Douglas_Adams

Don't Panic

“In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words Don't Panic inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover”.

Source: Adams, D. (1979). ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. New York, NY: Harmony Books.

See Also:
- Douglas_Adams_quotes
- Douglas_Adams_quotes/Dont_Panic

Robert_N_Britcher

Software Transition Problem

“The biggest problem is creating a new version of an old system is the transition.”

Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 167.

See Also:
- Robert_N_Britcher_quotes
- Robert_N_Britcher_quotes/Software_Transition_Problem

Keywords: Problem_quotes Version_quotes System_quotes Transition_quotes Legacy_quotes Migration_quotes Big_quotes Create_quotes New_quotes Old_quotes

Albert_Einstein

Growing Old

“People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live...[We] never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.”

Source: Albert Einstein [Letter/Writer];
- 1942-09-29 [Date]; Otto Juliusburger [Recipient]; Einstein Archives [Location]; 38-238 [Item].

See Also:

Keywords: Age_quotes Mortality_quotes Curiosity_quotes Mystery_quotes People_quotes Grow_quotes Old_quotes Long_quotes Live_quotes Cease_quotes Stand_quotes Children_quotes Born_quotes

Richard_Feynman

Cargo Cult

“...there have been many experiments running rats through all kinds of mazes, and so on — with little clear result. But in 1937 a man named Young did a very interesting one. He had a long corridor with doors all along one side where the rats came in, and doors along the other side where the food was. He wanted to see if he could train rats to go to the third door down from wherever he started them off. No. The rats went immediately to the door where the food had been the time before. The question was, how did the rats know, because the corridor was so beautifully built and so uniform, that this was the same door as before? Obviously there was something about the door that was different from the other doors. So he painted the doors very carefully, arranging the textures on the faces of the doors exactly the same. Still the rats could tell. Then he thought maybe they were smelling the food, so he used chemicals to change the smell after each run. Still the rats could tell. Then he realized the rats might be able to tell by seeing the lights and the arrangement in the laboratory like any commonsense person. So he covered the corridor, and still the rats could tell. He finally found that they could tell by the way the floor sounded when they ran over it. And he could only fix that by putting his corridor in sand. So he covered one after another of all possible clues and finally was able to fool the rats so that they had to learn to go to the third door. If he relaxed any of his conditions, the rats could tell. Now, from a scientific standpoint, that is an A-number-one experiment. That is the experiment that makes rat-running experiments sensible, because it uncovers the clues that the rat is really using — not what you think it's using. And that is the experiment that tells exactly what conditions you have to use in order to be careful and control everything in an experiment with rat-running. I looked into the subsequent history of this research. The next experiment, and the one after that, never referred to Mr. Young. They never used any of his criteria of putting the corridor on sand, or of being very careful. They just went right on running rats in the same old way, and paid no attention to the great discoveries of Mr. Young, and his papers are not referred to, because he didn't discover anything about rats. In fact, he discovered all the things you have to do to discover something about rats. But not paying attention to experiments like that is a characteristic of cargo cult science.”

Source: "Cargo Cult Science", adapted from a 1974 Caltech commencement address; also published in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, p. 345.
- Feynman, R. P. (1974). In Feynman, R. P. (1974, June). Cargo Cult Science. Science and Engineering.

See Also:
- Richard_Feynman_quotes
- Richard_Feynman_quotes/Cargo_Cult

Henry_Ford

Change is Permanent

“There's just one thing that's permanent in this world, and that's change. And when a man gets too old to change, why, then, he dies.”

Source: Interview with Bruce Barton, "It Would Be Fun To Start Over Again," The American Magazine, April 1921

See Also:
- Henry_Ford_quotes
- Henry_Ford_quotes/Change_is_Permanent

Keywords: Permanent_quotes Change_quotes World_quotes Old_quotes Death_quotes Man_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!”

Source: Hawking, Stephen (1988). A Brief History of Time. Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-05340-1.

See Also:
- Stephen_Hawking_quotes
- Stephen_Hawking_quotes/Turtles_All_the_Way_Down

Joseph_Heller

Mysterious Ways

“‘And don’t tell me God works in mysterious ways,’ Yossarian continued, hurtling on over her objection. ‘There’s nothing so mysterious about it. He’s not working at all. He’s playing. Or else He’s forgotten all about us. That’s the kind of God you people talk about — a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?’”

Source: Heller, Joseph. 'Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition'. Chapter 18 'The Soldier Who Saw Everything Twice', page 207. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

See Also:
- Joseph_Heller_quotes
- Joseph_Heller_quotes/Mysterious_Ways

Lousy Earth

“What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to blackguards for petty cash, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.”

Source: Heller, Joseph. 'Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition'. Chapter 39 'The Eternal City', page 483. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

See Also:
- Joseph_Heller_quotes
- Joseph_Heller_quotes/Lousy_Earth

Keywords: Lousy_quotes Earth_quotes Wonder_quotes People_quotes Destitute_quotes Night_quotes Country_quotes Home_quotes Shanty_quotes Husband_quotes Drunk_quotes Wife_quotes Socked_quotes Children_quotes Bully_quotes Abuse_quotes Abandoned_quotes Family_quotes Hungry_quotes Food_quotes Afford_quotes Buy_quotes Heart_quotes Broken_quotes Suicide_quotes Insanity_quotes Cockroach_quotes Landlord_quotes Triumph_quotes Win_quotes Lose_quotes Success_quotes Failure_quotes Rich_quotes Poor_quotes Men_quotes Wise_quotes Stupid_quotes Happy_quotes Ending_quotes Honest_quotes Liar_quotes Brave_quotes Coward_quotes Loyal_quotes Traitor_quotes Saint_quotes Corrupt_quotes Position_quotes Trust_quotes Sell_quotes Soul_quotes Blackguards_quotes Petty_quotes Cash_quotes Straight_quotes Narrow_quotes Crooked_quotes Path_quotes Good_quotes Bad_quotes Addition_quotes Subtraction_quotes Einstein(topic)_quotes Old_quotes Violin_quotes Sculptor_quotes

Grace_Hopper

Helpless Old Female

“I can turn into the most helpless old female you ever saw.”

Source: Grace Hopper in a lecture delivered 1982-08-19 at the NSA (National Security Agency). Video available at YouTube as “NSA Releases Internal 1982 Lecture by Computing Pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper”, channel The Black Vault Originals, online at <https://youtu.be/_bP14OzIJWI?si=wcUTl04b4p4scY6k>, posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. Quote in video at 29:21.

See Also:
- Grace_Hopper_quotes
- Grace_Hopper_quotes/Helpless_Old_Female

Keywords: Turn_quotes Helpless_quotes Old_quotes Female_quotes

Mexican_Proverbs

Old Devil Knowledge

“The devil knows more by being old than by being the devil.”

Original Spanish: “Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo.”

Source: Anonymous. Included on https://www.spanish.academy/blog/20-classic-mexican-quotes-and-proverbs-in-spanish/.

See Also:
- Mexican_Proverbs
- Mexican_Proverbs/Old_Devil_Knowledge

Keywords: Devil_quotes Knowledge_quotes Old_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

See Also:
- Carl_Sagan_quotes
- Carl_Sagan_quotes/Changing_Opinion

George_Sarton

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.

See Also:
- George_Sarton_quotes
- George_Sarton_quotes/Scientific_Progress

William_Whewell

Hypothesis Should Foretell

“The hypotheses which we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this; our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed; ... because if the rule prevails, it includes all cases; and will determine them all, if we can only calculate its real consequences. Hence it will predict the results of new combinations, as well as explain the appearances which have occurred in old ones. And that it does this with certainty and correctness, is one mode in which the hypothesis is to be verified as right and useful.”

Source: From the book 'The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences: Founded Upon Their History', Volume 2. by William Whewell. Publication date 1840. Pages 62-63. Online at https://ia800209.us.archive.org/19/items/philosophyinduc00whewgoog/philosophyinduc00whewgoog.pdf.

See Also:
- William_Whewell_quotes
- William_Whewell_quotes/Hypothesis_Should_Foretell

T_H_White

Learning Cure for Sadness

“‘The best thing for being sad,’ replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, ‘is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn — pure science, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a milliard lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics — why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics, until it is time to learn to plough.’”

Source: White, T. H. (2011). The Once and Future King | 1939. New York, NY: Penguin. ISBN 9781101657546.

See Also:
- T_H_White_quotes
- T_H_White_quotes/Learning_Cure_for_Sadness

Keywords: Best_quotes Sad_quotes Begin_quotes Puff_quotes Blow_quotes Learning_quotes Failure_quotes Grow_quotes Old_quotes Tremble_quotes Anatomy_quotes Lie_quotes Awake_quotes Night_quotes Listening_quotes Disorder_quotes Vein_quotes Miss_quotes Love_quotes See_quotes World_quotes Devastate_quotes Evil_quotes Honor_quotes Trample_quotes Sewer_quotes Base_quotes Mind_quotes Why_quotes Wag_quotes Exhaust_quotes Alienate_quotes Torture_quotes Fear_quotes Distrust_quotes Dreaming_quotes Regret_quotes Look_quotes Pure_quotes Science_quotes Astronomy_quotes Lifetime_quotes Natural_quotes History_quotes Literature_quotes Biology_quotes Medicine_quotes Theocriticism_quotes Geography_quotes Economics_quotes Start_quotes Cartwheel_quotes Appropriate_quotes Wood_quotes Beat_quotes Adversary_quotes Fencing_quotes Mathematics_quotes Time_quotes Plow_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Technology Leadership

“The questions that we face today are finally about leadership. Will there be leaders who are able to recognize the historical moment and the choices it presents? Will they find ways to create the organizational conditions in which new visions, new concepts, and a new language of workplace relations can emerge? Will they be able to create organizational innovations that can exploit the unique capacities of the new technology and thus mobilize their organization's productive potential to meet the heightened rigors of global competition? Will there be leaders who understand the crucial role that human beings from each organizational stratum can play in adding value to the production of goods and services? If not, we will be stranded in a new world with old solutions. We will suffer through the unintended consequences of change, because we have failed to understand this technology and how it differs from what came before.”

Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 12. ISBN:0465032125.

See Also:
- Shoshana_Zuboff_quotes
- Shoshana_Zuboff_quotes/Technology_Leadership

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