Finding Solace in Favourite Quotes: Escaping Despair with Words of Wisdom

[fourier jr]

A discovery is an accident meeting a prepared mind -

Albert von Szent-Györgyi (Nobel laureate)
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1937/szent-gyorgyi-bio.html

Let us take Sir Isaac Newton. All discoveries are due to chance, whether towards the end or the beginning of the process, for otherwise reasonable people could sit down and make discoveries as one sits down and writes a letter. The imagination spots a similarity and reason tests it and finds it true: that is discovery. That is how Sir Isaac Newton was. I have not the slightest reason to doubt that there existed before him and after him, in England and without, and that there exist now minds superior to his in ability, just as I have no reason to doubt that the peasant who gazes in admiration at the preacher would preach better if he had studied and acquired the knack. Opportunity and occasion are the discoverer and ambition the improver, confidence in one's own strength is strength, in marriage and the world of learning.
Georg Lichtenberg

 

[verty]

"There is no light without shadow, and it is essential to know the night." - Albert Camus

"For sheep don't throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk. Thus, therefore, do you likewise not show theorems to the unlearned, but the actions produced by them after they have been digested." - Epictetus

"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter." - Ayn Rand

"Be pleasant." - Me

 

[lunarmansion]

Immanuel Kant, the great philosopher, also made some contributions to science and mathematics, among which is the nebular hypothesis regarding the formation of our solar system. This hypothesis, as everyone knows, has attained the status of a scientific theory. Kant tired to epitomize the results of the science of his day, an undertaking hardly possible today with the vast specialization in the sciences. Rereading some bits of him, I found an interesting comment on the sciences and philosophy:

"Science has a real and true value only as an instrument of practical wisdom. As such an instrument, it is indeed indispensable..."
The task of philosophy, according to him, is to furnish a second eye to the scientifically instructed youth,
"...Which shall cause him also see the object from the standpoint of other men. On this depends the humanity of science..."
Perhaps interesting in light of the fact that progress in the sciences, which is neutral, does not often go in hand with the way it is implemented.

 

[lunarmansion]

Let us take Sir Isaac Newton. All discoveries are due to chance, whether towards the end or the beginning of the process, for otherwise reasonable people could sit down and make discoveries as one sits down and writes a letter. The imagination spots a similarity and reason tests it and finds it true: that is discovery. That is how Sir Isaac Newton was. I have not the slightest reason to doubt that there existed before him and after him, in England and without, and that there exist now minds superior to his in ability, just as I have no reason to doubt that the peasant who gazes in admiration at the preacher would preach better if he had studied and acquired the knack. Opportunity and occasion are the discoverer and ambition the improver, confidence in one's own strength is strength, in marriage and the world of learning.
Georg Lichtenberg

The best thoughts on genius are those of geniuses themselves. Here is a few I found:

Genius is what makes us forget the master's talent.

Genius is what makes us forget skill.

Where genius wears thin skill may show through.
***
One might say "Genius is talent exercised with courage."

Not funk but funk conquered is what is worthy of admiration and makes life worth having been lived. Courage not cleverness; not even inspiration- this is the grain of mustard that grows into a great tree. To the extent there is courage there is a link with life and death. But you don't win courage by recognizing the want of it in someone else.
***
There is no more light in a genius than in any other honest man-but he has a particular kind of lens to concentrate this light into a burning point.

-Ludwig Wittgenstein

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Eternity is a very long time; especially near the end - Bernard Haisch

 

[Lisa!]

"A successfull man is one who builds solid foundations with the rocks that others throw at him"

 

[ranger]

"Whoever says money can't buy you happiness, has never been poor" ~ me

"Fear crushes greed" ~ me

"you guys are so young and naive. you think qualifications are on paper." ~ mathwonk

 

[Vagrant]

Because of its heavy body and tiny wings a bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly.But a bumblebee doesn't know this so it flies anyway.

 

[Astronuc]

Aristotle, Metaphysics II (trans. W. D. Ross) -

"The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of things, and while individually they contribute little of nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed."

I wish I had been exposed to classic Greek way back in my early years.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Springfield man pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges that he deliberately ran over a wild turkey in September on his way to anger management class...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1739843/posts

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In Washington [D.C.], people lie while on the record, and tell the truth while off the record. In the Middle East, people tell the truth while on the record, and lie while off the record. - Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times

 

[Astronuc]

Husband (to wife) - Please don't yell so loudly.

Wife (to husband) - If it wasn't loud, I wouldn't be yelling.

 

[ranger]

Comedian Bill Burr on marriage:

Is this the line to loose half my sh*t? Awesome!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After 10 years of research on a project that was supposed to take only five years, a Canadian industrial psychologist found in a giant study that not only is procrastination on the rise...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/01/11/procrastination.nation.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In an effort to save the American farmer, Bio-Willie - aka country singing legend Willie Nelson - is one of the leaders in promoting and producing biodiesel made from domestically grown seed stocks. He also drives a Mercedes that runs on locally produced biodiesel. Proudly displayed in the window is a sticker that reads: No war required.

 

[Reshma]

When you hate someone, you hate something in him that is already a part of you. What isn't a part of you should not affect you.

Herman Hesse

 

[siddharth]

"I am your king!"
"Well, I didn't vote for you"

"Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."

Yes, I watched it once again today

 

[fourier jr]

Dedekind expressed the opinion about the concept of a set. He imagined a set as a closed sack containing definite objects which are not seen, and of which nothing is known except that they are existing and are definite. Some time later Cantor made known his idea of a set. He raised his colossal figure, with lifted arm he made an imposing gesture, and with a glance in an indefinite direction he said, "I imagine a set to be like an abyss."
Emmy Noether

 

[lunarmansion]

Dedekind expressed the opinion about the concept of a set. He imagined a set as a closed sack containing definite objects which are not seen, and of which nothing is known except that they are existing and are definite. Some time later Cantor made known his idea of a set. He raised his colossal figure, with lifted arm he made an imposing gesture, and with a glance in an indefinite direction he said, "I imagine a set to be like an abyss."
Emmy Noether

Emmy Noether- interesting life of a female mathematician:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Why do real estate agents get head shots?

- comedian on Letterman whose name I didn't get.

Of course that opens the whole can of worms; for example:
Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?

 

[fourier jr]

I have nothing, I owe a great deal, and the rest I leave to the poor.
Francois Rabelais' will

Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.
Jose Ortega y Gasset

Every kind of science, if it has only reached a certain degree of maturity, automatically becomes a part of mathematics.
David Hilbert

Those who say they never have time do the least.
Georg Lichtenberg

Logic, it appears to me, teaches us to test the conclusiveness of an argument already discovered, but I do not believe that it teaches us to discover correct arguments and demonstrations.
Galileo

The great also make mistakes, and some of them make so many you are almost tempted to think they weren't great at all.
Georg Lichtenberg

 

[mace2]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -Clarke

"Yippie ka yay m*****-******!" -McClane

 

[Astronuc]

"If you fall, you're fired before you hit the ground"

words of encouragement from a construction formean as we prepared to walk high iron. I guess you have to walk the iron to appreciate the humor.

 

[GregA]

You're just jealous because all the voices are talking to me

I remember Seeing this on a t-shirt and thought it was brilliant

 

[ranger]

"You believe I'm the devil, maybe its because I've lived in hell and I am trying to get out"

~Blood Diamond Movie (if I recall correctly)

 

[radou]

" I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems. "

~Pulp Fiction

 

[J77]

Education, education, education.

Tony Blair 1996.

Cracks me up every time

 

[fourier jr]

You're just jealous because all the voices are talking to me

I remember Seeing this on a t-shirt and thought it was brilliant

a guy i work with has a shirt that says '"i'm not a doctor but i'll take a look anyway"
it would be a good one to wear to a bar

 

[ranger]

"If you can't beat them or join them, then do something weird."

~author unknown

The capacity to learn is a gift;
The ability to learn is a skill;
The willingness to learn is a choice.

~Dune: House Harknonnen, p. 437

 

[BobG]

Warrenton, West Virginia newspaper:

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
If you are one of the hundreds of parachuting enthusiasts who bought our "Easy Sky Diving" book, please make the following correction: on page 8, line7, the words "state zip code" should have read "pull rip cord".