Absolute quotes
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Contents
Peter_Drucker
Layoffs
“...what's absolutely unforgivable is the financial benefit top management people get for laying off people. There is no excuse for it. No justification. This is morally and socially unforgivable, and we will pay a heavy price for it.”
- Source: A cantankerous interview with Peter Drucker, Wired (August 1996).
Samuel_C_Florman
Moral Absolute
“We will search in vain for a single engineering moral absolute acceptable to the entire profession.”
- Source: From the book “The Existential Pleasures of Engineering” by {Samuel C. Florman}. Second edition published in 1994 by {St. Martin's Press}, New York, NY. First edition published in 1976. Kindle edition published in 2023. E-book ISBN 978-1466842366. Chapter 3, page 22.
- Keywords: Search_quotes Vain_quotes Single_quotes Engineering_quotes Moral_quotes Absolute_quotes Acceptable_quotes Entire_quotes Profession_quotes
Gordon_Glegg
Engineering the Impossible
“One of the intriguing facts of the engineering profession is that it is not only possible but essential to do the impossible. But we must be careful to define what we mean by that word. We must distinguish between the relatively impossible and the intrinsically impossible. The relative impossibility is something which is impossible unless something else becomes possible. It always includes or implies a clause beginning 'unless'. The intrinsic impossibility contains an imprisoned self-contradiction within itself; it is absolutely impossible.”
- Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 1 page 5.
- Keywords: Fact_quotes Intriguing_quotes Engineering_quotes Professional_quotes Possibility_quotes Essential_quotes Impossibility_quotes Careful_quotes Definition_quotes Meaning_quotes Word_quotes Relative_quotes Intrinsic_quotes Self-Contradiction_quotes Absolute_quotes Distinguish_quotes Unless_quotes
John_Maynard_Keynes
Human Needs
“Now it is true that the needs of human beings may seem to be insatiable. But they fall into two classes — those needs which are absolute in the sense that we feel them whatever the situation of our fellow human beings may be, and those which are relative in the sense that we feel them only if their satisfaction lifts us above, makes us feel superior to, our fellows. Needs of the second class, those which satisfy the desire for superiority, may indeed be insatiable; for the higher the general level, the higher still are they. But this is not so true of the absolute needs — a point may soon be reached, much sooner perhaps than we are all of us aware of, when these needs are satisfied in the sense that we prefer to devote our further energies to non-economic purposes.”
- Source: From the Essay “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” written by John Maynard Keynes in 1930. Included in the book “Essays in Persuasion” edited by John Maynard Keynes and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1963.
- Keywords: True_quotes Need_quotes Human_quotes Being_quotes Seem_quotes Insatiable_quotes Fall_quotes Class_quotes Absolute_quotes Sense_quotes Feel_quotes Situation_quotes Fellow_quotes Relative_quotes Satisfaction_quotes Lift_quotes Above_quotes Superior_quotes Desire_quotes High_quotes General_quotes Point_quotes Soon_quotes Aware_quotes Preference_quotes Devote_quotes Further_quotes Energy_quotes Non-economic_quotes Economic_quotes Purpose_quotes
Søren_Kierkegaard
Ways To Be Deceived
“One may be deceived in many ways; one may be deceived by believing the false, but one may also be deceived by not believing the true; one may be deceived by appearances, but one may also be deceived by the appearance of shrewdness, by the flattering conceit which is absolutely certain it cannot be deceived. And which deception is the more dangerous? Whose recovery is the more doubtful, that of one who does not see, or his who sees and yet does not see? Which is more difficult — to awaken one who is sleeping, or to awaken one who, awaking, dreams that he is awake?”
- Source: From the book “Works of Love”, written by Søren_Kierkegaard. Originally published in Danish in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1847. English edition translated by David F. Swenson and Lillian Marvin Swenson, published by Princeton University Press in 1946. Volume 1, chapter I, page 5.
Lawrence_M_Krauss
Think the Unthinkable
“Science has taught us to think the unthinkable. Because when nature is the guide—rather than a priori prejudices, hopes, fears or desires — we are forced out of our comfort zone. One by one, pillars of classical logic have fallen by the wayside as science progressed in the 20th century, from Einstein's realization that measurements of space and time were not absolute but observer-dependent, to quantum mechanics, which not only put fundamental limits on what we can empirically know but also demonstrated that elementary particles and the atoms they form are doing a million seemingly impossible things at once.”
- Source: Lawrence M. Krauss, In op-ed, 'A Universe Without Purpose', Los Angeles Times (1 Apr 2012).
- Keywords: Science_quotes Thinking_quotes Unthinkable_quotes Nature_quotes Guide_quotes A_Priori_quotes Hope_quotes Fear_quotes Desire_quotes Force_quotes Comfort_quotes Pillar_quotes Logic_quotes Fall_quotes Progress_quotes Measurement_quotes Realization_quotes Space_quotes Time_quotes Absolute_quotes Observation_quotes Dependence_quotes Quantum_quotes Mechanics_quotes Fundamental_quotes Limitation_quotes Empirical_quotes Demonstration_quotes Elementary_quotes Particle_quotes Atom_quotes Impossibility_quotes Concurrent_quotes Teach_quotes Prejudice_quotes Classical_quotes Einstein(topic)_quotes Know_quotes
Biggest Misconception
“The biggest misconception about science is that it tells us what's true. It doesn't do that at all. It tells us what's false. And by knowing what's false, it's like Sherlock Holmes, you get rid of what's false and you hope what's left is closer to the truth. But you never know that any theory is absolutely true, and the only way to find out to make progress is to be able to rule things out. So falsifiability is very important.”
- Source: Panel comments by Lawrence Krauss at Perimeter Institute's festival "Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future" in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, October 2009. Available online as Youtube video "Lawrence Krauss, Sean Carroll, Neil Turok & Others - Quantum to Cosmos" at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ftH1yig-HDU (accessed 2017) at about 27 minutes into the video.
- Keywords: Big_quotes Misconception_quotes Science_quotes Truth_quotes False_quotes Knowledge_quotes Deduction_quotes Elimination_quotes Theory_quotes Absolute_quotes Find_quotes Progress_quotes Rule_quotes Falsification_quotes Importance_quotes Holmes(topic)_quotes Rid_quotes Hope_quotes Closer_quotes Out_quotes
Thomas_Robert_Malthus
Vice
“Vice is a highly probable consequence, and we therefore see it abundantly prevail; but it ought not, perhaps, to be called an absolutely necessary consequence. The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.”
- Source: Thomas Robert Malthus. The essay: “An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Goodwin, M. Condorcet and Other Writers”. Originally published: 1798. Edition: First. Publisher: J. Johnson. Location: London, England. Chapter: 1. Retrieved From: <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population>. Retrieval Date: 2024-04-03.
Ayn_Rand
Not There
“But we aren't, we aren't corpses in graves. We're not there, do you understand that when this life is finished, you're not there to say: ‘Oh, how terrible that I'm a corpse.’? No, it is finished. And what I always thought and what affected me all my life: ‘I'll not die, it is the world that will end.’ And that's absolutely true. I want to enjoy life to the fullest and when it ends I don't have to worry about that. I'm not there.”
- Source: Ayn Rand during a 1979 interview with Tom Snyder on his late-night talk show, ‘The Tomorrow Show’.
- See Also:
Hans_Reichenbach
Picture of Scientific Method
“The picture of scientific method drafted by modern philosophy is very different from traditional conceptions. Gone is the ideal of a universe whose course follows strict rules, a predetermined cosmos that unwinds itself like an unwinding clock. Gone is the ideal of the scientist who knows the absolute truth. The happenings of nature are like rolling dice rather than like revolving stars; they are controlled by probability laws, not by causality, and the scientist resembles a gambler more than a prophet. He can tell you only his best posits — he never knows beforehand whether they will come true. He is a better gambler, though, than the man at the green table, because his statistical methods are superior. And his goal is staked higher — the goal of foretelling the rolling dice of the cosmos. If he is asked why he follows his methods, with what title he makes his predictions, he cannot answer that he has an irrefutable knowledge of the future; he can only lay his best bets. But he can prove that they are best bets, that making them is the best he can do — and if a man does his best, what else can you ask of him?”
- Source: Hans Reichenbach, The Rise of Scientific Philosophy (1951, 1973), 248-9. Collected in James Louis Jarrett and Sterling M. McMurrin (eds.), Contemporary Philosophy: A Book of Readings (1954), 376.
- Keywords: Picture_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Modern_quotes Philosophy_quotes Differences_quotes Tradition_quotes Ideal_quotes Universe_quotes Causality_quotes Course_quotes Strict_quotes Rule_quotes Predetermine_quotes Cosmos_quotes Unwind_quotes Clock_quotes Science_quotes Absolute_quotes Certainty_quotes Truth_quotes Nature_quotes Roll_quotes Dice_quotes Probability_quotes Revolve_quotes Star_quotes Control_quotes Law_quotes Gambler_quotes Prophet_quotes Prediction_quotes Posit_quotes Knowledge_quotes Beforehand_quotes True_quotes Statistics_quotes Superior_quotes Goal_quotes Stake_quotes High_quotes Foretell_quotes Methodology_quotes Title_quotes Answer_quotes Irrefutability_quotes Future_quotes Bet_quotes Proof_quotes Best_quotes Ask_quotes Conception_quotes Scientist_quotes Man_quotes
Baruch_Spinoza
Free Will Not Absolute
“In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has also been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity.”
- Source: A book. Entitled Ethics. Written by Baruch Spinoza. Originally published 1677. Online at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ethics_(Spinoza). Translated from Latin by R. H. M. Elwes. Part II, Prop. XLVIII note.
- Keywords: Free_Will_quotes Mind_quotes Causality_quotes Absolute_quotes Determine_quotes Wish_quotes Another_quotes Last_quotes Infinity_quotes
