Humanity quotes

From Motley Bytes Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

Aristotle

Men Desire to Know

“All men by nature desire to know.”
  • Source: Aristotle, ‘Metaphysics’, Book 1.
Keywords: Knowledge_quotes Humanity_quotes Men_quotes Nature_quotes Desire_quotes

Isaac_Asimov

Technology

“Science in the service of humanity is technology, but lack of wisdom may make the service harmful.”
  • Source: Isaac Asimov, chapter epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, edited by Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, published in 1988 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, New York. Chapter 83, page 321. ISBN 1-555-84111-2.
Keywords: Science_quotes Service_quotes Humanity_quotes Technology_quotes Lack_quotes Wisdom_quotes Make_quotes Harmful_quotes

Niels_Bohr

Physics and Human Experience

“Physics is to be regarded not so much as the study of something given a priori, but rather as the development of methods for ordering and surveying human experience.”
  • Source: Niels Bohr, in the book ‘Essays 1958–1962 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge’, published by Interscience in 1963. Page 10.
Keywords: Physics_quotes Humanity_quotes Perception_quotes Regard_quotes Study_quotes Priori_quotes Develop_quotes Method_quotes Order_quotes Survey_quotes Experience_quotes

Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

Contempt for Humanity

“The danger of allowing ourselves to be driven to contempt for humanity is very real... Whoever despises another human being will never be able to make anything of him. Nothing of what we despise in another is itself foreign to us.”
  • Source: From the paper “An Account at the Turn of the Year 1942-1943” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, contained within the book “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Volume 8: Letters and Papers from Prison” edited by John W. Gruchy, et al. Published in 2009 by Fortress Press.
Keywords: Danger_quotes Allow_quotes Drive_quotes Contempt_quotes Humanity_quotes Real_quotes Despise_quotes Another_quotes Human_quotes Being_quotes Able_quotes Foreign_quotes

Max_Born

Experience and Knowledge

“But in practical affairs, particularly in politics, men are needed who combine human experience and interest in human relations with a knowledge of science and technology. Moreover, they must be men of action and not contemplation. I have the impression that no method of education can produce people with all the qualities required. I am haunted by the idea that this break in human civilization, caused by the discovery of the scientific method, may be irreparable.”
  • Source: Max Born, My Life & My Views (1968), 57-8.
Keywords: Political_quotes Humanity_quotes Experience_quotes Interest_quotes Science_quotes Technology_quotes Contemplation_quotes Action_quotes Education_quotes Civilization_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Practical_quotes Affair_quotes Men_quotes Need_quotes Combine_quotes Relation_quotes Knowledge_quotes Impression_quotes Produce_quotes People_quotes Quality_quotes Require_quotes Haunt_quotes Idea_quotes Break_quotes Discovery_quotes Irreparable_quotes

George_E_P_Box

Slow Progress

“History shows that the human animal has always learned but progress used to be very slow. This was because learning often depended on the chance coming together of a potentially informative event on the one hand and a perceptive observer on the other. Scientific method accelerated that process.”
  • Source: George E.P. Box, in the article ‘Total Quality: Its Origins and its Future’, published 1995 at the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement.
Keywords: History_quotes Learning_quotes Humanity_quotes Progress_quotes Chance_quotes Randomness_quotes Perception_quotes Observation_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Show_quotes Animal_quotes Slow_quotes Depend_quotes Potential_quotes Information_quotes Event_quotes Hand_quotes Acceleration_quotes Process_quotes

Robert_N_Britcher

Consciousness

“Consciousness is a word created by humans, in this case English-speaking humans, to describe something humans know nothing about.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 28.
Keywords: Consciousness_quotes Word_quotes Language_quotes Humanity_quotes Knowledge_quotes Ignorance_quotes Create_quotes Speak_quotes Description_quotes

Human Element

“The real scoop on programming and software is the human element. I didn't know Alan Turing or John von Neuman or the other inventors, but I've known plenty of programmers. We are just like everyone, part this, part that. Except we have to deal with enormous complexity, which springs upon us only after we are too far into what started out to be kind of fun - coding an algorithm and watching it run on a machine. Then it's too late and it all becomes work, very stressful work.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 28.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Software_quotes Humanity_quotes Programmer_quotes Complexity_quotes Algorithm_quotes Machine_quotes Work_quotes Stress_quotes Real_quotes Scoop_quotes Element_quotes Human_quotes Turing(topic)_quotes Neuman(topic)_quotes Inventor_quotes Plenty_quotes Part_quotes Deal_quotes Enormous_quotes Spring_quotes Far_quotes Start_quotes Fun_quotes Coding_quotes Watch_quotes Run_quotes Late_quotes

C_West_Churchman

Society Complex

“It is sheer nonsense to expect that any human being has yet been able to attain such insight into the problems of society that he can really identify the central problems and determine how they should be solved. The systems in which we live are far too complicated as yet for our intellectual powers and technology to understand.”
  • Source: C. West Churchman in the book The Systems Approach (1968), p. x.
Keywords: System_quotes Humanity_quotes Nonsense_quotes Expectation_quotes Understanding_quotes Insight_quotes Problem_quotes Society_quotes Solution_quotes Complexity_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Technology_quotes

William_Kingdon_Clifford

Insufficient Evidence

"To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it-- the life of that man is one long sin against mankind."
Keywords: Wrong_quotes Belief_quotes Insufficient_quotes Evidence_quotes Doubt_quotes Mind_quotes Ignorance_quotes Question_quotes Discussion_quotes Sin_quotes Evil_quotes Humanity_quotes Summarize_quotes Teach_quotes Learning_quotes Persuasion_quotes Suppression_quotes Avoid_quotes Reading_quotes Book_quotes Company_quotes Men_quotes Man_quotes Impious_quotes Easy_quotes Disturb_quotes Life_quotes Mankind_quotes

Tom_DeMarco and Tim_Lister

The Light Is Better There

“The main reason we tend to focus on the technical rather than the human side of the work is not because it’s more crucial, but because it’s easier to do. Getting the new disk drive installed is positively trivial compared to figuring out why Horace is in a blue funk or why Susan is dissatisfied with the company after only a few months. Human interactions are complicated and never very crisp and clean in their effects, but they matter more than any other aspect of the work. If you find yourself concentrating on the technology rather than the sociology, you’re like the vaudeville character who loses his keys on a dark street and looks for them on the adjacent street because, as he explains, ‘The light is better there.’”
  • Source: Book: Entitled: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Edition: 3rd. Written by: Tom DeMarco; Tim Lister. Date published: 1987; 1999; 2013. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Country: USA; GBR; CAN; DEU; FRA; ESP; ZAF; AUS; JPN; SGP; MEX. Language: en. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-321-93411-6 (alk paper); 0-321-93411-3 (alk paper). Chapter: 1 (Somewhere Today, a Project Is Failing).
Keywords: Reason_quotes Focus_quotes Humanity_quotes Work_quotes Critical_quotes Easy_quotes Sociology_quotes Technology_quotes Street_quotes Key_quotes Dark_quotes Light_quotes Priority_quotes Trivial_quotes Funk_quotes Dissatisfied_quotes Company_quotes Complexity_quotes Aspect_quotes Concentrate_quotes Vaudeville_quotes Character_quotes Better_quotes

Cheeseburgers

"Development is inherently different from production. But managers of development and allied efforts often allow their thinking to be shaped by a management philosophy derived entirely from a production environment.
Imagine for the moment that you’re the manager of the local fast food franchise. It makes perfect sense for you to take any or all of the following efficient production measures:
- Squeeze out error. Make the machine (the human machine) run as smoothly as possible.
- Take a hard line about people goofing off on the job.
- Treat workers as interchangeable pieces of the machine.
- Optimize the steady state. (Don’t even think about how the operation got up to speed, or what it would take to close it down.)
- Standardize procedure. Do everything by the book.
- Eliminate experimentation—that’s what the folks at headquarters are paid for.
These would be reasonable approaches if you were in the fast food business (or any production environment), but you’re not. The 'make a cheeseburger, sell a cheeseburger' mentality can be fatal in your development area. It can only serve to damp your people’s spirits and focus their attention away from the real problems at hand. This style of management will be directly at odds with the work.
To manage thinking workers effectively, you need to take measures nearly opposite those listed above."
  • Source: Book: Entitled: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Edition: 3rd. Written by: Tom DeMarco; Tim Lister. Date published: 1987; 1999; 2013. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Country: USA; GBR; CAN; DEU; FRA; ESP; ZAF; AUS; JPN; SGP; MEX. Language: en. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-321-93411-6 (alk paper); 0-321-93411-3 (alk paper). Chapter: 2 (Make a Cheeseburger, Sell a Cheeseburger).
Keywords: Cheeseburger_quotes Differences_quotes Production_quotes Development_quotes Manager_quotes Management_quotes Thinking_quotes Philosophy_quotes Environment_quotes Fast_Food_quotes Efficiency_quotes Error_quotes Machine_quotes Humanity_quotes Job_quotes Work_quotes Goofing_Off_quotes Worker_quotes Interchangeable_quotes Fungibility_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Optimization_quotes Change_quotes Steady_State_quotes Innovation_quotes Standards_quotes Book_quotes Experiment_quotes Headquarter_quotes Mentality_quotes Fatal_quotes Damp_quotes Imagination_quotes Steady_quotes State_quotes Eliminate_quotes Reason_quotes Make_quotes Sell_quotes Problem_quotes Effective_quotes Opposite_quotes

Arthur_Conan_Doyle

Life Strange

“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
Keywords: Life_quotes Infinite_quotes Strange_quotes Anything_quotes Mind_quotes Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Invent_quotes

Peter_Drucker

Weaknesses and Strengths

"A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people's weaknesses rather than on their strengths."
  • Source: Peter Drucker, “The Practice of Management” New York,: Harper, 1st ed. 1954 ; Routledge, 2012, p. 157.
Keywords: Man_quotes Humanity_quotes People_quotes Appoint_quotes Manager_quotes Position_quotes Vision_quotes Human_quotes Weakness_quotes Strength_quotes

Mistakes

“The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make - for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.”
  • Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management New York,: Harper, 1st ed. 1954 ; Routledge, 2012, p. 147.
Keywords: Better_quotes Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Mistake_quotes Make_quotes Try_quotes Promotion_quotes Top_quotes Level_quotes Job_quotes Big_quotes Mediocrity_quotes

Denis_Dutton

Capacity of Genius

“The continuous capacity of genius to surpass understanding remains a human constant.”
  • Source: Dutton, D. (2004). “The continuous capacity of genius to surpass understanding remains a human constant.” In Dutton (2004). An article. Entitled Of Human Accomplishment. Written by Denis Dutton. Published during 2004-02. Online at [1]. Published in a magazine. Entitled The New Criterion.
Keywords: Continuous_quotes Capacity_quotes Genius_quotes Understanding_quotes Humanity_quotes Surpass_quotes

Freeman_Dyson

Science and Society

“In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to the problems. Scientific experts are paid and encouraged to provide answers. The public does not have much use for a scientist who says, 'Sorry, but we don’t know.' The public prefers to listen to scientists who give confident answers to questions and make confident predictions of what will happen as a result of human activities. So it happens that the experts who talk publicly about politically contentious questions tend to speak more clearly than they think. They make confident predictions about the future, and end up believing their own predictions. Their predictions become dogmas which they do not question. The public is led to believe that the fashionable scientific dogmas are true, and it may sometimes happen that they are wrong. That is why heretics who question the dogmas are needed.”
  • Source: Freeman Dyson, Frederick S. Pardee Distinguished Lecture (Oct 2005), Boston University. Collected in 'Heretical Thoughts About Science and Society', A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (2007), 43-44.
Keywords: World_quotes Modern_quotes Science_quotes Society_quotes Interaction_quotes Perversity_quotes Technology_quotes Political_quotes Problem_quotes Politician_quotes People_quotes Answer_quotes Expert_quotes Knowledge_quotes Confidence_quotes Prediction_quotes Humanity_quotes Activity_quotes Talking_quotes Contention_quotes Thinking_quotes Future_quotes Belief_quotes Dogma_quotes Bias_quotes Heretical_quotes

Albert_Einstein

Magnificent Applied Science

“Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it. In war it serves that we may poison and mutilate each other. In peace it has made our lives hurried and uncertain. Instead of freeing us in great measure from spiritually exhausting labor, it has made men into slaves of machinery, who for the most part complete their monotonous long day's work with disgust and must continually tremble for their poor rations... It is not enough that you should understand about applied science in order that your work may increase man's blessings. Concern for the man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavours; concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”
  • Source: Albert Einstein [Speaker];
    • 1950-02-16 [Speech/Date]; California Institute of Technology [Location]; CalTech students [Audience];
    • 1950-02-17 [Reporting/Article/Date]; “Einstein Sees Lack in Applying Science” [Title]; Anonymous [Article/Author]; New York Times [Reporting/Newspaper]; 8 [Page];
Keywords: Science_quotes Happiness_quotes War_quotes Wisdom_quotes Peace_quotes Work_quotes Slavery_quotes Automation_quotes Ethics_quotes Values_quotes Empathy_quotes Labor_quotes Distribution_quotes Mind_quotes Humanity_quotes Mathematics_quotes Engineering_quotes Magnificent_quotes Applied_quotes Save_quotes Life_quotes Simple_quotes Answer_quotes Learn_quotes Sensible_quotes Poison_quotes Mutilate_quotes Hurry_quotes Uncertain_quotes Freedom_quotes Spiritual_quotes Exhausting_quotes Men_quotes Machinery_quotes Monotonous_quotes Long_quotes Day_quotes Disgust_quotes Continual_quotes Tremble_quotes Poor_quotes Rations_quotes Understand_quotes Increase_quotes Blessing_quotes Man_quotes Fate_quotes Chief_quotes Interest_quotes Technical_quotes Endeavour_quotes Concern_quotes Problem_quotes Unsolved_quotes Organization_quotes Creation_quotes Curse_quotes Mankind_quotes Forget_quotes Diagram_quotes Equation_quotes

Science Objective and Subjective

“Science as something already in existence, already completed, is the most objective, impersonal thing that we humans know. Science as something coming into being, as a goal, is just as subjectively, psychologically conditioned as are all other human endeavors.”
  • Source: Albert Einstein, address to the students of UCLA, February 1932.
    • Included in Builders of the Universe: From the Bible to the Theory of Relativity, written by Albert Einstein. Los Angeles, CA: U.S. Library Association, p. 91.
Keywords: Science_quotes Objectivity_quotes Subjectivity_quotes Humanity_quotes Psychology_quotes Reality_quotes Existence_quotes Completion_quotes Knowledge_quotes Impersonal_quotes Goal_quotes Condition_quotes Endeavor_quotes

Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

Science Unpoetical

“Science was false by being unpoetical. It assumed to explain a reptile or a mollusk, and isolated it — which is hunting for life in graveyards. Reptile or mollusk or man or angel only exists in system, in relation.”
  • Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson, In 'Letters and Social Aims: Poetry and Imagination', Prose works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1880), Vol. 3, 199.
Keywords: Poetry_quotes Science_quotes Explanation_quotes Reptile_quotes Life_quotes Search_quotes Hunting_quotes Graveyard_quotes Mollusk_quotes Humanity_quotes Angel_quotes Existence_quotes System_quotes Relationship_quotes

Man Thinking

“The scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.”
Keywords: Scholarship_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Humanity_quotes Thinking_quotes Degenerate_quotes Victim_quotes Society_quotes Imitation_quotes Parrot_quotes

Richard_Feynman

Unlike Ordinary Experience

“Because atomic behavior is so unlike ordinary experience, it is very difficult to get used to and it appears peculiar and mysterious to everyone, both to the novice and to the experienced physicist. Even the experts do not understand it the way they would like to, and it is perfectly reasonable that they should not, because all of direct, human experience and of human intuition applies to large objects. We know how large objects will act, but things on a small scale just do not act that way. So we have to learn about them in a sort of abstract or imaginative fashion and not by connection with our direct experience.”
Keywords: Quantum_quotes Atomic_quotes Ordinary_quotes Experience_quotes Difficulty_quotes Peculiar_quotes Mystery_quotes Novice_quotes Physicist_quotes Expert_quotes Reason_quotes Intuition_quotes Humanity_quotes Large_quotes Small_quotes Scale_quotes Abstraction_quotes Imagination_quotes Connection_quotes Understand_quotes Direct_quotes Apply_quotes Act_quotes Learn_quotes Object_quotes Fashion_quotes

Samuel_C_Florman

Drudgery

“Once the common man was released from drudgery, the engineers reasoned, he would inevitably become educated, cultured and ennobled, and this improvement in the race would also be to the credit of the engineering profession. Improved human beings, of course, would have to be happier human beings.”
  • 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 1, page 6.
Keywords: Engineer_quotes Common_quotes Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Release_quotes Drudgery_quotes Reason_quotes Inevitable_quotes Education_quotes Culture_quotes Ennoble_quotes Improvement_quotes Race_quotes Credit_quotes Engineering_quotes Profession_quotes Human_quotes Being_quotes Happy_quotes

Engineer Thinking

“They felt that they were improving the world, not only by their deeds, but also by their way of thinking. If engineers could solve problems by being open-minded and free of preconceptions and prejudices — by applying scientific methods — could not all men learn to think in this mode, and then would not ignorance, superstition and bigotry vanish?”
  • 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 1, page 7.
Keywords: Engineer_quotes Feel_quotes Improve_quotes World_quotes Deed_quotes Way_quotes Thinking_quotes Solve_quotes Problem_quotes Being_quotes Open_quotes Minded_quotes Free_quotes Preconception_quotes Prejudice_quotes Apply_quotes Scientific_quotes Method_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Men_quotes Humanity_quotes Learn_quotes Mode_quotes Ignorance_quotes Superstition_quotes Bigotry_quotes Vanish_quotes

Irrationality

“So for the foreseeable future man’s irrationality — which engineering philosophers have seen fit to ignore — will have to be taken very seriously into account. In retrospect, the ideals and dreams of engineering’s Golden Age seem foolish and immature.”
  • 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 2, page 16.
Keywords: Foresee_quotes Future_quotes Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Irrational_quotes Engineering_quotes Philosopher_quotes See_quotes Ignore_quotes Take_quotes Serious_quotes Account_quotes Retrospect_quotes Ideal_quotes Dream_quotes Golden_quotes Age_quotes Foolish_quotes Immature_quotes

Social Responsibility

“For if ever there was a group dedicated to — obsessed with — morality, conscience, and social responsibility, it has been the engineering profession. Practically every description of the practice of engineering has stressed the concept of service to humanity.”
  • 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 19.
Keywords: Group_quotes Dedicated_quotes Obsess_quotes Morality_quotes Conscience_quotes Social_quotes Responsibility_quotes Engineering_quotes Profession_quotes Description_quotes Practice_quotes Stress_quotes Concept_quotes Service_quotes Humanity_quotes

Regulations

“Civilized men had long recognized that laws and regulations, mutually agreed upon, are the only sound protection for society against the self-interest of each of us.”
  • 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 19.
Keywords: Civilize_quotes Men_quotes Humanity_quotes Recognize_quotes Law_quotes Regulation_quotes Mutual_quotes Agree_quotes Sound_quotes Protection_quotes Society_quotes Self-Interest_quotes Each_quotes

Character

“To the everlasting credit of man, he recognized early the imperfection of his character, and set about finding ways of coping with it so as to enable himself to live harmoniously in large groups.”
  • 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 6, page 84.
Keywords: Everlasting_quotes Credit_quotes Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Recognize_quotes Early_quotes Imperfect_quotes Character_quotes Find_quotes Way_quotes Cope_quotes Enable_quotes Live_quotes Harmony_quotes Large_quotes Group_quotes

Henry_Ford

Human Humanity

“It is a shock when the mind awakens to the fact that not all of humanity is human – that whole groups of people do not regard others with humane feelings.”
  • Source: Henry Ford. A book. Entitled My Life and Work. Written by Henry Ford in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Published 1922, Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Chapter XVIII.
Keywords: Shock_quotes Mind_quotes Awake_quotes Fact_quotes Humanity_quotes People_quotes Regard_quotes Empathy_quotes Feel_quotes Humane_quotes

Gordon_Glegg

Engineers and Designers Are Human

“Throughout this book we have talked about 'designers' and 'engineers' and sought, by analysing their work, to find general and helpful maxims. But there is a danger in doing this, for we may forget that a 'designer' or 'engineer' is first and foremost a human being. A human being who designs or engineers has, in addition, a wide range of complicated and interacting emotions. It is easy to become emotionally involved in a new invention and so resent criticism of it even when that criticism, if heeded, would turn a failure into a success. Confidence may be blinded by conceit or undermined by an inferiority complex. History has shown that many new inventions were not inventions at all; they were re-inventions. The idea was not new but the determination to press through with it was. Character is the foundation of ability. Develop as large a safety margin as you can against such things as laziness, impatience, prejudice and arrogance and all the other human failings that inhibit constructive achievement in all spheres, especially that of creative engineering design.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 6, page 92.
Keywords: Design_quotes Engineering_quotes Work_quotes Maxim_quotes Danger_quotes Forget_quotes Humanity_quotes Complexity_quotes Emotion_quotes Invention_quotes Criticism_quotes Resentment_quotes Failure_quotes Success_quotes Confidence_quotes Conceit_quotes Inferior_quotes History_quotes Idea_quotes Determination_quotes Character_quotes Ability_quotes Safe_quotes Lazy_quotes Impatience_quotes Prejudice_quotes Arrogance_quotes Achievement_quotes Sphere_quotes Creativity_quotes Analyze_quotes Human_quotes Interacting_quotes Heed_quotes Blind_quotes Reinvention_quotes Inhibit_quotes Constructive_quotes

Stephen_Hawking

Artificial Intelligence

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. We cannot quite know what will happen if a machine exceeds our own intelligence, so we can't know if we'll be infinitely helped by it, or ignored by it and sidelined, or conceivably destroyed by it.”

Robert_Heinlein

Rational Animal

“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.”
  • Source: Written by Robert A. Heinlein in the magazine series “Gulf” published in 1949-11 and 1949-12 issues of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Page 59. Character: Dr. Baldwin. Online at https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AST.htm retrieved 2024-05-05.
Keywords: Man_quotes Rational_quotes Humanity_quotes Rationalizing_quotes Animal_quotes

Sabine_Hossenfelder

Religion and Science

“I am not opposed to religious belief. Science has limits, and yet humanity has always sought meaning beyond those limits. Some do it by studying holy scripture, some meditate, some dig philosophy, some smoke funny things. That’s all fine with me, really. Provided that—and here’s the crux—your search for meaning respects scientific fact. If your belief conflicts with empirically confirmed knowledge, then you are not seeking meaning; you are delusional.”
  • Source: Hossenfelder, Sabine. Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (p. xvii). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: Oppose_quotes Religion_quotes Belief_quotes Science_quotes Limit_quotes Humanity_quotes Seek_quotes Beyond_quotes Study_quotes Holy_quotes Scripture_quotes Meditation_quotes Dig_quotes Philosophy_quotes Smoke_quotes Funny_quotes Crux_quotes Search_quotes Meaning_quotes Respect_quotes Fact_quotes Conflict_quotes Empirical_quotes Confirm_quotes Knowledge_quotes Delusional_quotes

Brooks_Jackson and Kathleen_Hall_Jamieson

Fact Driven

“Humans are not by nature the fact-driven, rational beings we like to think we are. We get the facts wrong more often than we think we do. And we do so in predictable ways: we engage in wishful thinking. We embrace information that supports our beliefs and reject evidence that challenges them. Our minds tend to take shortcuts, which require some effort to avoid ... [and] more often than most of us would imagine, the human mind operates in ways that defy logic.”
  • Source: Brooks Jackson, As co-author with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, in unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation (2007), 69.
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Nature_quotes Fact_quotes Reason_quotes Wrong_quotes Bias_quotes Prediction_quotes Thinking_quotes Wish_quotes Information_quotes Belief_quotes Rejection_quotes Evidence_quotes Challenge_quotes Mind_quotes Shortcut_quotes Effort_quotes Avoidance_quotes Imagination_quotes Logic_quotes Support_quotes

Psychological Experiments

“Psychological experiments have shown ... that humans tend to seek out even weak evidence to support their existing beliefs, and to ignore evidence that undercuts those beliefs. In the process, we apply stringent tests to evidence we don't want to hear, while letting slide uncritically into our minds any information that suits our needs.”
  • Source: Brooks Jackson, As co-author with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, in unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation (2007), 69-70.
Keywords: Psychology_quotes Experiment_quotes Humanity_quotes Seek_quotes Weakness_quotes Evidence_quotes Support_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Belief_quotes Testing_quotes Hearing_quotes Critical_quotes Mind_quotes Information_quotes Suitability_quotes Need_quotes Exist_quotes Ignore_quotes Undercut_quotes Stringent_quotes

Carl_Jung

Insoluble Problems

“I always worked with the temperamental conviction that fundamentally there are no insoluble problems, and experience justified me in so far as I have often seen individuals simply outgrow a problem which had destroyed others. This ‘outgrowing’, as I formerly called it, on further experience was seen to consist in a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest arose on the person's horizon, and through this widening of his view the insoluble problem lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own terms, but faded out when confronted with a new and stronger life-tendency. It was not repressed and made unconscious, but merely appeared in a different light, and so did indeed become different. What, on a lower level, had led to the wildest conflicts and to panicky outbursts of emotion, viewed from the higher level of the personality, now seemed like a storm in the valley seen from a high mountain-top. This does not mean that the thunderstorm is robbed of its reality, but instead of being in it, one is now above it. However, since we are both valley and mountain with respect to the psyche, it might seem a vain illusion to feel oneself beyond what is human. One certainly does feel the affect and is shaken and tormented by it, yet at the same time one is aware of a higher consciousness, which prevents one from becoming identical with the affect, a consciousness which takes the affect objectively, and can say, Ί know that I suffer'.”
Keywords: Conviction_quotes Insoluble_quotes Problem_quotes Experience_quotes Justification_quotes Individual_quotes Growth_quotes Destruction_quotes Consciousness_quotes Interest_quotes Horizon_quotes View_quotes Urgent_quotes Solution_quotes Logic_quotes Life_quotes Repression_quotes Unconscious_quotes Light_quotes Differences_quotes Level_quotes Conflict_quotes Wild_quotes Panic_quotes Emotion_quotes Personality_quotes Storm_quotes Valley_quotes Mountain_quotes Reality_quotes Objectivity_quotes Illusion_quotes Humanity_quotes Torment_quotes Identical_quotes Suffering_quotes

Sad Truth

“The sad truth is that man's real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites — day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.”
  • Source: Written by Carl G. Jung in Part 1 'Approaching the Unconscious' of the book 'Man and His Symbols' edited by Carl Jung and M.-L. von Franz. Published 1964 by J. G. Ferguson Publishing. ISBN 0-385-05221-9. Page 85.
Keywords: Sad_quotes Truth_quotes Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Real_quotes Life_quotes Complex_quotes Inexorable_quotes Opposite_quotes Day_quotes Night_quotes Birth_quotes Death_quotes Happiness_quotes Misery_quotes Good_quotes Evil_quotes Sure_quotes Prevail_quotes Against_quotes Overcome_quotes Joy_quotes Defeat_quotes Pain_quotes Battleground_quotes Always_quotes Be_quotes Existence_quotes Come_quotes End_quotes

Greatest Danger

“It is not famine, not earthquakes, not microbes, not cancer, but man himself who is man's greatest danger to man, for the simple reason that there is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes.”
  • Source: Written by Carl G. Jung, included in the book ‘The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 18)’, published by Princeton University Press in 1977, ISBN 0691098921. Part XI ‘Civilization in Transition’, section ‘Epilogue to Jung’, originally written 1944.
Keywords: Famine_quotes Earthquake_quotes Microbe_quotes Cancer_quotes Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Greatest_quotes Danger_quotes Reason_quotes Adequate_quotes Protection_quotes Psychic_quotes Epidemic_quotes Infinite_quotes Devastate_quotes Worse_quotes Natural_quotes Catastrophe_quotes

Laws and Teachings

“Laws and teachings held in common compel people to solitude, so that they may escape the pressure of undesirable contact, but solitude makes people hostile and venomous. Therefore give people dignity and let each of them stand apart, so that each may find his own fellowship and love it. Power stands against power, contempt against contempt, love against love. Give humanity dignity, and trust that life will find the better way.”
  • Source: Written by Carl G. Jung in ‘The Red Book’, also known as ‘Liber Novus’, which was originally written from 1914 to 1930. It was first published in 2009 by W. W. Norton in a facsimile edition, complete with an English translation. The edition used here is the book ‘The Red Book: Liber Novus: A Reader's Edition’, written by C. G. Jung, edited with an introduction by Sonu Shamdasani, translated by Mark Kyburz, John Peck, and Sonu Shamdasani; published by W. W. Norton in 2012; ISBN 978-0393089080; Page 126.
Keywords: Law_quotes Teaching_quotes Hold_quotes Common_quotes Compel_quotes People_quotes Solitude_quotes Escape_quotes Pressure_quotes Undesirable_quotes Contact_quotes Hostile_quotes Venomous_quotes Dignity_quotes Stand_quotes Apart_quotes Each_quotes Find_quotes Fellowship_quotes Love_quotes Power_quotes Contempt_quotes Humanity_quotes Trust_quotes Life_quotes Better_quotes Way_quotes

Immanuel_Kant

Character

“If it were possible for us to have so deep an insight into a man's character as shown both in inner and in outer actions, that every, even the least, incentive to these actions and all external occasions which affect them were so known to us that his future conduct could be predicted with as great a certainty as the occurrence of a solar or lunar eclipse, we could nevertheless still assert that the man is free.”
  • Source: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788). In L. W. Beck (ed. & trans.), Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy (1949), 204-5.
Keywords: Insight_quotes Character_quotes Action_quotes Incentive_quotes Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Certainty_quotes Eclipse_quotes Humanity_quotes Freedom_quotes Sun_quotes Moon_quotes Possible_quotes Man_quotes Inner_quotes Outer_quotes External_quotes Occasion_quotes Knowledge_quotes Conduct_quotes Occurence_quotes Solar_quotes Lunar_quotes Assert_quotes Free_quotes

John_F_Kennedy

Resources

“Malthus argued a century and a half ago that man, by using up all his available resources, would forever press on the limits of subsistence, thus condemning humanity to an indefinite future of misery and poverty. We can now begin to hope and, I believe, know that Malthus was expressing not a law of nature, but merely the limitation then of scientific and social wisdom. The truth or falsity of his prediction will depend now, with the tools we have, on our own actions, now and in the years to come.”
  • Source: John F. Kennedy, From Address to the Centennial Convocation of the National Academy of Sciences (22 Oct 1963), 'A Century of Scientific Conquest'. Online at The American Presidency Project.
Keywords: Century_quotes Humanity_quotes Resource_quotes Limitation_quotes Subsistence_quotes Condemnation_quotes Indefinite_quotes Future_quotes Misery_quotes Poverty_quotes Hope_quotes Belief_quotes Law_quotes Nature_quotes Science_quotes Wisdom_quotes Society_quotes Truth_quotes Falsehood_quotes Prediction_quotes Dependency_quotes Tool_quotes Action_quotes Scarcity_quotes Abundance_quotes Malthus(topic)_quotes Argue_quotes Man_quotes Express_quotes Year_quotes Malthusian_quotes

John_Maynard_Keynes

Technological Unemployment

“In our own lifetimes... we may be able to perform all the operations of agriculture, mining, and manufacture with a quarter of the human effort to which we have been accustomed. For the moment the very rapidity of these changes is hurting us and bringing difficult problems to solve... We are being afflicted with... technological unemployment. This means unemployment due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour. But this is only a temporary phase of maladjustment... In the long run... mankind is solving its economic problem. I would predict that the standard of life in progressive countries one hundred years hence will be between four and eight times as high as it is today.”
  • 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: Lifetime_quotes Perform_quotes Ability_quotes Operation_quotes Agriculture_quotes Mining_quotes Manufacturing_quotes Quarter_quotes Human_quotes Effort_quotes Rapid_quotes Change_quotes Hurt_quotes Bring_quotes Difficult_quotes Problem_quotes Solve_quotes Afflict_quotes Technology_quotes Unemployment_quotes Employment_quotes Discover_quotes Means_quotes Economize_quotes Labor_quotes Outrun_quotes Pace_quotes Find_quotes Use_quotes Temporary_quotes Phase_quotes Maladjustment_quotes Adjustment_quotes Long_quotes Run_quotes Mankind_quotes Humanity_quotes Economic_quotes Prediction_quotes Standard_quotes Life_quotes Living_quotes Progressive_quotes Country_quotes Hundred_quotes Year_quotes High_quotes Today_quotes

Traditional Purpose

“Thus, we have been expressly evolved by nature — with all our impulses and deepest instincts — for the purpose of solving the economic problem. If the economic problem is solved, mankind will be deprived of its traditional purpose. Will this be a benefit? If one believes at all in the real values of life, the prospect at least opens up the possibility of benefit. Yet I think with dread of the readjustment of the habits and instincts of the ordinary man, bred into him for countless generations, which he may be asked to discard within a few decades.”
  • 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: Express_quotes Evolve_quotes Nature_quotes Impulse_quotes Deep_quotes Instinct_quotes Purpose_quotes Solve_quotes Economic_quotes Problem_quotes Mankind_quotes Humanity_quotes Deprive_quotes Traditional_quotes Benefit_quotes Believe_quotes Real_quotes Value_quotes Life_quotes Prospect_quotes Open_quotes Up_quotes Possibility_quotes Think_quotes Dread_quotes Readjustment_quotes Adjustment_quotes Habit_quotes Ordinary_quotes Man_quotes Human_quotes Bred_quotes Countless_quotes Generation_quotes Ask_quotes Discard_quotes Few_quotes Decade_quotes

Pierre-Simon_Laplace

System of Nature

“The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what it was in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence that at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respective position, motions, and general affects of all these entities at any time in the past or future. Physical astronomy, the branch of knowledge that does the greatest honor to the human mind, gives us an idea, albeit imperfect, of what such an intelligence would be. The simplicity of the law by which the celestial bodies move, and the relations of their masses and distances, permit analysis to follow their motions up to a certain point; and in order to determine the state of the system of these great bodies in past or future centuries, it suffices for the mathematician that their position and their velocity be given by observation for any moment in time. Man owes that advantage to the power of the instrument he employs, and to the small number of relations that it embraces in its calculations. But ignorance of the different causes involved in the production of events, as well as their complexity, taken together with the imperfection of analysis, prevents our reaching the same certainty about the vast majority of phenomena. Thus there are things that are uncertain for us, things more or less probable, and we seek to compensate for the impossibility of knowing them by determining their different degrees of likelihood. So it was that we owe to the weakness of the human mind one of the most delicate and ingenious of mathematical theories, the science of chance or probability.”
  • Source: Pierre-Simon Laplace, 'Recherches, 1º, sur l'Intégration des Équations Différentielles aux Différences Finies, et sur leur Usage dans la Théorie des Hasards' (1773, published 1776). In Oeuvres complètes de Laplace, 14 Vols. (1843-1912), Vol. 8, 144-5, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 26.
Keywords: State_quotes Present_quotes System_quotes Nature_quotes Consequence_quotes Moment_quotes Precede_quotes Conceive_quotes Intelligence_quotes Instant_quotes Comprehension_quotes Relationship_quotes Universe_quotes Position_quotes Motion_quotes Causality_quotes Time_quotes Past_quotes Future_quotes Astronomy_quotes Knowledge_quotes Humanity_quotes Mind_quotes Idea_quotes Imperfect_quotes Law_quotes Celestial_quotes Body_quotes Mass_quotes Distance_quotes Analysis_quotes Determine_quotes Century_quotes Mathematics_quotes Velocity_quotes Observation_quotes Advantage_quotes Power_quotes Instrument_quotes Calculation_quotes Ignorance_quotes Cause_quotes Production_quotes Event_quotes Complexity_quotes Certainty_quotes Majority_quotes Phenomena_quotes Probability_quotes Impossibility_quotes Likelihood_quotes Weakness_quotes Theory_quotes Chance_quotes

Thomas_Robert_Malthus

Population and Subsistence

“I think I may fairly make two postulata. First, That food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary, and will remain nearly in its present state... Assuming then my postulata as granted, I say, that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man. Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio... This implies a strong and constantly operating check on population from the difficulty of subsistence. This difficulty must fall somewhere; and must necessarily be severely felt by a large portion of mankind... The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food, and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years... Consequently, if the premises are just, the argument is conclusive against the perfectibility of the mass of mankind.”
  • 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.
  • Notes: The dire predictions of Malthus have not yet been fulfilled. This is primarily due to errors in his initial assumptions (which are properly identified), not in errors in his logic. The first assumption (or postulatum) is that food production increases arithmetically (linearly). But historically, food production has increased geometrically (exponentially) due to advances in mechanical technologies and biotechnologies. The second assumption assumes passion and birth rates are directly correlated. However, technological advances in birth control, cultural advances in women's rights, and rising prosperity (which lowers birth rates) have falsified this assumption. Additional questionable assumptions are also made which are not initially specified.
Keywords: Think_quotes Fair_quotes Assumption_quotes Postulate_quotes Food_quotes Existence_quotes Passion_quotes Sex_quotes Man_quotes Woman_quotes Remain_quotes Grant_quotes Power_quotes Population_quotes Indefinite_quotes Greater_quotes Earth_quotes World_quotes Production_quotes Subsistence_quotes Uncheck_quotes Increase_quotes Geometric_quotes Exponential_quotes Ratio_quotes Arithmetic_quotes Linear_quotes Imply_quotes Strong_quotes Constant_quotes Operate_quotes Check_quotes Difficult_quotes Fall_quotes Necessary_quotes Severe_quotes Feel_quotes Large_quotes Portion_quotes Mankind_quotes Humanity_quotes Germ_quotes Contain_quotes Spot_quotes Ample_quotes Room_quotes Expand_quotes Fill_quotes Course_quotes Few_quotes Thousand_quotes Year_quotes Premises_quotes Argument_quotes Consequence_quotes Conclusive_quotes Against_quotes Perfectibility_quotes Mass_quotes Hunger_quotes Starvation_quotes Malthusian_quotes

Karl_Marx

Religion

“Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower.”
  • Source: Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Introduction..., p. 1 (1843).
Keywords: Religion_quotes Suffering_quotes Protest_quotes Oppression_quotes World_quotes Heartless_quotes Soul_quotes Opium_quotes Abolition_quotes Illusion_quotes Happiness_quotes People_quotes Humanity_quotes Criticism_quotes Embryo_quotes Crying_quotes Subjugation_quotes Chain_quotes Fantasy_quotes Consolation_quotes Flower_quotes Expression_quotes Sigh_quotes Creature_quotes Heart_quotes Demand_quotes Vale_quotes Tear_quotes Halo_quotes Bear_quotes Pluck_quotes

Abraham_Maslow

Selfhood

“...it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being... there is an active will towards health, an impulse towards growth, or toward the actualization of human potentialities. But at once we are confronted with the saddening realization that so few people make it. Only a small proportion of the human population get to the point of identity, or of selfhood, full humanness, self-actualization.”
  • Source: Abraham H. Maslow, ‘Farther Reaches of Human Nature’ (1971), ISBN 0140194703.
Keywords: Reason_quotes Assumption_quotes Free_Will_quotes Health_quotes Growth_quotes Actualization_quotes Potential_quotes Humanity_quotes Confront_quotes Sad_quotes Realization_quotes People_quotes Population_quotes Identity_quotes Selfhood_quotes Self-Actualization_quotes Human_quotes Active_quotes Will_quotes Impulse_quotes Proportion_quotes

Henry_Louis_Mencken

Explanations

“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.”
  • Source: In the article entitled 'The Divine Afflatus' by Henry Louis Mencken, published in the New York Evening Mail, 16 November 1917.
Keywords: Explanation_quotes Existence_quotes Time_quotes Knowledge_quotes Solution_quotes Problem_quotes Humanity_quotes Neat_quotes Plausible_quotes Wrong_quotes

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

Morality

“It was morality that burned the books of the ancient sages, and morality that halted the free inquiry of the Golden Age and substituted for it the credulous imbecility of the Age of Faith. It was a fixed moral code and a fixed theology which robbed the human race of a thousand years by wasting them upon alchemy, heretic-burning, witchcraft and sacerdotalism.”
  • Source: Written by Henry Louis Mencken in the book 'The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche' published by Unwin in 1908 in London, England.
Keywords: Morality_quotes Burn_quotes Book_quotes Ancient_quotes Sage_quotes Halt_quotes Freedom_quotes Inquiry_quotes Gold_quotes Age_quotes Credibility_quotes Imbecile_quotes Faith_quotes Code_quotes Fixed_quotes Theology_quotes Rob_quotes Humanity_quotes Year_quotes Alchemy_quotes Witchcraft_quotes Sacerdotalism_quotes Waste_quotes

Isaac_Newton

Gravity

“It is inconceivable that inanimate matter should, without the mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon, and affect other matter without mutual contact... That gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance thro' a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers.”
  • Source: Original letter from Isaac Newton to Richard Bentley. Source 189.R.4.47, ff. 7-8, Trinity College Library, Cambridge, UK. Retrieved 2019-11-15 from http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00258.
    • Also quoted in Remler, Michael P.. The Mechanisms, Metaphysics, and History of Consciousness in the World . First Edition Design Publishing. Chapter 11.
    • Also quoted in Joseph Berkovitz, Action at a Distance in Quantum Mechanics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter, 2008.
Keywords: Body_quotes Action_quotes Distance_quotes Vacuum_quotes Mediation_quotes Absurdity_quotes Belief_quotes Humanity_quotes Philosophy_quotes Matter_quotes Competence_quotes Faculty_quotes Thinking_quotes Fall_quotes Gravity_quotes Force_quotes Inconceivable_quotes Inanimate_quotes Operate_quotes Affect_quotes Mutual_quotes Innate_quotes Inherent_quotes Essential_quotes Convey_quotes Agent_quotes Material_quotes Immaterial_quotes Left_quotes Consideration_quotes Reader_quotes

Friedrich_Nietzsche

Believe or Inquire

“Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.”
  • Source: Friedrich Nietzsche in a letter to his sister Elizabeth 1865-06-11.
Keywords: Way_quotes Humanity_quotes Wish_quotes Strive_quotes Soul_quotes Pleasure_quotes Belief_quotes Devotee_quotes Truth_quotes Inquiry_quotes Peace_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

Knowledge and Wisdom

“Both knowledge and wisdom extend man's reach. Knowledge led to computers, wisdom to chopsticks.”
Keywords: Knowledge_quotes Wisdom_quotes Extension_quotes Humanity_quotes Reach_quotes Computer_quotes Chopsticks_quotes

Steven_Pinker

Human Machine and Free Agent

“A human being is simultaneously a machine and a sentient free agent, depending on the purpose of the discussion, just as he is also a taxpayer, an insurance salesman, a dental patient, and two hundred pounds of ballast on a commuter airplane, depending on the purpose of the discussion.”
  • Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 1 Section Psychological Correctness.
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Simultaneous_quotes Machine_quotes Sentient_quotes Free_quotes Free_Will_quotes Agent_quotes Dependence_quotes Purpose_quotes Discussion_quotes Taxpayer_quotes Insurance_quotes Salesman_quotes Dental_quotes Patient_quotes Ballast_quotes Airplane_quotes Commuter_quotes

Michael_Polanyi

Scientific Method Elucidation

“Almost every major systematic error which has deluded men for thousands of years relied on practical experience. Horoscopes, incantations, oracles, magic, witchcraft, the cures of witch doctors and of medical practitioners before the advent of modern medicine, were all firmly established through the centuries in the eyes of the public by their supposed practical successes. The scientific method was devised precisely for the purpose of elucidating the nature of things under more carefully controlled conditions and by more rigorous criteria than are present in the situations created by practical problems.”
  • Source: Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge (1958), 183.
Keywords: Major_quotes System_quotes Error_quotes Delusion_quotes Humanity_quotes Year_quotes Practical_quotes Experience_quotes Horoscope_quotes Incantation_quotes Oracle_quotes Magic_quotes Witchcraft_quotes Cure_quotes Witch-Doctor_quotes Medical_quotes Practitioner_quotes Modern_quotes Medicine_quotes Firm_quotes Establish_quotes Century_quotes Eye_quotes Public_quotes Suppose_quotes Success_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Devise_quotes Precision_quotes Purpose_quotes Elucidate_quotes Nature_quotes Careful_quotes Control_quotes Condition_quotes Rigorous_quotes Criteria_quotes Present_quotes Situation_quotes Create_quotes Problem_quotes Thousand_quotes Doctor_quotes Science_quotes Method_quotes

Karl_Popper

Theory Personality

“Understanding a theory has, indeed, much in common with understanding a human personality. We may know or understand a man's system of dispositions pretty well; that is to say, we may be able to predict how he would act in a number of different situations. But since there are infinitely many possible situations, of infinite variety, a full understanding of a man's dispositions does not seem to be possible.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, Objective Knowledge: an Evolutionary Approach (1972), 299.
Keywords: Understanding_quotes Theory_quotes Common_quotes Humanity_quotes Personality_quotes Knowledge_quotes System_quotes Disposition_quotes Prediction_quotes Differences_quotes Situation_quotes Infinity_quotes Possibility_quotes Variety_quotes Full_quotes Possible_quotes

Science Not Certain

“Science is not a system of certain, or established, statements; nor is it a system which steadily advances towards a state of finality... And our guesses are guided by the unscientific, the metaphysical (though biologically explicable) faith in laws, in regularities which we can uncover — discover. Like Bacon, we might describe our own contemporary science — 'the method of reasoning which men now ordinarily apply to nature' — as consisting of 'anticipations, rash and premature' and as 'prejudices'.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959), 278.
Keywords: Science_quotes System_quotes Certainty_quotes Establish_quotes Statement_quotes Steady_quotes Advance_quotes State_quotes Final_quotes Guess_quotes Guide_quotes Unscientific_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Biology_quotes Explanation_quotes Faith_quotes Law_quotes Regular_quotes Uncover_quotes Discovery_quotes Description_quotes Contemporary_quotes Methodology_quotes Reason_quotes Humanity_quotes Ordinary_quotes Apply_quotes Nature_quotes Consist_quotes Anticipation_quotes Rash_quotes Premature_quotes Prejudice_quotes Bacon(topic)_quotes

Irresponsible Dreams

“The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there. In most other fields of human endeavour there is change, but rarely progress ... And in most fields we do not even know how to evaluate change.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, From Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), 216. Reproduced in Karl Popper, Truth, Rationality and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1979), 9.
Keywords: History_quotes Science_quotes Humanity_quotes Idea_quotes Irresponsible_quotes Dreaming_quotes Obstinate_quotes Error_quotes Activity_quotes System_quotes Criticism_quotes Often_quotes Time_quotes Correction_quotes Learning_quotes Mistake_quotes Speak_quotes Clear_quotes Sensibility_quotes Progress_quotes Field_quotes Endeavour_quotes Change_quotes Evaluation_quotes

Willard_Van_Orman_Quine

Careful Scientists

“The scientist is indistinguishable from the common man in his sense of evidence, except that the scientist is more careful.”
  • Source: Willard Van Orman Quine, 'The Scope and Language of Science' (1954),' reprinted in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (1957), 8, 5.
Keywords: Scientist_quotes Indistinguishable_quotes Common_quotes Humanity_quotes Sense_quotes Evidence_quotes Exception_quotes Careful_quotes Man_quotes

Will_Rogers

Great Time to Know Something

"This would be a great time in the world for some man to come along that knew something."
  • Source: Will Rogers. Daily Telegram #1611, Mr. Rogers Thinks Its Time That A Smart Man Came Along (21 September 1931) in Rogers, W. P. A. (1979). Will Rogers’ Daily Telegrams: Volume 3: The Hoover Years 1931-1933. (J. M. Smallwood & S. K. Gragert, Eds.) (Vol. 3).
Keywords: Great_quotes Time_quotes World_quotes Humanity_quotes Knowledge_quotes

Royal_Society

On No Man's Word

“Nullius in Verba. - On no man’s word.”
  • Source: Motto of the Royal Society, Royal Society of London
  • Notes: The Royal Society's motto 'Nullius in verba' is taken to mean 'take nobody's word for it'. It is an expression of the determination of Fellows to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment. See https://royalsociety.org/about-us/history/
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Word_quotes Skeptical_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Evidence_quotes Man_quotes Science_quotes Method_quotes

Bertrand_Russell

Exact Science Approximate

“Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man. Every careful measurement in science is always given with the probable error ... every observer admits that he is likely wrong and knows about how much wrong he is likely to be.”
  • Source: Bertrand Russell, In The Scientific Outlook (1931, 2009), 42
Keywords: Paradox_quotes Seem_quotes Exact_quotes Science_quotes Domination_quotes Idea_quotes Approximation_quotes Humanity_quotes Truth_quotes Safe_quotes Inference_quotes Inexact_quotes Careful_quotes Measurement_quotes Probability_quotes Error_quotes Observation_quotes Wrong_quotes Knowledge_quotes Man_quotes

Fire Burns

“The first man who said 'fire burns' was employing scientific method, at any rate if he had allowed himself to be burnt several times. This man had already passed through the two stages of observation and generalization. He had not, however, what scientific technique demands — a careful choice of significant facts on the one hand, and, on the other hand, various means of arriving at laws otherwise than by mere generalization.”
  • Source: Bertrand Russell, (1931), In The Scientific Outlook (1931, 2009), 3.
Keywords: First_quotes Humanity_quotes Fire_quotes Burn_quotes Employment_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Allow_quotes Repeatability_quotes Stage_quotes Observation_quotes Generality_quotes Demand_quotes Careful_quotes Choice_quotes Significance_quotes Fact_quotes Hand_quotes Arrive_quotes Law_quotes Man_quotes Science_quotes Method_quotes

Rational Man

“Thus the rational man, who attaches to each proposition the right degree of credibility, will be guided by the mathematical theory of probability when it is applicable.”
  • Source: Russell, B. (1948). Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Part V Chap. 6.
Keywords: Reason_quotes Humanity_quotes Man_quotes Attach_quotes Proposal_quotes Right_quotes Degree_quotes Credibility_quotes Guide_quotes Mathematics_quotes Theory_quotes Probability_quotes Application_quotes

Exact Theory Beyond Human Powers

“A wholly exact theory is utterly beyond human powers. Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.”
Keywords: Exact_quotes Theory_quotes Beyond_quotes Humanity_quotes Power_quotes Seem_quotes Paradox_quotes Science_quotes Domination_quotes Idea_quotes Approximation_quotes Safe_quotes Inference_quotes Inexact_quotes Truth_quotes Man_quotes

Carl_Sagan

Changing Opinion

“In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”
  • Source: Carl Sagan, Keynote address at CSICOP conference, 1987
Keywords: Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Often_quotes Happen_quotes Speak_quotes Good_quotes Argue_quotes Position_quotes Mistake_quotes Bias_quotes Change_quotes Mind_quotes Hearing_quotes Old_quotes View_quotes Do_quotes Humanity_quotes Pain_quotes Day_quotes Recall_quotes Political_quotes Religion_quotes

Religious Prophecy

“Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.”
  • Source: Carl Sagan. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1996.
Keywords: Thinking_quotes Religion_quotes Attempt_quotes Validation_quotes Prediction_quotes Prophecy_quotes People_quotes Reliance_quotes Vagueness_quotes Unfulfilled_quotes Support_quotes Prop_quotes Belief_quotes Accuracy_quotes Reliability_quotes Science_quotes Humanity_quotes Institution_quotes Closeness_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

George_Sarton

Science an Outgrowth of Life

“Abstract as it is, science is but an outgrowth of life. That is what the teacher must continually keep in mind. ... Let him explain ... science is not a dead system — the excretion of a monstrous pedantism — but really one of the most vigorous and exuberant phases of human life.”
  • Source: George (Alfred Léon) Sarton, In 'The Teaching of the History of Science', The Scientific Monthly (Sep 1918), 195-196.
Keywords: Abstraction_quotes Science_quotes Life_quotes Teaching_quotes Mind_quotes Explanation_quotes Dead_quotes System_quotes Excretion_quotes Outgrowth_quotes Monster_quotes Pedantism_quotes Vigor_quotes Exuberant_quotes Humanity_quotes

Scientific Progress

“No history of civilization can be tolerably complete which does not give considerable space to the explanation of scientific progress. If we had any doubts about this, it would suffice to ask ourselves what constitutes the essential difference between our and earlier civilizations. Throughout the course of history, in every period, and in almost every country, we find a small number of saints, of great artists, of men of science. The saints of today are not necessarily more saintly than those of a thousand years ago; our artists are not necessarily greater than those of early Greece; they are more likely to be inferior; and of course, our men of science are not necessarily more intelligent than those of old; yet one thing is certain, their knowledge is at once more extensive and more accurate. The acquisition and systematization of positive knowledge is the only human activity which is truly cumulative and progressive. Our civilization is essentially different from earlier ones, because our knowledge of the world and of ourselves is deeper, more precise, and more certain, because we have gradually learned to disentangle the forces of nature, and because we have contrived, by strict obedience to their laws, to capture them and to divert them to the gratification of our own needs.”
  • Source: George (Alfred Léon) Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science (1927), Vol. 1, 3-4.
Keywords: History_quotes Civilization_quotes Tolerance_quotes Completion_quotes Explanation_quotes Science_quotes Progress_quotes Doubt_quotes Sufficient_quotes Constitute_quotes Essential_quotes Differences_quotes Early_quotes Course_quotes Period_quotes Country_quotes Small_quotes Saint_quotes Great_quotes Art_quotes Intelligence_quotes Old_quotes Year_quotes Greece_quotes Inferior_quotes Knowledge_quotes Extension_quotes Accuracy_quotes Acquire_quotes System_quotes Positive_quotes Humanity_quotes Activity_quotes True_quotes Cumulative_quotes World_quotes Depth_quotes Precision_quotes Certainty_quotes Gradual_quotes Learning_quotes Disentangle_quotes Force_quotes Nature_quotes Contrive_quotes Strict_quotes Obedience_quotes Law_quotes Capture_quotes Divergence_quotes Gratify_quotes Need_quotes Progressive_quotes

Solomon

Eat and Drink (Ecclesiastes 2:24)

(24) “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.”
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Better_quotes Eat_quotes Drink_quotes Soul_quotes Good_quotes Labor_quotes Man_quotes

Baruch_Spinoza

Nature, Gods, and Men All Mad

“They only seem to have demonstrated that nature, the gods, and men are all mad together.”
Keywords: Deity_quotes Nature_quotes Humanity_quotes Madness_quotes Demonstrate_quotes God_quotes Men_quotes Together_quotes

Man Thinks

“Man thinks.”
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Thinking_quotes Reason_quotes Man_quotes

Human Power

“Human power is extremely limited, and is infinitely surpassed by the power of external causes.”
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Power_quotes Limitation_quotes Infinity_quotes Causality_quotes Extreme_quotes Surpass_quotes External_quotes

Shannon_Vallor

AI Threat Within

“It [AI] threatens us from within our humanity.”
  • Source: From the book “The AI Mirror” by Shannon Vallor. Published 2024 by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0197759066. Introduction, page 4.
Keywords: AI_quotes Artificial_quotes Intelligence_quotes Threat_quotes Within_quotes Humanity_quotes

AI Danger Inside

“The danger to our humanity from AI is not really coming from AI itself. The call is coming from inside the house; AI can devalue our humanity only because we already devalued it ourselves.”
  • Source: From the book “The AI Mirror” by Shannon Vallor. Published 2024 by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0197759066. Chapter 5, page 142.
Keywords: AI_quotes Artificial_quotes Intelligence_quotes Danger_quotes Humanity_quotes Come_quotes Call_quotes Inside_quotes House_quotes Devalue_quotes Already_quotes Ourself_quotes

William_E_Vaughan

Really Foul Things Up

“To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer.”

Keywords: Error_quotes Humanity_quotes Foul_quotes Computer_quotes Mistake_quotes Automation_quotes Require_quotes

Vitruvius

Discovery of Fire

“Therefore, it was the discovery of fire that originally gave rise to the coming together of men, to the deliberative assembly, and to social intercourse.”
  • Source: Vitruvius, P. (1914). Ten Books on Architecture. (M. H. Morgan, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved 2018-08-23 from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20239. Book 2, Chapter 1, Section 2.
Keywords: Discovery_quotes Fire_quotes Civilization_quotes Society_quotes Tribal_quotes Humanity_quotes Original_quotes Gave_quotes Rise_quotes Come_quotes Together_quotes Men_quotes Deliberate_quotes Assembly_quotes Intercourse_quotes

Gerald_Weinberg

Programmers Are Human Beings

“If our experiences are any indication, each of them could be functioning more efficiently, with greater satisfaction, if he and his manager would only learn to look upon the programmer as a human being, rather than as another one of the machines.”
  • Source: Book Entitled: The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition). Edition: Silver anniversary. Written By: Gerald Weinberg. Published originally: 1971. Republished: 2011.
Keywords: Experience_quotes Indication_quotes Functional_quotes Efficiency_quotes Satisfaction_quotes Management_quotes Programmer_quotes Humanity_quotes Machine_quotes Human_quotes Being_quotes

Knowledge Came Slowly

“In ages past, the knowledge came very slowly, and one man in his life was not likely to see much change other than that wrought by nature. The controlled incorporation of arsenic into copper to make bronze took several thousand years to develop; the substitution of tin for the more dangerous arsenic took another thousand or two. In our modern age, laboratories turn out an alloy a day, or more, with properties made to order. The alloying of metals led to the rise and fall of civilizations, but the changes were too slow to be appreciated. A truer blade meant victory over the invaders, but changes were local and slow enough to be absorbed by a million tiny adjustments without destroying the species. With an alloy a day, we can no longer be sure. Science and engineering have been the catalysts for the unprecedented speed and magnitude of change. The physicist shows us how to harness the power of the nucleus; the chemist shows us how to increase the quantity of our food; the geneticist shows us how to improve the quality of our children. But science and engineering have been unable to keep pace with the second-order effects produced by their first-order victories. The excess heat from the nuclear generator alters the spawning pattern of fish, and, before adjustments can be made, other species have produced irreversible changes in the ecology of the river and its borders. The pesticide eliminates one insect only to the advantage of others that may be worse, or the herbicide clears the rain forest for farming, but the resulting soil changes make the land less productive than it was before. And of what we are doing to our progeny, we still have only ghastly hints. Some have said the general systems movement was born out of the failures of science, but it would be more accurate to say the general systems approach is needed because science has been such a success. Science and technology have colonized the planet, and nothing in our lives is untouched. In this changing, they have revealed a complexity with which they are not prepared to deal. The general systems movement has taken up the task of helping scientists unravel complexity, technologists to master it, and others to learn to live with it.”
  • Source: Weinberg, Gerald (2011-04-07). An Introduction to General Systems Thinking (Kindle Locations 264-267). Weinberg & Weinberg. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: History_quotes Knowledge_quotes Slow_quotes Humanity_quotes Life_quotes Change_quotes Nature_quotes Arsenic_quotes Copper_quotes Bronze_quotes Technology_quotes Tin_quotes Metal_quotes Laboratory_quotes Property_quotes On_Demand_quotes Rise_quotes Fall_quotes Civilization_quotes Appreciation_quotes Victory_quotes Blade_quotes Invader_quotes Adjustment_quotes Species_quotes Science_quotes Engineering_quotes Catalyst_quotes Speed_quotes Physics_quotes Chemistry_quotes Food_quotes Genetics_quotes Quality_quotes Children_quotes Effect_quotes Heat_quotes Fish_quotes Irreversible_quotes Ecology_quotes River_quotes Pesticide_quotes Insect_quotes Herbicide_quotes Forest_quotes Farming_quotes Soil_quotes Productivity_quotes Progeny_quotes System_quotes Failure_quotes Accuracy_quotes Colonize_quotes Planet_quotes Earth_quotes Complexity_quotes Preparation_quotes Man_quotes Nucleus_quotes Quantity_quotes Second-order_quotes First-order_quotes Nuclear_quotes Generator_quotes Alter_quotes Spawn_quotes Pattern_quotes Border_quotes Eliminate_quotes Advantage_quotes Worse_quotes Rain_quotes Land_quotes Ghastly_quotes Hint_quotes General_quotes Approach_quotes Success_quotes Accurate_quotes Say_quotes Untouch_quotes Reveal_quotes Master_quotes Learn_quotes

Egoless Programming and John von Neumann

“Programming groups who have conquered the ego problem do exist and have existed from the earliest days of computing. John von Neumann himself was perhaps the first programmer to recognize his inadequacies with respect to examination of his own work. Those who knew him have said that he was constantly asserting what a lousy programmer he was, and that he incessantly pushed his programs on other people to read for errors and clumsiness. Yet the common image today of von Neumann is of the unparalleled computing genius — flawless in his every action. And indeed, there can be no doubt of von Neumann's genius. His very ability to realize his human limitations put him head and shoulders above the average programmer today. Average people can be trained to accept their humanity — their inability to function like a machine — and to value it and work with others so as to keep it under the kind of control needed if programming is to be successful.”
  • Source: Chapter 4. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
Keywords: Egoless_quotes Programming_quotes Group_quotes Conquer_quotes Ego_quotes Computing_quotes Neumann_quotes Programmer_quotes Recognition_quotes Inadequacy_quotes Examination_quotes Peer_Review_quotes Error_quotes Clumsy_quotes Genius_quotes Flawless_quotes Action_quotes Doubt_quotes Ability_quotes Human_Limitations_quotes Training_quotes Humanity_quotes Functional_quotes Machine_quotes Control_quotes Success_quotes Problem_quotes Exist_quotes Earliest_quotes Respect_quotes Work_quotes Constant_quotes Assert_quotes Lousy_quotes Incessant_quotes Push_quotes People_quotes Read_quotes Image_quotes Unparallel_quotes Realize_quotes Human_quotes Limitation_quotes Head_quotes Shoulder_quotes Above_quotes Average_quotes Inability_quotes Value_quotes

H_G_Wells

Tool User

“Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal.”
  • Source: From the book “The World Set Free” by H. G. Wells. Originally published in 1914 in England. Prelude.
Keywords: Man_quotes Humanity_quotes Tool_quotes Use_quotes Fire_quotes Make_quotes Animal_quotes

Allen_Wheelis

Science Accuracy Certainty

“Science would have us believe that such accuracy, leading to certainty, is the only criterion of knowledge, would make the trial of Galileo the paradigm of the two points of view which aspire to truth, would suggest, that is, that the cardinals represent only superstition and repression, while Galileo represents freedom. But there is another criterion which is systematically neglected in this elevation of science. Man does not now — and will not ever — live by the bread of scientific method alone. He must deal with life and death, with love and cruelty and despair, and so must make conjectures of great importance which may or may not be true and which do not lend themselves to experimentation: It is better to give than to receive; Love thy neighbor as thyself; Better to risk slavery through non-violence than to defend freedom with murder. We must deal with such propositions, must decide whether they are true, whether to believe them, whether to act on them — and scientific method is no help for by their nature these matters lie forever beyond the realm of science.”
  • Source: Allen Wheelis, In The End of the Modern Age (1973), 89.
Keywords: Science_quotes Belief_quotes Accuracy_quotes Lead_quotes Certainty_quotes Criteria_quotes Knowledge_quotes Trial_quotes Galileo(topic)_quotes Paradigm_quotes Point_quotes View_quotes Aspiration_quotes Truth_quotes Suggestion_quotes Cardinal_quotes Representation_quotes Superstition_quotes Repression_quotes Freedom_quotes Systematic_quotes Neglect_quotes Elevation_quotes Humanity_quotes Bread_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Deal_quotes Living_quotes Death_quotes Love_quotes Cruel_quotes Despair_quotes Conjecture_quotes Importance_quotes True_quotes Lend_quotes Experiment_quotes Better_quotes Give_quotes Recieve_quotes Neighbor_quotes Risk_quotes Slavery_quotes Violence_quotes Non-Violence_quotes Defend_quotes Murder_quotes Proposition_quotes Decision_quotes Act_quotes Help_quotes Nature_quotes Forever_quotes Beyond_quotes Realm_quotes Man_quotes Method_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Diminished Worker

“In diminishing the role of the worker's body in the labor process, industrial technology has also tended to diminish the importance of the worker. In creating jobs that require less human effort, industrial technology has also been used to create jobs that require less human talent.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 22. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Worker_quotes Humanity_quotes Diminish_quotes Labor_quotes Industrial_quotes Technology_quotes Importance_quotes Employment_quotes Work_quotes Job_quotes Effort_quotes Talent_quotes Role_quotes Body_quotes Process_quotes Create_quotes Require_quotes

Animality

“The close relationship between the rejection of animality and the progress of civilization is at the heart of our modern conception of work. Marx expressed this relationship when he argued that mastery of the material world was the basis upon which man humanized himself and developed culture. This in fact is the civilizing process; humanization means tempering animality with rationality, aesthetic grace, and moral choice.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 30. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Relationship_quotes Rejection_quotes Animality_quotes Civilization_quotes Modern_quotes Conception_quotes Work_quotes Material_quotes Humanity_quotes Culture_quotes Rational_quotes Reason_quotes Aesthetics_quotes Morality_quotes Choice_quotes Progress_quotes Heart_quotes Marx(topic)_quotes Express_quotes Argue_quotes Mastery_quotes World_quotes Basis_quotes Develop_quotes Temper_quotes

Panopticon Surveillance

“At each level of these organizations, people searched for ways to adapt to the intense illumination of the information panopticon. There was less room for interpersonal ploys or negotiated solutions and fewer hidden corners in which to enjoy anonymous repose or indulge in overtly negative behavior. To some, it seemed that only the human heart retained its privacy, out of reach and recalcitrant.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 342. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Panopticon_quotes Surveillance_quotes Search_quotes Adaptation_quotes Illumination_quotes Interpersonal_quotes Ploy_quotes Negotiation_quotes Solution_quotes Hiding_quotes Anonymity_quotes Negativity_quotes Behavior_quotes Humanity_quotes Heart_quotes Privacy_quotes Level_quotes Organization_quotes People_quotes Information_quotes Room_quotes Corner_quotes Repose_quotes Indulge_quotes Overt_quotes Retain_quotes Reach_quotes Recalcitrant_quotes

Panoptic Power

“This rendering of panoptic power reflects an important evolution of the original concept. It rests on a new collectivism in which ‘the many' view themselves and each views ‘the other.' Horizontal visibility is created even as vertical visibility is intensified. The model is less one of Big Brother than of a workplace in which each member is explicitly empowered as his or her fellow worker's keeper. Instead of a single omniscient overseer, this panopticon relies upon shared custodianship of data that reflect mutually enacted behavior. This new collectivism is an important antidote to the unilateral use of panoptic power, but it is not a trouble-free ideal. Horizontal transparency breeds new human dilemmas as well.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 351. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Panopticon_quotes Power_quotes Importance_quotes Evolution_quotes Originality_quotes Conception_quotes Collectivism_quotes Other_quotes Tribalism_quotes Visibility_quotes Horizontal_quotes Vertical_quotes Model_quotes Surveillance_quotes Workplace_quotes Empowerment_quotes Omniscience_quotes Informant_quotes Supervision_quotes Custodian_quotes Data_quotes Behavior_quotes Antidote_quotes Unilateral_quotes Whistle_Blower_quotes Trouble_quotes Transparency_quotes Humanity_quotes Dilemma_quotes Render_quotes Reflect_quotes Many_quotes View_quotes Create_quotes Intensify_quotes Big_quotes Brother_quotes Member_quotes Explicit_quotes Keeper_quotes Overseer_quotes Rely_quotes Share_quotes Mutual_quotes Enact_quotes Collective_quotes Free_quotes

Learning Environment

“The demands of a learning environment can reduce the psychological distance between the self and the organization because active engagement in the social processes associated with interpretation requires more extensive participation of the human personality. In a traditional approach to work organization, employees could be treated as objectively measurable bodies, and in return, they could give of their labor without giving of their selves. The human being as wage earner and the human being as subjective actor could remain separate.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 401. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Demand_quotes Learning_quotes Environment_quotes Psychology_quotes Self_quotes Organization_quotes Activity_quotes Engagement_quotes Society_quotes Process_quotes Interpretation_quotes Requirements_quotes Participation_quotes Humanity_quotes Personality_quotes Tradition_quotes Work_quotes Employee_quotes Treatment_quotes Object_quotes Measurement_quotes Labor_quotes Body_quotes Compensation_quotes Wage_quotes Subject_quotes Actor_quotes Separation_quotes Reduce_quotes Distance_quotes Associate_quotes Approach_quotes

See Also

Retrieved from "https://motleybytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Humanity_quotes&oldid=47026"