"Whoever wants to be a judge of human nature should study people's excuses."
--Friedrich Hebbel
"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."
--Benjamin Franklin
"Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts."
--Edward R. Murrow
Showing posts with label bon mots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bon mots. Show all posts
20100619
20100618
Bon mots: energy and energy conservation
"Energy and persistence conquer all things."
--Benjamin Franklin
"Energy isn't merely an enabler of things. In a real sense it is the thing itself. The flow of electricity, the digestion of food, the extraction of metal from ore: Energy is perpetually being consumed, transformed and put to new use. Such an intrinsic ingredient in everyday life obviously requires wise management. But setting energy policy gets ever more complicated because even as worldwide energy use skyrockets, we are discovering in greater detail how the deleterious byproducts of energy use can foul our habitat and hasten climate change."
--Thomas R. Casten and Phillip F. Schewe, "Getting the Most from Energy," American Scientist, vol. 97 no. 1, p. 26, January-February 2009.
"It is instructive to compare this [conservation of energy equation] to a student's back account--the balance does not change if there are no transfers into or out of the bank system. When there are transfers in the form of deposits, withdrawals, fees, interest, and checks written, however, the balance changes by exactly the net amount of money transferred by these processes."
--John W. Jewett, Jr., "Energy and the Confused Student IV: A Global Approach to Energy," The Physics Teacher, vol. 46, April 2008, p. 210
"The energy associated with a body consists of energy of rest and/or energy of motion. These are equivalently identified as mass energy (mc^2) and kinetic energy (KE). The various forms of PE are equivalent to variations in the mass of a system of interacting parts. Conservation of energy in all its applications can be expressed in terms of the total or partial transfer of mass and/or its transformation into KE and vice versa. On the cosmic scale, the conversion of energy into mass and mass back into energy is the grand dance of the universe."
--Eugene Hecht, "Energy Conservation Simplified," The Physics Teacher vol. 46, Feburary 2008, p. 80
"What is sometimes not appreciated is that the very essence of thermodynamics, the characteristic that distinguishes it from mechanics, is that invisible energy storage modes of macroscopic matter are important. Indeed, thermodynamics can be defined as the science of energy spreading within and between macroscopic objects. For blocks, inclined planes, and the like encountered in mechanics, internal storage modes are typically ignored. As friction becomes important pure mechanics morphs into thermodynamics, where internal energy storage modes are central."
"Pure mechanics can be viewed as a form of constant-entropy reversible thermodynamics. In contrast, for any irreversible thermodynamics process, there is an increase of energy spreading over space, entailing increased energy and/or space, and increased temporal spreading over microstates."
--Harvey S. Leff, "Thermodynamics is Easy--I've Learned It Many Times," The Physics Teacher, vol. 45, no. 2, February 2007, p. 71
"For those who want some proof that physicists are human, the proof is in the idiocy of all the different units which they use for measuring energy."
--Richard P. Feynman, The Character of Physical Law
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."
--Albert Camus
"Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness."
--Shakti Gawain
"Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus."
--Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, July 2003
"Energy is eternal delight."
--William Blake
"Engineering is the science of economy, of conserving the energy, kinetic and potential, provided and stored up by nature for the use of man. It is the business of engineering to utilize this energy to the best advantage, so that there may be the least possible waste."
--William A. Smith
"Crime is naught but misdirected energy."
--Emma Goldman, Anarchism
"Scientists have estimated that the energy given off during the Big Bang is roughly equal to 1CNRhK (Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick)."
--chucknorrisfacts.com
--Benjamin Franklin
"Energy isn't merely an enabler of things. In a real sense it is the thing itself. The flow of electricity, the digestion of food, the extraction of metal from ore: Energy is perpetually being consumed, transformed and put to new use. Such an intrinsic ingredient in everyday life obviously requires wise management. But setting energy policy gets ever more complicated because even as worldwide energy use skyrockets, we are discovering in greater detail how the deleterious byproducts of energy use can foul our habitat and hasten climate change."
--Thomas R. Casten and Phillip F. Schewe, "Getting the Most from Energy," American Scientist, vol. 97 no. 1, p. 26, January-February 2009.
"It is instructive to compare this [conservation of energy equation] to a student's back account--the balance does not change if there are no transfers into or out of the bank system. When there are transfers in the form of deposits, withdrawals, fees, interest, and checks written, however, the balance changes by exactly the net amount of money transferred by these processes."
--John W. Jewett, Jr., "Energy and the Confused Student IV: A Global Approach to Energy," The Physics Teacher, vol. 46, April 2008, p. 210
"The energy associated with a body consists of energy of rest and/or energy of motion. These are equivalently identified as mass energy (mc^2) and kinetic energy (KE). The various forms of PE are equivalent to variations in the mass of a system of interacting parts. Conservation of energy in all its applications can be expressed in terms of the total or partial transfer of mass and/or its transformation into KE and vice versa. On the cosmic scale, the conversion of energy into mass and mass back into energy is the grand dance of the universe."
--Eugene Hecht, "Energy Conservation Simplified," The Physics Teacher vol. 46, Feburary 2008, p. 80
"What is sometimes not appreciated is that the very essence of thermodynamics, the characteristic that distinguishes it from mechanics, is that invisible energy storage modes of macroscopic matter are important. Indeed, thermodynamics can be defined as the science of energy spreading within and between macroscopic objects. For blocks, inclined planes, and the like encountered in mechanics, internal storage modes are typically ignored. As friction becomes important pure mechanics morphs into thermodynamics, where internal energy storage modes are central."
"Pure mechanics can be viewed as a form of constant-entropy reversible thermodynamics. In contrast, for any irreversible thermodynamics process, there is an increase of energy spreading over space, entailing increased energy and/or space, and increased temporal spreading over microstates."
--Harvey S. Leff, "Thermodynamics is Easy--I've Learned It Many Times," The Physics Teacher, vol. 45, no. 2, February 2007, p. 71
"For those who want some proof that physicists are human, the proof is in the idiocy of all the different units which they use for measuring energy."
--Richard P. Feynman, The Character of Physical Law
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."
--Albert Camus
"Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness."
--Shakti Gawain
"Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus."
--Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, July 2003
"Energy is eternal delight."
--William Blake
"Engineering is the science of economy, of conserving the energy, kinetic and potential, provided and stored up by nature for the use of man. It is the business of engineering to utilize this energy to the best advantage, so that there may be the least possible waste."
--William A. Smith
"Crime is naught but misdirected energy."
--Emma Goldman, Anarchism
"Scientists have estimated that the energy given off during the Big Bang is roughly equal to 1CNRhK (Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick)."
--chucknorrisfacts.com
20100617
Bon mots: success and failure (part 2)
"One's best successes comes after their greatest disappointments."
--Henry Ward Beecher
"Contrary to popular belief, the brain is not designed for thinking. It's designed to save you from having to think, because the brain is actually not very good at thinking. Thinking is slow and unreliable. Nevertheless, people enjoy mental work if it is successful. People like to solve problems, but not to work on unsolvable problems. If schoolwork is always just a bit too difficult for a student, it should be no surprise that she doesn't like school much. The cognitive principle that guides this article is: People are naturally curious, but they are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, people will avoid thinking. The implication of this principle is that teacher should reconsider how they encourage their students to think in order to maximize the likelihood that students will get the pleasurable rush that comes from successful thought."
--Daniel T. Willingham, "Why Don't Students Like School? Because the Mind Is Not Designed for Thinking," American Educator vol. 33, no. 1, Spring 2009, p. 4
"Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure."
--Amos Bronson Alcott
"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success."
--James Cameron
"Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: If the probability of success is not almost one, then it is damn near zero."
--David R. Ellis
"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
--Truman Capote
"Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat."
--Malcolm Forbes
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
--Thomas A. Edison
"I think and think for months and years.
Ninety-nine times, the conclusions are false.
The hundredth time I am right."
--Albert Einstein
"Optimism can keep a fool from accepting failure."
--Ernest Hemingway
"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."
--Woody Allen
Previous post:
--Henry Ward Beecher
"Contrary to popular belief, the brain is not designed for thinking. It's designed to save you from having to think, because the brain is actually not very good at thinking. Thinking is slow and unreliable. Nevertheless, people enjoy mental work if it is successful. People like to solve problems, but not to work on unsolvable problems. If schoolwork is always just a bit too difficult for a student, it should be no surprise that she doesn't like school much. The cognitive principle that guides this article is: People are naturally curious, but they are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, people will avoid thinking. The implication of this principle is that teacher should reconsider how they encourage their students to think in order to maximize the likelihood that students will get the pleasurable rush that comes from successful thought."
--Daniel T. Willingham, "Why Don't Students Like School? Because the Mind Is Not Designed for Thinking," American Educator vol. 33, no. 1, Spring 2009, p. 4
"Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure."
--Amos Bronson Alcott
"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success."
--James Cameron
"Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: If the probability of success is not almost one, then it is damn near zero."
--David R. Ellis
"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
--Truman Capote
"Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat."
--Malcolm Forbes
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
--Thomas A. Edison
"I think and think for months and years.
Ninety-nine times, the conclusions are false.
The hundredth time I am right."
--Albert Einstein
"Optimism can keep a fool from accepting failure."
--Ernest Hemingway
"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."
--Woody Allen
Previous post:
20090626
Bon mots: success and failure
"One essential to success is that your desire be an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be co-ordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without letup."
--Claude M. Bristol
"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, more elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success."
--Henry David Thoreau
"Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
--Thomas Edison
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
--Sir Winston Churchill
"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
--Truman Capote
"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success."
--Irving Berlin
"Success is the point of self-deception. Failure is the point of self-knowledge."
--Graham Greene
"I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me, and I didn't have the heart to let him down."
--Abraham Lincoln
"Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of other."
--Jules Renard
"If there is any great secret of success in life, it lies in the ability to put yourself in the other's place and to see things from his point of view--as well as your own."
--Henry Ford
"In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed."
--Charles Louis de Montesquieu
"Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles."
--Walter Cronkite
"Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort."
--Givens, Charles J.
"Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal."
--Mike Ditka
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
--Bill Gates
"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure--which is: Try to please everybody."
--Herbert Bayard Swope
"Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others."
--Jules Renard
"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."
--John Dewey
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
--Booker T. Washington
"One does not get anywhere simply by going over the success again and again, whereas by talking over the difficulties people can hope to make some progress."
--P. A. M. Dirac
"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."
--Bill Cosby
"As long as an experiment yields data, it's a success."
--Adam Savage
"If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried."
--Steven Wright
"It is possible to fail in many ways, while to succeed is possible only in one way."
--Aristotle
"Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett
"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed."
--Mark Twain
"If you want to succeed, double your failure rate."
--Thomas Watson, founder of IBM
"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."
--Quentin Crisp
"At first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it."
--W.C. Fields
"If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence that you have ever tried."
--Ricky Gervais
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
--Herman Melville
"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
--Michael Jordan
"Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses."
--George Washington Carver
"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."
--Charlie Chaplin
"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"This thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."
--Mary Pickford
"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
--Henry Ford
"There are two kinds of failure: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought."
--Laurence J. Peter
"The big failures aren't data failures; they aren't issues of 'We don't know.' They're issues of 'We don't want to make the effort to be rigorous.'"
--Dan diBartolomeo
"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"It is not enough to succeed, others must fail."
--Francois De La Rochefoucauld
"The surest way to fail is not to determine to succeed."
--Richard Brinsley Sheridan
--Claude M. Bristol
"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, more elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success."
--Henry David Thoreau
"Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
--Thomas Edison
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
--Sir Winston Churchill
"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
--Truman Capote
"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success."
--Irving Berlin
"Success is the point of self-deception. Failure is the point of self-knowledge."
--Graham Greene
"I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me, and I didn't have the heart to let him down."
--Abraham Lincoln
"Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of other."
--Jules Renard
"If there is any great secret of success in life, it lies in the ability to put yourself in the other's place and to see things from his point of view--as well as your own."
--Henry Ford
"In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed."
--Charles Louis de Montesquieu
"Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles."
--Walter Cronkite
"Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort."
--Givens, Charles J.
"Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal."
--Mike Ditka
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
--Bill Gates
"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure--which is: Try to please everybody."
--Herbert Bayard Swope
"Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others."
--Jules Renard
"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."
--John Dewey
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
--Booker T. Washington
"One does not get anywhere simply by going over the success again and again, whereas by talking over the difficulties people can hope to make some progress."
--P. A. M. Dirac
"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."
--Bill Cosby
"As long as an experiment yields data, it's a success."
--Adam Savage
"If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried."
--Steven Wright
"It is possible to fail in many ways, while to succeed is possible only in one way."
--Aristotle
"Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett
"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed."
--Mark Twain
"If you want to succeed, double your failure rate."
--Thomas Watson, founder of IBM
"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."
--Quentin Crisp
"At first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it."
--W.C. Fields
"If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence that you have ever tried."
--Ricky Gervais
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
--Herman Melville
"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
--Michael Jordan
"Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses."
--George Washington Carver
"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."
--Charlie Chaplin
"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"This thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."
--Mary Pickford
"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
--Henry Ford
"There are two kinds of failure: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought."
--Laurence J. Peter
"The big failures aren't data failures; they aren't issues of 'We don't know.' They're issues of 'We don't want to make the effort to be rigorous.'"
--Dan diBartolomeo
"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"It is not enough to succeed, others must fail."
--Francois De La Rochefoucauld
"The surest way to fail is not to determine to succeed."
--Richard Brinsley Sheridan
20080412
Bon mots: space, time, and spacetime
"Space by itself and time by itself must sink into the shadows, while only a union of the two preserves independence."
--Hermann Minkowski
"There was a blithe certainty that came from first comprehending the full Einstein field equations, arabesques of Greek letters clinging tenuously to the page, a gossamer web. They seemed insubstantial when you first saw them, a string of squiggles. Yet to follow the delicate tensors as they contracted, as the superscripts paired with subscripts, collapsing mathematically into concrete classical entities--potential; mass; forces vectoring in a curved geometry--that was a sublime experience. The iron fist of the real, inside the velvet glove of airy mathematics."
--Gregory Benford, Timescape (1992)
"Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of Time..."
--Edgar Allen Poe, "Dreamland"
"I heard that in relativity theory space and time are the same thing. Einstein discovered this when he kept showing up three miles late for his meetings."
--Steven Wright
"You can measure distance by time. 'How far away is it?' 'Oh about 20 minutes."'But it doesn't work the other way. 'When do you get off work?' 'Around 3 miles.'"
--Jerry Seinfeld
"My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is."
--Ellen DeGeneris
--Hermann Minkowski
"There was a blithe certainty that came from first comprehending the full Einstein field equations, arabesques of Greek letters clinging tenuously to the page, a gossamer web. They seemed insubstantial when you first saw them, a string of squiggles. Yet to follow the delicate tensors as they contracted, as the superscripts paired with subscripts, collapsing mathematically into concrete classical entities--potential; mass; forces vectoring in a curved geometry--that was a sublime experience. The iron fist of the real, inside the velvet glove of airy mathematics."
--Gregory Benford, Timescape (1992)
"Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of Time..."
--Edgar Allen Poe, "Dreamland"
"I heard that in relativity theory space and time are the same thing. Einstein discovered this when he kept showing up three miles late for his meetings."
--Steven Wright
"You can measure distance by time. 'How far away is it?' 'Oh about 20 minutes."'But it doesn't work the other way. 'When do you get off work?' 'Around 3 miles.'"
--Jerry Seinfeld
"My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is."
--Ellen DeGeneris
20080330
Bon mots: rotation
"I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!"
--Louise Bogan
"Poetry uses the hub of a torque converter for a jello mold."
--Diane Glancy, as quoted in What Is Found There, Ch. 12, by Adrienne Rich (1993)
"The lazy manage to keep up with the earth’s rotation just as well as the industrious."
--Mason Cooley, City Aphorisms, Fifth Selection (1988)
"Let the wheel spin out,
Till all created things
With shout and answering shout
Cast off rememberings..."
--Philip Larkin, “All Catches Alight”
"Spin and die,
To live again as butterfly."
--Christina Georgina Rossetti, "The Caterpillar (Sing-Song)"
"Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change."
--Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall (1842)
"Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair."
--Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (1989)
--Louise Bogan
"Poetry uses the hub of a torque converter for a jello mold."
--Diane Glancy, as quoted in What Is Found There, Ch. 12, by Adrienne Rich (1993)
"The lazy manage to keep up with the earth’s rotation just as well as the industrious."
--Mason Cooley, City Aphorisms, Fifth Selection (1988)
"Let the wheel spin out,
Till all created things
With shout and answering shout
Cast off rememberings..."
--Philip Larkin, “All Catches Alight”
"Spin and die,
To live again as butterfly."
--Christina Georgina Rossetti, "The Caterpillar (Sing-Song)"
"Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change."
--Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall (1842)
"Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair."
--Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (1989)
20080323
Bon mots: mistakes
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
--James Joyce
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde
"The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when to cringe."
--Doug Larson
"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."
--Edward John Phelps
"I've acquired quite a taste
For a well-made mistake,
I wanna make a mistake,
Why can't I make a mistake?"
--Fiona Apple, "A Mistake"
"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field."
--Niels Bohr
"As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes."
--Mel Brooks
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
--Edmund Burke
"Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations."
--Niccolo Machiavelli
--James Joyce
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde
"The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when to cringe."
--Doug Larson
"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."
--Edward John Phelps
"I've acquired quite a taste
For a well-made mistake,
I wanna make a mistake,
Why can't I make a mistake?"
--Fiona Apple, "A Mistake"
"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field."
--Niels Bohr
"As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes."
--Mel Brooks
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
--Edmund Burke
"Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations."
--Niccolo Machiavelli
20080322
Bon mots: errors
"Truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion."
--Francis Bacon
"The proper method for hastening the decay of error is...by teaching every man to think for himself."
--William Godwin
"Astrophysicists are often in error, but never in doubt."
--Lev Landau
"When you make one wrong turn, the errors tend to compound."
--Henry Roth
"A man's errors are his portals of discovery."
--James Joyce
"The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain and simple to express:
Err and err and err again but less and less and less."
--Piet Hein
--Francis Bacon
"The proper method for hastening the decay of error is...by teaching every man to think for himself."
--William Godwin
"Astrophysicists are often in error, but never in doubt."
--Lev Landau
"When you make one wrong turn, the errors tend to compound."
--Henry Roth
"A man's errors are his portals of discovery."
--James Joyce
"The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain and simple to express:
Err and err and err again but less and less and less."
--Piet Hein
20080316
Bon mots: problem-solving
"If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake."
--F. Wilczek
"Never work on a problem for which you do not have an unfair advantage."
(also)
"I don't see why you are talking about this problem when either of you is capable of sitting down and solving it."
--Hans Bethe
"The real problem is what to do with the problem solvers after the problems have been solved."
--Gay Talese
"I don't have any solution but I certainly admire the problem."
--Ashleigh Brilliant
"Your problem is never really your problem, your reaction to your problem is your problem."
--Brian Kinsey
"I don't understand complicated problems. I only understand simple ones."
--Richard Deupree
"For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong."
--Henry Louis Mencken
"If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has ben mastered."
--Stanley Kubrick
"The chief source of problems is solutions."
--Eric Sevareid (broadacst on CBS News, 12/29/70), as quoted in T. L. Martin, Malice in Blunderland (McGraw-Hill, 1973)
"When you suddenly see the problem, something happens--you have the answer before you are able to put it into words. It is all done subconsciously. THis has happened too many times to me, and I know when to take it seriously. I'm so absolutely sure. I don't talk about it, I don't have to tell anybody about it, I'm just sure this is it."
--Barbara McClintock
"Indecision may or may not be my problem."
--Jimmy Buffett
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
--Abraham Maslow
"If the only tool you have for measuring value is a quarterly financial report or a price tag, then everything that is excluded from that report or that comes without a price tag begins to look like it has no value."
--Al Gore
"When there is no solution, there is no problem."
--James Burnham
"Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems you don't get any seeds."
--Norman Vincent Peale
"Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out."
--C. A. R. Hoare (Hoare's Law of Large Programs)
"Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem."
--John Galsworthy
--F. Wilczek
"Never work on a problem for which you do not have an unfair advantage."
(also)
"I don't see why you are talking about this problem when either of you is capable of sitting down and solving it."
--Hans Bethe
"The real problem is what to do with the problem solvers after the problems have been solved."
--Gay Talese
"I don't have any solution but I certainly admire the problem."
--Ashleigh Brilliant
"Your problem is never really your problem, your reaction to your problem is your problem."
--Brian Kinsey
"I don't understand complicated problems. I only understand simple ones."
--Richard Deupree
"For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong."
--Henry Louis Mencken
"If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has ben mastered."
--Stanley Kubrick
"The chief source of problems is solutions."
--Eric Sevareid (broadacst on CBS News, 12/29/70), as quoted in T. L. Martin, Malice in Blunderland (McGraw-Hill, 1973)
"When you suddenly see the problem, something happens--you have the answer before you are able to put it into words. It is all done subconsciously. THis has happened too many times to me, and I know when to take it seriously. I'm so absolutely sure. I don't talk about it, I don't have to tell anybody about it, I'm just sure this is it."
--Barbara McClintock
"Indecision may or may not be my problem."
--Jimmy Buffett
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
--Abraham Maslow
"If the only tool you have for measuring value is a quarterly financial report or a price tag, then everything that is excluded from that report or that comes without a price tag begins to look like it has no value."
--Al Gore
"When there is no solution, there is no problem."
--James Burnham
"Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems you don't get any seeds."
--Norman Vincent Peale
"Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out."
--C. A. R. Hoare (Hoare's Law of Large Programs)
"Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem."
--John Galsworthy
20080315
Bon mots: work
"I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."
--Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), 1889
"I don't want to be immortal through my work. I want to be immortal through not dying."
--Woody Allen
"It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe."
--Thomas Carlyle
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
--C. Northcote Parkinson, "Parkinson's Law," The Economist, 1955
"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he's supposed to be doing at that moment."
--Robert Benchley
"You will know your enemies because they're the ones that interfere with the work."
--Bette Davis
"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."
--Henry J. Kaiser
"My life had such potential, she told me, before I found out how much work was involved."
--Brian Andreas, "Potential Energy"
"The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them."
--Robert Frost
--Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), 1889
"I don't want to be immortal through my work. I want to be immortal through not dying."
--Woody Allen
"It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe."
--Thomas Carlyle
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
--C. Northcote Parkinson, "Parkinson's Law," The Economist, 1955
"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he's supposed to be doing at that moment."
--Robert Benchley
"You will know your enemies because they're the ones that interfere with the work."
--Bette Davis
"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."
--Henry J. Kaiser
"My life had such potential, she told me, before I found out how much work was involved."
--Brian Andreas, "Potential Energy"
"The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them."
--Robert Frost
20080309
Bon mots: gravity
"I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never studied law."
--Bugs Bunny, High Diving Hare (Warner Brothers, 1948)
"We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming."
--Wernher von Braun
"You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn't care."
--Clayton Christensen
"Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off."
--Terry Pratchett, Small Gods (HarperTorch Publishers, 1994)
"It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe.
--Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh, Book III, Chapter VII (1831)
"Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a different way to stand."
Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, October 2002
"Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects."
--Dave Barry
--Bugs Bunny, High Diving Hare (Warner Brothers, 1948)
"We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming."
--Wernher von Braun
"You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn't care."
--Clayton Christensen
"Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off."
--Terry Pratchett, Small Gods (HarperTorch Publishers, 1994)
"It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe.
--Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh, Book III, Chapter VII (1831)
"Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a different way to stand."
Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, October 2002
"Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects."
--Dave Barry
20070611
Bon mot: on the shoulders of giants
Illustration by Matt Collins
www.mattcollins.com
"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
--Isaac Newton
Elaboration of this metaphor in contemporary and earlier attributions is discussed on Wikipedia. Apparently it has been adopted as the byword of Google Scholar.
20070420
Bon mots: understanding trumps math
"I love only nature, and I hate mathematicians."
--Richard Feynman
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
--Marie Curie
Upon seeing the first quote in the class announcements, a student asked who Richard Feynmann was, although it was not clear whether this interest was due to a pro-nature or anti-math sentiment.
--Richard Feynman
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
--Marie Curie
Upon seeing the first quote in the class announcements, a student asked who Richard Feynmann was, although it was not clear whether this interest was due to a pro-nature or anti-math sentiment.
20070320
Bon mot: Burns' hog-weighing method
Physics 8A learning goal Q6.5
"Burns' Hog-Weighing Method:
(1) Get a perfectly symmetrical plank and balance it across a sawhorse.
(2) Put the hog on one end of the plank.
(3) Pile rocks on the other end until the plank is again perfectly balanced.
(4) Carefully guess the weight of the rocks."
--Robert Burns (1759-1796)
This quote is shown on the announcements section on the overhead projector just before a statics/dynamics midterm, to provide some source of levity for stressed-out students.
"Burns' Hog-Weighing Method:
(1) Get a perfectly symmetrical plank and balance it across a sawhorse.
(2) Put the hog on one end of the plank.
(3) Pile rocks on the other end until the plank is again perfectly balanced.
(4) Carefully guess the weight of the rocks."
--Robert Burns (1759-1796)
This quote is shown on the announcements section on the overhead projector just before a statics/dynamics midterm, to provide some source of levity for stressed-out students.
20060426
Bon mot: black hole mass, volume, and density
Astronomy 10 learning goal 10.1
"Black holes are where God divided by zero."
--Stephen Wright
Black holes are one of the end-stages of massive main sequence stars, if the core of the main sequence star exceeds the Oppenheimer-Volkov limit of 3.0 solar masses, at which gravitational forces overwhelm neutron degeneracy pressures. This results in the complete collapse of the core into a black hole. Its mass remains the same, while its size goes to zero. As density is mass divided by volume, this is where Stephen Wright's "divided by zero" takes place, resulting in an infinite density (but remember that mass is finite!).
"Black holes are where God divided by zero."
--Stephen Wright
Black holes are one of the end-stages of massive main sequence stars, if the core of the main sequence star exceeds the Oppenheimer-Volkov limit of 3.0 solar masses, at which gravitational forces overwhelm neutron degeneracy pressures. This results in the complete collapse of the core into a black hole. Its mass remains the same, while its size goes to zero. As density is mass divided by volume, this is where Stephen Wright's "divided by zero" takes place, resulting in an infinite density (but remember that mass is finite!).
20060425
Bon mot: theorists versus experimentalists
"Most really good theoretical physicists don't pay much attention to what experimenters think. They build their theories based on their own instincts and go where intuition leads them."
--Leonard Susskind
Damn the experimentalists and full speed ahead!
--Leonard Susskind
Damn the experimentalists and full speed ahead!
20060424
Bon mot: red dwarfs
Astronomy 10 learning goal Q9.3
"It seems that dim stars in the universe at large are like rabbits and bureaucrats: They may not be very bright, but there are a lot of them."Red dwarfs are the "forever stars," with lifetimes that currently exceed the known age of the universe. (However, unlike rabbits and bureaucrats, red dwarfs don't breed, and those that were born have yet to die.)
--Sherwood Harrington, Mercury, 1986, no. 5
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