Random Quotes
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For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal. It does not follow that every item which we confidently accept as physical knowledge has actually been certified by the Court; our confidence is that it would be certified by the Court if it were submitted. But it does follow that every item of physical knowledge is of a form which might be submitted to the Court. It must be such that we can specify (although it may be impracticable to carry out) an observational procedure which would decide whether it is true or not. Clearly a statement cannot be tested by observation unless it is an assertion about the results of observation. Every item of physical knowledge must therefore be an assertion of what has been or would be the result of carrying out a specified observational procedure.Sir Arthur Eddington, The Philosophy of Physical Science
Sanity is a madness put to good use.George Santayana
Every hero becomes a bore at last.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be you in what line of life you may, it will be amongst your misfortunes if you have not time properly to attend to pecuniary [monetary] matters. Want of attention to these matters has impeded the progress of science and of genius itself.William Cobbett
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience.George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
Music is essentially useless, as life is.George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905) vol. 4, ch. 4
Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.George Santayana
We do what we must, and call it by the best names.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.Groucho Marx