in the hottest parts of hell, because the existence
of a 'hottest part' implies a temperature difference, and any marginally
competent physicist would immediately use this to run a heat engine and make
some other part of hell comfortably cool. This is obviously impossible."
( Richard Davisson )
"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and
the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He
seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
( "New York Times" Editorial, 1921 )
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a
hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build
a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization
is for insects."
( Robert A. Heinlein )
"A physical law must possess mathematical beauty."
( Paul A. M. Dirac )
"According to the Rand McNally Places-Rated Almanac, the best place to live in
America is the city of Pittsburgh. The city of New York came in twenty-fifth.
Here in New York we really don't care too much. Because we know that we could
beat up their city anytime."
( David Letterman, "Late Night with David Letterman" )
"An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because
people refuse to see it."
( James Michner, "Space" )
"I turn away with fright and horror from the lamentable evil of functions
which do not have derivatives."
( Charles Hermite )
"... All ideas need to be heard, because each idea contains one aspect of the
truth. By examining that aspect, we add to our own idea of the truth. Even
ideas that have no truth in them whatsoever are useful because by disproving
them, we add support to our own ideas."
( John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty" )
"[...] For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in
a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner [...] on an
unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. [...] That is
the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to
understand that."
( Carl Sagan )
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
( Douglas Adams )
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent
people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of
honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to
appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the
world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden
patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life
has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have
succeeded."
( Ralph Waldo Emerson )
The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to
constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every
appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA
statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This
also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change.
( FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers )
"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
( Westley, "The Princess Bride" )
"Everything you've learned in school as 'obvious' becomes less and less
obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids
in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no
absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines."
( R. Buckminster Fuller )
"It is not enough to have knowledge, one must also apply it.
It is not enough to have wishes, one must also accomplish."
( Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe )
"Be true to your work, your word, and your friend."
( Henry David Thoreau )
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who
have not got it."
( George Bernard Shaw )
"Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books.
For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring,
but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the
flicking of a finger."
( Chinese proverb )
There are no integers n > 2 and x, y, z > 0, such that x^n + y^n = z^n.
I have found a truly wonderful proof of this. Unfortunately, my train is
coming.
( Found on a New York subway station wall )
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
( The Notebooks of Lazarus Long )
"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and
blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails.
You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at
night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only
love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or
know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only
one thing for it then -- to learn. Learn why the world wags and what
wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust,
never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never
dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a
lot of things there are to learn."
( T.H. White, "The Once and Future King" )
Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
in the real world.
( Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden )
"And if the orbit were a flow line, we would go right into the sun. Luckily,
Newton put in a second prime."
( Prof. J. P. Solovej,Princeton math department. )
If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy.
( Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. )
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Disclaimer: Any resemblance between the above views and those of my | | employer, my terminal, or the view out my window are purely | | coincidental. Any resemblance between the above and my own views is | | non-deterministic. The question of the existence of views in the | | absence of anyone to hold them is left as an exercise for the reader. | | The question of the existence of the reader is left as an exercise for | | the second god coefficient. (A discussion of non-orthogonal, | | non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope of this article.) | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+( dgoodman@MSMS.DoE.k12.MS.US -- Don Goodman )
"I object to intellect without discipline; I object to power without
constructive purpose."
( Spock, "Star Trek" )
"All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been, it is lying as in magic
preservation in the pages of books. They are the choicest possessions of
men."
( Thomas Carlyle )
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use."
( Galileo Galilei )
"The ultimate concern, if any, is the loss of large quantities of oxygen
when you get in orbit, because you need it."
( Robert Seick, Launch Director, NASA, with respect to a leak in an Oxygen
line.)
"A little far-fetched, but that's Psychology."
( John R. Hayes, Cognitive Theory Professor )
"I was sick, but now I'm well. I ask only to be shot while my mind is still
clean."
( George Orwell, "1984" )
"Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to
laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself."
( Kahlil Gibran )
"Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender
it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly
and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct
and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness."
( George Santayana )
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society.
If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people
for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of
power."
( P. J. O'Rourke )
"The intelligence of the world population is a constant. The population is
increasing."
( William David Haas )
"When have the Prophets not been stoned, from Christ down to Wagner? Crazy,
enthusiastic, or madmen all of them.... Why, my dear friend, what do you
mean by complaining of neglect, abuse, scorn? These are the precious rewards
of the teachers of mankind."
( Andrew Carnegie, 1897 )
"The more the marble wastes away, the more the statue grows."
( Michelangelo )
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims
may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons
than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may
sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who
torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with
the approval of their own conscience."
( C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock )
"As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty,
and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life -- so I became a
scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls."
( M. Cartmill )
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints."
( Charlie Anthe, charlie+@cmu.edu )
"By the delusions of seeming good the people are often misled to desire
their own ruin; and they are frequently influenced by great hopes and
brave promises."
( Niccolo Machiavelli )
"Duty then is the sublimest word in the English language. You should do
your duty in all things. You can never do more, you should never wish
to do less."
( General Robert E. Lee )
Nothing in life is so exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
( Sir Winston Churchill )
How many seconds are in a year? If I tell you there are 3.15e+7 seconds
in a year, you wouldn't even try to remember. But who could forget that
to within half a percent, pi seconds is a nanocentury.
( Unknown )
"Many African children have two hopes. One is to go to heaven, the
other to America."
( Paul Wangai, Physician in Nairobi, Kenya )
"What are you supposed to do with a manically depressed robot?"
"You think you've got problems, what are you supposed to do if you ARE a
manically depressed robot?"
( The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy )
Remember the Golden Rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules.
( from Walt Disney's Aladdin )
"Ships are safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are made for.
The same is true of the human spirit. Don't ever be afraid to take
chances, reach for the stars, or take a stand on what you believe in."
( Russell DiSilvestro )
"Visions are indispensable -- but dangerous, precisely to the extent
that we confuse them with reality itself."
( Thomas Sowell, "A Conflict of Visions." )
"I heard that the government wants to put a tax on the mathematically
ignorant. Funny, I thought that's what the lottery was!"
( Gallagher )
"Your work, Sir, is both new and good, but what's new is not good and
what's good is not new."
( Samuel Johnson )
"The sheer pressure of our numbers, the abundance of our inventions, the
blind forces of our desires and needs, appear unstoppable and are generating
a heat - the hot breath of our civilization - whose effects we comprehend
only hazily,"
( Ian McEwan )
"My first thought was, what a great pity that another nation should be added
to those aggressors who choose to limit our freedom.I find myself at the age
of eighty, an old woman, hanging on to the tail of the world, trying to keep
up. I do not want the driver's seat but the eternal verities. There are
certain things that I wish to express: one thing that I am very sure of is
that hatred is death, but love is light. I want to contribute to the
civilization of the world but I remember that the broadness of our sympathy
is the measure of our civilation. And when I look at the holocaust that is
going on in the world today, I'm almost ready to let go."
( Lena Jamison, December 9, 1941, two days after Perl Harbor )