Some of My Favorite Quotations
- Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to
their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.
- Buddha
- The desire to be right and the desire to have been right are two
desires, and the sooner we separate them the better off we are. The
desire to be right is the thirst for truth. On all counts, both
practical and theoretical, there is nothing but good to be said for
it. The desire to have been right, on the other hand, is the pride
that goeth before a fall. It stands in the way of our seeing we were
wrong, and thus blocks the progress of our knowledge.
- W. V. Quine and J. S. Ullian, The Web of Belief,
p. 133
- But the years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels,
but cannot express; the intense desire and the alternations of
confidence and misgiving, until one breaks through to clarity and
understanding, are only known to him who has himself experienced them.
- Albert Einstein (recalling his development of the general
theory of relativity)--reprinted in Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The
Life and Times, p. 590
- Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact,
every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God;
because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason
than that of blindfolded fear.
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787
- The best is the enemy of the good.
- Voltaire
- The gap between theory and practice is not as wide in theory as it is in practice.
- Anonymous
Last modified: April 14, 2009.
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