in the web: smile thoughts tromp l'oeil
media living connect work links

Thoughts

[ language | knowing | mathematics | world | simple | programming | computer ]
 

  • The Quotations Page (since 1994): 15,000 quotations
  • EpistemeLinks' Quotations by Philosophers: 300 quotations
  • Peter Grogono's quote collection
  • Ausgewählte Aphorismen; F Englisch Verlag, Wiesbaden 1981.

    The West won the world
    not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion
    but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.
    Westerners often forget this fact,
    non-Westerners never do.
    - Samuel P Huntington [quoted from]

    The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters
    to be left to decide for themselves.

    I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist
    due to the irresponsibility of its people.

    Oil is much too important a commodity to be left to the Arabs.
    - Henry Kissinger [Ruckus]

    We do know of certain knowledge that [Osama bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead.
    - Donald Rumsfeld [quoted from]

    People change and forget to tell each other.
    - Lillian Hellman [quoted from VOOP]

    Don't interrupt me while I'm interrupting.
    - Winston S Churchill [quoted from TC++PL3]

    I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
    - Dwight Eisenhower [Economist Apr 3, 2003: Dream code]

    Language

    The limits of my language mean the limits of my world
    - Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (p184, published 1921)
    Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.
    - B L Whorf [quoted from TC++PL3]
    If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
    - ?
    Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?
    In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible,
    because there will be no words in which to express it.
    - George Orwell, "1984" (1949)

    Writing can be either readable or precise,
    but not at the same time.
    - Bertrand Russell [quoted from VOOP]

    When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.
    - Humpty Dumpty [Through the Looking Glas]

    The great thing about human language is that
    it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand.
    - Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) [quoted from QP]

    Wisdom, Learning, Knowing, Science

    The pessimist complains about the wind;
    The optimist expects it to change;
    The realist adjusts the sails.
    - William Arthur Ward [quoted from VOOP]
    Der vernünftige Mensch paßt sich der Welt an.
    Der unvernünftige besteht auf dem Versuch, die Welt sich anzupassen.
    Deshalb hängt aller Fortschritt vom unvernünftigen Menschen ab.
    - G B Shaw [quoted from Ausgewählte Aphorismen]

    If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost;
    that is where they should be.
    Now put the foundations under them.
    - Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) [quoted from QP]
    The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.
    - Thomas Kempis [quoted from QP]
    He who has not first laid his foundations
    may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards,
    but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.
    - Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), "The Prince" [quoted from QP]

    Doing good is noble.
    Telling others how to do good is nobler and no trouble.
    - Mark Twain

    Truth is the most valuable thing we have
    --so let us economize it
    - Mark Twain [quote from ACG:80]
    Why waste time learning
    when ignorance is instantaneous?
    - Hobbes [quoted from TC++PL3]
    It is impossible to foresee the consequences of being clever,
    so you try to avoid it whenever you can.
    - Christopher Strachey [quoted from]

    Knowledge is of two kinds.
    We know a subject ourselves,
    or we know where we can find information on it.
    - Samuel Johnson [quoted from TC++PL3]

    By three methods we may learn wisdom.
    First, by reflection, which is the noblest;
    second, by imitation, which is the easiest;
    and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
    - Confucius [quoted from VOOP]

    Wer seine Begierde zu befriedigen weiß, ist klug;
    wer sie zu beherrschen weiß, ist weise.
    - Kant [quoted from Ausgewählte Aphorismen]

    Good order is the foundation of all things.
    - Edmund Burke (1729-1797), "Reflections on the Revolution in France" 1790 [quoted from QP]
    Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
    - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) [quoted from QP]
    Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones.
    But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.
    - Henri Poincare (Science and Hypothesis) [quoted from EL]

    Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.
    - Karl Popper (The Observer, August 1982) [quoted from EL]

    The whole problem with the world is that
    fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
    but wiser people so full of doubts.
    - Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) [quoted from QP]

    If knowledge can create problems,
    it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
    - Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) [quoted from QP]

    The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries,
    is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'
    - Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) [quoted from QP]

    The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts
    as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
    - Sir William Bragg (1862-1942) [quoted from QP]

    Mathematics

    In mathematics you don't understand things.
    You just get used to them.
    - Johann von Neumann (1903-1957) [quoted from QP]

    		 
    The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
    - R W Hamming

    ... but for the student,
    numbers are often the best road to insight.
    - A Ralston [both quoted from TC++PL3]

    Pure mathematics is the subject in which
    we do not know what we are talking about,
    nor whether what we are saying is true.
    -Betrand Russell [quoted from GP 52f]
    As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality,
    they are not certain; and as far as they are certain,
    they do not refer to reality.
    - Albert Einstein (1879-1955) [quoted from QP]
    In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable:
    and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.
    - Karl Popper (The Logic of Scientific Discovery) [quoted from EL]
    A geometrical theory in physical interpretation
    can never be validated with mathematical certainty ... ;
    like any other theory of empirical science,
    it can acquire only a more or less high degree of confirmation.
    - C G Hempel [quoted from J H Fetzer: Program Verifaction]

    The World, Reality, Life

    Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
    - Albert Einstein (1879-1955) [quoted from QP]
    Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
    - Philip K Dick (1928-1982) [quoted from QP]
    Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.
    - Jane Wagner (and Lily Tomlin) [quoted from QP]
    So mancher Gedanke fällt um wie ein Leichnam
    wenn er mit dem Leben in Berührung kommt.
    - Christian Morgenstern [quoted from Ausgewählte Aphorismen]
    Das einzige was niemand glauben will, ist die Wahrheit.
    - G B Shaw [quoted from Ausgewählte Aphorismen]

    Die Zeit kommt aus der Zukunft, die nicht existiert,
    in die Gegenwart, die keine Dauer hat,
    und geht in die Vergangenheit, die aufgehört hat zu existieren.
    - Augustinus [quoted from Ausgewählte Aphorismen]
    Ich denke niemals an die Zukunft. Sie kommt früh genug.
    - Albert Einstein (1879-1955) [quoted from Ausgewählte Aphorismen]

    I don't know why we are here,
    but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
    - Ludwig Wittgenstein [    quoted from QP]

    Gedächtnis nennt man die Fähigkeit, sich das zu merken, was man vergessen möchte.
    - Daniel Gelin [quoted from Ausgewählte Aphorismen]

    Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite.
    This is a very comforting thought--
    particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.
    - Woody Allen (1935 - ) [quoted from QP]

    Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed
    by a cloud of comforting convictions,
    which move with him like flies on a summer day.
    - Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Dreams and Facts") [quoted from QP]

    Neurotics build castles in the air,
    psychotics live in them.
    My mother cleans them.
    - Rita Rudner [quoted from QP]

    There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here,
    it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
    There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
    - Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001) [quoted from QP]

    In the beginning the Universe was created.
    This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
    - Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001) [quoted from QP]

    The world revolves around objects,
    yet, not everything in the world is an object;
    there are also quantities and, of course, relationships.
    - Bruno et.al., 1993

    A: Smith, how you've changed. You used to be tall
    and now you are short. You used to be thin
    and now you are fat. You used to have blue eyes
    and now you have brown eyes.
    B: But my name isn't Smith.
    A: Oh, so you've changed your name too.
    - Peter Wegner on `identity' in object-oriented programming (1990) [CP/OOP]

    It is important to find a woman that cooks and cleans.
    It is important to find a woman that makes good money.
    It is important to find a woman that likes to have sex.

    And most important...
    It is important that these three women never meet.
    - anonymous? found at Ned Martin

    Simplification, Abstraction

    Do not multiply objects without necessity.
    - W Occam

    Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
    - Albert Einstein (Reader's Digest, Oct 1977) [    quoted from EL]

    Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.
    - Karl Popper (The Observer, August 1982) [quoted from EL]

    Form must follow function.
    - Le Corbusier [quoted from TC++PL3]

    Abstraction is selective ignorance.
    - Andrew Koenig [quoted from TC++PL3]

    Does it not require some pains and skill to form the general idea of a triangle, ...
    for it must be neither Oblique, nor Rectangle, neither Equilateral, Equicural, nor Scalenon;
    but all and none of these at once. In effect it is something imperfect, that cannot exist;
    an Idea wherein some parts of several different and inconsistent Ideas are put together.
    - John Locke (1632-1704) [quoted from MTRW]

    Programming

    Programming is understanding.
    - Kristen Nygaard [quoted from TC++PL3]

    To iterate is human,
    to recurse divine.
    - L Peter Deutsch [quoted from TC++PL3]

    Types arise naturally, even starting from untyped universes.
    - Cardelli and Wegner [UTDAP]

    Those types are not "abstract";
    they are as real as int and float.
    - Doug McIlroy [quoted from TC++PL3]

    Ask not what you can do to your data structures,
    but ask what your data structures can do for you.
    - Tim Budd [Leda:12]

    The reason that data structures and algorithms
    can work together seamlessly is ... that they
    do not know anything about each other.
    - Alex Stepanov [quoted from TC++PL3]

    Premature optimization is the root of all evil.
    - D Knuth [quoted from TC++PL3]

    The big lie of object-oriented programming
    is that objects provide encapsulation.
    - John Hogg (1991)

    A single object may be encapsulated,
    but single objects are not interesting.
    An object must be part of a system to be useful,
    and a system of objects is not necessarily encapsulated.
    - John Hogg, Doug Lea, Alan Wills, Dennis deChampeaux, Richard Holt (1992)

    It is possible by ingenuity and at the expense of clarity
    ... [to do almost anything in any programming language].
    However, the fact that it is possible to push a pea up a mountain with you nose
    does not mean that this is a sensible way of getting it there.
    - Christopher Strachey (NATO Summer School in Programming) [quote from ACG:11]

    Computers

    Computers make it easier to do a lot of things,
    but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
    - Andy Rooney (1919- ) [    quoted from QP]

    To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.
    - Farmers' Almanac, 1978 [quoted from QP]

    Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way.
    This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.
    - Jeff Raskin, interviewed in Doctor Dobb's Journal [quoted from QP]

    If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer,
    a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon,
    and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
    - Robert X Cringely, InfoWorld magazine [quoted from QP]

    http://www.cs.mun.ca/~ulf/misc/thoughts.html, Ulf Schuenemann, 250303