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Douglas_Adams

Scientific Method

“The invention of the scientific method and science is, I'm sure we'll all agree, the most powerful intellectual idea, the most powerful framework for thinking and investigating and understanding and challenging the world around us that there is, and it rests on the premise that any idea is there to be attacked. If it withstands the attack then it lives to fight another day and if it doesn't withstand the attack then down it goes. Religion doesn't seem to work like that.”
  • Source: Douglas Adams. From the speech entitled "Is There an Artificial God?"; spoken on 1998-09; spoken at the "Digital Biota 2" conference' held at Magdelene College Cambridge; online at http://www.biota.org/people/douglasadams/ (accessed 2017).
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Invention_quotes Science_quotes Agreement_quotes Power_quotes Intellectual_quotes Idea_quotes Framework_quotes Thinking_quotes Investigation_quotes Understanding_quotes Challenge_quotes World_quotes Premise_quotes Attack_quotes Fight_quotes Day_quotes Down_quotes Religion_quotes

Marcus_Aurelius

Fame

“The most lasting fame will stretch but to a sorry extent; for, alas! poor transitory mortals who hand it down know little even of themselves, much less of those who died long before their time.”
Keywords: Fame_quotes Stretch_quotes Extent_quotes Transitory_quotes Mortal_quotes Hand_quotes Down_quotes Know_quotes Little_quotes Ignorance_quotes Death_quotes Time_quotes Predecessor_quotes

Robert_N_Britcher

Limits of Testing

“The limits of software are never more obvious than in its testing. Software systems are beyond discrete and statistical analysis. A single incorrect state - out of two to the trillionth states - can down a rocket: To find such a fault in a software system would require a hundred generations of programmers - but after the first failure is found and fixed, all bets are off; they wouldn't be testing the same system anymore. We can design and build fail-safe systems, but can we know we did?”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 56.
Keywords: Limitation_quotes Software_quotes Obvious_quotes Testing_quotes Discrete_quotes Statistics_quotes Analysis_quotes State_quotes Incorrect_quotes Correctness_quotes Error_quotes Rocket_quotes Fault_quotes System_quotes Programmer_quotes Programming_quotes Failure_quotes Correction_quotes Found_quotes Design_quotes Safe_quotes Knowledge_quotes Limit_quotes Beyond_quotes Trillion_quotes Down_quotes Find_quotes Require_quotes Generation_quotes First_quotes Fix_quotes Bet_quotes Off_quotes Fail_Safe_quotes

English Proverbs

Turtles All the Way Down

“Turtles all the way down”
  • Source: The exact origin of the phrase is uncertain.
    • Turtles all the way down is an expression of the problem of infinite regress.
    • The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports a flat Earth on its back. It suggests that this turtle rests on the back of an even larger turtle, which itself is part of a column of increasingly larger turtles that continues indefinitely.
    • The expression has been used to illustrate problems such as the regress argument in epistemology.
Keywords: Infinite_quotes Regress_quotes Turtle_quotes All_quotes Way_quotes Down_quotes

David_Epstein

Creative Constraints

“That's the thing about constraints that spur creativity: They shut down many possibilities, but stimulate more varied and novel exploration of those that remain... Given complete freedom, our very strong urge is to follow the ‘path of least resistance.’ Specifically, we do only what we have done before, or follow the first example that jumps to mind.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 58. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
Keywords: Thing_quotes Constraint_quotes Spur_quotes Creativity_quotes Shut_quotes Down_quotes Many_quotes Possibility_quotes Stimulate_quotes Variety_quotes Novel_quotes Explore_quotes Remain_quotes Give_quotes Complete_quotes Freedom_quotes Strong_quotes Urge_quotes Follow_quotes Path_quotes Least_quotes Resistance_quotes Do_quotes What_quotes Before_quotes Follow_quotes First_quotes Example_quotes Jump_quotes Mind_quotes

Richard_Feynman

No One Understands Quantum

“I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it possibly be like that?' because you will go down the drain into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.”
  • Source: Richard Feynman, in The Character of Physical Law (1965).
Keywords: Safe_quotes Understanding_quotes Quantum_quotes Comprehension_quotes Drain_quotes Blind_quotes Alley_quotes Escape_quotes Knowledge_quotes Think_quotes Say_quotes Possible_quotes Mechanics_quotes Down_quotes

Alexander_G_Fraser

Top Down Bottom Up

“In the designs I have been involved in, and which have not involved too many people, I have not been able to identify whether these have been ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’. They seem to me to be more like frame stressing,”
Keywords: Top_quotes Down_quotes Bottom_quotes Up_quotes Design_quotes Programming_quotes People_quotes Frame_quotes Stress_quotes Identify_quotes

Stephen_Hawking

Turtles All the Way Down

“A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: ‘What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.' The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, ‘What is the tortoise standing on?' ‘You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. ‘But it's turtles all the way down!”
Keywords: Scientist_quotes Bertand_Russell(topic)_quotes Say_quotes Public_quotes Lecture_quotes Astronomy_quotes Describe_quotes Earth_quotes Orbit_quotes Around_quotes Sun_quotes Center_quotes Vast_quotes Collection_quotes Star_quotes Galaxy_quotes End_quotes Little_quotes Old_quotes Lady_quotes Back_quotes Room_quotes Told_quotes Rubbish_quotes World_quotes Flat_quotes Plate_quotes Support_quotes Giant_quotes Tortoise_quotes Superior_quotes Reply_quotes Stand_quotes Clever_quotes Young_quotes Turtle_quotes Down_quotes All_quotes Infinite_quotes Regress_quotes Smile_quotes Man_quotes

Robert_Heinlein

Scientific Method

“There are but two ways of forming an opinion in science. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. One can judge from experiment, or one can blindly accept authority. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority.”.
  • Source: Written by Robert A. Heinlein in the short story “Life-Line” originally published in the 1939-08 edition of “Astounding Science Fiction” magazine, page 83. Character: Dr. Pinero. Retrieved 2024-05-05 from https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AST.htm.
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Science_quotes Method_quotes Way_quotes Form_quotes Opinion_quotes Scholastic_quotes Judge_quotes Experiment_quotes Blind_quotes Accept_quotes Authority_quotes Mind_quotes Proof_quotes Important_quotes Theory_quotes Convenience_quotes Description_quotes Junk_quotes Fit_quotes Academic_quotes Everything_quotes Fact_quotes Laid_quotes Down_quotes

Bernardo_Kastrup

Irreducible Patterns

“If there are such irreducible macroscopic patterns, they — unlike cause and effect — may not entail relationships of strict necessity, but tendencies, affinities or dispositions instead... We cannot expect to pin down the corresponding events on the basis of empirical regularities and counterfactual dependences. Not only may these events not be consistently repeatable, the global patterns they reflect may be excluded from experiments by our very efforts to isolate the experimental setup and control its conditions. We cannot induce these acausal events at will. The best we can do is to pay attention to the world around us, in the hope of noticing one of them as it spontaneously unfolds... Next to causality, the physical world organizes itself along archetypal correspondences of meaning, which break down the barrier between world and psyche.”
  • Source: From “Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe”. Written by Bernardo Kastrup. Published by IFF Books, Washington DC. Kindle Edition. Page 53. Chapter 4.
Keywords: Irreducible_quotes Reduction_quotes Macroscopic_quotes Pattern_quotes Cause_quotes Effect_quotes Causality_quotes Unlike_quotes Entail_quotes Relationship_quotes Strict_quotes Necessity_quotes Tendency_quotes Affinity_quotes Disposition_quotes Expect_quotes Pin_quotes Down_quotes Correspond_quotes Event_quotes Basis_quotes Empirical_quotes Regular_quotes Counterfactual_quotes Dependency_quotes Consistent_quotes Repeatable_quotes Global_quotes Reflect_quotes Exclude_quotes Experiment_quotes Setup_quotes Control_quotes Condition_quotes Induction_quotes Acausal_quotes Will_quotes Best_quotes Attention_quotes World_quotes Around_quotes Hope_quotes Notice_quotes Spontaneous_quotes Unfold_quotes Physical_quotes Organize_quotes Archetypal_quotes Correspondence_quotes Meaning_quotes Break_quotes Barrier_quotes Psyche_quotes

Henry_Louis_Mencken

Truth

“The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel.”
  • Source: Mencken. Chicago Tribune (23 May 1926)
Keywords: Truth_quotes Humanity_quotes Mystery_quotes Reason_quotes Instinct_quotes Dislike_quotes Try_quotes Tell_quotes Unpopular_quotes Prevail_quotes Down_quotes Scoundrel_quotes Strength_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Human Communication Limits

“A man can communicate with about five colleagues on a software project without too much difficulty. Likewise he can supervise about five people and know pretty well what they are doing. One would structure 120 people in three levels, in which no man is talking to more than about eight people, both across his level and up and down”
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Communication_quotes Colleague_quotes Software_quotes Project_quotes Difficulty_quotes Supervision_quotes People_quotes Knowledge_quotes Do_quotes Structure_quotes Level_quotes Talking_quotes Up_quotes Down_quotes Across_quotes

Antoine_de_Saint-Exupéry

Meaning of Life

“Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something moulded. These prison walls that this age of trade has built up round us, we can break down. We can still run free, call to our comrades, and marvel to hear once more, in response to our call, the pathetic chant of the human voice.”
  • Source: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, from page 48 of the book entitled "Wind, Sand and Stars". Translated from French by Lewis Galantiere. Published in 1939 by Reynal and Hitchcock. Retrieved 2018-04-22 from https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.264850 .
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Look_quotes Introspection_quotes Teaching_quotes Meaning_quotes Life_quotes Discovery_quotes Mold_quotes Prison_quotes Wall_quotes Age_quotes Trade_quotes Build_quotes Break_quotes Down_quotes Run_quotes Freedom_quotes Call_quotes Comrade_quotes Marvel_quotes Hear_quotes Pathetic_quotes Voice_quotes Man_quotes Chant_quotes

John_Steinbeck

Great Difficulty with Good Hypothesis

“There is one great difficulty with a good hypothesis. When it is completed and rounded, the corners smooth and the content cohesive and coherent, it is likely to become a thing in itself, a work of art. It is then like a finished sonnet or a painting completed. One hates to disturb it. Even if subsequent information should shoot a hole in it, one hates to tear it down because it once was beautiful and whole. One of our leading scientists, having reasoned a reef in the Pacific, was unable for a long time to reconcile the lack of a reef, indicated by soundings, with the reef his mind told him was there.”
  • Source: John Steinbeck, In John Steinbeck and Edward Flanders Ricketts Sea of Cortez: a Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941), 179-80.
Keywords: Difficulty_quotes Good_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Completion_quotes Round_quotes Corner_quotes Smooth_quotes Content_quotes Cohesion_quotes Coherence_quotes Work_quotes Art_quotes Finishing_quotes Sonnet_quotes Painting_quotes Hate_quotes Disturb_quotes Subsequent_quotes Information_quotes Shoot_quotes Hole_quotes Tear_quotes Down_quotes Beauty_quotes Whole_quotes Lead_quotes Scientist_quotes Reason_quotes Reef_quotes Pacific_quotes Unable_quotes Long_quotes Time_quotes Reconciliation_quotes Lack_quotes Indication_quotes Sound_quotes Mind_quotes Tell_quotes There_quotes

Thornton_Wilder

Something Eternal

“Now there are some things we all know, but we don't take'm out and look at'm very often. We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being.”
  • Source: Thornton Wilder writing for the Stage Manager character in act three of the play 'Our Town', first published in 1938 by Coward McCann, Inc., New York.
Keywords: Now_quotes Thing_quotes Know_quotes Take_quotes Look_quotes Often_quotes Something_quotes Eternal_quotes House_quotes Name_quotes Earth_quotes Star_quotes Bone_quotes Human_quotes Being_quotes Great_quotes People_quotes Live_quotes Tell_quotes Year_quotes Surprise_quotes Lose_quotes Hold_quotes Deep_quotes Down_quotes Every_quotes
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