QUOTATIONS

 

These quotations have been collected during my “exile” (1986 – 1990) to the Nuclear Apparatus Factory (Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania), as punishment for applying to emigrate from Romania. That time, I found some of these quotations in romanian and later on I looked for an english translation. Please, send any comments to nicoalex@ozemail.com.au.

 

“Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.”
           – Charles Schultz

“Symmetry, as wide or as narrow as you may define its meaning, is one idea by which man through the ages has tried to comprehend and create order, beauty and perfection.”
           – H. Weyl

“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”
           – John Louis von Neumann

“In nonlinear partial differential equations almost anything can happen and what is beautiful is that it does.”
           – P. Ortoleva

– “Lorsque certaines causes produisent certaines effets les éléments de symétrie des causes doivent se trouver dans les effets produits.”
– “Lorsque certaines effets révélent un certaine dissymétrie, cette dissymétrie doit se retrouver dans les causes qui lui ont donné naissance.”
           – P. Curie, Journal de Physique Théorique et Appliqueé, 3e série 3 (1894) 393

“Ludwig Boltzman, who spent much of his life studying Statistical Mechanics, died in 1906 by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now, it is our turn to study Statistical Mechanics.”
           – D. L. Goodstein, States of Matter (1975)

“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
           – G. Orwell, Animal Farm

“The most general definition of  topological space  has been contrived by mathematicians (perhaps, following the advice of Sylvester as to the ideal conditions for mathematical creativity, at 3 a.m. with a decanter of ripe port at hand) to provide the widest possible framework within which the concept of  limit  makes sense.”
           – A. J. Coleman

“To […] and […], in the hope that some day they too will learn to appreciate the great beauty that lies in the mathematical description of the world.”
           – F. Röhrlich

“The only thing worse than training people and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”
           – attributed to Zig Ziglar

“One can't dull a project better than by discussing it repeatedly.”
           – J. W. von Goethe, Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften, 1809)

“We haven't money, so we got to think.”
           – Lord Rutherford

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
           – Ben Franklin (and later Frank Zappa)
   Corollary: If you want it badly enough, you will find a way.

“GENIUS  —  Person clever enough to be born in the right place at the right time of the right sex and to follow up this advantage by saying all the right things to all the right people.”
           – Fortune program from Linux-Mandrake

“If you don't see the bug where you're looking, then you're looking in the wrong place.”
           – R. Loeser & E.M. Gaposchkin, The second law of Debugging (Software - Practice & Experience, 6 (1976) 577)

1. “A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;”
2. “A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders conflict with the First Law;”
3. “A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second law.”
            – I. Asimov, Foundation's Edge

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
           – I. Asimov, Foundation

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”
           – Anatole France

“Mit der Dummheit kämpfen die Götter selbst vergebens.”
           – Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

“Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.”
           – Anonymous

“You've got to laugh or you'd go mad.”
           – Friedman's theory of humor

“Nothing really matters except a few things that really don't matter very much.”
           – Ashleigh Brilliant

“There is no legal obligation to perform impossibilities.”
           – Publius Celsus

“Ending is better than mending.”
           – A. Huxley, Brave New World

“Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.”
           – Mark Twain

“He who knows not that he knows not, he is a fool - shun him.”
“He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, he is simple - teach him.”
“He who knows, and knows not that he knows, he is asleep - wake him.”
“He who knows, and knows that he knows, he is wise - follow him.”
           – Arabian proverbs

“WHAT CAN I KNOW?
  WHAT OUGHT I TO DO?
  WHAT MAY I HOPE?”
           – I. Kant, The critique of pure reason (1781)

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File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.00.

    Always under construction!
nicoalex@ozemail.com.au