Favorite Quotes

Mathematics

Miscellaneous

Mathematics

• Spoon feeding, in the long run, teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon. -- E. M. Forester

• Only he who knows what mathematics is, and what its function in our present civilization, can give sound advice for the improvemnent of our mathematical teaching. -- Hermann Weyl, Collected Works, Vol. I

• "Do you mean, I said to Dr. Breed, that nobody in this Laboratory is ever told what to work on? Nobody even suggests what they work on?" "People suggest things all the time, but it isn't the nature of a pure-research man to pay any attention to suggestions. His head is full of projects of his own, and that's the way we want it." -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Cats Cradle(?)

• The bane of the state university is that its regents are appointees of a politician. If he were limited by the rule that half of them must be academic graduates, there would be some safety against the prostitution of a university, the broadest of human institutions, to politics and sectionalism, the meanest provincialism. -- George Bruce Halstead, University of Texas, ~1900.

• ...One will always come across people, who, following the example of medieval Scholastics, begin their teaching from the most general concepts, and who defend this method as being the only true scientific method of approach. However, this reasoning is far from correct: to teach scientifically means to teach a person to think scientifically, and not to dim his powers of thought from the very begining with cold, hard systematics. -- Felix Klein

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Miscellaneous

• Seize the day. -- David Thoureau

• Always do right. It will please some and shock others. -- Harry S. Trumam

• Politics comes from the Greek word "poly," meaning "many" and "tics," which are of course bloodsucking parasites. -- Andre Marrou, Libertarian Presidential Candidate 1992

• If you pick up a dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man. -- Mark Twain(?)

• First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me. -- Martin Niemoeller, Exile in the Fatherland(1986)

• I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell. -- Harry S. Truman

• I am by religion like everything else. I believe there is more in acting than in talking. -- Harry S. Truman

• To find happiness within ones self is not easy; unfortunately, to find it elsewhere is impossible. – Unknown

• That which does not kill me, makes me stronger. --Nietzsche

• I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. -- Voltaire

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