1427 quotes found
"By June 1949 people had begun to realize that it was not so easy to get programs right as had at one time appeared. I well remember when this realization first came on me with full force. [...] The EDSAC was on the top floor of the building and the tape-punching and editing equipment one floor below. It was on one of my journeys between the EDSAC room and the punching equipment that "hesitating at the angles of stairs" the realization came over me with full force that a good part of the remainder of my life was going to be spent in finding errors in my own programs."
"Since 1954, the raw speed of computers, as measured by the time it takes to do an addition, increased by a factor of 10,000. That means an algorithm that once took 10 minutes to perform can now be done 15 times a second. Students sometimes ask my advice on how to get rich. The best advice I can give them is to dig up some old algorithm that once took forever, program it for a modern workstation, form a startup to market it and then get rich."
"A source of strength in the early days was that groups in various parts of the world were prepared to construct experimental computers without necessarily intending them to be the prototype for serial production. As a result, there became available a body of knowledge about what would work and what would not work."
"Much of the early engineering development of digital computers was done in universities. A few years ago, the view was commonly expressed that universities had played their part in computer design, and that the matter could now safely be left to industry. [...] Apart from the obvious functions of keeping in the public domain material that might otherwise be hidden, universities can make a special contribution by reason of their freedom from commercial considerations, including freedom from the need to follow the fashion."
"In the judgment of design engineers, the ordinary means of communicating with a computer are entirely inadequate. [...] Graphical communication in some form or other is of vital importance in engineering as that subject is now conducted; we must either provide the capability in our computer systems, or take on the impossible task of training up a future race of engineers conditioned to think in a different way."
"The artificial intelligence approach may not be altogether the right one to make to the problem of designing automatic assembly devices. Animals and machines are constructed from entirely different materials and on quite different principles. When engineers have tried to draw inspiration from a study of the way animals work they have usually been misled; the history of early attempts to construct flying machines with flapping wings illustrates this very clearly."
"Surveying the shifts of interest among computer scientists and the ever-expanding family of those who depend on computers for their work, one cannot help being struck by the power of the computer to bind together, in a genuine community of interest, people whose motivations differ widely."
"Professor Wilkes is best known as the builder and designer of the EDSAC, the first computer with an internally stored program. Built in 1949, the EDSAC used a mercury delay line memory. He is also known as the author, with Wheeler and Gill, of a volume on "Preparation of Programs for Electronic Digital Computers" in 1951, in which program libraries were effectively introduced."
"Statistical criteria should (1) be sensitive to change in the specific factors tested, (2) be insensitive to changes, of a magnitude likely to occur in practice, in extraneous factors."
"We have a large reservoir of engineers (and scientists) with a vast background of engineering know how. They need to learn statistical methods that can tap into the knowledge. Statistics used as a catalyst to engineering creation will, I believe, always result in the fastest and most economical progress…"
"All models are wrong; some models are useful."
"One important idea is that science is a means whereby learning is achieved, not by mere theoretical speculation on the one hand, nor by the undirected accumulation of practical facts on the other, but rather by a motivated iteration between theory and practice."
"Since all models are wrong the scientist cannot obtain a "correct" one by excessive elaboration. On the contrary following William of Occam he should seek an economical description of natural phenomena. Just as the ability to devise simple but evocative models is the signature of the great scientist so overelaboration and overparameterization is often the mark of mediocrity."
"The researcher hoping to break new ground in the theory of experimental design should involve himself in the design of actual experiments. The investigator who hopes to revolutionize decision theory should observe and take part in the making of important decisions."
"For the theory-practice iteration to work, the scientist must be, as it were, mentally ambidextrous; fascinated equally on the one hand by possible meanings, theories, and tentative models to be induced from data and the practical reality of the real world, and on the other with the factual implications deducible from tentative theories, models and hypotheses."
"A man in daily muddy contact with field experiments could not be expected to have much faith in any direct assumption of independently distributed normal errors."
"The penalty for scientific irrelevance is, of course, that the statistician's work is ignored by the scientific community."
"An innovative discussion of building empirical models and the fitting of surfaces to data. Introduces the general philosophy of response surface methodology, and details least squares for response surface work, factorial designs at two levels, fitting second-order models, adequacy of estimation and the use of transformation, occurrence and elucidation of ridge systems, and more. Some results are presented for the first time. Includes real-life exercises, nearly all with solutions."
"A mechanistic model has the following advantages: 1. It contributes to our scientific understanding of the phenomenon under study. 2. It usually provides a better basis for extrapolation (at least to conditions worthy of further experimental investigation if not through the entire range of all input variables). 3. It tends to be parsimonious (i.e, frugal) in the use of parameters and to provide better estimates of the response"
"Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful."
"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful."
"I want to tell you how I got to be a statistician. I was, of course, born in England and in 1939... when war broke out in September of that year, although I was close to getting a degree in Chemistry, I abandoned that and joined the Army. They put me in the Engineers (and when I see a bridge I still catch myself calculating where I would put the charges to blow it up). Before I could actually do any of that I was moved to a highly secret experimental station in the south of England. At the time they were bombing London every night and our job was to help to find out what to do if, one night, they used poisonous gas. Some of England's best scientists were there. There were a lot of experiments with small animals, I was a lab assistant making biochemical determinations, my boss was a professor of physiology dressed up as a colonel, and I was dressed up as a staff sergeant. The results I was getting were very variable and I told my colonel that what we really needed was a statistician. He said "we can't get one, what do you know about it?" I said "Nothing, I once tried to read a book about it by someone called R. A. Fisher but I didn't understand it". He said "You've read the book so you better do it", so I said, "Yes sir""
"[Box's 1960 paper Fitting empirical data is] a mature exposition of an important branch of statistics, to which the author has made great contributions. One feature of particular interest is practical discussion of genuinely nonlinear fitting problems and their solution with the help of tact and a special, publicly available, IBM-704 program. Another is insightful comments on the role of prior distributions in statistics."
"George Box is, in the field of the quality sciences, the consummate ‘Renaissance man’ who has made significant and enduring contributions to the profession of quality control and the allied arts and sciences... [His] contributions encompass considerable scope and have already had lasting effect."
"Mathematicians have constructed a very large number of different systems of geometry, Euclidean or non-Euclidean, of one, two, three, or any number of dimensions. All these systems are of complete and equal validity. They embody the results of mathematicians' observations of their reality, a reality far more intense and far more rigid than the dubious and elusive reality of physics. The old-fashioned geometry of Euclid, the entertaining seven-point geometry of Veblen, the space-times of Minkowski and Einstein, are all absolutely and equally real. ...There may be three dimensions in this room and five next door. As a professional mathematician, I have no idea; I can only ask some competent physicist to instruct me in the facts. The function of a mathematician, then, is simply to observe the facts about his own intricate system of reality, that astonishingly beautiful complex of logical relations which forms the subject-matter of his science, as if he were an explorer looking at a distant range of mountains, and to record the results of his observations in a series of maps, each of which is a branch of pure mathematics. ...Among them there perhaps none quite so fascinating, with quite the astonishing contrasts of sharp outline and shade, as that which constitutes the theory of numbers."
"If I knew I was going to die today, I think I should still want to hear the cricket scores."
"If I could prove by logic that you would die in five minutes, I should be sorry you were going to die, but my sorrow would be very much mitigated by pleasure in the proof."
"He could remember the idiosyncrasies of numbers in an almost uncanny way. It was Littlewood who said that every positive integer was one of Ramanujan's personal friends. I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.""
"I am obliged to interpolate some remarks on a very difficult subject: proof and its importance in mathematics. All physicists, and a good many quite respectable mathematicians, are contemptuous about proof. I have heard Professor Eddington, for example, maintain that proof, as pure mathematicians understand it, is really quite uninteresting and unimportant, and that no one who is really certain that he has found something good should waste his time looking for proof."
"… there is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds."
"If a man has any genuine talent, he should be ready to make almost any sacrifice in order to cultivate it to the full."
"Galois died at twenty-one, Abel at twenty-seven, Ramanujan at thirty-three, Riemann at forty. There have been men who have done great work a good deal later; Gauss's great memoir on differential geometry was published when he was fifty (though he had had the fundamental ideas ten years before). I do not know an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty. If a man of mature age loses interest in and abandons mathematics, the loss is not likely to be very serious either for mathematics or for himself."
"Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. "Immortality" may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever it may mean."
"A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas."
"A painter makes patterns with shapes and colours, a poet with words. A painting may embody an ‘idea’, but the idea is usually commonplace and unimportant. In poetry, ideas count for a good deal more; but, [...] the importance of ideas in poetry is habitually exaggerated: '... Poetry is not the thing said but a way of saying it.' [In poetry,] the poverty of the ideas seems hardly to affect the beauty of the verbal pattern."
"The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics."
"', which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game."
"Chess problems are the hymn-tunes of mathematics."
"A chess problem is genuine mathematics, but it is in some way 'trivial' mathematics. However ingenious and intricate, however original and surprising the moves, there is something essential lacking. Chess problems are unimportant. The best mathematics is serious as well as beautiful – important if you like, but the word is very ambiguous, and 'serious' expresses what I mean much better."
"I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art."
"It is... astonishing how little practical value scientific knowledge has for ordinary men, how dull and commonplace such of it as has value is, and how its value seems almost to vary inversely to its reputed utility. ...We live either by or on other people's professional knowledge."
"[A] good deal of elementary mathematics... 'elementary' in the sense in which professional mathematicians use it... [e.g.,] knowledge of the differential and integral calculus—has considerable practical utility. These... are... rather dull... the parts which have least aesthetic value. The 'real' mathematics of the 'real' mathematicians... of Fermat and Euler and Gauss and Abel and Riemann, is almost wholly 'useless' (...as true of 'applied' as of 'pure' mathematics). It is not possible to justify the life of any genuine professional mathematician on the ground of... 'utility'..."
"[S]cience works for evil as well as for good (...particularly ...in time of war); and... mathematicians may be justified in rejoicing that there is one science... their own, whose ...remoteness from ordinary human activities should keep it gentle and clean."
"It is... natural to suppose that there is a great difference in utility between 'pure' and 'applied' mathematics. This is a delusion..."
"A man who could give a convincing account of mathematical reality would have solved very many of the most difficult problems of metaphysics. If he could include physical reality in his account, he would have solved them all."
"[M]athematical reality lies outside us ...our function is to discover or observe it, and ...the theorems ...we prove, and ...describe grandiloquently as our 'creations', are simply our notes of our observations. This view has been held, in one form or another, by many philosophers of high reputation from Plato onwards [...]"
"There is the science of pure geometry, in which there are many geometries, , , non-Euclidean geometry... [etc.]. Each... is a , a pattern of ideas... judged by the interest and beauty of... pattern. It is a map or picture, the... product of many hands, a partial and imperfect copy (yet exact so far as it extends) of a section of mathematical reality. But... there is one thing... of which pure geometries are not pictures, and that is the spatio-temporal reality of the physical world. ...[T]hey cannot be, since earthquakes and eclipses are not mathematical concepts."
"The play is independent of the pages on which it is printed, and 'pure geometries' are independent of lecture rooms, [rough blackboard drawings] or of any other detail of the physical world. This is the point of view of a pure mathematician. Applied mathematicians, mathematical physicists... take a different view... preoccupied with the physical world itself, which also has its structure or pattern. ...We may be able to trace a ...resemblance between the two sets of relations, and then the pure geometry will become interesting to physicists; it will give us ...a map which 'fits the facts' ...The geometer offers ...a whole set of maps from which to choose."
"[T]here is no mathematician so pure that he feels no interest at all in the physical world; but, in so far as he succumbs to this temptation, he will be abandoning his purely mathematical position."
"...there is probably less difference between the positions of a mathematician and of a physicist than is generally supposed, [...] the mathematician is in much more direct contact with reality. This may seem a paradox, since it is the physicist who deals with the subject-matter usually described as 'real', but [...] [a physicist] is trying to correlate the incoherent body of crude fact confronting him with some definite and orderly scheme of abstract relations, the kind of scheme he can borrow only from mathematics."
"317 is a prime, not because we think so, or because our minds are shaped in one way rather than another, but because it is, because mathematical reality is built that way."
"Pure mathematics is on the whole distinctly more useful than applied. [...] For what is useful above all is technique, and mathematical technique is taught mainly through pure mathematics."
"We have still one more question to consider. We have concluded that the trivial mathematics is, on the whole, useful, and that the real mathematics, on the whole, is not"
"No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years."
"I still say to myself when I am depressed and find myself forced to listen to pompous and tiresome people "Well, I have done one thing you could never have done, and that is to have collaborated with Littlewood and Ramanujan on something like equal terms.""
"No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world."
"Bradman is a whole class above any batsman who has ever lived: if Archimedes, Newton and Gauss remain in the Hobbs class, I have to admit the possibility of a class above them, which I find difficult to imagine. They had better be moved from now on into the Bradman class. (pg 28)"
"It is never worth a first-class man's time to express a majority opinion. By definition, there are plenty of others to do that. (pg 46)"
"Hardy was a great internationalist who worked with foreign mathematicians, visiting them, encouraging them to visit him and settling some, including Besicovitch, in England. There were some major probability figures in Hardy’s network: George Pólya (1887-1985) of Zürich, Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) of MIT and Harald Cramér (1893-1985) of Stockholm-appropriately Wiener and Cramér first met when visiting Hardy in 1920."
"In 1933 Landau was dismissed from his [University of Göttingen] chair on the grounds of his race. An important colleague... Ludwig Bieberbach ...wrote the following lines in a treatise on Personality structure and mathematical creativity: "In this way... the ultimate reason behind the courageous rejection which the students at Göttingen University meted out to a great mathematician, Edmund Landau, was that his un-German style in research and teaching had become intolerable to German sensitivities. A people which has seen how alien desires for dominion are gnawing at its identity, how enemies of the people are working to impose their alien ways on it, must reject teachers of a type alien to it." The English mathematician Godfrey H. Hardy... responded to Bieberbach... "There are many of us, many English and many Germans, who said things during the (First) War which we scarcely meant and are sorry to remember now. Anxiety for one's own position, dread of falling behind the rising torrent of folly, determination at all costs not to be outdone, may be natural if not particularly heroic excuses. Prof. Bieberbach's reputation excludes such explanation for his utterances; and I find myself driven to the more uncharitable conclusion that he really believes them true.""
"To illustrate to what extent Hardy and Littlewood in the course of the years came to be considered as the leaders of recent English mathematical research, I may report what an excellent colleague once jokingly said: 'Nowadays, there are only three really great English mathematicians: Hardy, Littlewood, and Hardy-Littlewood.'"
"Hardy in his thirties held the view that the late years of a mathematician's life were spent most profitably in writing books; I remember a particular conversation about this, and though we never spoke of the matter again it remained an understanding."
"I think it is a sad reflection on our civilisation that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus, we do not know what goes on inside our souffles."
"[About Algol 60] Here is a language so far ahead of its time, that it was not only an improvement on its predecessors, but also on nearly all its successors."
"Programming languages on the whole are very much more complicated than they used to be: object orientation, inheritance, and other features are still not really being thought through from the point of view of a coherent and scientifically well-based discipline or a theory of correctness. My original postulate, which I have been pursuing as a scientist all my life, is that one uses the criteria of correctness as a means of converging on a decent programming language design—one which doesn’t set traps for its users, and ones in which the different components of the program correspond clearly to different components of its specification, so you can reason compositionally about it. [...] The tools, including the compiler, have to be based on some theory of what it means to write a correct program."
"The real value of tests is not that they detect bugs in the code, but that they detect inadequacies in the methods, concentration, and skills of those who design and produce the code."
"The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intentions of its user."
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. It demands the same skill, devotion, insight, and even inspiration as the discovery of the simple physical laws which underlie the complex phenomena of nature."
"[About Fortran] On October 11, 1963, my suggestion was to pass on a request of our customers to relax the ALGOL 60 rule of compulsory declaration of variable names and adopt some reasonable default convention such as that of FORTRAN. […] The story of the Mariner space rocket to Venus, lost because of the lack of compulsory declarations in FORTRAN, was not to be published until later."
"[About Algol 60] Due credit must be paid to the genius of the designers of ALGOL 60 who included recursion in their language and enabled me to describe my invention [Quicksort] so elegantly to the world."
"[About Algol 60 subset implementation] [E]very occurrence of every subscript of every subscripted variable was on every occasion checked at run time against both the upper and the lower declared bounds of the array. Many years later we asked our customers whether they wished us to provide an option to switch off these checks in the interests of efficiency on production runs. Unanimously, they urged us not to - they already knew how frequently subscript errors occur on production runs where failure to detect them could be disastrous. I note with fear and horror that even in 1980, language designers and users have not learned this lesson. In any respectable branch of engineering, failure to observe such elementary precautions would have long been against the law."
"[About Algol W] It was not only a worthy successor of ALGOL 60, it was even a worthy predecessor of PASCAL […] I was astonished when the working group, consisting of all the best known international experts of programming languages, resolved to lay aside the commissioned draft on which we had all been working and swallow a line with such an unattractive bait."
"[About Algol 68] The best we could do was to send with it a minority report, stating our considered view that, "… as a tool for the reliable creation of sophisticated programs, the language was a failure.""
"[About PL/I] At first I hoped that such a technically unsound project would collapse but I soon realized it was doomed to success. Almost anything in software can be implemented, sold, and even used given enough determination. There is nothing a mere scientist can say that will stand against the flood of a hundred million dollars. But there is one quality that cannot be purchased in this way — and that is reliability. The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity. It is a price which the very rich find most hard to pay."
"[About Pascal] That is the great strength of PASCAL, that there are so few unnecessary features and almost no need for subsets. That is why the language is strong enough to support specialized extensions--Concurrent PASCAL for real time work, PASCAL PLUS for discrete event simulation, UCSD PASCAL for microprocessor work stations."
"[About Ada] For none of the evidence we have so far can inspire confidence that this language has avoided any of the problems that have afflicted other complex language projects of the past. [...] It is not too late! I believe that by careful pruning of the ADA language, it is still possible to select a very powerful subset that would be reliable and efficient in implementation and safe and economic in use."
"I have learned more from my failures than can ever be revealed in the cold print of a scientific article. [...] [Failures] are much more fun to hear about afterwards; they are not so funny at the time."
"I have regarded it as the highest goal of programming language design to enable good ideas to be elegantly expressed."
"One fine morning, when the emperor felt hot and bored, he extricated himself carefully from under the mountain of clothes and is now living happily as a swineherd in another story. The tailor is canonized as the patron saint of all consultants, because in spite of the enormous fees he extracted, he was never able to convince his clients of his dawning realization that their clothes have no Emperor."
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
"It was Mr. Littlewood (I believe) who remarked that "every positive integer was one of his personal friends.""
"The Greeks first spoke a language which modern mathematicians can understand; as Littlewood said to me once, they are not clever schoolboys or "scholarship candidates", but "Fellows of another college"."
"A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers."
"(A. S. Besicovitch) A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given. (Pioneer work is clumsy.)"
"'The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it--would.'"
"Landau kept a printed form for dealing with proofs of Fermat's last theorem. 'On page blank, lines blank to blank, you will find there is a mistake.'"
"I read in the proof-sheets of Hardy on Ramanujan: 'As someone said, each of the positive integers was one of his personal friends.' My reaction was, 'I wonder who said that; I wish I had.' In the next proof-sheets I read (what now stands): 'It was Littlewood who said...' (What had happened was that Hardy had received the remark in silence and with a poker face, and I wrote it off as a dud....)"
"I recall once saying that when I had given the same lecture several times I couldn't help feeling that they really ought to know it by now."
"If he is consistent a man of the mathematical school washes his hands of applications. To someone who wants them he would say that the ideal system runs parallel to the usual theory: 'If this is what you want, try it: it is not my business to justify application of the system; that can only be done by philosophizing; I am a mathematician'. In practice he is apt to say: 'try this; if it works that will justify it'. But now he is not merely philosophizing; he is committing the characteristic fallacy. Inductive experience that the system works is not evidence."
"I began on a question on elementary theory of numbers, in which I felt safe in my school days. It did not come out, nor did it on a later attack. I had occasion to fetch more paper; when passing a desk my eye lit on a heavy mark against the question. The candidate was not one of the leading people, and I half unconsciously inferred that I was making unnecessarily heavy weather; the question then came out fairly easily. The perfectly high-minded man would no doubt have abstained from further attack; I wish I had done so, but the offence does not lie very heavily on my conscience."
"The difference when you do know (when, for example, we are looking for a new proof) is enormous. Like a Bridge problem 'if the thing is possible it must be necessary to lead the Ace and trump with the Ace in Dummy.'"
"My research began, naturally, in the Long Vacation of my 3rd year, 1906. My director of studies (and tutor) E. W. Barnes suggested the subject of integral functions of order 0... [After success,] Barnes was now encouraged to suggest a new problem: 'Prove the Riemann Hypothesis'."
"The derivates theorem enables one to reject certain parts of the thing one wants to tend to zero. One day I was playing round with this, and a ghost of an idea entered my mind of making r, the number of differentiations, large. At that moment the spring cleaning that was in progress reached the room I was working in, and there was nothing for it but to go walking for 2 hours, in pouring rain. The problem seethed violently in my mind: the material was disordered and cluttered up with irrelevant complications cleared away in the final version, and the 'idea' was vague and elusive. Finally I stopped, in the rain, gazing blankly for minutes on end over a little bridge into a stream (near Kenwith wood), and presently a flooding certainty came into my mind that the thing was done. The 40 minutes before I got back and could verify were none the less tense."
"Improbabilities are apt to be overestimated. It is true that I should have been surprised in the past to learn that Professor Hardy had joined the Oxford Group. But one could not say the adverse chance was 10⁶ : 1. Mathematics is a dangerous profession; an appreciable proportion of us go mad, and then this particular event would be quite likely. ... There must exist a collection of well-authenticated coincidences, and I regret that I am not better acquainted with them. ... I sometimes ask the question: what is the most remarkable coincidence you have experienced, and is it, for the most remarkable one, remarkable? (With a lifetime to choose from, 10⁶ : 1 is a mere trifle.) ... Eddington once told me that information about a new (newly visible, not necessarily unknown) comet was received by an Observatory in misprinted form; they looked at the place indicated (no doubt sweeping a square degree or so), and saw a new comet. ..."
"Besicovitch and Harry Williams asked me what God was doing before the Creation. I said: 'Millions of words must have been written on this; but he was doing Pure Mathematics and thought it would be a pleasant change to do some Applied.'"
"The Astronomer's fallacy. It is very hard to make a random selection of stars. If, for example, you see a star (with the naked eye) it is probably bright (as stars go). A lecturer was once making the point that middle class families were smaller than lower class ones. As a test he asked everyone to write down the number of children in his family. The average was larger than the lower class average. The obvious point he overlooked were that zero families were unrepresented in the audience. But further, families of n have a probability of being represented proportional to n; with all this, the result is to be expected."
"It is possible for a mathematician to be 'too strong' for a given occasion. He forces through, where another might be driven to a different, and possibly more fruitful, approach. (So a rock climber might force a dreadful crack, instead of finding a subtle and delicate route.)"
"[For an unproved Lemma] I had what looked like a promising idea for this, but it was fallacious. In the middle of a three week holiday - mathematics completely below the horizon - the idea came again out of the blue when I was in bed. I forgot it had been rejected as fallacious, and this forgetting did the trick; because this time I noticed that it did prove something, and, by what was nearly, or quite, automatic writing, a proof got written down which deduced the Lemma from the something. ... I did experience automatic writing again. ... my pencil wrote down the formula [omitted] for no reason at all, and almost unattended by consciousness. On the face of it the formula has no apparent connexion with the problem, but it turns out to be an essential key to the proof. ... as if my subconsciousness knew the thing all the time, and finally got impatient."
"G. H. Hardy said he thought on paper ('with my pen'). He wrote everything out (in his invariably admirable handwriting), scrapping and copying whenever a page got into a mess. When I am thinking about a difficult problem everything goes onto a single page - all over the place with odd equations, diagrams, rings. However appalling the mess, I feel that to scrap this page would somehow break threads in the unconscious."
"'Always verify references.' This is so absurd in mathematics that I used to say provocatively: 'never...' When I began writing I innocently adopted the French habit of M. (Monsieur) in front of any surname. I thus created a ghost mathematician M. Landau (to whom some 'non-verified' references were made)."
"I had been struggling for two months to prove a result I was pretty sure was true. When I was walking up a Swiss mountain, fully occupied by the effort, a very odd device emerged - so odd that, though it worked, I could not grasp the resulting proof as a whole. But not only so; I had a sense that my subconscious was saying, 'Are you never going to do it, confound you; try this.'"
"There is much to be said for being a mathematician. To begin with, he has to be completely honest in his work, not from any superior morality, but because he simply cannot get away with a fake. ... A mathematician's normal day contains hours of close concentration, and leaves him jaded in the evening. ... This is why we tend to relax either on mild nonfiction like biographies, or - to be crude, and to the derision of arts people - on trash. There is, of course, good trash and bad trash. ... Minor depressions will occur, and most of a mathematician's life is spent in frustration, punctuated with rare inspirations. A beginner can't expect quick results; if they are quick they are pretty sure to be poor. ... When one has finished a substantial paper there is commonly a mood in which it seems that there is really nothing in it. Do not worry, later on you will be thinking 'At least I could do something good then.' At the end of a particularly long and exacting work there can be a strange melancholy. This, however, is romantic, and mildly pleasant, like some other melancholies."
"In 1908 Herman quoted to my father an extract from the main report on my first Fellowship thesis. 'He is to be a great mathematician, and his work is singularly mature.' (Herman, on the evidence of my Minor Scholarship and perhaps a first term's work, broke it to my father that he couldn't expect much of me. I'm not sure when this was reversed, and my father knew the ropes enough not to build too much on a Senior Wranglership. I remember, to my surprise, as being a prodigy of 14 in South Africa, his implying that I might expect at Cambridge to be nearly as good as himself, or possibly a shade better. The Fellowship report was something of a surprise; he said 'I feel like a hen that has hatched an eagle.')"
"Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil; In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish; For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth; Nor is any poison so deadly, that it serveth not some wholesome use."
"There is a limit to enjoyment, though the sources of wealth be boundless And the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation."
"Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech."
"A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever."
"A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men."
"God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love in all he doeth, Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume: The wicked work their woe by looking upon love, and hating it: The righteous find their joys in yearning on its loveliness for ever."
"Tell me, ye that strive in vain to cramp and dwarf the soul, Wherefore should it cease to be, and when shall essence die?"
"If the mind is wearied by study, or the body worn with sickness, It is well to lie fallow for a while, in the vacancy of sheer amusement ; But when thou prosprest in health, and thine intellect can soar untired, To seek uninstructive pleasure is to slumber on the couch of indolence."
"Wait, thou child of hope, for Time shall teach thee all things."
"Clamorous pauperism feasteth While honest Labor, pining, hideth his sharp ribs."
"Who can wrestle against Sleep? — Yet is that giant very gentleness."
"Naples sitteth by the sea, keystone of an arch of azure, Crowned by consenting nations peerless queen of gayety: She laugheth at the wrath of Ocean, she mocketh the fury of Vesuvius, She spurneth disease, and misery, and famine, that crowd her sunny streets."
"O fair, false city, thou gay and gilded harlot! Wo for thy wanton heart, wo for thy wicked hardness! Wo unto thee, that the lightsomeness of life, beneath Italian suns, Should meet the solemnity of death, in a sepulchre so foul and fearful!"
"Away with false fashion, so calm and so chill, Where pleasure itself cannot please; Away with cold breeding, that faithlessly still Affects to be quite at its ease; For the deepest in feeling is highest in rank, The freest is first of the band, Nature's own Nobleman, friendly and frank, Is a man with his heart in his hand!"
"Fearless in honesty, gentle yet just, He warmly can love, and can hate; Nor will he bow down, with his face in the dust, To Fashion's intolerant state;"
"His fashion is passion, sincere and intense, — His impulse is simple and true; Yet temper'd by judgment, and taught by good sense, And cordial with me and with you."
"I am not old, — I cannot be old, Though threescore years and ten Have wasted away, like a tale that is told, The lives of other men: I am not old ; though friends and foes Alike have gone to their graves, And left me alone to my joys or my woes, As a rock in the midst of the waves."
"I am not old, — I cannot be old, Though tottering, wrinkled, and gray ; Though my eyes are dim, and my marrow is cold, Call me not old to-day."
"A dream, a dream, — it is all a dream, A strange, sad dream, good sooth; For old as I am, and old as I seem, My heart is full of youth."
"Eye hath not seen, tongue hath not told, And ear hath not heard it sung, How buoyant and bold, though it seem to grow old, Is the heart, forever young; — Forever young, — though life's old age Hath every nerve unstrung: The heart, the heart, is a heritage That keeps the old man young!"
"Never give up! it is wiser and better Always to hope, than once to despair. Fling off the load of Doubt's cankering fetter, And break the dark spell of tyrannical care."
"For life, good youth, hath never an ill Which hope cannot scatter, and faith cannot kill; And stubborn realities never shall bind The free-spreading wings of a cheerful mind."
"Who shall guess what I may be? Who can tell my fortune to me? For, bravest and brightest that ever was sung May be — and shall be — the lot of the young!"
"How gladly would I wander through some strange and savage land, The lasso at my saddle-bow, the rifle in my hand, A leash of gallant mastiffs bounding by my side, And, for a friend to love, the noble horse on which I ride! Alone, alone—yet not alone, for God is with me there, The tender hand of Providence shall guide me everywhere, While happy thoughts and holy hopes, as spirits calm and mild, Shall fan with their sweet wings the hermit-hunter of the wild!"
"Open the casement, and up with the Sun! His gallant journey is just begun; Over the hills his chariot is roll'd, Banner'd with glory, and burnish'd with gold,— Over the hills he comes sublime, Bridegroom of Earth, and brother of Time!"
"Hush,—for the halo of calmness is spreading Over my spirit as mild as a dove; Hush,—for the angel of comfort is shedding Over my body his vial of love; Hush,—for new slumbers are over me stealing, Thus would I court them again and again, Hush,—for my heart is intoxicate,—reeling In the swift waltz of my beautiful brain!"
"The dews of Hermon rest upon thee now, Fair saint and martyr! and yet once again Faith, hope and charity, like gracious rain, Fall on thy consecrated virgin brow."
"Rise! ye gallant youth of Britain, Gather to your country's call, On your hearts her name is written, Rise to help her, one and all!"
""Let byegones be byegones,”—they foolishly say, And bid me be wise and forget them; But old recollections are active to-day, And I can do nought but regret them; Though the present be pleasant, all joyous and gay, And promising well for the morrow, I love to look back on the years past away, Embalming my byegones in sorrow."
"When streams of unkindness, as bitter as gall, Bubble up from the heart to the tongue, And Meekness is writhing in torment and thrall, By the hands of Ingratitude wrung, — In the heat of injustice, unwept and unfair, While the anguish is festering yet, None, none but an angel or God can declare "I now can forgive and forget.""
"For my part I do not feel any great horror at the idea...of the possible establishment of a Republic in this country. (Loud cheers.) I am quite certain that sooner or later it will come. (Renewed cheers and ‘Bravo!’) But...there is really not any great practical difference between a free constitutional monarchy such as ours and a free republic."
"[T]he party will not again be reunited till a new programme has been elaborated which shall satisfy the just expectations of the representatives of labour, as well as conciliate the Nonconformists who have been driven into rebellion. It is impossible to say with certainty what will be the exact form of this protest against the ever-recurring assumption that the time has come when statesmen may rest from their labours and parties be at peace, but it must include some or all of the following ideas which have been exercising a growing attraction for political thinkers, and which are summed up in the sentence which may perhaps form the motto of the new party—Free Church, Free Land, Free Schools, and Free Labour."
"Despite the perpetual adulation of ourselves which is always going on, and the constant recitals of our prosperity and of the progress we are making in science and general culture, we are compelled occasionally to turn aside from the contemplation of our virtues and intelligence and wealth, to recognise the fact that we have in our midst a vast population more ignorant than the barbarians whom we affect to despise, more brutal than the savages whom we profess to convert, more miserable than the most wretched in other countries to whom we attempt from time to time to carry succour and relief."
"All this disease is produced by filthy, ill-ventilated, uncomfortable homes; those homes, in their turn, drive the people to the public-houses and worse places. It is usual to say that these results are due to the ignorance of the people. That is true; but it would be almost truer to say that this ignorance in its turn is the result of the conditions amid which the people live. What folly it is to talk about the moral and intellectual elevation of the masses when the conditions of life are such as to render elevation impossible! What can the schoolmaster or the minister of religion do, when the influences of home undo all he does? We find bad air, polluted water, crowded and filthy homes, and ill-ventilated courts everywhere prevailing in the midst of our boasted wealth, luxury, and civilisation."
"I say to Ireland what the Liberals or the Republicans of the North said to the Southern States of America—The union must be preserved. You cannot and shall not destroy it. Within these limits there is nothing which you may not ask and hope to obtain—equal laws, equal justice, equal opportunities, equal prosperity."
"I believe that sooner or later it will be found necessary to undertake some public works in Ireland... England is the only country in the world in which it has been found possible to leave public works entirely to private enterprise. State assistance in some form or another is afforded...in every other country in Europe... I fully admit the difficulties and dangers of any such undertaking: the probability of jobbery and inefficiency; but as to the character and the poverty of the Irish people, I would at once appoint the strongest scientific and technical Commission it would be possible to obtain to report on certain broad classes of undertakings, especially on railways, reclamation, main drainage and harbours with a view to some considerable scheme of public works. I do not think the pecuniary risk would be so great as is generally supposed; and in any case I should regard the loss as a reasonable insurance against much greater evils."
"The Whigs as a party are played out, and the next great fight will be between the Tory democrats and the democratic Radicals. It will never do for the latter to be out-bidden, so you must prepare for something very drastic."
"Putting aside personal compliments what are the facts? A saving of 7 per thousand in the death-rate—2,800 lives per annum in the town. And as 5 people are ill for everyone who dies there must be a diminution of 14,000 cases of sickness, with all the loss of money, pain and grief they involve. Unless I can secure for the nation results similar to these which have followed the adoption of my policy in Birmingham it will have been a sorry exchange to give up the Town Council for the Cabinet."
"Lord Salisbury constitutes himself the spokesman of a class—of the class to which he himself belongs—who toil not, neither do they spin—whose fortunes, as in his case, have originated in grants made long ago, for such services as courtiers render to kings—and have since grown and increased while they have slept, by the levy of an unearned share on all that other men have done by toil and labour to add to the general wealth and prosperity of the country of which they form a part."
"Hitherto, the well-to-do have governed this country for their own interest; and I will do them this credit—they have achieved their object. Now I trust the time is approaching for those who work and have not. My aim in life is to make life pleasanter for this great majority; I do not care if it becomes in the process less pleasant for the well-to-do minority. Take America, for instance. Cultured persons complain that the society there is vulgar; less agreeable to the delicate tastes of delicately trained minds. But it is infinitely preferable to the ordinary worker."
"During the last 100 years, the House of Lords has never contributed one iota to popular liberties or popular freedom, or done anything to advance the common weal; but during that time it has protected every abuse and sheltered every privilege."
"One may confidently anticipate that the whole aspect of the agricultural question will undergo a change, and that...legislation will, under the pressure of the new force applied to it, be introduced for the purpose of bringing the land into the best use for the nation. Thus far the agricultural labourer has been regarded by the political economists as a mere machine—an instrument to be used for the creation of wealth, deposited in the hands of the few; not as a human being whose comfort, health, and home are to be considered, and who has a claim to such benefits as were conferred by the Factory Acts upon the labourers in towns. If his welfare cannot be sufficiently protected without the taxation of property, then property will be taxed. But it is needless now to attempt to define the measures that may be necessary for these ends. It is enough to indicate their general character. They sound the death-knell of the laissez-faire system."
"The goal towards which the advance will probably be made at an accelerated pace, is that in the direction of which the legislation of the last quarter of a century has been tending—the intervention, in other words, of the State on behalf of the weak against the strong, in the interests of labour against capital, of want and suffering against luxury and wealth."
"I do not think that the democracy will have any love for a policy of intervention and aggression, nor any ambition for conquest and universal domination. These things lead straight to the conscription, and you will not be eager or even willing to pay the blood tax which is levied on your brethren in the continental countries. (Cheers.) I anticipate, then, that you will give no assistance to the party who are clamouring for what they call a strong foreign policy, and who at this moment, in the interest chiefly of the bondholders and financial speculators, are calling upon us to take possession of Egypt without regard to the wishes of the population or the just susceptibilities of other nations. We are in Egypt at this time in pursuance of an unselfish object."
"[I]f the occasion should come to assert the authority of England, a democratic Government, resting on the confidence and support of the whole nation, and not on the favour of any limited class, would be very strong. It would know how to make itself respected, and how to maintain the obligations and the honour of the country. I think foreign rulers would be very ill advised if they were to assume that because we are anxious to avoid all cause of quarrel with our neighbours we are wanting in the old spirit of Englishmen, or that we should be found very tolerant of insult or long suffering under injury."
"If foreign nations are determined to pursue distant colonial enterprises we have no right to prevent them. We cannot anticipate them in every case by proclaiming a universal protectorate in every unoccupied portion of the globe's surface which English enterprise has hitherto neglected. But our fellow subjects may rest assured that their liberties, their rights, and their interests are as dear to us as our own; and if ever they are seriously menaced the whole power of the country will be exerted in their defence (cheers), and the English democracy will stand shoulder to shoulder throughout the world to maintain the honour and integrity of the Empire. (Cheers.)"
"What is to be the nature of the domestic legislation of the future? (Hear, hear.) I cannot help thinking that it will be more directed to what are called social subjects than has hitherto been the case.—How to promote the greater happiness of the masses of the people (hear, hear), how to increase their enjoyment of life (cheers), that is the problem of the future; and just as there are politicians who would occupy all the world and leave nothing for the ambition of anybody else, so we have their counterpart at home in the men who, having already annexed everything that is worth having, expect everybody else to be content with the crumbs that fall from their table. If you will go back to the origin of things you will find that when our social arrangements first began to shape themselves every man was born into the world with natural rights, with a right to a share in the great inheritance of the community, with a right to a part of the land of his birth. (Cheers.) But all these rights have passed away. The common rights of ownership have disappeared. Some of them have been sold; some of them have been given away by people who had no right to dispose of them; some of them have been lost through apathy and ignorance; some have been stolen by fraud (cheers); and some have been acquired by violence. Private ownership has taken the place of these communal rights, and this system has become so interwoven with our habits and usages, it has been so sanctioned by law and protected by custom, that it might be very difficult and perhaps impossible to reverse it. But then, I ask, what ransom will property pay for the security which it enjoys? What substitute will it find for the natural rights which have ceased to be recognized?"
"When the issues of peace and war are trembling in the balance, and when an unguarded word might be productive of much mischief, everyone who is under any sense of responsibility is bound, for a time at least, to maintain a temporary reserve. All, therefore, that I will say, is that war, even a successful war, is so great a misfortune for all who are engaged in it that it is the highest obligation of a patriotic Government to exhaust every means of honourable and amiable settlement. (Hear, hear.) But if, when we have done that, we find ourselves face to face with a determined policy of aggression, and have to make an appeal to the loyalty and the support of the Empire, I believe that the summons will be responded to as it has been in past times, and that the English democracy will show that it is patient and resolute, and endurant to the end, and that it will exhibit that courage and tenacity which have always in past times distinguished the Anglo-Saxon race. (Cheers.)"
"When government was represented only by the authority of the Crown and the views of a particular class I can understand that it was the first duty of men who valued their freedom to restrict its authority and to limit its expenditure. But all that is changed. Now government is the organized expression of the wishes and the wants of the people, and under these circumstances let us cease to regard it with suspicion. Suspicion is the product of an older time, of circumstances which have long since disappeared. Now it is our business to extend its functions and to see in what way its operations can be usefully enlarged."
"In the first place I urge upon you a full recognition of the magnitude of the evils with which we have to deal; in the second place I insist on the right of those who suffer to redress (cheers); and in the third place I assert the duty of society as a whole to secure the comfort and welfare of all its individual members. As a consequence of this, I desire to submit to you that it belongs to the authority and to the duty of the State—that is to say, of the whole population acting through their chosen representatives—to utilise for this purpose all local experience and all local organisation, to protect the weak, to provide for the poor, to redress the inequalities of our social system, to alleviate the harsh conditions of the struggle for existence, and to raise the average enjoyments of the majority of the population. (Loud cheers.)"
"The pacification of Ireland at this moment does, I believe, depend upon the concession to Ireland of the right to govern itself in the matter of its purely domestic business... I do not believe that the great majority of Englishmen have the slightest conception of the system under which this free nation attempts to rule a sister country. It is a system which is founded on the bayonets of 30,000 soldiers encamped permanently as in a hostile country (Cries of "Shame.") It is a system as completely centralized and bureaucratic as that with which Russia governs Poland, or as that which was common in Venice under the Austrian rule."
"I want you not to accept as final or as perfect, arrangements under which hundreds of thousands, nay, millions, of your fellow-countrymen are subjected to untold privations and misery, with the evidence all around them of accumulated wealth and unbounded luxury. The extremes of wealth and of poverty are alike the sources of great temptation. I believe that the great evil with which we have to deal is the excessive inequality in the distribution of riches. Ignorance, intemperance, immorality, and disease—these things are all interdependent and closely connected; and although they are often the cause of poverty, they are still more frequently the consequence of destitution, and if we can do anything to raise the condition of the poor in this country, to elevate the masses of the people, and give them the means of enjoyment and recreation, to afford to them opportunities of improvement, we should do more for the prosperity, ay, for the morality of this country than anything we can do by laws, however stringent, for the prevention of excess, or the prevention of crime."
"He is face to face with the whole population of England and Scotland, reinforced as it will be by at least one-fifth of the population of Ireland itself, and to threaten 32 millions of people with the vengeance of four millions is a rhetorical artifice which is altogether unworthy of Mr. Parnell's power and influence. (Hear, hear.) But it is said by him that justice requires that we should concede to Irishmen an absolute right to self-government. I would reply that that is a right which must be considered in relation to the security and welfare of the other countries in juxtaposition to which Ireland is placed, and with whose interests hers are indissolubly linked. I cannot admit that five millions of Irishmen have any greater inherent right to govern themselves without regard to the rest of the community than would the five millions of persons who inhabit the metropolis."
"The great programme of our civilization is still not solved. We have to account for and to grapple with the mass of misery and destitution in our midst, co-existent as it is with the evidence of abundant wealth and teeming prosperity. This programme some men would put aside by reference to the eternal laws of supply and demand, to the necessity of freedom of contract, and to the sanctity of every private right of property. But these phrases are the convenient cant of selfish wealth... Our object is the elevation of the poorer of the masses of the people, a levelling up which shall do something to remove the excessive inequalities in the social condition of the people."
"If we fail, let us try again and again until we succeed."
"I hope we may be able sooner or later to federate, to bring together, all these great dependencies of the British Empire into one supreme and Imperial Parliament (cheers), so that they should be all units of one body, that one should feel what the others feel, that all should be equally responsible, that all should have a share in the welfare and sympathize with the welfare of every part. That is what I hope, but there is very little hope for it if you weaken the ties which now bind the central portion of the Empire together. (Cheers.)"
"As I passed through England and the United States, and again when I crossed the boundary of the Dominion, there was one idea impressing itself upon my mind at every step, indelibly written upon the face of two vast countries, and that was the greatness and importance of the distinction reserved for the Anglo-Saxon race—(cheers)—that proud, persistent, self-asserting and resolute stock which no change of climate or condition can alter, and which is infallibly bound to be the predominant force in the future history and civilisation of the world. (Cheers.)"
"The interest of true democracy is not towards anarchy or the disintegration of the Empire, but rather the uniting together kindred races with similar objects. You have a portion in the great path that lies before us. It may yet be that the federation of Canada may be the lamp lighting our path to the federation of the British Empire. (Cheers.) If it is a dream—it may be only the imagination of an enthusiast—it is a grand idea. (Hear, hear.) It is one to stimulate the patriotism and statesmanship of every man who loves his country; and whether it be destined or not to perfect realisation, at least let us all cherish the sentiment it inspires. Let us do all in our power to promote it, and enlarge the relations and goodwill which ought always to exist between sons of England throughout the world and the old folks at home. (Prolonged cheering.)"
"[W]e want to convince the country that there is a better chance of really popular reform from a Unionist Government than from the Parnell–Gladstone."
"Be as Radical as you like, be a Home Ruler if you must, but be a little Jingo if you can."
"The fact is, that in social questions the Tories have almost always been more progressive than the Liberals, and the Conservative leaders in their latest legislation have only gone back to the old Tory traditions. Almost all the legislation dealing with Labour questions has been initiated by Tory statesmen, and most of it has been passed by Tory Governments. The Factory and Workshops Acts, the Mines Regulation Act, Merchant Shipping legislation, the Acts relating to sanitation, artisans' dwellings, land purchase, allotments, small holdings and free education are all Conservative, and it is therefore historically inaccurate to represent the Tory Party as opposed to socialistic legislation."
"He is opposed to expansion of the Empire and to any expense, on the ground, as I understand, that we have enough to do at home. Now, suppose this view...had been put 50 or 100 years ago, and suppose it had been accepted by the Parliament of that day, I ask myself what would now be the position of this country, what would be the position of persons in the slums for whom my hon. Friend has so much sympathy and feeling? Does my hon. Friend believe, if it were not for the gigantic foreign trade that has been created by the policy of expansion, that we could subsist in this country in any kind of way—I do not say in luxury, but in the condition in which at present a great part of our population live? Does he think that, we could support 40,000,000 of people in these small islands? Is it not the fact that the great proportion of the 40,000,000 people of this country earns its livelihood by the trade brought to the country in consequence of the action of our ancestors 50 or 100 years ago who did not shrink from making sacrifices, and who were not ashamed...to peg our claims for posterity? We are the posterity who enjoy the result of that policy; and are we to be meaner and more selfish than those who preceded us? Are we to do nothing for those who come after us? Are we to sacrifice that which those who went before have gained for us? Why, if this idea of closing all the doors through which all new trade is to come to us is to be accepted by this House, we must adopt some means or other by which our population can be kept stationary. And I venture to say that when our ancestors pegged out claims for us, as they did in many parts of the world, they were not at the time more promising than the claims which are now under consideration."
"I believe that the people of this country have decided this matter in their minds, and have determined that they will take their full share in the disposition of these new lands and in the work of civilisation they have to carry out there. I think they are justified in that determination—justified by the spirit of the past, justified by that spirit which has shown that the spirit of travel and adventure and enterprise distinguishing the Anglo-Saxon race has made us peculiarly fit to carry out the work of colonisation."
"If we are not going to give up this mission—to use a word I do not much like, but it has been previously employed—let us look the matter courageously in the face, and be prepared, if need be, for sacrifice of life and money, which, in the first instance, we may have to make in order to carry it out. We have come to the point at which we do not consider life so sacred that it may not be sacrificed to save life. For my own part, I hold that, both in matters of life and money, we may sacrifice both, if we see before us a prospect of good and a satisfaction for the sacrifice we may make. The people of this country, in my opinion, have by large majorities declared that it is our duty to take our share in the work of civilisation in Africa... They know that an omelette cannot be made without breaking eggs, and I do not believe that they are prepared to count the cost."
"I and those who agree with me believe in the expansion of the Empire, and we are not ashamed to confess that we have that feeling, and we are not at all troubled by accusations of Jingoism."
"We have secured for Uganda the pax Britannica which has been so beneficial in India... What existed in Uganda at that time were anarchy and civil war of the worst kind. If we had not been there thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of people would have been cruelly massacred; and after the victory of one party or the other what remained of the minority would have been cruelly tortured to death."
"What is the Slave Trade, and what is the cause of it? People do not make slaves through love of cruelty or mischief, but they do so because they made their livelihood by it. Tribes are enslaved, are taken as slaves, in order to carry burdens to the coast, and when they have done that they are sold for what they will fetch. If you could give to the slave-raiding Arabs, who at the present moment are the most barbarous and brutal people on the face of the earth, peaceful means of making an honest livelihood, do you mean to say that they enjoy war so much that they will not accept these means? If you say so, I think all history and experience is against you. You have never found a case where it has been made profitable to a nation or tribe to keep the peace that they have not done so... Make it the interest of the Arab slave traders to give up the Slave Trade, and you will see the end of that traffic."
"I say that this Bill has been changed in its most vital features, and yet it has always been found perfect by hon. Members behind the Treasury Bench. The Prime Minister [William Gladstone] calls "black," and they say, "it is good": the Prime Minister calls "white," and they say "it is better." It is always the voice of a god. Never since the time of Herod has there been such slavish adulation. [Cheers, cries of "Progress!" and "Judas!"]"
"I have no sympathy at all with the new Radicalism of which Sir William Harcourt is now a conspicuous supporter, although a recent convert. I have no sympathy with the policy of men whose representatives abet and aid the projects of the enemies of this country (hear, hear)—the men who whine over the fate of Lobengula, but denounce as murderers the British officers and the brave Englishmen, who, at the risk of their lives and fortunes in all parts of the world, are doing their part to maintain the great Empire of the Queen. (Cheers.) I have no sympathy with men who apparently approve of French aggression, and who at the same time deprecate any increase of the British Navy; or with those who preach consistently in all parts of the world, in Africa, in Asia, and in Ireland their favourite doctrine of "Scuttle.""
"I am, and shall be in the future, proud to call myself a Unionist (cheers), and be satisfied with that title alone, believing that it is a wider and nobler title than that either of Conservative or Liberal, since it includes them both (hear, hear), and since it includes all men who are determined to maintain an undivided Empire, and who are ready to promote the welfare and the union, not of one class, but of all classes of the community. (Cheers.)"
"I say that...there is no leader of public opinion in this country who will not fail in his duty if he does not impress upon his countrymen the absolute necessity of preventing their security from being undermined. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, there is one thing that you must never lose sight of. The creation of an all-powerful navy by any other Power is chiefly valuable to them as an instrument of aggression. To us an all-powerful navy is the essential condition of our existence. (Cheers.) If we were to lose even for three months the control of the great highways of the ocean by which we communicate with our distant possessions and dependencies, these possessions would be absolutely at the mercy of any Power with unlimited military strength which took advantage of our absence from the sea to attack them... I will only say...that I desire you to impress upon you the importance...of doing all in your power to support the party...which will be sensible to responsibilities of Empire, which will be mindful of the traditions of a great governing race, and which will be determined to hand down to future generations intact and unimpaired the great inheritance of a world-wide dominion. (Loud cheers.)"
"[T]he electors are much more interested at the present time in social questions and the problems connected with the agitation of the Labour Party than they are with either the House of Lords or any other constitutional subject."
"I have taken office with two objects; to see whether something cannot be done to bring the self-governing Colonies and ourselves into closer relations, and to attempt the development of the resources of the Crown Colonies, especially to increase our trade with those Colonies."
"I venture to claim two qualifications for the great office which I hold, which to my mind, without making invidious distinctions, is one of the most important that can be held by any Englishman; and those qualifications are that in the first place I believe in the British Empire, and in the second place I believe in the British race. I believe that the British race is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen."
"The resolution which was conveyed to the Prime Minister on behalf of the Australian colonies and the display of patriotic enthusiasm on the part of the Dominion of Canada came to us as a natural response to the outburst of national spirit in the United Kingdom, and as a proof that British hearts beat in unison throughout the world, whatever may be the distances that separate us. (Cheers.) Then let us cultivate those sentiments. Let us do all in our power by improving our communications, by developing our commercial relations, by co-operating in mutual defence (cheers), and none of us then will ever feel isolated, no part of the Empire will stand alone, so long as it can count upon the common interest of all in its welfare and in its security. (Cheers.) That is the moral I have derived from recent events. That is the lesson I desire to impress on my countrymen. In the words of Tennyson— "Let Britain's myriad voices call, Sons, be welded each and all, Into one Imperial whole, One with Britain, heart and soul! One life, one flag, one fleet, one Throne!" (Loud cheers.)"
"And in the time to come, the time that must come, when these colonies of ours have grown in stature, in population, and in strength, this league of kindred nations, this federation of Greater Britain, will not only provide for its own security, but will be a potent factor in maintaining the peace of the world. (Cheers.)"
"The establishment of commercial union throughout the Empire would not only be the first step, but the main step, the decisive step towards the realization of the most inspiring idea that has ever entered into the minds of British statesmen."
"You can not have omelettes without breaking eggs; you can not destroy the practises of barbarism, of slavery, of superstition, which for centuries have desolated the interior of Africa, without the use of force; but if you will fairly contrast the gain to humanity with the price which we are bound to pay for it, I think you may well rejoice in the result of such expeditions as those which have recently been conducted with such signal success in Nyassaland, Ashanti, Benin, and Nupé—expeditions which may have, and indeed have, cost valuable lives, but as to which we may rest assured that for one life lost a hundred will be gained, and the cause of civilization and the prosperity of the people will in the long run be eminently advanced."
"Let it be our endeavour, let it be our task, to keep alight the torch of imperial patriotism, to hold fast the affection and the confidence of our kinsmen across the seas; so that in every vicissitude of fortune the British Empire may present an unbroken front to all her foes, and may carry on even to distant ages the glorious traditions of the British flag."
"I say, speaking for the Government, that in so far as in us lies there shall be no second Majuba. Never again, with our consent, while we have the power, shall the Boers be able to erect in the heart of South Africa a citadel from whence proceed disaffection and race animosities. Never again shall they be able to endanger the paramountcy of Great Britain. Never again shall they be able to treat an Englishman as if he belonged to an inferior race."
"I believe that the men of Yorkshire will not forget the words of the Mayor of Mafeking that "A seat lost to the Unionist Government is a seat gained by the Boers.""
"At the present moment the Empire is being attacked on all sides and in our isolation we must look to ourselves. (Cheers.) We must draw closer our internal relations, the ties of sentiment, the ties of sympathy, yes, and the ties of interest. (Cheers.) If by adherence to economic pedantry, to old shibboleths, we are to lose opportunities of closer union which are offered us by our colonies, if we are to put aside occasions now within our grasp, if we do not take every chance in our power to keep British trade in British hands, I am certain that we shall deserve the disasters which will infallibly come upon us. (Cheers.)"
"The days are for great Empires and not for little States. The question for this generation is whether we are to be numbered among the great Empires or the little States."
"Justification of union is that a bundle is stronger than the sticks which compose it, but, if the whole strain is to be thrown upon one stick, there is very little advantage in any attempt to put them into a bundle."
"[T]he expression was, "If you want our aid, call us to your Councils." Gentlemen, we do want your aid. We do require your assistance in the administration of the vast Empire which is yours as well as ours. The weary Titan staggers under the too vast orb of its fate. We have borne the burden for many years. We think it is time that our children should assist us, be very sure that we shall hasten gladly to call you to our Councils. If you are prepared at any time to take any share, any proportionate share, in the burdens of the Empire, we are prepared to meet you with any proposal for giving to you a corresponding voice in the policy of the Empire."
"The terms of peace at Vereeniging were the charter of the Boer nation. They had every right to call upon the British to fulfil them in spirit and letter. If, in any respect, they thought these terms had not been, or would not be, carried out in the future, let them bring complaints and they would be redressed."
"In the terms of peace it was promised that education in Dutch should be given to the children of parents who desired it. This promise would be kept."
"He heartily agreed with Dr. Smuts when he said they must stand together in the work of resettlement and restoration. The hope of South Africa lay in closer intercourse between the two races. They were not really separated either in interest or character. If they went back to their history they found that in centuries long ago they were kinsfolk, and now, although they had been separated, the resemblances between them were greater than the differences. The characteristics which the British admired they had—namely, patriotism, courage, tenacity, and willingness to make sacrifices for what they believed to be right and true. He believed that with a little consideration on both sides and readiness to give as well as take before many years, probably before many of them could anticipate, they would be one free people under one flag."
"You are invited to share the privileges and glories of the Empire which is yours as well as ours, and was made by your forefathers as well as ours; and you are also asked to share the burdens of Empire. If I have ever been in any doubt as to what answer you would give it has been removed by my experiences since I have been in South Africa. There is a small minority in the United Kingdom and elsewhere which is apt in great questions of policy to haggle about the cost. A conception of empire will not be gained if treated in a huckstering spirit. (Loud cheers.) The Empire is a great and priceless possession which we cannot weigh in the balances, putting so much empire against so much gold. My opinion is that the peoples of the Colonies will resent any imputation on their loyalty to this great ideal, and will feel no sacrifice too great to maintain their fundamental position. A Canadian statesman has said that the British are now one people, animated by one spirit, and that they shall in future stand shoulder to shoulder in support of their common interests and common rights. (Cheers.) That is the tone in which the matter should be treated. I call on all the colonies to sustain it to the end. If this be achieved I venture to predict that the British Empire, standing four-square to all the winds that blow, will carry down the distant ages these ideals of humanity, justice, and freedom on which they have been based."
"You must bear in mind that we are above parochial and provincial patriotism, for patriotism in itself is worthy of a wider and nobler conception of Imperial life, which it behoves us all to cultivate. These times are critical and creative times. On what is done now the future of South Africa depends. Every one may contribute, according to his means and opportunity, to secure the greatness of the union. A new nation is now springing up and growing under our eyes to be a great free nation under the British flag. (Cheers.) Do not forget the Empire. Do not forget the motherland that bore you and in your time of stress and difficulty came to your aid. She may yet need your support. You must be prepared at all costs to give it. (Loud cheers.) What an Empire it is for which we are all responsible! It is the greatest in extent that the world has ever known, with a population of four hundred million inhabitants, which includes hundreds of different races, which embraces every climate, and which produces every necessary and luxury of life. (Cheers.) What a heritage! You are co-heirs with us in its privileges and its glories. Are you going to be content to be sleeping partners? (Cries of "No.") You must claim your share in all that the Empire represents; you must claim as an honour and a privilege your share in its burdens and obligations; you must join with us to do everything to maintain the union and confirm the strength, power, and influence which I believe in the future you will find to be the greatest force in civilisation and in the peace of the world."
"For my own part I believe in a British Empire, in an Empire which, although it should be its first duty to cultivate friendship with all the nations of the world, should yet, even if alone, be self-sustaining and self-sufficient, able to maintain itself against the competition of all its rivals; and I do not believe in a Little England which shall be separated from all those to whom it would in the natural course look for support and affection, a Little England which would then be dependent absolutely on the mercy of those who envy its present prosperity, and who have shown they are ready to do all in their power to prevent its future union with the British races throughout the world. (Loud and continued cheers.)"
"It will be impossible to secure preferential treatment with the colonies without some duty on corn as well as on other articles on food, because these are the chief articles of colonial produce. Whether this will raise the cost of living is a matter of opinion, and there is no doubt that in many cases a duty of this kind is paid by the exporter, and it really depends on the extent of competition among the exporting countries... But, even if the price of food is raised, the rate of wages will certainly be raised in greater proportion. This has been the case both in the United States and Germany. In the former country the availabile balance left to the working man after he has paid for necessaries is much larger than here. These are facts which we have to bring to the notice of the working men generally."
"At present we go into negotiations with foreign countries empty-handed. We have nothing to give, and we have to take what they are good enough to leave for us. If we were able to bargain on equal terms, I believe that the duties now imposed on our produce would be generally reduced. There would be a competition among foreign nations for our markets which would bring us nearer to real free trade than we have ever been."
"You are told by the opponents of all change that such a reform as I contemplate would involve this country in ruin, would bring starvation to the homes of the working people, and destroy our export trade. If these predictions have any foundation, how are we to account for the fact that the increase of exports, wages, and general prosperity during the last 20 years in the United States and Germany has been greater than in the United Kingdom, which is the only civilised country in the world to enjoy the blessings of unrestricted free import?"
"[What] is the effect of payment for imports by interest on securities? Is it not the effect that such payment does not promote employment of labour, and that, therefore, although the wealth of the country so paid may not be less in aggregate, the national wealth will be worse in the sense that it will tend to cease being a manufacturing and producing nation and will become instead a nation of consumers, chiefly rich men and their dependents?"
"[It was] better to keep the employment in this country even though the workmen (and everyone else) had to pay a little more for the articles manufactured at home than for those coming from abroad, where wages may be lower and the condition of employment more favourable to the manufacturer."
"What are our objects? They are two. In the first place, we all desire the maintenance and increase of the national strength and the prosperity of the United Kingdom...in the second place, our object is, or should be, the realization of the greatest ideal which has ever come to statesmen in any country or in any age—the creation of an Empire such as the world has never seen. (Cheers.) We have to cement the union of the States beyond the Seas. We have to consolidate the British race. We have to meet the clash of competition, commercial now. Sometimes in the past it has been otherwise; it may be again in the future. Whatever it be, whatever danger threatens, we have to meet it no longer as an isolated country. We have to meet it as fortified and strengthened and buttressed by all those of our kinsmen, all those powerful and continually rising States which speak our common tongue and pay allegiance to our common flag."
"When Mr. Cobden preached his doctrine he believed, as he had at that time considerable reason to suppose, that while foreign countries would supply us with our foods and raw materials we should remain the workshop of the world and should send them in exchange our manufactures. But that is exactly what we have not done. On the contrary...we are sending less and less of our manufactures to them, and they are sending more and more of their manufactures to us...Our existence as a nation depends upon our manufacturing capacity and production."
"In 1872 we sent to the protected countries of Europe and to the United States of America 116,000,000 of exported manufactures. In 1882...it fell to 88,000,000. In 1892...it fell to 75,000,000. In 1902, last year, although the general exports had increased, the exports of manufactures had decreased again to 73½ millions. And the total result of this is that after 30 years you are sending 42½ millions of manufactures less to the protected countries than you did 30 years ago. Then there the neutral countries...they have fallen 3½ millions...you have lost altogether in your export of manufactures 46 millions. How is it that that has not impressed the people before? Because the change has been concealed by our statistics... You have failed to observe that the continuance of your trade is dependent entirely on British possessions. While these foreign countries have declined 46 millions your British possessions have increased 40 millions."
"Our Imperial trade is absolutely essential to our prosperity at the present time. If that trade declines, or if it does not increase in proportion to our population and to the loss of trade with foreign countries, then we sink at once into a fifth-rate nation. Our fate will be the fate of the empires and kingdoms of the past. We have reached our highest point...I do not believe in the setting of the British star; but then I do not believe in the folly of the British people. I trust them, I trust the working classes of this country. I have confidence that they who are our masters, electorally speaking, that they will have intelligence to see that they must wake up. They must modify their policy to suit new conditions."
"The Colonies are prepared to meet us. In return for a very moderate preference they will give us a substantial advantage. They will give us, in the first place—I believe they will reserve to us the trade which we already enjoy. They will arrange for tariffs in the future in order not to start industries in competition with those which are already in existence in the mother country... But they will do a great deal more for you. This is certain. Not only will they enable you to retain the trade which you have, but they are ready to give you preference to all the trade which is now done with them by foreign competitors...We must either draw closer together or we shall drift apart... It is, I believe, absolutely impossible for you to maintain in the long run your present loose and indefinable relations and preserve these Colonies parts of the Empire...Can we invent a tie which must be a practical one, which will prevent separation...I say that it is only by commercial union, reciprocal preference, that you can lay the foundations of the confederation of the Empire to which we all look forward as a brilliant possibility."
"We, in a spirit of humanity of which I entirely approve, have passed legislation—to which I may say I have without boasting myself contributed very largely—to raise the standard of living amongst our working people, to secure to them higher wages, to save them from the competition of men of a lower social scale. We have surrounded them with regulations which are intended to provide for their safety. We have secured them, or the majority of them, against the pecuniary loss which would follow upon accidents incurred in the course of their employment. There is not one of those things which I have not supported... But they have all entailed expense, they have all raised the cost of production; and what can be more illogical than to raise the cost of production in this country in order to promote the welfare of the working classes, and then to allow the products of other countries—which are not surrounded by any similar legislation, which are free from all similar cost and expenditure—to allow them freely to bring each country in competition with our goods, which are hampered in the struggle?"
"If you allow this state of things to go on, what will follow? If these foreign goods come in cheaper, one of two things must follow. Either you will have to give up the conditions you have gained, either you will have to abolish and repeal the fair-wages clause of our Factory Acts, and the compensation to workmen, and either you will have to take lower wages, or you will lose work. You cannot keep your work at this higher standard of living and pay if at the same time you allow foreigners at a lower standard and lower rate of pay to send their goods freely in competition with yours."
"Now the Cobden Club all this time rubs its hands in the most patriotic spirit and says, "Ah, yes; but how cheap you are buying." Yes, but think how that effects different classes in the community. Take the capitalist... His interest is to buy in the cheapest market, because he does not produce, but can get every article he consumes. He need not buy a single article in this country; he need not make a single article. He can invest his money in foreign countries and live upon the interest, and then in the returns of the prosperity of the country it will be said that the country is growing richer because he is growing richer. What about the working men? What about the class that depends upon having work in order to earn wages or subsistence at all? They cannot do without the work; and yet the work will go if it is not produced in this country. This is the state of things which I am protesting."
"Greenock was one of the great centres of the sugar trade... Then came foreign competition, aided by bounties; and your trade declines so seriously that only the very best, the very richest, the most enterprising, the most inventive can possibly retain their hold upon it. If there had been no bounties and no unfair competition of this kind what would have happened? In the last 20 or 30 years the consumption of sugar throughout the world has increased enormously. The consumption in this country has increased enormously; and you would have had your share...if normal conditions and equal fairness had prevailed; and at this moment in Greenock, quite independently of the other industries you may have found to occupy you, there would have been in sugar alone ten times as many men employed as there were in the most palmy days of the trade. But normal conditions have not obtained. You have been the sufferers; and, as I have said, a great number of your refineries have been closed, have disappeared altogether. The capital invested in them has been lost, and the workmen who work in them—what has become of them?"
"Free imports have destroyed this industry, at all events for the time, and it is not easy to recover an industry when it has once been lost... They have destroyed agriculture... Agriculture as the greatest of all trades and industries of this country has been practically destroyed. Sugar has gone, silk has gone, iron is threatened, wool is threatened, cotton will go! How long are you going to stand it? At the present moment these industries, and the working men who depend upon them, are like sheep in a field. One by one they allow themselves to be led out to slaughter, and there is no combination, no apparent prevision of what is in store for the rest of them. Do you think, if you belong at present to a prosperous industry, that your industry will be allowed to continue? Do you think that the same causes which have destroyed some of our industries, and which are in the course of destroying others, will not be equally applicable to you when your turn comes?"
"The Colonies are no longer in their infancy. They are growing rapidly to a vigorous manhood. Now is the time—the last time—that you can bind them closer to you. If now you disregard their aspirations and wishes, if when they make you an offer not specially in their interests but in the interests of the Empire of which we are all a portion—if when they make you this offer you reject it or treat it with scorn you may do an injury which will be irreparable, and, whatever you yourselves may feel in after life, be sure that your descendants will scorn and denounce the cowardly and selfish policy which you will have pursued."
"When I was in South Africa nothing was more inspiring, nothing more encouraging, to a Briton to find how the men who had either themselves come from its shore or were the descendants of those who had still retained the old traditions, still remembered that their forefathers were buried in its churchyards, that they spoke a common language, that they were under a common flag, still in their hearts desired to be remembered above all as British subjects, equally entitled with us to a part in the great Empire which they, as well as us, have contributed to make...I did not hesitate, however, to preach to them that it was not enough to shout for Empire...but that they and we alike must be content to make a common sacrifice...in order to secure the common good. To my appeal they rose. And I cannot believe that here in this country, in the mother country, their enthusiasm will not find an echo. They felt, as I felt, and as you feel, that all history is the history of States once powerful and now decaying. Is Britain to be numbered among the decaying States? Has all the glory of the past to be forgotten? Have we to prove ourselves unregenerate sons of the forefathers who left us so glorious an inheritance? Are we to be a decaying State? Are the efforts of all our sons to be frittered away? Are their sacrifices to be vain? Or are we to take up a new youth as members of a great Empire which will continue for generation after generation, the strength, the power, and the glory of the British race?"
"Lord Goschen tells you that France only takes 2 per cent. of its corn from abroad, that it is self-sufficient, and that Germany only takes 30 per cent., whereas, he says, we take four-fifths. That is not a comforting reflection...it is not a comforting reflection to think that we, a part of the British Empire that might be self-sufficient and self-contained, are, nevertheless, dependent, according to Lord Goschen, for four-fifths of our supplies upon foreign countries, any one of which, by shutting their doors upon us, might reduce us to a state of almost absolute starvation... [T]he working man has to fear the result of a shortage of supplies and of a consequent monopoly. If in time of war one of the great countries, Russia, Germany, France, or the United States of America, were to cut off its supply, it would infallibly raise the price according to the quantity which we received from that country. If there were no war, if in times of peace these countries wanted their corn for themselves, which they will do, or if there were bad harvests, which there may be in either of these cases, you will find the price of corn rising many times higher than any tax I have ever suggested. And there is only one remedy for it. There is only one remedy for a short supply. It is to increase your sources of supply. You must call in the new world, the Colonies, to redress the balance of the old. Call in the Colonies, and they will answer to your call with very little stimulus or encouragement. They will give you a supply which will be never failing and all sufficient."
"What is the whole problem as it effects the working classes of this country? It is all contained in one word—employment. Cheap food, a higher standard of living, higher wages—all these things, important as they are, are contained in the word employment. If this policy will give you more employment, all the others would be added unto you. If you lose your employment, all the others put together will not compensate you for that loss."
"It is absolutely impossible to reconcile free trade with trade unionism. You can have one or you can have the other, but you cannot have both; and I am glad to say that in saying that I have the support of a trade unionist with whom I have disagreed upon almost every other question, Mr. Keir Hardie... [I]t is not only the consumer you have got to consider. The producer is of still more importance; and to buy in the cheapest market is not the sole duty of man, and it is not in the best interest of the working classes."
"What is the good, I ask, in the name of common sense, of prohibiting sweating in this country if you allow sweated goods to come in from foreign countries? If you insist on limitation, of hours and upon precautions for security, bear in mind all these things add to the cost of production, to the difficulties of the manufacturer in selling his goods, and unless you give him some increased price, some increased advantage in compensation, then he cannot carry on competition any longer. All these conditions in the long run will result not to your advantage, for you will have no work to do, but to the advantage of the foreigner, who is not so scrupulous and who conducts his work without any of these conditions... If protected labour is good, and I think in many ways it is...then it is good to protect the results of labour, and you cannot do one without the other."
"What Washington did for the United States of America, when he made what is in itself a self-contained and self-sufficient empire of some 80 millions of souls, what Bismarck did for Germany when he united between 50 and 60 millions of people, that it is our business and duty to do for the British Empire."
"While our investments abroad may provide a sufficient return to the capitalists...they tend directly to a transfer of employment from this country to our rivals & competitors."
"I can conceive it is a possible theory that we might be even richer if we became simply a distributive Empire, a home for millionaires and for their dependents, with no productive industry whatever, no one who would come under our present description of working men, that is to say, a man who labours at some definitive trade or industry for himself. I can conceive that it might be possible that there should be even more cheques passing through the Clearing-house than there are now; that the returns of income-tax would be larger. A single millionaire might increase the returns from income-tax more than they would be diminished by the destruction of a whole industry of Birmingham. But, for reasons of difference in national character and position (hear, hear), you may be richer, but not greater. (Hear, hear). You may sink to a position which I do not like to contemplate, and yet all these official statistics might show you a constant tale of progress and increasing wealth."
"London is the clearing-house of the world."
"Banking is not the creator of our prosperity, but is the creation of it. It is not the cause of our wealth, but is the consequence of our wealth; and if the industrial energy and development which has been going on for so many years in this country were to be hindered or relaxed, then finance, and all that finance means, will follow trade to the countries which are more successful than ourselves."
"Take the case of Spain. I think in the case of Spain, and I am certain in the case of Holland, that there is more acquired wealth in those countries today than there was in the palmiest times of their history; but is that all? In spite of the growth of their wealth they have fallen from their high estate. The sceptre they once wielded so proudly has passed into other hands and can never return to them. (Hear, hear.) They may be richer, but they are poorer in what constitutes the greatness of a nation, and they count for nothing in the future opinion of the world. Is it wished that we should follow in the same lines? ("No, no.") But of what are we proud? Of our wealth? I think that is a contemptible form of pride. (Cheers.) Are we proud of our power? Are we proud of the use we may make of that power in order to influence the civilisation of the world? Do we desire to be, as we have been in the past, one of the greatest of nations? Do we wish our voice to be heard in Europe? (Cheers.) Then, if so, do not let us be misled by those who would teach us that we can afford to stand where we are and yet wallow in comparative luxury that may, indeed, be greater than any we have enjoyed before. (Cheers.)"
"Let us take one rival for comparison. What about Germany? ... [T]heir exports will have increased twice as fast as ours... Well, if that goes on, what is going to happen? We are continously improving our position; they are making more rapid progress. They are already neck and neck. It is perfectly clear that in a very short time they will have passed us; and in regard, at all events, to this test, we shall have fallen from our position in relation to the other nations of the world... I do not come before you to tell you that our prosperity has disappeared. No; but I say that our position is deteriorating, and I say that, unless you do something to prevent it, we shall go the course of all those other nations to which I have referred. (Hear, hear.) We shall fall from the highest place, we shall be lower in the scale of nations, and with that goes all the power and all the influence to which I attach so great a value."
"If employment is falling off, what is the lesson? The lesson is that our home trade, our domestic consumption, must have decreased in a larger proportion than our foreign trade has increased. (Hear, hear.) The competition from abroad has grown more and more severe, and, on the whole, taking our trade as a whole, it must have declined if the employment in trade has decreased. (Hear, hear.) Wages have been reduced. You have only to read the papers to see almost daily some trade or another has to submit to a reduction. That, then, is not a proof of boundless prosperity. It is a proof of comparative decline, and, in my judgment, the handwriting is on the wall, there to be read by every impartial man; and, though I contemplate no immediate catastrophe, I say the situation calls for preparation while there is still time to find a remedy. (Cheers.)"
"Are we to be an empire or are we to be only a kingdom? The great Napoleon said that "Providence was always on the side of the big battalions." Do you suppose that is not the same with countries as with armies? The struggle for life, the struggle for existence in future will not be between cities or even between kingdoms. It will be between mighty empires; and the minor States will come off badly if they are left to be crushed between the gigantic bulk of these higher organisations. Our opponents see this truth dimly, because when we come to talk of the prosperity of America and Germany they say, "Yes, that is natural. Are they not greater than us, are they not more numerous?" Then in a sort of despairing fatalism they seem to say, "What can our little England do but fall a victim to the inexorable decrees of fate?" I am not impressed by their pessimism. (Cheers.) I refuse to despair of my country. (Cheers.) Are we not also an empire? (Cries of "Yes.") Are we not as great in area and as great in population, greater in the variety of our products and opportunities than any empire that exists or that the world has ever seen? Yes; but our union is incomplete, and the question which to me is everything is "Will it attain to a higher organisation?" It is impossible that it can remain the same; it must either shrink or it must develop."
"In the great revolution which separated the United States from Great Britain the greatest man that revolution produced...was Alexander Hamilton. He...left a precious legacy to his countrymen when he disclosed to them the secrets of union when he said to them, "Learn to think continentally." (Hear, hear.) And, my fellow-citizens, if I may venture to give you a message now I would say to you, "Learn to think Imperially" (Cheers.) ... I ask you to be worthy of your past; I ask you to remember that the future of this country, which we all cherish so much, lies in the future of the British race. The Colonies and possessions—they are the natural buttresses of our Imperial state, and it behoves us to think of them as they are now, in their youth and promise, to think of them also what they will be in a century hence when grown to manhood and developing beyond anything we can hope for their motherland. (Cheers.) Think of them as they are; think of them as they will be; share and sympathise with their aspirations for a closer union; do nothing to discourage them, but show your willingness to co-operate with them in every effort they make or propose. So, and so only, can you maintain the traditions of the past, the renown of this Imperial City, and the permenance of that potent agency for peace and for civilisation that we call the British Empire. (Loud cheers.)"
"The day of small nations has passed away; the day of Empires has come."
"You are suffering from the unrestricted imports of cheaper goods. You are suffering also from the unrestricted immigration of the people who make these goods. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)... The evils of immigration have increased during recent years. And behind those people who have already reached these shores, remember there are millions of the same kind who, under easily conceivable circumstances, might follow in their track, and might invade this country in a way and to an extent of which few people have at present any conception. The same causes that brought 10,000 and 20,000, and tens of thousands, may bring hundreds of thousands, or even millions. (Hear, hear.) If that would be an evil, surely he is a statesman who would deal with it in the beginning. (Hear, hear.)... When it began we were told it was so small that it would not matter to us. Now it has been growing with great rapidity, it has already affected a whole district, it is spreading into other parts of the country... Will you take it in time (hear, hear), or will you wait, hoping for something to turn up which will preserve you from what you all see to be the natural consequences of such an invasion? ... [I]t is a fact that when these aliens come here they are answerable for a larger amount of crime and disease and hopeless poverty than are proportionate to their numbers. (Cheers.) They come here—I do not blame them, I am speaking of the results—they come here and change the whole character of a district. (Cheers.) The speech, the nationality of whole streets has been altered; and British workmen have been driven by the fierce competition of famished men from trades which they previously followed. (Cheers.)... But the party of free importers is against any reform. How could they be otherwise?...they are perfectly consistent. If sweated goods are to be allowed in this country without restriction, why not the people who make them? Where is the difference? There is no difference either in the principle or in the results. It all comes to the same thing—less labour for the British working man. (Cheers.)"
"Is the Unionist party, the Conservative party, to be without a definite policy of social reform? It is to our party that they owe the whole of that body of legislation connected with the Factory Acts, free education, the distribution of lands in the shape of allotments and small holdings, the compensation for accidents to workmen in the course of their employment... The policy of resistance, of negation, is no sufficient answer to that Socialist opinion which is growing up amongst us—the Socialist opinion the objects of which are, after all, worthy of earnest and even favourable consideration...that policy, by whomsoever propounded, is a policy which means money, which means expenditure, it is closely connected with the third object of our party officially declared—that fiscal reform is the first constructive policy of the Unionist party. (Cheers.)"
"The free-traders were against all State interference of any kind; they were against the Factory Act, they were opposed to the laws to prevent fraud and adulteration, especially in the interests of the working classes, they were against trade unions, they were in favour of unlimited competition, they would buy everything in the cheapest market and especially labour... [W]e cannot logically and consistently attempt to defend labour against unfair competition without defending at the same time against unfair competition the product of that labour."
"England without an Empire! Can you conceive it? England in that case would not be the England we love. (Cheers.) If the ties of sympathy...between ourselves and our children who are soon to become great nations across the seas—if these ties were weakened or destroyed, if we suffered their affection to die from want of food, if we allowed them to drift apart—then this England of ours would sink from the comparative position which she has enjoyed throughout the centuries...she would be a fifth-rate nation existing on the sufferance of her more powerful neighbours."
"There are men in the House of Commons, who profess in a special sense to be the representatives of Labour, who would not allow me, who represent a great working-class constituency...to claim to represent you. In order to do so I must be a man who did some work 30 years ago and never did any since. (Loud laughter.) It is these men who are at the present time blackening the characters of those who are upholding the British dominion and British honour throughout the world... They have no ear of sympathy for the men who suffered for the Imperial cause. The other day some officers, British soldiers, were murdered with savage brutality for no reason or provocation. They had no sympathy with those officers or the families that they left behind them, their only idea was to shield the assassins from the proper penalty of their crime. ("Traitors.")... But one thing I will say, and I say it in your name; these men at any rate do not represent the working classes of England (loud cheering), and never yet in our history or in the history of the British race has a great democracy been unpatriotic. (Hear, hear.)"
"It is a question (of native labour) which has engaged my most careful attention in connection with West Africa and other Colonies. To listen to the right honourable gentleman, you would almost think that it would be a good thing for the native to be idle. I think it is a good thing for him to be industrious; and by every means in our power, we must teach him to work. No people ever have lived in the world's history. who would not work. In the interests of tbe natives all over Africa, we have to teach them to work."
"We are all of us taxed, and taxed heavily. Is that a system of forced labour? To say that because we put a tax on the native therefore he is reduced to a condition of servitude and of forced labour is, to my mind, absolutely ridiculous. It is perfectly fair to my mind that the native should contribute something towards the cost of administering the country."
"If that really is the last word of civilization, if we are to proceed on the assumption that the nearer the native or any human being comes to a pig the more desirable is his condition, of course I have nothing to say I must continue to believe that, at all events, the progress of the native in civilization will not be secured until he has been convinced of the necessity and the dignity of labour. Therefore, I think that anything we reasonably can do to induce the native to labour is a desirable thing, the existence of the tax is an inducement to him to work."
"That he never held the title of Leader of this House or of the head of the Government is felt, by friends and by foes alike, to be an accident in his career."
"I note genuine sympathy, which never failed him, with the precarious lot of those who in one way or another fell victims to the stress and strain of our social and industrial life. Another is the imaginative quality which suffused and coloured, not only his language, but his ideas when he confronted the larger issues of national policy. Lastly, may I not say, no statesman of our own, or, perhaps, of any time, surpassed him in the two great qualities of confidence and courage—confidence, buoyant and unperturbed, in the justice of his cause, courage, persistent and undismayed, in its steadfast pursuit."
"I believe that the more you consult colonial opinion, the more it will be brought home to the minds of every one of you that in those outlying and most important portions of our Empire it is my right hon. friend that they look as the man who, above all others, has made the British Empire a reality (loud cheers), not only to those who live in these islands, but to every subject of his Majesty the King."
"If high courage, if an unconquerable soul, if qualities that made him capable of grasping not merely the official details of administrative work, but gave him a glance that could embrace the largest questions, if a courage that feared no odds, if industry which defied fatigue, and a courage that quailed not even under disease—if all these qualities constitute, as surely they do constitute, a great man, nobody ever had them in a greater measure than Mr. Chamberlain... We knew how rapid was his decision, how quick was his grasp of the most complicated problem, how clearly he saw the line which should in his opinion be pursued in any great emergency, how, when that line was once determined upon, with what courage, what loyalty, what resource and what eloquence, he was always prepared to pursue it to the end. He was a great statesman; he was a great friend; he was a great orator; he was a great man; and the House does well to mark in a signal and exceptional manner its sense of the loss that this country has suffered, and its sense of the greatness of him who has now become one of the heroes of the past, one of those great characters who illustrate our Parliamentary and public history, and on whom after all more than on anything else, the greatness of our Empire must depend"
"The Empire has stood together! My father is vindicated."
"There was something else in the example of my father's life which impressed me very deeply when I was a young man, and which has greatly influenced me since I took up a public career. I suppose most people think of him as a great Colonial Secretary and tariff reformer, but before he ever went to the Colonial Office he was a great social reformer, and it was my observance of his deep sympathy with the working classes and his intense desire to better their lot which inspired me with an ambition to do something in my turn to afford better help to the working people and better opportunities for the enjoyment of life."
"I loved dining with Joe Chamberlain; he was a sparkling animal, attractive and fascinating, but he was a disrupter, a bad element. The Conservative Party was mad to adopt the raw doctrine of Imperial Preference."
"When I was twenty-two I saw the great Joe Chamberlain for the first time... I was immensely impressed from the first moment with Mr. Chamberlain's remarkable personality... What impressed me most about him was his decisiveness and the fact that he always knew exactly where he was going... He asked me to stay with him at Highbury, which was like a pilgrim going to Mecca... [H]e...said—"Why do the people not realise that Germany is making war upon us, that her economic attack is just as surely an act of aggression as if she had declared hostilities? She will never rest until she dominates the world and before ten years are over, mark my words, she will be using her terrible military machine and nothing can prevent our being involved." ... On another occasion he said—"Tariff reform is our defence. It is just as vital as the navy. We must arm if we are not to be beaten without striking a blow.""
"Above all else, whether you agreed with him or not, there could be no other verdict but that "This was indeed a man," for in an age of great debaters he stood out as a born fighter with an uncompromising mind and burning faith... One meets only two or three people in life who at first contact make one feel "command me and I will follow" and Chamberlain was one of them... The great test is surely whether a man's influence lives on after he has gone and in this respect Chamberlain must be unique. He was never Prime Minister, and yet if you want to raise a certain cheer with any ordinary British audience you have only to mention his name... Go overseas and you will find that across Canada, in every part of British Africa, Australasia or the East...if British statesmanship is discussed, the name of Chamberlain always crops up. This is not so much for what he did...but because through him there breathed something new, a fresh outlook, a creed to inspire, a new hope in unity and union. We have never seen his like again—may I leave it at that."
"I have never supposed since the days of "Ransom" that Mr. Chamberlain would be in the least unwilling to enter into a discussion regarding the unequal distribution of wealth, and I think it is extremely probable that in the course of this and ensuing sessions he may find many opportunities of discussing this problem with some of the newly-returned Members of Parliament. But in all the discussions on this momentous subject which he may enter into with the Labour Members, I venture to express the opinion that he will find among the projects and plans which he will be called upon to discuss none containing a more Socialistic principle than that which is embodied in his own scheme, which, whether it can properly be described as a scheme of protection or not, is certainly a scheme under which the State is to undertake to regulate the course of commerce and of industry, and tell us where we are to buy, where we are to sell, what commodities we are to manufacture at home, and what we may continue, if we think right, to import from other countries."
"Our children will tell their sons of the statesman who in the evening of his days, crowned with years and honour, beheld what our Empire might be made, who stepped aside from the sheep tracks of little politicians, who put from him ease, and comfort, and friendship, and lost even health itself, that he might inspire and lead the young generation to follow him along the new path. (Cheers.)"
"Throughout his career, as it seems to me, there were two principles which were at the basis of his political action...a desire to improve the condition of the people, and an intense, and perhaps almost aggressive, national pride."
"He never filled the post for which his great qualities seem specially to have destined him. He never was Prime Minister. But what is success and what is failure? "It is not what man does that exalts him, but what man would do." He almost alone has changed the whole spirit of the relationship of the different parts of the Empire towards each other, and has thus laid strongly the foundation on which other men may build."
"Mr. Chamberlain is unquestionably the future leader of the people... He is a Radical and doesn't care who knows it as long as the people do."
"I recognise that Mr. Chamberlain's historic agitation has rendered one outstanding service to the cause of the masses. It has helped to call attention to a number of real crying evils festering amongst us, the existence of which the governing classes in this country were ignorant of or overlooked... He has committed the party which, by temperament, tradition, and interest, is opposed to great changes—he has committed it to propositions which social reformers of other schools of thought have hitherto in vain sought to convert them."
"[Chamberlain delivered] two remarkable speeches in [1885], that at Glasgow on September 15, and that at Inverness three days later. I still remember, as though it were but yesterday, the thrill of pleasure which went through Radical Scotland when the first speech was delivered. Its bold audacity struck the imagination of the country. We waited with interest and at a high tension for the Inverness pronouncement. The earnest candour of the man who based his politics upon the fact that one in every thirty people in the country was on the parish, that one in every ten was on the border of starvation, as he had done in Glasgow, and was flaunting the classes with cavalier indifference whilst declaring that for the increase of the material resources of the poor there was "no hope whatever except in the radical revision of the laws which affect the tenure of land," touched the imagination of Radical Scotland... Mr. Chamberlain's speech at Inverness was therefore no ordinary pronouncement. People flocked to the town from far and near—and they were rewarded. Never was the crofter position better put. He reiterated his doctrines about land ownership. A volcano of fury shot up next morning from the Conservative press, but thousands of hearts were stirred for the coming contest by the joy that at last a man had appeared who really meant business."
"Chamberlain...specifically advocated tariff reform as an employment policy: "Tariff reform means jobs for all." As a political device it was aimed directly at the working-class electorate... Tariff reform...proposed to reunite the political and economic systems and, despite Chamberlain's personal disavowals, threatened the enforcement of a new social discipline. It was the closest to a continental political strategy Britain had ever reached; its failure meant the failure not only of a policy that would have subordinated the working class under a new fiscal–industrial order but the failure of any working-class ideologies—Marxism, for instance—which also argued that the country's political and economic systems should be reunited."
"The other model was the Australian one: a system of industrial relations dependent upon compulsory arbitration and judicially established wage minima for both skilled and unskilled workers within a protected economy... That was not a subsistence but a "living" wage of the kind that the British unions never actually got. This was the bargain of Australian tariffs: employers got protected markets and employees got protected wages. It was the kind of system that might have emerged from Joseph Chamberlain's campaign for tariffs had he a clearer and more limited idea of what he wanted; had he not tried to bundle up in one policy proposals both to save the Empire and provide guaranteed employment for British workers—proposals either of which could have worked separately but not together."
"The collapse of employment in the great "staple" industries after 1920 provided protection with its historic opportunity. In effect what happened was what Joseph Chamberlain always said would happen; though before 1914 it never did."
"From his boyhood up, Joseph Chamberlain has been consumed with a passionate longing to benefit the lot of the common people. Not Burns, nor Keir Hardie is more constantly preoccupied by the necessity for doing something to make the cottage of the labouring man less of a hovel and more of a home."
"Mr. Chamberlain is at this moment the most popular and the most trusted man in England. He is the most popular of British statesmen throughout our Empire. To our kin beyond the seas he, more than any other man, stands for Imperial unity and consolidation."
"The loss of Chamberlain alone was immeasurable disaster; his influence with the democracy had for some time past exceeded Gladstone's; I found of late that if audiences cheered Gladstone's name for two minutes, they cheered Chamberlain's for five... In any case, the energy of a Parliament created for social reform was to be spent on prolonged struggle over a subject which had formed no part of the election programme. Working men would find that their devotion had been thrown away, their confidence abused, the promised reforms to which they gave their votes postponed indefinitely, if not altogether sacrificed, to a measure which no one among them had ever heard."
"I think I'll stop here."
"I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days."
"I loved doing problems in school. I'd take them home and make up new ones of my own."
"But the best problem I ever found, I found in my local public library. I was just browsing through the section of math books and I found this one book, which was all about one particular problem -- Fermat's Last Theorem."
"Here was a problem, that I, a ten year old, could understand and I knew from that moment that I would never let it go. I had to solve it."
"I realized that anything to do with Fermat's Last Theorem generates too much interest."
"I really believed that I was on the right track, but that did not mean that I would necessarily reach my goal."
"Young children simply aren't interested in Fermat. They just want to hear a story and they're not going to let you do anything else."
"Fermat couldn't possibly have had this proof."
"I don't believe Fermat had a proof. I think he fooled himself into thinking he had a proof."
"But what has made this problem special for amateurs is that there's a tiny possibility that there does exist an elegant 17th-century proof."
"Fermat was my childhood passion."
"I hope that seeing the excitement of solving this problem will make young mathematicians realize that there are lots and lots of other problems in mathematics which are going to be just as challenging in the future."
"But perhaps that's always the way with math problems, and we just have to find new ones to capture our attention."
"Certainly one thing that I've learned is that it is important to pick a problem based on how much you care about it."
"However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it."
"Always try the problem that matters most to you."
"I had this rare privilege of being able to pursue in my adult life, what had been my childhood dream."
"I know it's a rare privilege, but if one can really tackle something in adult life that means that much to you, then it's more rewarding than anything I can imagine."
"Perhaps I can best describe my experience of doing mathematics in terms of a journey through a dark unexplored mansion. You enter the first room of the mansion and it's completely dark. You stumble around bumping into the furniture, but gradually you learn where each piece of furniture is. Finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch, you turn it on, and suddenly it's all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were. Then you move into the next room and spend another six months in the dark. So each of these breakthroughs, while sometimes they're momentary, sometimes over a period of a day or two, they are the culmination of—and couldn't exist without—the many months of stumbling around in the dark that proceed them."
"Originally the Kolyvagin-Flach method only worked under particularly constrained circumstances, but Wiles believed he had adapted and strengthened it sufficiently to work for all his needs. According to Katz this was not necessarily the case, and the effects were dramatic and devastating. The error did not necessarily mean that Wiles's work was beyond salvation, but it did mean that he would have to strengthen his proof. The absolutism of mathematics demanded that Wiles demonstrate beyond all doubt that his method worked for every element of every E-series and M-series."
"[General literacy would] teach [the poor] to despise their lot in life, instead of making them good servants in agriculture, and other laborious employment to which their rank in society has destined them;... it would enable them to read seditious pamphlets, vicious books, and publications against Christianity; it would render them insolent."
"Banks was a student of natural history in its broadest sense, and when at sea he made observations concerning birds, marine animals of various kinds, belonging to lower or higher orders, while on land he discusses in a most interesting manner insects and animals, the appliances and habits of the natives, and so forth."
"Unless during the first five years so great a degree of change has been accomplished as to deprive Capitalism of its power, it is unlikely that a Socialist Party will be able to maintain its position of control without adopting some exceptional means, such as the prolongation of the life of Parliament for a further term without an election."
"The [Labour] Government's first step will be to call Parliament together at the earliest moment and place before it an Emergency Powers Bill to be passed through in all its stages on the first day. This Bill will be wide enough in its terms to allow all that will be immediately necessary to be done by ministerial orders. These orders must be incapable of challenge in the Courts or in any way except in the House of Commons."
"In 1919 we pledged our honour as a country that we would disarm as soon as possible, and other countries did the same. In the face of that Germany accepted the Treaty of Versailles. We had done nothing. We had offered a Disarmament Conference which might well make the gods laugh if they desired the destruction of the human race. We had got to realize the extraordinary gravity of the European situation—the pass to which the National Government had brought the world. The worst Foreign Secretary for 200 years had led this country into folly after folly in the international field. They ought to warn the Government that in no circumstances would they break any of the pacts they had made not to go to war. There was only one effective way in which they could make that threat effective...and that was to call a general strike. It was for the people of this country, in answer to that call, to put themselves behind the trade unions and to compel the trade unions to draw up plans immediately for that great resistance."
"I do not believe in private armies but if the Fascists started a private army it might be for the Socialist and Communist Parties to do the same. When the Labour Party come into power they must act rapidly, and it will be necessary to deal with the House of Lords and the influence of the City of London. There is no doubt that we shall have to overcome opposition from Buckingham Palace and other places as well...There must not be time to allow the forces outside to gather and to exercise their influence upon the Legislature before the key-points of capitalism have been transferred to the control of the State, and I look upon these two key-points myself as being the land and finance. If other people become revolutionary, then the Socialist Government, like any other Government, must take steps to stamp out the revolution. The Socialist Government must not be mealy-mouthed about saying what they mean. They must make it perfectly clear that it is their intention to carry out the mandate they have been given by the people."
"The problem of dealing with the armed forces of the Crown is the most difficult one we will have to face when we do get into power. The Labour Party will have to face the fact that it is a class Party...It has to be prepared to take steps more forceful than even the steps taken at the time of the Ulster Rebellion."
"But it is a fallacy, if one is examining the methods by which security can be attained, to start upon the assumption, as so many hon. Members do, that we get security by an increase of air armaments or an increase of any other form of armaments."
"I cannot imagine the Labour Party coming into power without a first-rate financial crisis. That is why we ask for full emergency measures."
"It must be the duty of the next Labour Government in power to make an immediate challenge to the capitalist system and take the banks and the land into the custody of the people. The time had come to drop all hesitancy and to be bold. If they returned a Socialist Government next time, it was going to "do things," whatever it cost."
"We will have nothing to do with Imperialist or capitalist wars. If the time comes, as we hope it will, when the workers of this country own England as they do not own England to-day; if their policy is a policy of international socialism, then it may be that we may have to defend the system and the country against the marauders of some capitalist Power...the majority of the workers would be prepared to defend the system, but so long as they were being asked to defend something with which they profoundly disagreed, something which they believed to lie at the root of the dangers of the world to-day, then it was their duty to say that they would have nothing to do with the armed forces or with war. It was no exaggeration to say that to-day we were far more in danger of a holocaust than we were in 1913...in 1931 Lombard Street determined that it was time to finish the life of the Labour Government. It was finished not by the traditional method of a hostile vote in the Commons, but by means which [I] dared to mention in Nottingham—and caused a considerable uproar in the Press—the Buckingham Palace influence."
"You have only got to look at the pages of British imperial history to hide your head in shame that you are British."
"It is fundamental to Socialism that we should liquidate the British Empire as soon as we can."
"The National Government's only remedy for a difficult national problem was to arm and arm and arm, regardless of the lessons of history and the proved fact that armament racing could only end in war. ... If we are plunged in war I devoutly hope that the workers of this country will use it for the purpose of revolution. I hope that the present government can be made to understand that that will happen. It will be a very healthy thought for them to have in the back of their mind."
"Every possible effort should be made to stop recruiting for the Armed Forces. This may, and probably would, lead to some form of conscription being proposed or introduced. Thus would be provided a most favourable political platform upon which to fight the National Government."
"I do not believe it would be a bad thing for the British working-class if Germany defeated us. It would be a disaster for the profit-makers and capitalists, but not necessarily for the working-class."
"All sorts of excuses were being given why we should uphold rearmament, including the old-fashioned "For God, King and Country" patriotism, assisted by all the tomfoolery of jubilees and coronations."
"The reactionaries of our Movement are keen to prevent Socialists from coming into it. The last thing anyone should do is to pander to the reactionaries by staying out. James Maxton and Harry Pollitt should be the Leaders of the Labour Movement today"
"Money cannot make armaments. Armaments can only be made by the skill of the British working class, and it is the British working class who would be called upon to use them. To-day you have the most glorious opportunity that the workers have ever had if you will only use the necessity of capitalism in order to get power yourselves. The capitalists are in your hands. Refuse to make munitions, refuse to make armaments, and they are helpless. They would have to hand the control of the country over to you."
"The workers must now make it clear beyond all doubt that they will not support the Government or its armaments in its mad policy which it is now pursuing."
"I want to see the end of the British Empire in the world."
"Emphatically no, and I never have been."
"...we must avoid a competitive raising of wages and conditions in a scarce labour market, which raises prices. ... If we allow prices to rise because of internal costs rising, we shall lose and not gain our overseas markets, or at least not be able to gain new ones in the competition. Therefore, incentives must be strictly limited to increased production so that more earnings mean more production. We cannot in any circumstances afford to pay more for the same or less production. We must await the further raising of the levels of earnings until we can provide the goods upon which those earnings can be spent. In the same way, let me point out, that large profits drawn from industry today are just as inimical because they, too, raise the price levels and, furthermore, they offer an immediate temptation for the demand for greater salaries."
"We must bring home to the people the seriousness of the country's present plight and the future problems that we face. We must convince them of their power to overcome all difficulties by common effort. We must draw out from people that courage and determination which have always been the hallmarks of the British character."
"Production, and production alone, can find us relief in our immediate situation. It is no part of the British character to resign ourselves to such difficulties or to fail to take the measures, however hard, to overcome them. It has been truly said that by our faith we can move mountains. It is by our faith in ourselves, in our country, in the free democratic traditions for which the people of this country have for centuries fought and battled, and for which they must fight again as willingly on the economic front as upon the oceans, on the land and in the air, it is by our faith in the deep spiritual values that we acknowledge in our Christian faith, that we shall be enabled and inspired to move the present mountains of our difficulties, and so emerge into that new and fertile plain of prosperity which we shall travel in happiness only as the result of our own efforts and our own vision."
"...we do not contemplate taking any action to alter the rate of sterling in relation to other currencies, as we do not believe that this will be rendered necessary or advisable."
"[In the case of sterling devaluation was] neither necessary nor will it take place."
"Though we have achieved considerable success in our policy of increasing production and maintaining full employment, this has been accompanied by constant pressure for higher wages resulting in higher prices. We have not yet found out how we can maintain full employment in combination with stable or decreasing costs and prices."
"His Majesty's Government have not the slightest intention of devaluing the pound."
"The Government decided...to reduce the dollar exchange value of the pound sterling. In the last few days we have settled what the new rate should be and now I have to tell you of that decision; it is that in place of the present rate, fixed in 1946, of $4 3c. for the pound the rate will in future be $2 80c. to the pound."
"Our position is such that we could not 'integrate' our economy into that of Europe in any manner that would prejudice the full discharge of these other responsibilities. At the same time, Britain regarded herself as bound up in western Europe, not only in economic, strategic and political interests, but in our culture and indeed in our participation in the heritage of Christian civilization."
"He was a man the greatness of whose intellectual and practical abilities was matched by his nobility of character and high idealism. ... I believe he did immense service to this country."
"As one who has been a nationalist leader and worker for India's independence, though now my activity is no longer in the political but in the spiritual field, I wish to express my appreciation of all you have done to bring about this offer. I welcome it as an opportunity given to India to determine for herself, and organise in all liberty of choice, her freedom and unity, and take an effective place among the world's free nations. I hope that it will be accepted, and right use made of it, putting aside all discords and divisions.... I offer my public adhesion, in case it can be of any help in your work."
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
"There, but for the grace of God, goes God."
"Stafford Cripps was a man of force and fire. His intellectual and moral passions were so strong that they not only inspired but not seldom dominated his actions. They were strengthened and also governed by the workings of a powerful, lucid intelligence, and by a deep and lively Christian faith. He strode through life with a remarkable indifference to material satisfactions or worldly advantages. I suppose there are few hon. Members in any part of the House who have not differed violently from him at this time or that, and yet there is none who did not regard him with respect and with admiration, not only for his abilities, but for his character."
"Cripps seems quite unable to see the argument that he is damaging the party electorally. It is all ‘misreporting’, or picking sentences out of their context. He has become very vain and seems to think that only he and his cronies know what Socialism is or how it should be preached. His gaffes cover an immense range – Buckingham Palace – League of Nations – ‘compelling’ Unions to declare a General Strike – prolonging Parliament beyond five years...‘seize land, finance and industry’ (without compensation?) – Emergency Powers Bill in one day, giving ‘all necessary powers’...I make a violent – perhaps too violent – speech asking that this stream of oratorical ineptitudes should now cease...It is the number of these gaffes which is so appalling. Our candidates are being stabbed in the back and pushed onto the defensive. Tory HQ regard him as their greatest electoral asset...Attlee says I am like a pedagogue addressing a pupil. I wish the pupil were a bit brighter."
"We mourn today the passing of a fine Christian knight, a dauntless spirit, a devoted public servant, a noble character whose life, whose integrity, and whose work are an example and an inspiration to us all, whose shining faith never faltered in the face of difficulties, however mountainous."
"Cripps, a man without roots, a demagogue and a liar, would pursue his sick fancies although the Empire were to crack at every corner. Moreover, this theoretician devoid of humanity lacks contact with the mass that's grouped behind the Labour Party, and he'll never succeed in understanding the problems that occupy the minds of the lower classes."
"Music [is] a science peculiarly productive of a pleasure that no state of life, publick or private, secular or sacred; no difference of age or season; no temper of mind or condition of health exempt from present anguish; nor, lastly, distinction of quality, renders either improper, untimely, or unentertaining."
"And so to bed."
"I went out to Charing Cross, to see Major-general Harrison hanged, drawn and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition."
"A good honest and painfull sermon."
"Methought it lessened my esteem of a king, that he should not be able to command the rain."
"Then to the King's Theatre, where we saw Midsummer's Night's Dream, which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life."
"But Lord! to see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at every thing that looks strange."
"Pretty witty Nell."
"This day, much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and "Lord have mercy upon us" writ there; which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind that, to my remembrance, I ever saw. It put me into an ill conception of myself and my smell, so that I was forced to buy some roll-tobacco to smell to and chaw, which took away the apprehension."
"Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody."
"To church in the morning, and there saw a wedding in the church, which I have not seen many a day; and the young people so merry one with another, and strange to see what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition, every man and woman gazing and smiling at them."
"Musique and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is."
"The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it; and out of my observation that most men that do thrive in the world, do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one, and then it is too late for them to enjoy it with any pleasure."
"And so to Mrs. Martin and there did what je voudrais avec her, both devante and backward, which is also muy bon plazer."
"We to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the Three Cranes, and there stayed till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire. Barbary and her husband away before us. We stayed till, it being darkish, we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it made me weep to see it."
"Did satisfy myself mighty fair in the truth of the saying that the world do not grow old at all, but is in as good condition in all respects as ever it was."
"By god", says he, "I think the Devil shits Dutchmen"
"Up, and at my chamber all the morning and the office doing business, and also reading a little of L'escholle des filles, which is a mighty lewd book, but yet not amiss for a sober man once to read over to inform himself in the villainy of the world."
"Our predecessors, the Druids of Britain, tho' left in the extremest west to the improvement of their own thoughts, yet advanc'd their inquiries, under all disadvantages, to such heights, as should make our moderns asham'd, to wink in the sunshine of learning and religion."
"He told me, he was just in the same situation [i.e. in a garden], as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to him self. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earths centre? Assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in matter."
"This mighty wall of four score miles in length is only exceeded by the Chinese wall, which makes a considerable figure upon the terrestrial globe, and may be discerned at the moon."
"Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory: nothing can come of nothing."
"You must have no dependence on your own genius. If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency."
"A mere copier of nature can never produce any thing great, can never raise and enlarge the conceptions, or warm the heart of the spectator."
"Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius."
"If deceiving the eye were the only business of the art, there is no doubt, indeed, but the minute painter would be more apt to succeed; but it is not the eye, it is the mind, which the painter of genius desires to address; nor will he waste a moment upon those smaller objects, which only serve to catch the sense, to divide the attention, and to counteract his great design of speaking to the heart."
"A painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art. He has but one sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit. He cannot, like the poet or historian, expatiate."
"It must be remembered that painting is not the mere gratification of sight."
"As the natural dignity of the subject(of a portrait)is less, the more the ornamental helps are necessary to its embellishments."
"Words should be employed as the means, not as the end: language is the instrument, conviction is the work."
"A painter must not only be of necessity an imitator of the works of nature...but he must be as necessarily an imitator of the works of other painters: this appears more humiliating, but is equally true; and no man can be an artist, whatever he may suppose, upon any other terms."
"Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellencies, which are out of the reach of the rules of art; a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire."
"The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter."
"The greatest natural genius cannot subsist on its own stock: he who resolves never to ransack any mind but his own, will be soon reduced, from mere barrenness, to the poorest of all imitations; he will be obliged to imitate himself, and to repeat what he has before often repeated. When we know the subject designed by such men, it will never be difficult to guess what kind of work is to be produced."
"Nature is, and must be the fountain which alone is inexhaustible; and from which all excellencies must originally flow."
"What has pleased, and continues to please, is likely to please again: hence are derived the rules of art, and on this immoveable foundation they must ever stand."
"Poetry operates by raising our curiosity, engaging the mind by degrees to take an interest in the event, keeping that event suspended, and surprising at last with an unexpected catastrophe. The painter's art is more confined, and has nothing that corresponds with, or perhaps is equivalent to, this power and advantage of leading the mind on, till attention is totally engaged. What is done by Painting, must be done at one blow; curiosity has received at once all the satisfaction it can ever have."
"You are never to lose sight of nature; the instant you do, you are all abroad, at the mercy of every gust of fashion, without knowing or seeing the point to which you ought to steer."
"The art of seeing Nature, or in other words, the art of using Models, is in reality the great object, the point to which all our studies are directed."
"No Art can be grafted with success on another art. For though they all profess the same origin, and to proceed from the same stock, yet each has its own peculiar modes both of imitating nature, and of deviating from it, each for the accomplishment of its own particular purpose. These deviations, more especially, will not bear transplantation to another soil."
"The true test of all the arts, is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing effect upon the mind."
"What is a well-chosen collection of pictures, but walls hung round with thoughts?"
"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
"Sir Joshua Reynolds was, on very many accounts, one of the most memorable men of his time. He was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the great masters of the renowned ages. In portrait he went beyond them; for he communicated to that description of the art, in which English artists are the most engaged, a variety, a fancy, and a dignity derived from the higher branches, which even those who professed them in a superior manner did not always preserve when they delineated individual nature. His portraits remind the spectator of the invention of history, and the amenity of landscape. In painting portraits he appeared not to be raised upon that platform, but to descend to it from a higher sphere. His paintings illustrate his lessons, and his lessons seem to be derived from his paintings. He possessed the theory as perfectly as the practice of his art. To be such a painter, he was a profound and penetrating philosopher."
"Primus inter pares in this society of humanists stood Reynolds, who as President preferred the gown of the scholar to the toga of the committee-man. His deepest convictions were involved in the theory and history of art, and he quickly revealed himself as the Professor par excellence if not by title. The Discourses delivered ex cathedra to the General Assembly from 2 January 1769 to his last appearance at the distribution of prizes on 10 December 1790 embodied a doctrine and outlined a programme which rank as the classic statement of academic ideals in Europe after three centuries of debate. Their conciliar formulation and openness to new ideas mark a watershed in the history of academic art theory."
"I never did approve, when at the Bar, and I do not approve now, when on the Bench, of the practice of not deciding a substantial question when it is fairly raised between the parties and argued, simply because it is raised by demurrer. It is a great benefit to all parties to have the question in the case speedily and cheaply determined, and the practice of demurring ought, if possible, to be encouraged."
"I am not, as I consider, to decide cases in favour of fools or idiots, but in favour of ordinary English people, who understand English when they see it, and are not deceived by any difference in type, but who have before them a very plain statement."
"It must not be forgotten that the rules of Courts of equity are not, like the rules of the common law, supposed to have been established from time immemorial. It is perfectly well known that they have been established from time to time — altered, improved, and refined from time to time. In many cases we know the names of the Chancellors who invented them."
"Professional advice in England is confined to legal advice."
"This case reminds me of one in which I likened the plaintiff's case to a colander, because it was so full of holes."
"Mistakes are the inevitable lot of mankind."
"I may be wrong, and often am, but I never doubt."
"For wide learning and deep insight his judgments are, perhaps, unsurpassed."
"Manifold subsequent experience has led to a truer appreciation and a more moderate estimate of the importance of the dependence of one living being upon another."
"The powers, aspirations, and mission of man are such as to raise the study of his origin and nature, inevitably and by the very necessity of the case, from the mere physiological to the psychological stage of scientific operations."
"No naturalist has devoted more painstaking attention to the structure of the barnacles than Mr. Darwin."
"Young people must break machines to learn how to use them; get another made!"
"By factitious air, I mean in general any kind of air which is contained any in other bodies in an unelastic state, and is produced from thence by art."
"By fixed air, I mean that particular species of factitious air, which is separated from alcaline substances by solution in s or by calcination and to which Dr. Black has given that name in his treatise on quicklime."
"I think we must allow that dephlogisticated air is in reality nothing but dephlogisticated water, or water deprived of its phlogiston; or, in other words, that water consists of dephlogisticated air united to phlogiston; and that inflammable air is either pure phlogiston, as Dr. Priestley and Mr. Kirwan suppose [and as Cavendish formerly supposed], or else water united to phlogiston; since, according to this supposition, these two substances united together form pure water. On the other hand, if the first explanation be true, we must suppose that dephlogisticated air consists of water united to a little and deprived of its phlogiston; but still the nitrous acid in it must make only a very small part of the whole, as it is found, that the phlogisticated air, which it is converted into, is very small in comparison of the dephlogisticated air."
"He was the wealthiest of all scholars (savants) and probably also the most scholarly of all the wealthy."
"I never charged or thought of charging Mr. Cavendish with having obtained from Mr. Watt's paper his knowledge of the composition of water, and having knowingly borrowed it, however suspicious a case Mr. Harcourt's publication may seem to make. Both those great men, in my opinion, made the discovery apart from each other, and ignorant each of the other's doctrine. Mr. Cavendish was a man of the strictest integrity, and the most perfect sense of justice. His feelings were very far inferior to his principles. He was singularly callous to the ordinary calls of humanity, as there exist positive proofs sufficient to satisfy the polemical writer upon whose paper ['Eloge de M. Cavendish'] I have been commenting if he has any mind to see them. Nor do they rest on my assertion, for I never had any intercourse with him except in society. But the pursuits of a philosopher and the life of a recluse, which had so entirely hardened his heart, had not in the least degree impaired his sense of justice; and my own belief is, that he as entirely supposed himself to have alone made the discovery in question, as Sir Isaac Newton believed himself to be the sole discoverer of the nature of light, and the theory of the solar system."
"It were to be wished, that this noble philosopher would communicate more of his experiments to the world, as he makes many, and with great accuracy."
"It only remains that I offer very briefly my own estimate of the character of the Philosopher. Morally it was a blank, and can be described only by a series of negations. He did not love; he did not hate; he did not hope; he did not fear; he did not worship as others do. He separated himself from his fellow men, and apparently from God. There was nothing earnest, enthusiastic, heroic, or chivalrous in his nature, and as little was there anything mean, grovelling, or ignoble. He was almost passionless."
"All that needed for its apprehension, more than the pure intellect, or required the exercise of fancy, imagination, affection, or faith, was distasteful to Cavendish. An intellectual head thinking, a pair of wonderfully acute eyes observing, and a pair of very skilful hands experimenting or recording, are all that I realise in reading his memorials."
"His brain seems to have been but a calculating engine; his eyes inlets of vision, not fountains of tears; his hands instruments of manipulation which never trembled with emotion, or were clasped together in adoration, thanksgiving, or despair; his heart only an anatomical organ, necessary for of the circulation of the blood."
"Yet, if such a being, who reversed the maxim nihil humani me alienum puto [nothing human is foreign to me], cannot be loved, as little can he be abhorred or despised. He was, in spite of the atrophy or non development of many of the faculties which are found in those in whom the "elements are kindly mixed," as truly a genius as the mere poets, painters, and musicians, with small intellects, and hearts and large imaginations, to whom the world is so willing to bend the knee."
"He is more to be wondered at than blamed."
"Cavendish did not stand aloof from other men in a proud or supercilious spirit, refusing to count them his fellows. He felt himself separated from them by a great gulf, which neither they nor he could bridge over, and across which it was vain to stretch hands or exchange greetings. A sense of isolation from his brethren, made him shrink from their society and avoid their presence, but he did so as one conscious of an infirmity, not boasting of an excellence."
"He was like a deaf mute sitting apart from a circle, whose looks and gestures show that they are uttering and listening to music and eloquence, in producing or welcoming which he can be no sharer. Wisely, therefore, he dwelt apart, and bidding the world farewell, took the self imposed vows of a Scientific Anchorite, and, like the Monks of old, shut himself up within his cell. It was a kingdom sufficient for him, and from its narrow window he saw as much of the Universe as he cared to see. It had a throne also, and from it he dispensed royal gifts to his brethren."
"He was one of the unthanked benefactors of his race, who was patiently teaching and serving mankind, whilst they were shrinking from his coldness, or mocking his peculiarities."
"He could not sing for them a sweet song, or create a "thing of beauty" which should be "a joy for ever," or touch their hearts, or fire their spirits, or deepen their reverence or their fervour. He was not a Poet, a Priest, or a Prophet, but only a cold, clear, Intelligence, raying down pure white light, which brightened everything on which it fell, but warmed nothing—a Star of at least the second, if not of the first magnitude, in the Intellectual Firmament."
"[A] prolonged and acrimonious controversy... was for many years carried on and is... hardly... settled regarding the respective claims of different philosophers to be the true discoverer of the nature and composition of water."
"In the year 1781, Cavendish made a long and careful series of experiments... not published till Jan., 1784, when his celebrated... Experiments on Air was read to the royal society."
"In the interval (June, 1783) his friend, Dr. Blagden, visited Paris, and on the authority of Cavendish, gave an account of the experiments proving the composition of water to Lavoisier..."
"[T]his delay between the discovery and the date of publication caused his claims to one of the most marvelous discoveries the world ever saw, to be contested by... James Watt and Lavoisier."
"Cavendish's experiments consisted in exploding, in various proportions, mixtures of and atmospheric air, and of hydrogen and oxygen, and finding as the result a liquid which proved to be pure water. (Priestley and his friend, Mr. [John] Warltire, had made similar experiments, and had noticed the deposition of moisture that followed the explosion, but failed to recognize it anything but the condensation of aqueous vapors in the gases.)"
"The general conclusion to which Cavendish came was, in his own words, "that water consists of dephlogisticated air united with phlogiston," and as dephlogisticated air was his term for oxygen, and phlogiston his term for , this statement corresponds to the modern view of the nature of water introduced by Lavoisier."
"As Lavoisier was from the first accused by the English chemists of having acted unfairly toward them, and as indeed his own claim only dates back to June 25, 1783, he may be dismissed from further consideration; and during the lives of the English claimants there were no public complaints on either side, although Watt, in private letters to his friends, hinted at Cavendish's incapacity and unfairness."
"Hence then—at all events in this country—scientific men were startled when Arago... published in 1838 the eloge of Watt, which he had read as far back as Dec., 1834, in which he charged Cavendish with deceit and plagiarism, inasmuch as he was said to have learned the composition of water, not by experiments of his own, but by obtaining sight of a letter from Watt to Priestley. The battle now fairly began..."
"At the time Cavendish made his study of compounds, chemists still had not been able to "determine what it /arsenic/ really is, or to what class of bodies it belongs." ...[A]rsenic behaves as a in some states, and like a salt in other states. ...[L]ike every metallic , arsenic [could be] changed into a metallic form... "regulus of arsenic"... [by combining] with "phlogiston." ...[L]ike salts, arsenic is soluble in water. ...[N]either ic nor ne, yet Macquer claimed, behaving as if it were an acid. ...In other ways ...arsenic differs from other... calces: it is volatile with a strong smell, it is fusible, it unites with metals and s—the difference that Macquer and Cavendish picked up on—it decomposes nitre when distilled with it. From the standpoint of affinities... arsenic is exceptional too."
"Neutral salts, Cavendish's starting point... were... composed of s and other substances, mostly s, that were without acidity. Not long before, all of the known neutral salts could be listed in a table of twelve... the possible combinations of the four known acidic salts and the three known alkaline salts. Just as Cavendish began to work... the tidy, managable table... was fast expanding. The empirical field of salts was recognized as highly undeveloped..."
"Cavendish procured Macquer's neutral salt using Macquer's method of distilling with nitre, producing copious red fumes... leaving... a cake of neutral arsenical salt. He then tried... dissolving arsenic in spirit of nitre, then adding pearl ashes... to obtain neutral arsenical salt. ...[His] discovery: what combined with the alkali ...was ...a new acid, "arsenical acid" ...[T]his new acid had "all the properties of an acid... unless perhaps it should fail in respect of taste which I have thought not proper to try." This research was the high point of Cavendish's researches on ."
"Architecture has its political Use; public Buildings being the Ornament of a Country; it establishes a Nation, draws People and Commerce; makes the People love their native Country, which Passion is the Original of all great Actions in a Common-wealth…. Architecture aims at Eternity."
"A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth."
"He was of opinion that what we now vulgarly call the Gothick, ought properly and truly be named Saracenick Architecture refined by the Christians."
"Sir Christopher Wren Said, "I am going to dine with some men. If anyone calls Say I am designing St. Paul's.""
"Perhaps you have heard the story of Christopher Wren, one of the greatest of English architects, who walked one day unrecognized among the men who were at work upon the building of St. Paul's cathedral in London which he had designed. "What are you doing?" he inquired of one of the workmen, and the man replied, "I am cutting a piece of stone." As he went on he put the same question to another man, and the man replied, "I am earning five shillings twopence a day." And to a third man he addressed the same inquiry and the man answered, "I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build a beautiful cathedral." That man had vision. He could see beyond the cutting of the stone, beyond the earning of his daily wage, to the creation of a work of art—the building of a great cathedral. And in your life it is important for you to strive to attain a vision of the larger whole."
"Christopher Wren, the leading architect of London's reconstruction after the great fire of 1666, lies buried beneath the floor of his most famous building, St. Paul's cathedral. No elaborate sarcophagus adorns the site. Instead, we find only the famous epitaph written by his son and now inscribed into the floor: “si monumentum requiris, circumspice”—if you are searching for his monument, look around. A tad grandiose, perhaps, but I have never read a finer testimony to the central importance—one might even say sacredness — of actual places, rather than replicas, symbols, or other forms of vicarious resemblance."
"Science is too important not to be a part of a popular culture."
"Skepticism must go hand in hand with rationality. When theories are shown to be false, the correct thing to do is to move on."
"Anyone who thinks the Large Hadron Collider will destroy the world is a twat."
"Look at that! If you ever needed convincing that we live in the solar system, that we are on a ball of rock, orbiting around the Sun with other balls of rock, then look at that! That’s the solar system coming down and grabbing you by the throat."
"We have written the evidence of our existence onto the surface of our planet. Our civilisation has become a beacon, that identifies our planet as home to life."
"What scientists are attached to is journeys into the unknown and discovering things that are completely unexpected and baffling and surprising."
"As a fraction of the lifespan of the universe as measured from the beginning to the evaporation of the last black hole, life as we know it is only possible for one-thousandth of a billion billion billionth, billion billion billionth, billion billion billionth, of a percent (10^-84). And that's why, for me, the most astonishing wonder of the universe isn't a star or a planet or a galaxy. It isn't a thing at all. It's an instant in time. And that time is now. Humans have walked the earth for just the shortest fraction of that briefest of moments in deep time. But in our 200,000 years on this planet we've made remarkable progress. It was only 2,500 years ago that we believed that the sun was a god and measured its orbit with stone towers built on the top of a hill. Today the language of curiosity is not sun gods, but science. And we have observatories that are almost infinitely more sophisticated than those towers, that can gaze out deep into the universe. And perhaps even more remarkably through theoretical physics and mathematics we can calculate what the universe will look like in the distant future. And we can even make concrete predictions about its end. And I believe that it's only by continuing our exploration of the cosmos and the laws of nature that govern it that we can truly understand ourselves and our place in this universe of wonders."
"Yes, [science is my God] in a sense. I'm comfortable with the unknown, that's the point of science. There are places out there, billions of places out there that we know nothing about. And the fact that we know nothing about them excites me, and I want to go out and find out about them. And that's what science is. So I think if you're not comfortable with the unknown, then it's difficult to be a scientist. So I don't need an answer; I don't need answers to everything. I want to have answers to find."
"We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself."
"Science is unreasonably effective, it's generated knowledge beyond all expectation. It's also delivered perspective. Yes, we are an insignificant speck in an infinite universe, but we're also rare. And because we're rare, we're valuable. So what are we to do to secure our future? Well, we must learn to value the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, and not just because it grows our economy or allows us to build better bombs. We must also learn to value the human race and take responsibility for our own survival. Why? Because there's nobody else out there to value us or to look after us. And finally, most important of all, we must educate the next generation in the great discoveries of science and we must teach them to use the light of reason to banish the darkness of superstition, because if we do that, then at least there's a chance that this universe will remain a human one."
"If the fork is not removed when the spider has arrived it seems to have the same charm as any fly: for the spider seizes it, embraces it, and runs about on the legs of the fork as often as it is made to sound, never seeming to learn by experience that other things may buzz besides its natural food."
"There is more in a common bubble than those who have only played with them generally imagine."
"An experiment is a question which we ask of Nature, who is always ready to give a correct answer, provided we ask properly, that is, provided we arrange a proper experiment."
"In many different fields, empirical phenomena appear to obey a certain general law, which can be called the Law of Large Numbers. This law states that the ratios of numbers derived from the observation of a very large number of similar events remain practically constant, provided that these events are governed partly by constant factors and partly by variable factors whose variations are irregular and do not cause a systematic change in a definite direction."
"That which can affect our senses in any manner whatever, is termed matter."
"La vie n'est bonne qu'à deux choses : à faire des mathématiques et à les professer. (The only two good things in life are doing mathematics and teaching it.)"
"Scientific theory and its application to the growing needs of mankind advance hand in hand."
"We are perhaps too near the age of transition to see clearly the interplay of all that made for progress. Each of us has had his own peculiar training, his own personal contact with the mighty ones of the immediate past; and this forms as it were a telescopic tube determining limits to our field of vision. No doubt we may range the whole horizon; but after all we look from our own point of vantage."
"What may appear as a towering peak to one may seem but an ordinary eminence to another."
"Very belatedly in 1947, Darwin [Sir Charles Darwin, great-grandson of the famous Charles Darwin] agreed to set up a very small electronics group [...] It was not easy to have the imagination to foresee that computers were to become one of the most important developments of the century."
"Turing had a strong predeliction for working things out from first principles, usually in the first instance without consulting any previous work on the subject, and no doubt it was this habit which gave his work that characteristically original flavor. I was reminded of a remark which Beethoven is reputed to have made when he was asked if he had heard a certain work of Mozart which was attracting much attention. He replied that he had not, and added "neither shall I do so, lest I forfeit some of my own originality.""
"He [Turing] was particularly fond of little programming tricks (some people would say that he was too fond of them to be a "good" programmer) and would chuckle with boyish good humor at any little tricks I may have used."
"Numerical analysis has begun to look a little square in the computer science setting, and numerical analysts are beginning to show signs of losing faith in themselves. Their sense of isolation is accentuated by the present trend towards abstraction in mathematics departments which makes for an uneasy relationship. How different things might have been if the computer revolution had taken place in the 19th century! [...] In any case "numerical analysts" may be likened to "The Establishment" in computer science and in all spheres it is fashionable to diagnose "rigor morris" in the Establishment."
"Of course everything in computerology is new; that is at once its attraction, and its weakness. Only recently I learned that computers are revolutionizing astrology. Horoscopes by computer!"
"In the early days of the computer revolution computer designers and numerical analysts worked closely together and indeed were often the same people. Now there is a regrettable tendency for numerical analysts to opt out of any responsibility for the design of the arithmetic facilities and a failure to influence the more basic features of software. It is often said that the use of computers for scientific work represents a small part of the market and numerical analysts have resigned themselves to accepting facilities "designed" for other purposes and making the best of them. [...] One of the main virtues of an electronic computer from the point of view of the numerical analyst is its ability to "do arithmetic fast." Need the arithmetic be so bad!"
"The investigation of the form and brightness of the rings or rays surrounding the image of a star as seen in a good telescope, when a diaphragm bounded by a rectilinear contour is placed upon the object-glass, though sometimes tedious is never difficult. The expressions which it is necessary to integrate are always sines and cosines of multiples of the independent variable, and the only trouble consists in taking properly the limits of integration. Several cases of this problem have been completely worked out, and the result, in every instance, has been entirely in accordance with observation. These experiments... have seldom been made except by those whose immediate object was to illustrate the undulatory theory of light. There is however a case of a somewhat different kind; which in practice recurs perpetually, and which in theory requires for its complete investigation the value of a more difficult integral; I mean the usual case of an object-glass with a circular . The desire of submitting to mathematical investigation every optical phænomenon of frequent occurrence has induced me to procure the computation of the numerical values of the integral that presents itself in this inquiry: and I now beg leave to lay before the Society the calculated table, with a few remarks upon its application."
""On the Diffraction of an Object-glass with Circular Aperture" read (Nov. 24, 1834) Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (1835) Vol. 5, p. 283."
"In the hands of Science and indomitable energy, results the most gigantic and absorbing may be wrought out by skilful combinations of acknowledged data and the simplest means."
"[T]his Fifth Edition is required to meet the demand of a somewhat wider class of students than those for whom the Lectures were originally intended. ...Mr. Stirling has been at liberty to prepare the modifications and additions ..."
"In conversing with persons who are not officially attached to Observatories or in other ways professionally cognizant of the technicalities of practical Astronomy but who nevertheless display great interest... these persons appear to regard the determination of measures like those of the distance of the Sun and Moon as mysteries beyond ordinary comprehension... [and] when persons well acquainted with the general facts of Astronomy are introduced into an Observatory, they are for the most part utterly unable to understand anything which they see... The measure of the Moon's distance involves no principle more abstruse than the measure of the distance of a tree on the opposite bank of a river. The principles of construction of the best Astronomical instruments are as simple and as closely referred to matters of common school-education and familiar experience, as are those of the common globes, the steam engine, or the turning-lathe; the details are usually less complicated."
"In the application of the ordinary principles of geometry and trigonometry to such Astronomical measures... it may sometimes be expedient to resolve the process into several successive steps, and these steps may perhaps require different kinds of treatment. But... all are simple and within ordinary comprehension, and the only complexity arises from the circumstance that the student may find it necessary to have a clear view of several such steps at once..."
"I had long wished for some opportunity of endeavouring to explain... the principles on which the instruments of an Observatory are constructed, (omitting all details, so far as they are merely subsidiary,) and the principles on which the observations made with these instruments are treated... Such an opportunity appeared to present itself in the course of Lectures which I engaged to give to the Members of the and their friends."
"[H]ow much of the fundamentals of Astronomy may be obtained with the coarsest observation with the unaided eye. ...the science which is thus obtained by personal observations is vastly superior (as far as it goes) to that which is obtained by any other method. ...The knowledge ...inferred from actual personal observation carries with it a degree of reality and certainty, as the veritable science of external objects, which nothing else can give."
"[T]he instrumental conceptions derived from the use of a common globe are sufficient, in almost every case, for the understanding of the instruments in an Observatory..."
"[T]he methods used for measuring Astronomical distances are in some applications absolutely the same as the methods of ordinary -surveying, and are in other applications equivalent to them..."
"The elucidation of the theory of centripetal and disturbing forces is necessarily less complete. Still... a general conception of the nature of the action of those forces... sufficient to preserve the student from the gross errors... may be obtained from explanations like those here offered. The methods of ascertaining the weight of the Earth and other bodies are... more difficult of explanation; yet... something may be done even in these."
"Complete knowledge of every theoretical and instrumental detail can only be obtained by those who will devote... a large portion of their lives; but sound knowledge of the principles... can be obtained by the reasonable efforts of persons possessing common opportunities for general knowledge."
"[P]erhaps one of the most valuable results to be derived from a truly intellectual study of Astronomy is, the habit of keeping up a sustained attention to all the successive steps of a long series of reasonings. Power, and with it dignity, are gained to the mind by this noble exercise."
"It is not simply that a clear understanding is acquired of the movements of the great bodies which we regard as the system of the world, but it is that we are introduced to a perception of laws governing the motion of all matter, from the finest particle of dust to the largest planet or sun, with a degree of uniformity and constancy, which otherwise we could hardly have conceived. Astronomy is pre-eminently the science of order."
"Newton pointed out and assigned generally, not only the nature and the magnitude of the periodical forces which are concerned in producing the tides, but likewise indicated their true character as undulations, in one very remarkable proposition, as well as in a special explanation of... the tides of the Port of Batsha. The equilibrium theory of Daniel Bernoulli adopted the first part of Newton's views but altogether neglected the second. ...Professor Airy ...has pronounced the theory proposed by La Place in the Mécanique Céleste,—if viewed with reference to the boldness and comprehensive character of its design rather than to the success of its execution—"as one of the most splendid works of the greatest mathematician of the past age." The problem, however, was not considered by [La Place] in the most general form which it is capable of receiving. He assumed the earth to be entirely covered by water, and its depth to be uniform, at least throughout the same parallel of latitude, and he neglected the resistance both of the particles of the fluid amongst each other, and of that which arises from the irregular surfaces in the channels over which the tide is transmitted. He was consequently obliged to omit the consideration of the tides in canals, rivers, and narrow seas, which constitute some of the most interesting, and by no means the most unmanageable, of the problems which later, and even in some respects more simple, investigations of the oscillations of the sea have brought within the control of analysis. Imperfect, however, as the results of this theory were as it came from the hand of its author, their importance cannot easily be estimated too highly. Dr. Young adopted the general principles which they involved, though he has subjected them to a totally different treatment; and Professor Airy, who has materially simplified the investigations which it contains, by rejecting some conditions which they included, such as the density of the sea, by which they were made needlessly difficult and complicated, has not only verified the more remarkable of the conclusions at which La Place arrived, but has also made important use of his methods in his own theory of waves and tides, which is by far the most complete and comprehensive that has ever yet appeared."
"Sir George Biddell Airy, English Astronomer Royal from 1836 till 1881, died on January 2d, after a few months' illness, in the ninety-first year of his age. A sketch of his life and works up to that time, with a portrait, were given in The Popular Science Monthly for May, 1873. He after that made the preparations for the equipment of the British expedition for the observation of the of 1874, a subject on which he had been engaged since 1836. He retired from his office in the Greenwich Observatory in 1881, after forty-five years of service."
"From the Colchester Grammar-School, when eighteen years of age, he went, in 1819, to Trinity College, Cambridge. Three years afterward he was elected to a scholarship. In 1823, on his graduating B. A., young Airy came out as Senior Wrangler. In 1824 he obtained his fellowship at Trinity. His degree of M. A. was taken in 1826, and he was simultaneously elected, though only then in his twenty-fifth year, as Lucasian Professor at Cambridge. Illustrious philosophers like Barrow and Newton had preceeded him... Latterly, however, the office had become, in a great measure, purely honorary, and might also be said to have degenerated into a sinecure."
"Prof. Airy, once elevated to that position... he for nearly ten years—namely from 1827 to 1836—delivered with admirable effect, a series of public lectures on experimental philosophy, by which his scientific reputation was considerably advanced. ...it was one of the earliest means of effectively illustrating the marvelous phenomena constituting the now almost universally adopted undulatory theory of light. Two years after Prof. Airy's induction... the estimation in which he was held at the university was still further signalized by his election to the Plumian Professorship. ...he at once obtained, by right of his position, the supreme command of the ."
"Already... he began those remarkable improvements in the method of calculating and publishing the observations which eventually became the law at Greenwich and at all the other great observatories. ...at Cambridge he superintended the construction and mounting... of a series of renowned astronomical instruments. In that observatory, he brought into use a noble specimen of the equatorial, being that peculiar description of telescope which has its fixed axis so directed to the pole of the heavens that the tube may be made to follow any star by a single motion. There, moreover, he brought into effective employment a mural circle of admirable construction, bearing a telescope which revolves in the plane of the meridian, the whole being rigidly bound into some immovable structure of ponderous masonry."
"Professor Airy, in his thirty-fourth year, became . Thirty-eight years have since elapsed. Under his directions... the organization of the establishment at Greenwich has been completely transformed. ...He has contrived to establish newer and sounder methods of calculation and publication. He has introduced, constructed, mounted, and employed, a series of novel instruments for the advancement of astronomic research. Perhaps the finest transit-circle at present anywhere to be found is the one he there constructed in 1860, the circles being no less than six feet in diameter, and the telescope affixed between the two graduated disks being twelve feet long, and having an object-glass of as many as eight inches in aperture. Through this splendid apparatus the altitude of the stars, as well as the time of meridian passage, is now unerringly marked at the great national observatory. But the greatest of all the instruments established by him at Greenwich is a large, first-class ..."
"During Sir George Airy's rule at the observatory he has... thrown considerable light on ancient chronology by his ingenious calculation of some of the most renowned of historical eclipses."
"In 1854 he approximated more nearly than any previous investigation... the weight of the earth, through a series of experiments on the relative vibration of a pendulum at the top and bottom of Harton Coal-pit."
"Sir George Airy has been repeatedly called into council on matters of grave difficulty by the government. He was chairman of the royal commission empowered to supervise... contriving new standards of length and of weight... He was consulted... in respect to the bewildering disturbance of the magnetic compass in iron-built ships of war. Thereupon he contrived an ingenious system of mechanical construction, through a combination of magnets and iron. ...and the system was generally adopted. He conducted the astronomical observations necessary to the drawing of the boundary-line now traceable on the map of the New World between the Canadas and the United States. During the battle of the gauges in the railway world Sir George Airy strenuously advocated the narrow gauge..."
"The writings of the Astronomer Royal are numerous. He has contributed largely to the Cambridge Transactions and the Philosophical Transactions. His pen has notably illustrated the memoirs of the Astronomical Society. He has written abundantly for the ', and still more abundantly, under his reversed initials, A. B. G., in the columns of the Athenœum. His principle works, however, are...: "Gravitation," published in 1837, was written originally for the "Penny Cyclopædia." "Mathematical Tracts" have reached a fourth edition, as have also his "Ipswich Lectures on Astronomy." In 1861 appeared his treatise on "Errors of Observation;" in 1869 his treatise on "Sound," and in 1870 his treatise on "Magnetism." Sir George Airy's well-known work on "Trigonometry" was published in 1855. Another work of his, entitled "Figure of the Earth," has yet to be named, as well as the luminous paper on "Tides and Waves," contributed by him, first of all, to the "." Even while simply Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge his "Astronomical Observations," issuing... between 1829 and 1838, extended in nine quarto volumes, and were adopted at once as models for that class of publication."
"For his successful optical theories he has... the Copley Gold Medal of the . The of the same society has been given to him in recompense for his tidal investigations. Twice the Gold Medal of the has been his—first, for his discovery of an inequality of long period in the movements of Venus and the earth; secondly, in return for his reduction of the planetary observations. He has been enrolled among the most honored members of the Royal Astronomical Society, of the , and of the Institute of Civil Engineers. For many years he has been among the foreign correspondents to the Institute of France, as well as of several other scientific academies on the Continent. On May 17, 1872, Sir George was gazetted a Knight of the Bath."
"The Illustrated Review... to which we are indebted for the preceding statements, remarks that, since the death of Sir John Herschel... Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, is the admitted master of the sublime science. There are other eminent English astronomers—as John Hinde, the discoverer of many asteroids, and John Adams, also a Cambridge Senior Wrangler and the rival of Urban Leverrier, who groped his way by mathematical calculation to the discovery of the hitherto unknown planet Neptune. If incidents as brilliant and remarkable as these are wanting in the history of Sir George Airy, his claims to respect are equally valuable, solid, and enduring."
"His real business life commenced after he became Astronomer Royal, and from that time forward, during the 46 years that he remained in office, he was so entirely wrapped up in the duties of his post that the history of the Observatory is the history of his life."
"There was... much work on important subjects more or less connected with his official duties—such as geodetical survey work, the establishment of time-balls at different places, longitude determinations, observation of eclipses, and the determination of the density of the Earth. Lastly, there was a great deal of time and work given to questions... on which the Government asked his assistance in the capacity of general scientific adviser: such were the Correction of the Compass in iron ships, the Railway Gauge Commission, the Commission for the Restoration of the Standards of Length and Weight, the Maine Boundary Lighthouses, the Westminster Clock, the London University, and many other questions."
"[E]very subject of a distinctly practical nature, which could be advanced by mathematical knowledge, had an interest for him... Amongst such subjects were Tides and Tidal Observations, Clockwork, and the Strains in Beams and Bridges. A certain portion of his time was also given to Lectures, generally on current astronomical questions, for he held it as his duty to popularize the science as far as lay in his power. And he... took a very active part in the discussions and business of the [Royal Astronomical] Society. He also did much work for the Royal Society and... for the British Association."
"The history of the early part of his life was written in great detail and contained a large quantity of family matter which was evidently not intended for publication. This part of the Autobiography has been compressed. The history of the latter part of his life was not written by himself at all, and has been compiled from his Journal and other sources. In both these cases, and occasionally in short paragraphs throughout the narrative, it has been found convenient to write the history in the third person."
"His eye-sight was peculiar, and required correction by spectacles the lenses of which were ground to peculiar curves according to formulae which he himself investigated: with these spectacles he saw extremely well, and he commonly carried three pairs, adapted to different distances: he took great interest in the changes that took place in his eye-sight and wrote several Papers on the subject."
"The ruling feature of his character was undoubtedly Order. ...He seems not to have destroyed a document of any kind whatever: counterfoils of old cheque-books, notes for tradesmen, circulars, bills, and correspondence of all sorts were carefully preserved in the most complete order... To a high appreciation of order he attributed in a great degree his command of mathematics, and sometimes spoke of mathematics as nothing more than a system of order carried to a considerable extent. In everything he was methodical and orderly, and he had the greatest dread of disorder creeping into the routine work of the Observatory, even in the smallest matters."
"His nature was eminently practical, and any subject which had a distinctly practical object, and could be advanced by mathematical investigation, possessed interest for him. And his dislike of mere theoretical problems and investigations was proportionately great. He was continually at war with some of the resident Cambridge mathematicians on this subject. ...and conducted an interesting and acrimonious private correspondence with Professor Cayley on the same ..."
"[A] very important feature of his [mathematical] investigations was the thoroughness of them. He was never satisfied with leaving a result as a barren mathematical expression. He would reduce it, if possible, to a practical and numerical form, at any cost of labour: and would use any approximations which would conduce to this result, rather than leave the result in an unfruitful condition."
"He never shirked arithmetical work: the longest and most laborious reductions had no terrors for him, and he was remarkably skilful with the various mathematical expedients for shortening and facilitating arithmetical work of a complex character. This power of handling arithmetic was of great value to him in the Observatory... He regarded it as a duty to finish off his work, whatever it was, and the writer well remembers his comment on the mathematics of one of his old friends, to the effect that "he was too fond of leaving a result in the form of three complex equations with three unknown quantities.""
"He was made for work and could not long be happy without it. Whatever subject he was engaged upon, he kept his object clearly in view, and made straight for it, aiming far more at clearness and directness than at elegance... or symmetry of arrangement."
"His courtesy was unfailing: no amount of trouble could shake it. Whether it was the Secretary of the Admiralty, or a servant girl wanting her fortune told: whether a begging-letter for money, or miscellaneous invitations: all had their answer in the most clear and courteous language. But he would not grant personal interviews when he could avoid it: they took up too much of his time."
"[H]is custom was to work in his official room from 9 to about 2.30... He then took a brisk walk and dined at about 3.30. ...He... had tea, and from about 7 to 10 he worked in the same room with his family. He would never retire to a private room, and regarded the society of his family as highly beneficial in "taking the edge off his work." His powers of abstraction were remarkable: nothing seemed to disturb him; neither music, singing, nor miscellaneous conversation. He would then play a game or two at cards, read a few pages of a classical or historical book, and retire at 11."
"He eagerly... mastered the Physical Astronomy in the most thorough manner, as was evidenced by his Papers collected in his "Mathematical Tracts," his investigation of the Long Inequality of the Earth and Venus, and many other works. As Plumian Professor he had charge of the small Observatory at Cambridge, where he did a great deal of the observing and reduction work himself, and became thoroughly versed in the practical working of an Observatory. The result of this was immediately seen in the improved methods which he introduced at Greenwich, and which were speedily imitated at other Observatories. Optics and the Undulatory Theory of Light had been very favourite subjects with him, and he had written and lectured frequently upon them. In the construction of the new and powerful telescopes and other optical instruments required from time to time this knowledge was very essential, for in its instrumental equipment the Greenwich Observatory was entirely remodelled during his tenure of office. And in many of the matters referred to him, as for instance that of the Lighthouses, a thorough knowledge of Optics was most valuable. He had made a great study of the theory and construction of clocks, and this knowledge was invaluable to him at Greenwich in the establishment of new and more accurate astronomical clocks, and especially in the improvement of chronometers. He had carefully studied the theory of pendulums, and had learned how to use them in his experiments in the Cornish mines. This knowledge he afterwards utilized very effectively at the Harton Pit in comparing the density of the Earth's crust with its mean density; and it was very useful to him in connection with geodetic surveys and experiments on which he was consulted. And his mechanical knowledge was useful in almost everything."
"Antiquities and Architecture were very favourite subjects with him. He had visited most of the camps and castles in the United Kingdom and was never tired of tracing their connection with ancient military events: and he wrote several Papers on this subject, especially those relating to the Roman Invasions of Britain. Ecclesiastical Architecture he was very fond of: he had visited nearly all the cathedrals and principal churches in England, and many on the Continent..."
"He was extremely well versed in mechanics, and in the principles and theory of construction, and took the greatest interest in large engineering works. This led to much communication with Stephenson, Brunel, and other Engineers, who consulted him freely on the... great works on which they were engaged: in particular he rendered much assistance in connection with the construction of the over the Menai Straits."
"His nature was essentially cheerful, and literature of a witty and humourous character had a great charm for him. He was very fond of music and knew a great number of songs; and he was well acquainted with the theory of music: but he was no performer. He did not sketch freehand but made excellent drawings with his ."
"[A]s in the times of Flamsteed and Halley, the earnest zeal of men of science occasionally led to much controversy and bitterness... Airy was by no means exempt... He was a man of keen sensitiveness, though it was combined with great steadiness of temper, and he never hesitated to attack theories and methods that he considered to be scientifically wrong. This led to differences with Ivory, Challis, South, Cayley, , and others; but however much he might differ from them he was always personally courteous, and the disputes generally went no farther than as regarded the special matter in question. Almost all these controversial discussions were carried on openly, and were published in the Athenaeum, the , or elsewhere; for he printed nearly everything that he wrote, and was very careful in the selection of the most suitable channels for publication. He regarded it as a duty to popularize as much as possible the work done at the Observatory, and to take the public into his confidence. And this he effected by articles communicated to newspapers, lectures, numerous Papers written for scientific societies, reports, debates, and critiques."
"It's a fantastically specialized universe, but how in the world did it happen?"
"I feel that very rarely have I done any work in my life. I have a good time. I'm exploring. I'm playing a game, solving puzzles, and having fun, and for some reason people have been willing to pay me for it. Officially, I was supposed to retire years ago, but retire from what? Why stop having a good time?"
"Acid rain is a short-hand term that covers a set of highly complex and controversial environmental problems. It is a subject in which emotive and political judgements tend to obscure the underlying scientific issues which are fairly easily stated but poorly understood."
"As scientific men we have all, no doubt, felt that our work has been put often to base uses, which must lead to disaster. But what sin is to the moralist and crime to the jurist so to the scientific man is ignorance. On our plane knowledge and ignorance are the immemorial adversaries. Scientific men can hardly escape the charge of ignorance with regard to the precise effect of the impact of modern science upon the mode of living of the people and upon their civilisation. For them, such a charge is worse than that of crime."
"Chemistry has been termed by the physicist as the messy part of physics, but that is no reason why the physicists should be permitted to make a mess of chemistry when they invade it."
"Some of the beliefs and legends bequethed to us by Antquity are so universally and firmly established that we have become accustomed to consider them as being almost as ancient as humanity itself. Nevertheless we are tempted to inquire how far the fact that some of these beliefs and legends have so many features in common is due to chance, and wether the similarity between them may not point to the exestience of an ancient, totally unknown and unsuspected civilization of which all other traces have disappeared."
"All scientists must communicate their work, for what is the point of learning new things about how the world works if you don't tell anyone about them?"
"But I am leaving the regions of fact, which are difficult to penetrate, but which bring in their train rich rewards, and entering the regions of speculation, where many roads lie open, but where a few lead to a definite goal."
"Opinions derived from long experience are exceedingly valuable, and outweigh all others, while they are consistent with facts and with each other; but they are worse than useless when they lead, as in this instance, to directly opposite opinions."
"In science by a fiction as remarkable as any to be found in law, what once been published even though it be in the Russian language, is spoken of as known, and it is too often forgotten that the rediscovery in the library may be a more difficult and uncertain process than the first discovery in the laboratory."
"Without encroaching upon grounds appertaining to the theologian and the philosopher, the domain of natural sciences is surely broad enough to satisfy the wildest ambition of its devotees. In other departments of human life and interest, true progress is rather an article of faith than a rational belief; but in science a retrograde movements is, from the nature of the case, almost impossible. Increasing knowledge brings with it increasing power, and great as are the triumphs of the present century, we may well believe that they are but a foretaste of what discovery and invention have yet in store for mankind. … The work may be hard, and the discipline severe; but the interest never fails, and great is the privilege of achievement."
"The history of this paper suggests that highly speculative investigations, especially by an unknown author, are best brought before the world through some other channel than a scientific society, which naturally hesitates to admit into its printed records matter of uncertain value. Perhaps one may go further, and say that a young author who believes himself capable of great things would usually do well to secure the favourable recognition of the scientific world by work whose scope is limited, and whose value is easily judged, before embarking upon higher flights."
"The only merit of which I personally am conscious was that of having pleased myself by my studies, and any results that may be due to my researches were owing to the fact that it has been a pleasure for me to become a physicist."
"There are some great men of science whose charm consists in having said the first word on a subject, in having introduced some new idea which has proved fruitful; there are others whose charm consists perhaps in having said the last word on the subject, and who have reduced the subject to logical consistency and clearness. I think by temperament Lord Rayleigh belonged to the second group."
"The difficulty, as in all this work, is to find a notation which is both concise and intelligible to at least two people of whom one may be the author."
"Research is a matter of overcoming obstacles. That's what research is about. There are problems. There are difficulties. It's hard to make sense of a collection of information or whatever. Obstacles are the nature of research. Maybe that's why some people give up. There's always an obstacle. You overcome one to find there's another one."
"I can think of nothing else than this machine."
"It is not worth my while to manufacture in three countries only; but I can find it very worthwhile to make it for the whole world."
"These foundations decisively changed incentives for people and impelled the engines of prosperity, paving the way for the Industrial Revolution. First and foremost, the Industrial Revolution depended on major technological advances exploiting the knowledge base that had accumulated in Europe during the past centuries. It was a radical break from the past, made possible by scientific inquiry and the talents of a number of unique individuals. The full force of this revolution came from the market that created profitable opportunities for technologies to be developed and applied. It was the inclusive nature of markets that allowed people to allocate their talents to the right lines of business. It also relied on education and skills, for it was the relatively high levels of education, at least by the standards of the time, that enabled the emergence of entrepreneurs with the vision to employ new technologies for their businesses and to find workers with the skills to use them. It is not a coincidence that the Industrial Revolution started in England a few decades following the Glorious Revolution. The great inventors such as James Watt (perfecter of the steam engine), Richard Trevithick (the builder of the first steam locomotive), Richard Arkwright (the inventor of the spinning frame), and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (the creator of several revolutionary steamships) were able to take up the economic opportunities generated by their ideas, were confident that their property rights would be respected, and had access to markets where their innovations could be profitably sold and used."
"Almost everybody is sure... that it is proceeding with unprecedented speed; and... that its effects will be more radical than anything that has gone before. Wrong, and wrong again. Both in its speed and its impact, the information revolution uncannily resembles its two predecessors... The first industrial revolution, triggered by James Watt's improved steam engine in the mid-1770s... did not produce many social and economic changes until the invention of the railroad in 1829... Similarly, the invention of the computer in the mid-1940s... it was not until 40 years later, with the spread of the Internet in the 1990s, that the information revolution began to bring about big economic and social changes... the same emergence of the “super-rich” of their day, characterized both the first and the second industrial revolutions... These parallels are close and striking enough to make it almost certain that, as in the earlier industrial revolutions, the main effects of the information revolution on the next society still lie ahead."
"In science its main worth is temporary, as a stepping-stone to something beyond. Even the Principia, as Newton, with characteristic modesty entitled his great work, is truly but the beginning of a natural philosophy, and no more an ultimate work than Watt's steam-engine, or Arkwright's spinning-machine."
"If the Steam Engine be the most powerful instrument in the hands of man, to alter the face of the physical world, it operates, at the same time, as a powerful moral lever in forwarding the great cause of civilization. ...If ...we are now met to consider of placing a monument to the memory of Mr. Watt beside the monuments of those who fell in the splendid victories of the last war, let it not be said that there is no connexion between the services of this modest and unobtrusive benefactor of his country, and the triumphs of the heroes which those monuments are destined to commemorate. ...It has been often said, that many of the great discoveries in science are due to accident; but it was well remarked by [Humphry Davy]... that this cannot be the case with the principal discovery of Mr. Watt. ... Again, it has frequently happened that those philosophers, who have made brilliant and useful discoveries... have only been able to turn their discoveries to the purpose of averting evils threatening, and often destroying, the precarious tenure of human existence. Thus Franklin disarmed the thunderbolt, and conducted it innocuous through our buildings, and close to our fire-sides—thus Jenner stripped a loathsome and destructive disease of its virulence, and rendered it harmless of devastation—thus [Davy]... sent the safety lamp into our mines to save... their useful inhabitants from the awful explosion of the fire damp. But the discovery of Mr. Watt went further: he subdued and regulated the most terrific power in the universe,—that power which, by the joint operation of pressure and heat, probably produces those tremendous convulsions of the earth, which in a moment subvert whole cities, and almost change the face of the inhabited globe. This apparently ungovernable power Mr. Watt reduced to a state of such perfect organization and discipline... that it may now be safely manœuvred and brought into irresistible action—irresistible, but still regulated, measured, and ascertained—or lulled into the most complete and secure repose, at the will of man, and under the guidance of his feeble hand. Thus one man directs it into the bowels of the earth, to tear asunder its very elements, and bring to light its hidden treasures; another places it upon the surface of the waters, to control the winds of heaven, to stem the tides, to check the currents, and defy the waves of the ocean; a third, perhaps and a fourth, are destined to apply this mighty power to other purposes, still unthought of and unsuspected, but leading to consequences, possibly not less important than those which it has already produced. ... those benefits, conferred by Mr. Watt on the whole civilized world, have been most experienced by his own country, which owes a tribute of national gratitude to a man, who has thus honoured her by his genius, and promoted her well being by his discoveries."
"It is with Bernhard Riemann's work that we finally have the mathematical glasses to explore such worlds of the mind. And now my journey through the abstract world of 20th century mathematics has revealed that maths is the true language that the universe is written in. They key to understanding the world around us. Mathematicians aren't motivated by money and material gain, or even by practical applications of their work. For us it's the glory of solving one of the great unsolved problems that have outwitted previous generations of mathematicians. David Hilbert was right; it’s the unsolved problems of mathematics which make it a living subject. Which obsess each new generation of mathematicians. Despite all the things we've discovered over the last 7 millennia, there are still many things we don't understand. And its Hilbert’s call of "We must know, we will know" which drives mathematics."
"Five hundred years ago, when faced with an eclipse, many of us would have believed it was the work of an angry god. But as we've unearthed the language of the Code, we've discovered that the apparent mysteries of our world can be understood without invoking the supernatural. And this for me is what's so remarkable. That despite the incredible complexity of the world we live in, it can all, ultimately, be explained by numbers. Just like the orbit of the planets, life too follows a pattern. And it can all be reduced to cause and effect.In the end, even the flip of a coin is determined by how fast it's spinning and how long it takes to hit the ground. The ultimate symbol of chance isn't random at all. It only appears that way. When we don't understand the Code, the only way we can make sense of our world is to make up stories. But the truth is far more extraordinary. Everything has mathematics at its heart. When everything is stripped away all that remains is the Code."
"I would teach the world how the Greeks proved, more than 2,000 years ago, that there are infinitely many prime numbers. In my mind, this discovery is the beginning of mathematics – when humankind realised that, by pure thought alone, it could prove eternal truths of the universe. Prime numbers are the indivisible numbers, numbers that can be divided only by themselves and one. They are the most important numbers in mathematics, because every number is built by multiplying prime numbers together – for example, 60 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 5. They are like the atoms of arithmetic, the hydrogen and oxygen of the world of numbers."
"I lay in the parlour between two beds to keep me from being frozen to death, for as we keep open house the winds enter from every quarter, and are apt to sweep into bed to me."
"Elsdon was once a market town as some say, and a city according to others; but as the annals of the parish were lost several centuries ago, it is impossible to determine what age it was either the one or the other. There are not the least traces of the former grandeur to be found, whence some antiquaries are apt to believe that it lost both its trade and charter at the Deluge."
"If I was not assured by the best authority on earth that the world is to be destroyed by fire, I should conclude that the day of destruction is at hand, but brought on by means of an agent very opposite to that of heat."
"I have lost the use of everything but my reason, though my head is entrenched in three night-caps, and my throat, which is very bad, is fortified by a pair of stockings twisted in the form of a cravat."
"As washing is very cheap, I wear two shirts at a time, and, for want of a wardrobe, I hang my great coat upon my own back, and generally keep on my boots in imitation of my namesake of Sweden. Indeed, since the snow became two feet deep (as I wanted a 'chaappin of Yale' from the public-house), I made an offer of them to Margery the maid, but her legs are too thick to make use of them, and I am told that the greater part of my parishioners are not less substantial, and notwithstanding this they are remarkable for agility."
"(\left|x\right\rang \left|y\right\rang- \left|y\right\rang \left|x\right\rang) ... was my first lesson in quantum mechanics, and in a very real sense my last, since the rest is mere technique, which can be learnt from books."
"The inner mysteries of quantum mechanics require a willingness to extend one’s mental processes into a strange world of phantom possibilities, endlessly branching into more and more abstruse chains of coupled logical networks, endlessly extending themselves forward and even backwards in time."
"One day I had the idea of radiation implosion. As in all ideas that have ever popped up in my head, there is no way I can trace the source."
"Dynamical variables are what count in physics, not coordinate or gauge transformations."
"Almost all the serious achievements are simple in principle... the ideas must be sufficiently simple."
"One of Ward's few close friends at Macquarie is... Frank Duarte... the two make an odd couple - the restrained rather distant Englishman and the intense, earnest South American."
"Ward was vocal in his denunciation of the trivia that filled up Senate agendas… suitably then, it was a close student associate of Ward’s, physics Ph. D. student Frank Duarte, who began to mobilize student opinion in favor of a change."
"... he has drawn attention to fundamental truths, and has laid down basic principles, which physicists have followed ... often without knowing it, and generally without quoting him."
"By the end of 1955, Ward had independently conceived a two stage device, the radiation from the first (fission) stage being used to compress the light elements of the second stage..."
"In the early 1960s with Salam, Ward laid the groundwork for today's "standard model" of elementary particles."
"Yet the Ward Identity has a much more fundamental significance: it ensures the universality of the electromagnetic interaction."
"Ward Identities lie at the very foundations of renormalization."
"In the same style as Dirac, who wrote: “the interpretation of quantum mechanics has been dealt with by many authors, and I do not want to discuss it here. I want to deal with more fundamental things”, Ward was not interested on issues of interpretation... According to Shakarov, Ward was one of the “titans” of quantum electrodynamics alongside Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga. Thus, his non interest on issues of interpretation should not be dismissed lightly."
"This object, which somewhat resembles a flight of wild ducks in shape, is a gathering of minute stars."
"Admiral Smyth says that no family is quite civilized unless it possesses a copy of some encyclopaedia and a telescope."
"Mathematics, like music and poetry, is a creation of the mind; … the primary task of the mathematician, like that of any other artist, is to extend man's mental horizon by representation and interpretation."
"A technique succeeds in mathematical physics, not by a clever trick, or a happy accident, but because it expresses some aspect of a physical truth."
"Misconception was especially brought in by describing descent in terms of "blood". The common speech uses expressions such as consanguinity, pure-blooded, half-blood, and the like, which call up a misleading picture to the mind. Blood is in some respects a fluid, and thus it is supposed that this fluid can be both quantitatively and qualitatively diluted with other bloods, just as treacle can be diluted with water."
"Truer notions of genetic physiology are given by the Hebrew expression "seed". If we speak of a man as "of the blood-royal" we think at once of plebeian dilution, and we wonder how much of the royal fluid is likely to be "in his veins"; but if we say he is "of the seed of Abraham" we feel something of the permanence and indestructibility of that germ which can be divided and scattered among all nations, but remains recognisable in type and characteristics after 4000 years."
"It was in the attempt to ascertain the interrelationships between species that experiments n genetics were first made. The words "evolution" and "origin of species" are now so intimately associated with the name of Darwin that we are apt to forger that the idea of common descent had been prominent in the mnds of naturalists before he wrote, and that, for more than half a century, zealous investigators had been devoting themselves to the experimental study of that possibility. Prominent among this group of experimenters may be mentioned Koelreauter, John Hunter, Herbert Knight, Gartner, Jordan. Naudin, Godron, Lecoq, Wichura--men whose names are familiar to every reader of Animals and Plants unders Domestication."
"I well remember receiving from one of the most earnest of my seniors the friendly warning that it was waste of time to study variation, for "Darwin had swept the field." Parenthetically we may notice that though scientific opinion in general became rapidly converted to the doctrine of pure selection, there was one remarkable exception. Systematists for the most part kept aloof. Everyone was convinced that natural selection operating in a continuously varying population was a sufficient account of the origin of species except the one class of scientific workers whose labours familiarised them with the phenomenon of specific difference. From that time the systematists became, as they still in great measure remain, a class apart."
"If species had really arisen by the natural selection for impalpable differences, intermediate forms should abound, and the limits between species should be on the whole indefinite. As this conclusion follows necessarily from the premisses, the selectionists believe and declare that it represents the facts of nature. Difference between species being by axiom indefinite, the differences between varieties must be supposed to be still less definite. Consequently the conclusion that evolution must proceed by insensible transformation of masses of individuals has become an established dogma."
"Of the contributions made during the essayist period three call for notice: Weismann deserves mention for his useful work in asking for the proof that "acquired characters" or, to speak more precisely, parental experience can really be transmitted to the offspring. The ocurrence of progressive adaptation by transmission of effects of use had seemed so natural to Darwin and his contemporaries that no proof of the physiological reality of the henomenon was thought necessary. Weismann's challenge revealed the utter inadequacy of the evidence on which the beliefs were based. They are doubtless isolated observations which may be interpreted as favouring the belief in these transmissions, but such meagre indications as exist are by general consent admitted to be too slight to be of much assistance in the attempt to understand how the more complex adaptive mechanisms arose."
"The concept of evolution as proceeding through the gradual transformation of masses of individuals by the accumulation of impalpable changes is one that the study of genetics shows immediately to be false. Once for all, that burden so gratuitously undertaken in ignorance of generic physiology by the evolutionists of the last century may be cast into oblivion. For the facts of heredity and variation unite to prove that genetic variation is a phenomenon of individuals."
"That the variations are controlled by physiological law, we have now experimental proof; but that this control is guided ever so little in response to the needs of adaptation there is not the smallest sign."
"In the light of the new knowledge various plausible, but frequently unsatisfying, suggestions put forward, especially by Wallace, Weismann, and their followers, as probable accounts of evolutionary progress, must be finally abandoned."
"As systematic inquiry into the natural facts was begun it was at once found that the accepted ideas of variation were unfounded. Variation was seen very frequently to be a definite and specific phenomenon, affecting different forms of life in different ways, but in all its diversity showing manifold and often obvious indications of regularity. This observation was not in its essence novel. Several examples of definite variation had been well known to Darwin and others, but many, especially Darwin himself in his later years, had nevertheless been disposed to depreciate the significance of such facts. They consequently then lapsed into general disparagement. Upon more careful inquiry the abundance of such phenomena proved to be far greater than was currently supposed, and a discussion of their nature brought into prominence a consideration of greater weight, namely that the differences by which these definite or discontinuous variations are constituted again and again approximate to and are comparable with the class of differences by which species are distinguished from each other."
"Few who are familiar with the facts that genetic research has revealed are now inclined to speculate as to the manner by which the process [species come into existence] has been accomplished. Our knowledge of the nature and properties of living things is far too meagre to justify any such attempts. Suggestions of course can be made: though, however, these ideas may have a stimulating value in the lecture room, they look weak and thin when set out in print."
"In spite of Darwin's hopes, the acceptance of his views has led to no real improvement — scarcely indeed to any change at all in either the practice or aims of systematists. In a famous passage in the Origin he confidently declares that when his interpretation is generally adopted "Systematists will be able to pursue their labours as at present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt whether this or that form be a true species. This, I feel sure, and I speak after experience, will be no slight relief. The endless disputes whether or not some fifty species of British brambles are good species will cease." Those disputes nevertheless proceed almost exactly as before. It is true that biologists in general do not, as formerly, participate in these discussions because they have abandoned systematics altogether; but those who are engaged in the actual work of naming and cataloguing animals and plants usually debate the old questions in the old way. There is still the same divergence of opinion and of practice, some inclining to make much of small differences, others to neglect them. Not only does the work of the sytematists as a whole proceed as if Darwin had never written but their attitude towards these problems is but little changed."
"I am well aware that some very eminent systematists regard the whole problem as solved. They hold as Darwin did that specific diversity has no physiological foundation or causation apart from adaptation, and that species are impermanent groups, the delimitations of which are ultimately determined by environmental exigency or "fitness." The specific diversity of living things is thus regarded as being something quite different in nature from the specific diversity of inorganic substances. In practice those who share these opinions are, as might be anticipated, to be found among the 'lumpers' rather than among the 'splitters.' In their work, certainly, the Darwinian theory is actually followed as a guiding principle; unanalysed intergradations of all kinds are accepted as impugning the integrity of species; the underlying physiological problem is forgotten, and while the product is almost valueless as a contribution to biological research, I can scarcely suppose that it aids greatly in the advances of other branches of our science."
"In Darwin's time no serious attempt had been made to examine the manifestations of variability. A vast assemblage of miscellaneous facts could formerly be adduced as seemingly comparable illustrations of the phenomenon "Variation." Time has shown this mass of evidence to be capable of analysis. When first promulgated it produced the impression that variability was a phenomenon generally distributed amongst living things in such a way that the specific divisions must be arbitrary. When this variability is sorted out, and is seen to be in part a result of hybridisation, in part a consequence of the persistence of hybrids by parthenogenetic reproduction, a polymorphism due to the continued presence of individuals representing various combinations of Mendelian allelomorphs, partly also the transient effect of alteration in external circumstances, we see how cautious we must be in drawing inferences as to the indefiniteness of specific limits from a bare knowledge that intermediates exist."
"Since the belief in transmission of acquired adaptations arose from preconception rather than from evidence, it is worth observing that, rightly considered, the probability should surely be the other way. For the adaptations relate to every variety of exigency. To supply themselves with food, to find it, to seize and digest it, to protect themselves from predatory enemies whether by offence or defence, to counter-balance the changes of temperature, or pressure, to provide for mechanical strains, to obtain immunity from poison and from invading organisms, to bring the sexual elements into contact, to ensure the distribution of the type; all these and many more are accomplished by organisms in a thousand most diverse and alternative methods. Those are the things that are hard to imagine as produced by any concatenation of natural events; but the suggestions that organisms had had from the beginning innate in them a power of modifying themselves, their organs and their instincts so as to meet these multifarious requirements does not materially differ from the more overt appeals to supernatural intervention. The conception, originally introduced by Hering and independently by S. Butler, that adaptation is a consequence or product of accumulated memory was of late revived by Semon and has been received with some approval, especially by F. Darwin. I see nothing fantastic in the notion that memory may be unconsciously preserved with the same continuity that the protoplasmic basis of life possesses. That idea, though purely speculative and, as yet, incapable of proof or disproof contains nothing which our experience of matter or of life at all refutes. On the contrary, we probably do well to retain the suggestion as a clue that may some day be of service. But if adaptation is to be the product of these accumulated experiences, they must in some way be translated into terms of physiological and structural change, a process frankly inconceivable."
"Memory is a mystery as deep as any that even psychology can propound. [Natural] Philosophers might perhaps encourage themselves to attack the problem of the nature of memory by reflecting that after all the process may in some of its aspects be comparable with that of inheritance, but the student of genetics, as long as he can keep in close touch with a profitable basis of material fact, will scarcely be tempted to look for inspiration in psychical analogies."
"More than one hundred years ago, William Bateson suggested that studying the regulation and timing of development was the key to understanding evolutionary change. He was right."
"Although it is not, abstractedly speaking, of importance to know who first made a most valuable experiment, or to what individual the community is indebted for the invention of the most useful machine, yet the sense of mankind has in this, as in several other things, been in direct opposition to frigid reasoning; and we are pleased with a recollection of benefits, and with rendering honour to the memory of those who bestowed them. Were public benefactors to be allowed to pass away like hewers of wood and drawers of water, without commemoration, genius and enterprise would be deprived of their most coveted distinction, and after-times would lose incentives to that emulation which urges us to cherish and practise what has been worthy of commendation or imitation in our forefathers; and to make their works, which may have served for a light and been useful to the age in which they lived, a guide and a spur to ourselves"
"What! the girl I adore by another embraced? What! the balm of her breath shall another man taste? What! pressed in the dance by another's man's knee? What! panting recline on another than me? Sir, she's yours; you have pressed from the grape its fine blue, From the rosebud you've shaken the tremulous dew; What you've touched you may take. Pretty waltzer—adieu!"
"The Higgs is a very special type of particle - one we've never seen before. It has strange properties that we need to understand. This award was a complete surprise to me. It's really quite humbling and of course I'm delighted to receive it. I'm over the moon to be frank."
"We have a design [special characteristics of the detector] which is entirely based on a single magnet, a high field solenoid. The first thing one actually does in the design of the experiment is actually to figure out the magnetic field configuration for the measurement of muons. That then determines the rest of the design. The detector is built such that [see diagram] the first layer is within a tracker, which is all silicon."
"The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a discovery machine. We are actually looking to make discoveries. So, I think that’s the name of the game. As the data come in, the emphasis will be on the high statistical significance of the statements that we make at the end of the programme – we are half way through the LHC programme today and so [there is] another 10-15 years to go. The name of the game is actually to retrieve all the physics that is at this special energy scale of the LHC. There is some magic, I think, about this energy scale."
"The good thing about Higgs is that depending on the mass it actually manifests itself inside the detector in completely different ways. And many different ways depending on the mass, and we have to cover all the different ways and, in fact, when you have done you find that detector can do anything that the nature has in store for us. Anything."
"An Indian-origin physicist, best known for his work on the Large Hadron Collider experiment, has been accorded an honorary knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II for his achievements in science."
"CERN physicist, Tejinder Virdee has done search for the elusive Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle"."
"Tejinder set about building a detector within the Large Hadron Collider that's capable of taking forty million phenomenally detailed images every second. Finding the Higgs will validate everything physicists think they know about the very nature of the universe: not finding it, will force them back to the drawing board."
"He developed new technologies within the detector that ultimately allowed it to find the Higgs - the mechanism which explains how sub-atomic particles came to have substance, or mass."
"Professor Virdee is one of the UK's most distinguished physicists and, as one of the creators of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment he has made outstanding contributions to science. The CMS experiment, at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN, Geneva, has delivered seminal results in particle physics, including the groundbreaking discovery of the Higgs Boson, or the God particle, a particle that gives mass to other particles. Beyond his innovative work in particle physics, he is also a great campaigner for science, and promoter of science and education in Africa and India"
"He was involved in the development of the CMS detector concept from the earliest days and has been influential in many areas of the detector design. The innovative concepts in CMS are likely to influence the next generation of high-energy physics experiments. He proposed the idea of discovering the elusive Higgs boson via its decay into two photons, which is central to the concept of the high resolution lead-tungstate crystal calorimeter, one of the major components of the CMS design."
"France is your natural enemy; she is more so as a republic than as a monarchy. We know less at what point a nation will stop than a king."
"No, youth is not the age of pleasure; we then expect too much, and are therefore exposed to daily disappointments and mortification. When we are a little older, and have brought down our wishes to our experience, then we become calm and begin to enjoy ourselves."
"To conclude: we wish that the King of France would hang or shoot Buonaparte, as the best termination of the business; but if this is impracticable, and the allies are desirous that we should have the custody of him, it is not unreasonable that we should be allowed to judge of the means by which that custody can be be made effectual."
"Where a government was established, it must proceed upon one of two principles; either to frame it in concert with permanent and immutable laws, or in connexion with laws that might be altered and modified according to particular exigencies? The former system, he apprehended, would not be very conducive to the happiness of mankind; on the other hand, if as much liberty were granted to the subject as could be conceded consistently with the safety of the state; there must be a power somewhere competent to the temporary suspension of that liberty, when such a measure becomes necessary for the protection of it ultimately."
"On the present occasion, they had the fullest proof (if they believed the report) of a treasonable conspiracy in the metropolis, to overturn, by a general insurrection, the laws, the government, and the constitution of the kingdom. It was also, a matter of perfect notoriety, that the same system was spread over a great part of the country. There was a double engine at work; the operation of the one, was evidently aiming at what every person must agree would overthrow the constitution; the operation of the other (he alluded to the Spenceans) was calculated to produce a complete convulsion in the elements which composed the system of social life."
"He felt all the importance of the measure that was now proposed: but he would not allow any imputations that might be insinuated to preclude him from discharging what he conscientiously believed to be his duty. His only object was, to support the throne, to support the constitution and to protect the peace, the happiness, and the confidence of every private man in the kingdom; his only view was, to preserve our morals, our religion, our establishments, and to secure to every man the tranquil enjoyment of his fireside. He asked of parliament to entrust the Prince Regent's ministers with that power for a short time—a most odious one, he agreed—and one which ought not to be confided to any man, or to any set of men, except in cases of the last necessity, except in such cases as, he apprehended, now justified him in calling for it."
"He thought that, in order to maintain the Protestant ascendancy, it was necessary to have a Protestant parliament, a Protestant council, and Protestant judges."
"How, for instance, could the Protestant succession be maintained without a Protestant parliament? Such were his reasons for resisting the higher claims of the Catholics; but, with the same sentiments be would give his concurrence to the present measure. He apprehended from it none of the dangers which he had alluded to in the former case. Nay, he even believed, that the granting of such privileges to the Catholics of England, would strengthen the Protestant establishment, as a cause of discontent would thus be removed—as a reproach perpetually thrown in their teeth would be taken away—and as, by conceding these little things, they acquired strength to resist greater encroachments."
"I cannot in a letter enter into all the particulars, but be assured the Government hangs by a thread. The Catholic question in its present state, combined with other circumstances, will, I have little doubt, lead to its dissolution in the course of this session."
"Lord Liverpool was a very timid man: never sufficiently regarded—he carried the country through the most formidable war in which it was ever engaged. No use in having your general if Liverpool had not raised taxes."
"Notwithstanding, however, all this successful mystification, the Arch-Mediocrity who presided, rather than ruled, over this Cabinet of Mediocrities, became hourly more conscious that the inevitable transition from fulfilling the duties of an administration to performing the functions of a government could not be conducted without talents and knowledge. The Arch-Mediocrity had himself some glimmering traditions of political science. He was sprung from a laborious stock, had received some training, and though not a statesman, might be classed among those whom the Lord Keeper Williams used to call "statemongers." In a subordinate position his meagre diligence and his frigid method might not have been without value; but the qualities that he possessed were misplaced; nor can any character be conceived less invested with the happy properties of a leader. In the conduct of public affairs, his disposition was exactly the reverse to that which is the characteristic of great men. He was peremptory in little questions, and great ones he left open."
"History has hardly done justice to Liverpool's solid though not shining talents. That he was for nearly fifteen years head of an administration which concluded successfully the French war, carried the country through the perils which followed upon the peace of 1815, and brought it to the eve of the great reform period, and that during all that time his ministry, even when it consisted of two hostile and irreconcilable parties, was rarely in danger from its opponents, is proof conclusive that, although neither an impressive orator nor a great statesman, he had consummate tact, an infallible instinct for the practical solution of difficulties, unfailing temper, and eminent talents as a man of business and a public official."
"Lord Liverpool, however, is much more entitled to the gratitude and admiration of posterity than some statesmen who have enjoyed much more of it. He was one of that class of Ministers whom we should be very glad to see more numerous: patient, prudent, and patriotic; careless of his own fame, so that those measures were pursued which he considered for the public good; shunning rather than courting popular applause; and by his clear common sense, his unselfishness, and his equanimity, solving problems and surmounting difficulties which more brilliant men are wont either to create or to exasperate."
"Both in 1806 and in 1809 he might have been Prime Minister had he chosen. But he recoiled from the first place, nor did he finally accept it till he saw that without him the Tory Party must be broken up, and the Whigs admitted in a body. Thus, he was not a man either to originate a great policy, to make personal enemies, or to be mixed up in political intrigues and back-stairs conspiracies. His career, accordingly, was deficient in all those elements which excite wonder and curiosity. No "revelations," no scandals, no racy anecdotes were to be expected from his private papers. There were no aspersions on his character which his family might have been eager to refute; no passages in his career which might seem to require vindication. Thus, many of the ordinary motives to which he publication of political biographies and the private papers of deceased statesmen may reasonably be attributed, were in his case wanting. And the literary warfare which usually follows such productions, and keeps alive the memory of men not above mediocrity, has not yet been kindled by the quiet virtues of Lord Liverpool."
"Lord Liverpool was an essentially fair-minded man, of great common-sense and great business capacity. He had not the genius which discerns from afar the signs of the times and treats present evils by the light of them; but he did what more brilliant men might have failed to do. He held together, for ten or twelve years, a Cabinet composed of very discordant materials, and was thus enabled to secure for his Government the support of both the old Conservative Tories and the younger advocates of Reform, who began to grow impatient of abuses. Without some such combination it is doubtful how far the country could have been governed at all during the critical period which followed the conclusion of the war. His high character, tact, moderation, and perfect disinterestedness secured for us a strong Government at the time when it was most wanted, and this, at all events, is a claim upon our gratitude which is never likely to be disputed."
"It has seldom been sufficiently considered that in the adoption of those repressive measures which have been singled out for special abuse by the hostile critics of Lord Liverpool, Government was face to face with seditions and insurrectionary plots which culminated in a scheme for the assassination of the whole Cabinet. I see little or no justification for the various Arms Bills and Crimes Bills, and other precautionary measures which have been demanded for Ireland, which did not equally exist for the Six Acts. Governments are answerable for the preservation of peace and the security of life and property; and I doubt whether impartial men, after the experience of the last ten years, would be disposed to judge as harshly of these measures as was the fashion forty years ago, when public danger of this kind had come to seem almost like a dream."
"Ld. Mulgrave told me in the morning that nothing was fixed about the Foreign office, and that Ld. Liverpool was too good a War Secretary to be spared there."
"The second part of the book... contains an exposition of the first principles of the theory of complex quantities; hitherto, the very elements of this theory have not been easily accessible to the English student, except recently in Prof. Chrystal's excellent treatise on Algebra. The subject of Analytical Trigonometry has been too frequently presented to the student in the state in which it was left by Euler, before the researches of Cauchy, Abel, Gauss, and others, had placed the use of imaginary quantities, and especially the theory of infinite series and products, where real or complex quantities are involved, on a firm scientific basis. In the Chapter on the exponential theorem and logarithms, I have ventured to introduce the term "generalized logarithm" for the doubly infinite series of values of the logarithm of a quantity."
"Perhaps the least inadequate description of the general scope of modern Pure Mathematics—I will not call it a definition—would be to say that it deals with form, in a very general sense of the term; this would include algebraic form, functional relationship, the relations of order in any ordered set of entities such as numbers, and the analysis of the peculiarities of form of groups of operations."
"A great department of thought must have its own inner life, however transcendent may be the importance of its relations to the outside. No department of science, least of all one requiring so high a degree of mental concentration as Mathematics, can be developed entirely, or even mainly, with a view to applications outside its own range. The increased complexity and specialisation of all branches of knowledge makes it true in the present, however it may have been in former times, that important advances in such a department as Mathematics can be expected only from men who are interested in the subject for its own sake, and who, whilst keeping an open mind for suggestions from outside, allow their thought to range freely in those lines of advance which are indicated by the present state of their subject, untrammelled by any preoccupation as to applications to other departments of science. Even with a view to applications, if Mathematics is to be adequately equipped for the purpose of coping with the intricate problems which will be presented to it in the future by Physics, Chemistry and other branches of physical science, many of these problems probably of a character which we cannot at present forecast, it is essential that Mathematics should be allowed to develop freely on its own lines."
"I have said that mathematics is the oldest of the sciences; a glance at its more recent history will show that it has the energy of perpetual youth. The output of contributions to the advance of the science during the last century and more has been so enormous that it is difficult to say whether pride in the greatness of achievement in this subject, or despair at his inability to cope with the multiplicity of its detailed developments, should be the dominant feeling of the mathematician. Few people outside of the small circle of mathematical specialists have any idea of the vast growth of mathematical literature. The Royal Society Catalogue contains a list of nearly thirty-nine thousand papers on subjects of Pure Mathematics alone, which have appeared in seven hundred serials during the nineteenth century. This represents only a portion of the total output, the very large number of treatises, dissertations, and monographs published during the century being omitted."
"Much of the skill of the true mathematical physicist and of the mathematical astronomer consists in the power of adapting methods and results carried out on an exact mathematical basis to obtain approximations sufficient for the purposes of physical measurements. It might perhaps be thought that a scheme of Mathematics on a frankly approximative basis would be sufficient for all the practical purposes of application in Physics, Engineering Science, and Astronomy, and no doubt it would be possible to develop, to some extent at least, a species of Mathematics on these lines. Such a system would, however, involve an intolerable awkwardness and prolixity in the statements of results, especially in view of the fact that the degree of approximation necessary for various purposes is very different, and thus that unassigned grades of approximation would have to be provided for. Moreover, the mathematician working on these lines would be cut off from the chief sources of inspiration, the ideals of exactitude and logical rigour, as well as from one of his most indispensable guides to discovery, symmetry, and permanence of mathematical form. The history of the actual movements of mathematical thought through the centuries shows that these ideals are the very life-blood of the science, and warrants the conclusion that a constant striving toward their attainment is an absolutely essential condition of vigorous growth. These ideals have their roots in irresistible impulses and deep-seated needs of the human mind, manifested in its efforts to introduce intelligibility in certain great domains of the world of thought."
"Who has studied the works of such men as Euler, Lagrange, Cauchy, Riemann, , and Weierstrass, can doubt that a great mathematician is a great artist? The faculties possessed by such men, varying greatly in kind and degree with the individual, are analogous with those requisite for constructive art. Not every mathematician possesses in a specially high degree that critical faculty which finds its employment in the perfection of form, in conformity with the ideal of logical completeness; but every great mathematician possesses the rarer faculty of constructive imagination."
"The actual evolution of mathematical theories proceeds by a process of induction strictly analogous to the method of induction employed in building up the physical sciences; observation, comparison, classification, trial, and generalisation are essential in both cases. Not only are special results, obtained independently of one another, frequently seen to be really included in some generalisation, but branches of the subject which have been developed quite independently of one another are sometimes found to have connections which enable them to be synthesised in one single body of doctrine. The essential nature of mathematical thought manifests itself in the discernment of fundamental identity in the mathematical aspects of what are superficially very different domains. A striking example of this species of immanent identity of mathematical form was exhibited by the discovery of that distinguished mathematician . . . Major MacMahon, that all possible Latin squares are capable of enumeration by the consideration of certain differential operators. Here we have a case in which an enumeration, which appears to be not amenable to direct treatment, can actually be carried out in a simple manner when the underlying identity of the operation is recognised with that involved in certain operations due to differential operators, the calculus of which belongs superficially to a wholly different region of thought from that relating to Latin squares."
"The opinion appears to be gaining ground that this very general conception of functionality, born on mathematical ground, is destined to supersede the narrower notion of causation, traditional in connection with the natural sciences. As an abstract formulation of the idea of determination in its most general sense, the notion of functionality includes and transcends the more special notion of causation as a one-sided determination of future phenomena by means of present conditions; it can be used to express the fact of the subsumption under a general law of past, present, and future alike, in a sequence of phenomena. From this point of view the remark of Huxley that Mathematics "knows nothing of causation" could only be taken to express the whole truth, if by the term "causation" is understood "efficient causation." The latter notion has, however, in recent times been to an increasing extent regarded as just as irrelevant in the natural sciences as it is in Mathematics; the idea of thorough-going determinancy, in accordance with formal law, being thought to be alone significant in either domain."
"Success, even in a comparatively limited field, is some compensation for failure in a wider field of endeavour."
"If the question be raised, why such an apparently special problem as the quadrature of the circle, is deserving of the sustained interest which has attained to it, and which it still possesses, the answer is only to be found in a scrutiny of the history of the problem, and especially in the closeness of the connection of that history with the general history of Mathematical Science."
"In the year 1775, the Paris Academy found it necessary to protect its officials against the waste of time and energy involved in examining the efforts of circle squarers. It passed a resolution... that no more solutions were to be examined of the problem of the duplication of the cube, the trisection of the angle, the quadrature of the circle, and the same resolution should apply to machines for exhibiting perpetual motion. an account... drawn up by Condorcet... is appended. It is interesting to remark that the strength of the conviction of Mathematicians that the solution of the problem is impossible, more than a century before an irrefutable proof of the correctness of that conviction was discovered."
"The objects of abstract Geometry possess in absolute precision properties which are only approximately realized in the corresponding objects of physical Geometry."
"A new point is determined in Euclidean Geometry exclusively in one of the three following ways: Having given four points A, B, C, D, not all incident on the same straight line, then (1) Whenever a point P exists which is incident both on (A,B) and on (C,D), that point is regarded as determinate. (2) Whenever a point P exists which is incident both on the straight line (A,B) and on the circle C(D), that point is regarded as determinate. (3) Whenever a point P exists which is incident on both the circles A(B), C(D), that point is regarded as determinate. The cardinal points of any figure determined by a Euclidean construction are always found by means of a finite number of successive applications of some or all of these rules (1), (2) and (3). Whenever one of these rules is applied it must be shown that it does not fail to determine the point. Euclid's own treatment is sometimes defective as regards this requisite. In order to make the practical constructions which correspond to these three Euclidean modes of determination, correponding to (1) the ruler is required, corresponding to (2) both ruler and compass, and corresponding to (3) the compass only. ...it is possible to develop Euclidean Geometry with a more restricted set of postulations. For example it can be shewn that all Euclidean constructions can be carried out by means of (3) alone..."
"As in Mathematics in general, the really great advances, embodying new ideas of far-reaching fruitfullness, have been due to an exceedingly small number of great men... there are periods when for a long series of centuries no advance was made; when the results obtained in a more enlightened age have been forgotten. We observe the times of revival, when the older learning has been rediscovered, and when the results of the progress made in distinct countries have been made available as the starting points of new efforts and a fresh period of activity."
"The history of our problem falls into three periods marked out by fundamentally distinct differences in respect of method, of immediate aims, and in equipment in possession of intellectual tools."
"The first period embraces the time between the first records of empirical determinations of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle until the invention of the Differential and Integral Calculus, in the middle of the seventeenth century. This period, in which the ideal of an exact construction was never entirely lost sight of, and was occasionally supposed to have been attained, was the geometrical period, in which the main activity consisted in the approximate determination of π by the calculation of the sides or the areas of regular polygons in- and circum-scribed to the circle. The theoretical groundwork of the method was the Greek method of Exhaustions. In the earlier part of the period the work of approximation was much hampered by the backward condition of arithmetic due to the fact that our present system of numerical notation had not yet been invented; but the closeness of the approximations obtained in spite of this great obstacle are truly surprising. In the later part of this first period methods were devised by which the approximations to the value of π were obtained which required only a fraction of the labour involved in the earlier calculations. At the end of the period the method was developed to so high a degree of perfection that no further advance could be hoped for on the lines laid down by the Greek Mathematicians; for further progress more powerful methods were required."
"The second period, which commenced in the middle of the seventeenth century, and lasted for about a century, was characterized by the application of the powerful analytical methods provided by the new Analysis to the determination of analytical expressions for the number π in the form of convergent series, products, and continued fractions. The older geometrical forms of investigation gave way to analytical processes in which the functional relationship as applied to the trigonometrical functions became prominent. The new methods of systematic representation gave rise to a race of calculators of π, who, in their consciousness of the vastly enhance means of calculation placed in their hands by the new Analysis, proceeded to apply the formulae to obtain numerical approximations to π to ever larger numbers of places of decimals, although their efforts were quite useless for the purpose of throwing light upon the true nature of that number. At the end of this period no knowledge had been obtained as regards the number π of the kind likely to throw light upon the possibility or impossibility of the old historical problem of the ideal construction; it was not even definitely known whether the number is rational or irrational. However, one great discovery, destined to furnish the clue to the solution of the problem, was made at this time; that of the relation between the two numbers π and e, as a particular case of those exponential expressions for the trigonometrical functions which form one of the most fundamentally important of the analytical weapons forged during this period."
"In the third period, which lasted from the middle of the eighteenth century until late in the nineteenth century, attention was turned to critical investigations of the true nature of the number π itself, considered independently of mere analytical representations. The number was first studied in respect of its rationality or irrationality, and it was shown to be really irrational. When the discovery was made of the fundamental distinction between algebraic and transcendental numbers, i.e. between those numbers which can be, and those numbers which cannot be, roots of an algebraical equation with rational coefficients, the question arose to which of these categories the number π belongs. It was finally established by a method which involved the use of some of the most modern of analytical investigation that the number π was transcendental. When this result was combined with the results of a critical investigation of the possibilities of a Euclidean determination, the inferences could be made that the number π, being transcendental, does not admit of a construction either by a Euclidean determination, or even by a determination in which the use of other algebraic curves besides the straight line and the circle are permitted. The answer to the original question thus obtained is of a conclusive negative character; but it is one in which a clear account is given of the fundamental reasons upon which that negative answer rests."
"We are able to appreciate the difficulties which in each age restricted the progress which could be made within limits which could not be surpassed by the means then available; we see how, when new weapons became available, a new race of thinkers turned to the further consideration of the problem with a new outlook."
"The quality of the human mind, considered in its collective aspect, which most strikes us, in surveying this record, is its colossal patience."
"The Mathematics which effectually exercises, not vainly deludes or vexatiously torments studious Minds with obscure Subtilties, perplexed Difficulties, or contentious Disquisitions; which overcomes without Opposition, triumphs without Pomp, compels without Force, and rules absolutely without Loss of Liberty; which does not privately overreach a weak Faith, but openly assaults an armed Reason, obtains a total Victory, and puts on inevitable Chains; whose Words are so many Oracles, and Works as many Miracles; which blabs out nothing rashly, nor designs anything from the Purpose, but plainly demonstrates and readily performs all Things within its Verge; which obtrudes no false Shadow of Science, but the very Science itself, the Mind firmly adheres to it, as soon as possessed of it, and can never after desert it of its own Accord, or be deprived of it by any Force of others: Lastly the Mathematics, which depend upon Principles clear to the Mind, and agreeable to Experience; which draws certain Conclusions, instructs by profitable Rules, unfolds pleasant Questions; and produces wonderful Effects; which is the fruitful Parent of, I had almost said all, Arts, the 47 unshaken Foundation of Sciences, and the plentiful Fountain of Advantage to human Affairs."
"Virtue is not a mushroom, that springeth up of itself in one night when we are asleep, or regard it not; but a delicate plant, that groweth slowly and tenderly, needing much pains to cultivate it, much care to guard it, much time to mature it, in our untoward soil, in this world's unkindly weather."
"Smiling always with a never fading serenity of countenance, and flourishing in an immortal youth."
"For to pass by those Ancients, the wonderful Pythagoras, the sagacious Democritus, the divine Plato, the most subtle and very learned Aristotle, Men whom every Age has hitherto acknowledged as deservedly honored, as the greatest Philosophers, the Ring-leaders of Arts; in whose Judgments how much these Studies [mathematics] were esteemed, is abundantly proclaimed in History and confirmed by their famous Monuments, which are everywhere interspersed and bespangled with Mathematical Reasonings and Examples, as with so many Stars; and consequently anyone not in some Degree conversant in these Studies will in vain expect to understand, or unlock their hidden Meanings, without the Help of a Mathematical Key: For who can play well on Aristotle’s Instrument but with a Mathematical Quill; or not be altogether deaf to the Lessons of natural Philosophy, while ignorant of Geometry? Who void of (Geometry shall I say, or) Arithmetic can comprehend Plato’s 218 Socrates lisping with Children concerning Square Numbers; or can conceive Plato himself treating not only of the Universe, but the Polity of Commonwealths regulated by the Laws of Geometry, and formed according to a Mathematical Plan?"
"Mathematics is the fruitful Parent of, I had almost said all, Arts, the unshaken Foundation of Sciences, and the plentiful Fountain of Advantage to Human Affairs. In which last Respect, we may be said to receive from the Mathematics, the principal Delights of Life, Securities of Health, Increase of Fortune, and Conveniences of Labour: That we dwell elegantly and commodiously, build decent Houses for ourselves, erect stately Temples to God, and leave wonderful Monuments to Posterity: That we are protected by those Rampires from the Incursions of the Enemy; rightly use Arms, skillfully range an Army, and manage War by Art, and not by the Madness of wild Beasts: That we have safe Traffick through the deceitful Billows, pass in a direct Road through the tractless Ways of the Sea, and come to the designed Ports by the uncertain Impulse of the Winds: That we rightly cast up our Accounts, do Business expeditiously, dispose, tabulate, and calculate scattered 248 Ranks of Numbers, and easily compute them, though expressive of huge Heaps of Sand, nay immense Hills of Atoms: That we make pacifick Separations of the Bounds of Lands, examine the Moments of Weights in an equal Balance, and distribute every one his own by a just Measure: That with a light Touch we thrust forward vast Bodies which way we will, and stop a huge Resistance with a very small Force: That we accurately delineate the Face of this Earthly Orb, and subject the Oeconomy of the Universe to our Sight: That we aptly digest the flowing Series of Time, distinguish what is acted by due Intervals, rightly account and discern the various Returns of the Seasons, the stated Periods of Years and Months, the alternate Increments of Days and Nights, the doubtful Limits of Light and Shadow, and the exact Differences of Hours and Minutes: That we derive the subtle Virtue of the Solar Rays to our Uses, infinitely extend the Sphere of Sight, enlarge the near Appearances of Things, bring to Hand Things remote, discover Things hidden, search Nature out of her Concealments, and unfold her dark Mysteries: That we delight our Eyes with beautiful Images, cunningly imitate the Devices and portray the Works of Nature; imitate did I say? nay excel, while we form to ourselves Things not in being, exhibit Things absent, and represent Things past: That we recreate our Minds and delight our Ears with melodious Sounds, attemperate the inconstant Undulations of the Air to musical Tunes, add a pleasant Voice to a sapless Log and draw a sweet Eloquence from a rigid Metal; celebrate our Maker with an harmonious Praise, and not unaptly imitate the blessed Choirs of Heaven: That we approach and examine the inaccessible Seats of the Clouds, the distant Tracts of Land, unfrequented Paths of the Sea; lofty Tops of the Mountains, low Bottoms of the Valleys, and deep Gulphs of the Ocean: That in Heart we advance to the Saints themselves above, yea draw them to us, scale the etherial Towers, freely range through the celestial Fields, measure the Magnitudes, and determine the Interstices of the Stars, prescribe inviolable Laws to the Heavens themselves, and confine the wandering Circuits of the Stars within fixed Bounds: Lastly, that we comprehend the vast Fabrick of the Universe, admire and contemplate the wonderful Beauty of the Divine 249 Workmanship, and to learn the incredible Force and Sagacity of our own Minds, by certain Experiments, and to acknowledge the Blessings of Heaven with pious Affection."
"These Disciplines [mathematics] serve to inure and corroborate the Mind to a constant Diligence in Study; to undergo the Trouble of an attentive Meditation, and cheerfully contend with such Difficulties as lie in the Way. They wholly deliver us from a credulous Simplicity, most strongly fortify us against the Vanity of Scepticism, effectually restrain from a rash Presumption, most easily incline us to a due Assent, perfectly subject us to the Government of right Reason, and inspire us with Resolution to wrestle against the unjust Tyranny of false Prejudices. If the Fancy be unstable and fluctuating, it is to be poised by this Ballast, and steadied by this Anchor, if the Wit be blunt it is sharpened upon this Whetstone; if luxuriant it is pared by this Knife; if headstrong it is restrained by this Bridle; and if dull it is roused by this Spur. The Steps are guided by no Lamp more clearly through the dark Mazes of Nature, by no Thread more surely through the intricate Labyrinths of Philosophy, nor lastly is the Bottom of Truth sounded more happily by any other Line. I will not mention how plentiful a Stock of Knowledge the Mind is furnished from these, with what wholesome Food it is nourished, and what sincere Pleasure it enjoys. But if I speak farther, I shall neither be the only Person, nor the first, who affirms it; that while the Mind is abstracted and elevated from sensible Matter, distinctly views pure Forms, conceives the Beauty of Ideas, and investigates the Harmony of Proportions; the Manners themselves are sensibly corrected and improved, the Affections composed and rectified, the Fancy calmed and settled, and the Understanding raised and excited to more divine Contemplation. All which I might defend by Authority, and confirm by the Suffrages of the greatest Philosophers."
"An accomplished mathematician, i.e. a most wretched orator."
"Now as to what pertains to these Surd numbers (which, as it were by way of reproach and calumny, having no merit of their own are also styled Irrational, Irregular, and Inexplicable) they are by many denied to be numbers properly speaking, and are wont to be banished from arithmetic to another Science, (which yet is no science) viz. algebra."
"It may be observed of mathematicians that they only meddle with such things as are certain, passing by those that are doubtful and unknown. They profess not to know all things, neither do they affect to speak of all things. What they know to be true, and can make good by invincible arguments, that they publish and insert among their theorems. Of other things they are silent and pass no judgment at all, choosing rather to acknowledge their ignorance, than affirm anything rashly. They affirm nothing among their arguments or assertions which is not most manifestly known and examined with utmost rigour, rejecting all probable conjectures and little witticisms. They submit nothing to authority, indulge no affection, detest subterfuges of words, and declare their sentiments, as in a court of justice, without passion, without apology; knowing that their reasons, as Seneca testifies of them, are not brought to persuade, but to compel."
"They [mathematicians] only take those things into consideration, of which they have clear and distinct ideas, designating them by proper, adequate, and invariable names, and premising only a few axioms which are most noted and certain to investigate their affections and draw conclusions from them, and agreeably laying down a very few hypotheses, such as are in the highest degree consonant with reason and not to be denied by anyone in his right mind. In like manner they assign generations or causes easy to be understood and readily admitted by all, they preserve a most accurate order, every proposition immediately following from what is supposed and proved before, and reject all things howsoever specious and probable which can not be inferred and deduced after the same manner.—Barrow, Isaac."
"The Definition in the Elements, according to Clavius, is this: Magnitudes are said to be in the same Reason [ratio], a first to a second, and a third to a fourth, when the Equimultiples of the first and third according to any Multiplication whatsoever are both together either short of, equal to, or exceed the Equimultiples of the second and fourth, if those be taken, which answer one another.... Such is Euclid’s Definition of Proportions; that scare-Crow at which the over modest or slothful Dispositions of Men are generally affrighted: they are modest, who distrust their own Ability, as soon as a Difficulty appears, but they are slothful that will not give some Attention for the learning of Sciences; as if while we are involved in Obscurity we could clear ourselves without Labour. Both of 300 which Sorts of Persons are to be admonished, that the former be not discouraged, nor the latter refuse a little Care and Diligence when a Thing requires some Study."
"I... chose rather to publish... in puris Naturalibus, or as they were produced as first, than be at the Trouble of reducing them into any other Form... I could not bear the Pains of reading over again a great Part of these Things; either from my being tired with them, or not caring to undergo the Pains and Study in new modelling them. But I have done in this as weakly Mothers, who give up their Offspring to the Care of their Friends, either to Nurse and bring up, or abandon to the wide World. One of which is Mr. Isaac Newton, my Collegue, a Man of great Learning and Sagacity, who revised my Copy and noted such Things as wanted Correction, and even gave me some of his own, which you will see here and there interspersed with mine, not without their due Commendations. The other is Mr. John Collins (who may be deservedly called the Mersennas of our Nation, Born to promote this Science, both with his own Labours, and those of others. Who with much Trouble took care of the Edition."
"Among these Ways, or any other whatever, of generating Magnitudes, the Primary and Chief is, that perform'd by local Motion, which all of them must in some Sort suppose, because without Motion, nothing can be generated or produced and therefore this must first be considered. The following Axiom of Aristotle concerning Motion is famous... He that is ignorant of Motion, must necessarily know nothing of Nature... in Nature every Thing created is produc'd by Motion, or certainly not without Motion."
"What Mathematicians Chiefly consider in Motion is the Mode of Lation or Manner of bearing, and the Quantity of the motive Force. ...But because the Quantity of motive Force cannot be known without Time, we must say something concerning its Nature."
"Now pray tell me what Time is? ...Time (to speak abstractedly) is the continuance of any Thing in its own Being. But some Things continue longer in their Beings than others... Time absolutely... is Quantity, as admitting in some Manner the chief Affections of Quantity: Equality, Inequality, and Proportion..."
"But perhaps you may ask, whether Time was not before the World was created? And if Time does not flow in the Extramundane Space, where nothing is: A mere Vacuum? I answer, that since there was Space before the World was created, and that there now is an Extramundane, infinite Space, (where God is present)... Time existed before the World began, and does exist together with the World in the Extramundane Space, because 'tis possible that some Thing might have existed long before the World was made; and there may now be something in the Extramundane Space, capable of such a Continuance: Some Sun might have given Light long before; and at present this, or some other like it, may diffuse Light thro' Imaginary Spaces. Time therefore does not imply an actual Existence, but only the Capacity or Possibility of the Continuance of Existence; just as Space expresses the Capacity of a Magnitude contain'd in it."
"But you may perhaps wonder why I explain Time without Motion, and will say, does not Time imply Motion? I answer no, as to its absolute and intrinsic Nature; any more than it does Rest. The Quantity of Time, in itself, depends not on either of them; for whether Things move on, or stand still; whether we sleep or wake, Time flows perpetually with an equal Tenor."
"As Magnitudes themselves are absolute Quantums Independent on all Kinds of Measure, tho' indeed we cannot tell what their Quantify is, unless we measure them; so Time is likewise a Quantum in itself, tho' in Order to find the Quantity of it, we are obliged to call in Motion to our Assistance as a Measure... and thus Time as measurable signifies Motion; for if all Things were to continue at Rest, it would be impossible to find out by any Method whatsoever how much Time has elaps'd; and the several Ages wou'd roll on imperceptibly and undistinguish'd. Do I say we shou'd not perceive how Time flows? No indeed, nor any Thing else, but remain like Stocks or Stones in a continual Insensibility. We perceive nothing, unless so far as we may be instigated by some Change affecting the Senses, or that our Souls are mov'd and excited by the internal Operation of the Mind. We esteem the Quantities and different Degrees of Things according to the Extension or Intension of Motions striking upon us either interiorly or exteriorly. So that the Quantity of Time so far as we can observe; depends upon the Extension of Motion."
"It cannot be justly inferr'd... We do not perceive the Thing, therefore there is no such Thing, that is a false Illusion, a deceitful Dream, that wou'd cause us to join together two remote Instants of Time. But nevertheless this is very True... That is, for as much Motion as there was, so much Time seems to have been elapsed; nor, when we mention such a Quantity of Time, do we merely mean any Thing else, than the Performance of so much Motion, to the continued successive Extension of which we imagine the Permanency as Things is co-extended."
"As a Line, I say, is looked upon to be the Trace of a Point moving forward, being in some sort divisible by a Point, and may be divided by Motion one Way, viz. as to Length; so Time may be conceiv'd as the Trace of a Moment continually flowing, having some Kind of Divisibility from an Instant, and from a successive Flux, inasmuch as it can be divided some how or other. And like as the Quantity of a Line consists of but one Length following the Motion; so the Quantity of Time pursues but one Succession stretched out as it were in Length, which the Length of the Space moved over shews and determines. We therefore shall always express Time by a right Line; first, indeed, taken or laid down at Pleasure, but whose Parts will exactly answer to the proportionable Parts of Time, as its Points do to the respective Instants of Time, and will aptly serve to represent them. Thus much for Time."
"J. M. Child... has made a searching study of Barrow and has arrived at startling conclusions on the historical question relating to the first invention of the calculus. He places his conclusions in italics in the first sentence as follows Isaac Barrow was the first inventor of the Infinitesimal Calculus... Before entering upon an examination of the evidence brought forth by Child it may be of interest to review a similar claim set up for another man as inventor of the calculus... Fermat was declared to be the first inventor of the calculus by Lagrange, Laplace, and apparently also by P. Paul Tannery, than whom no more distinguished mathematical triumvirate can easily be found. ...Dinostratus and Barrow were clever men, but it seems to us that they did not create what by common agreement of mathematicians has been designated by the term differential and integral calculus. Two processes yielding equivalent results are not necessarily the same. It appears to us that what can be said of Barrow is that he worked out a set of geometric theorems suggesting to us constructions by which we can find lines, areas and volumes whose magnitudes are ordinarily found by the analytical processes of the calculus. But to say that Barrow invented a differential and integral calculus is to do violence to the habit of mathematical thought and expression of over two centuries. The invention rightly belongs to Newton and Leibniz."
"[R]ecent work... removes him from a major role in the development of the calculus or in Newton's early mathematical thinking. ...[T]he new symbolic algebra... was essential to calculus. Barrow accepted neither the art nor the notion, and... avoided the technique wherever possible. The theorems in the Geometrical Lectures that historians juxtapose to form the belong to... different lines of inquiry, one... characterized by its freedom from... "tediousness of calculation" and divorced in Barrow's mind from... s or limits. The central lectures contain a program of research, but... not... the program that led Newton and Leibniz to the calculus."
", "Barrow's Mathematics: between ancients and moderns" Before Newton: the Life and Times of Isaac Barrow (1990) ed., Mordechai Feingold."
"Isaac Barrow was the first inventor of the Infinitesimal Calculus; Newton got the main idea of it from Barrow by personal communication; and Leibniz also was in some measure indebted to Barrow’s work, obtaining confirmation of his own original ideas, and suggestions for their further development, from the copy of Barrow’s book that he purchased in 1673."
"By the "Infinitesimal Calculus," I intend "a complete set of standard forms for both the differential and integral sections of the subject, together with rules for their combination, such as for a product, a quotient, or a power of a function; and also a recognition and demonstration of the fact that differentiation and integration are inverse operations.""
"Barrow was familiar with the paraboliforms, and s and areas connected with them, in from 1655 to 1660 at the very latest; hence he could... differentiate and integrate by his own method any rational positive power of a variable, and thus also a sum of such powers."
"He further developed... [infinitesimal calculus] in the years 1662-3-4, and in the latter year probably had it fairly complete. In this year he communicated to Newton the great secret of his geometrical constructions... and it was probably this that set Newton to... attempt to express everything as a sum of powers of the variable."
"During the next year Newton began to "reflect on his method of fluxions," and actually did produce his Analysis per Æquationes. This, though composed in 1666, was not published until 1711."
"Leibniz bought a copy of Barrow’s work in 1673, and was able "to communicate a candid account of his calculus to Newton" in 1677. In... the face of Leibniz’ persistent denial that he received any assistance whatever from Barrow’s book... bear... in mind Leibniz’ twofold idea of the "calculus":— (i) the freeing of the matter from geometry, (ii) the adoption of a convenient notation. ...[O]n these two points ...he derived not the slightest assistance from Barrow’s work; for the first ...would be dead against Barrow’s practice and instinct, and of the second Barrow had no knowledge whatever. ...[F]or [these points] ...the world has to thank Leibniz; but their inception does not mean the invention of the infinitesimal calculus. This, the epitome of the work of his predecessors, and its completion by his own discoveries until it formed a perfected method of dealing with the problems of tangents and areas for any curve in general, i.e. ...the differentiation and integration of any function whatever (such as were known in Barrow’s time), must be ascribed to Barrow."
"My attention was arrested by a theorem in which Barrow... rectified the cycloid, which... has usually been ascribed to Sir C. Wren. ...What I found induced me to treat a number of the theorems ...I came to the conclusion that Barrow had got the calculus; but I queried even then whether Barrow himself recognized the fact."
"Only on completing my annotation of the last chapter of this volume, Lect. XII, App. III, did I come to the conclusion that is given as the opening sentence of this Preface; for I then found that a batch of theorems.., on careful revision, turned out to be the few missing standard forms, necessary for completing the set for integration; and that one of his problems was a practical rule for finding the area under any curve, such as would not yield to the theoretical rules he had given, under the guise of an "inverse-tangent" problem."
"[T]he conclusion is the effect of a gradual accumulation of evidence... I have given a wholly inadequate account of the work of Barrow’s immediate predecessors; but... to a sufficiency for... showing... the time was... ripe for the work of Barrow, Newton, and Leibniz."
"I have to all intents rewritten Barrow’s book; although throughout I... adhered... to Barrows own words. I have only retained those parts which seemed... essential for the purpose in hand. This was necessary... that room might be found for... critical notes on the theorems.., proofs omitted by Barrow, which when given in Barrow’s style, and afterwards translated into analysis, had an important bearing on the point as to how he found out the more difficult of his constructions; and lastly for deductions therefrom that point steadily, one after the other, to the fact that Barrow was writing a calculus and knew that he was inventing a great thing."
"I have used three distinct kinds of type: the most widely spaced type has been used for Barrow’s own words; only very occasionally have I inserted anything of my own in this, and then it will be found enclosed in heavy square brackets, that the reader will have no chance of confusing my explanations with the text... Barrow makes use of parentheses very frequently, so that the reader must understand that only remarks in heavy square brackets are mine... The small type is used for footnotes only. In the notes I... use the Leibniz notation, because it will... convey my meaning better; but there was really no absolute necessity for this, Barrow’s a and e, or its modern equivalent, h and k, would have done quite as well."
"The beginnings of the Infinitesimal Calculus... arose from determinations of areas and volumes, and the finding of tangents to plane curves. The ancients attacked the problems in a strictly geometrical manner, making use of the "s." ... This was the method by means of which Archimedes proved most of his discoveries. But there seems to have been some distrust of the method, for we find... many... discoveries... proved by a '..."
"Galileo... would appear to have led the way, by the introduction of the theory of composition of motions into mechanics; he also was one of the first to use infinitesimals in geometry, and from... what is equivalent to "virtual velocities" it is... inferred that the idea of time as the independent variable is due to him. Kepler... was the first to introduce... infinity into geometry and to note that the increment of a variable was evanescent for values of the variable in the immediate neighbourhood of a maximum or minimum; in 1613, an abundant vintage drew his attention to the defective methods in use for estimating the cubical contents of vessels, and his essay on the subject (Nova Stereometria Doliorum) entitles him to rank amongst those who made the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus possible."
"In 1635 Cavalieri published a theory of "indivisibles," in which he considered a line as made up of an infinite number of points, a superficies as composed of a succession of lines, and a solid as a succession of superficies, thus laying the foundation for the "aggregations" of Barrow. Roberval seems... first, or... an independent, inventor of the method; but he lost credit... because he did not publish it, preferring to keep the method... for his own use... a usual thing... of that time, due perhaps to... professional jealousy. The method was severely criticized... especially by Guldin, but Pascal... showed that the method of indivisibles was as rigorous as... exhaustions... they were practically identical. ...[T]he progress... is much indebted to this defence by Pascal. Since this method is... analogous to... integration, Cavalieri and Roberval have... claim... as... inventors of... one branch of the calculus; if it were not for the fact that they only applied it to special cases, and seem... unable to generalize... owing to cumbrous algebraical notation, or to have failed to perceive the inner meaning... concealed under a geometrical form. Pascal... applied the method with great success, but also to special cases only; such as his work on the ."
"The next step was... more analytical... [B]y the method of indivisibles, Wallis... reduced... many areas and volumes to... the series (0^m + 1^m + 2^m +... n^m) / (n + 1)n^m, i.e. the ratio of the mean of all the terms to the last term, for integral values of n; and later he extended his method, by a theory of , to fractional values of n. Thus the idea of the Integral Calculus was in a fairly advanced stage in the days immediately antecedent to Barrow."
"What Cavalieri and Roberval did for the integral calculus, Descartes... accomplished for the differential branch by his... application of algebra to geometry. Cartesian coordinates made possible the extension of... drawing... tangents to... curves of any kind. ...[H]e habitually used the index notation ...this had a very great deal to do with ...Newton's discovery of the general binomial expansion and of many other infinite series. Descartes failed, however, to make... great progress... in... drawing of s, owing to... an unfortunate choice of a definition for a tangent to a curve in general. Euclid's circle-tangent definition being more or less hopeless in the general case, Descartes had the choice of three:—"
"Fermat... adopted Kepler's notion of the increment of the variable becoming evanescent near a maximum or minimum value, and upon it based his method of drawing tangents. Fermat's method of finding the maximum or minimum... involved the differentiation of any explicit algebraic function, in the form that appears in any beginner's text book of today (though Fermat does not seem to have the "function" idea); that is, the maximum or minimum values of f(x) are the roots of f'(x) = 0, where f'(x) is the limiting value of [f(x+h) - f(x)]/h; only Fermat uses the letter e or E instead of h."
"Here then we have all the essentials for the calculus; but only for explicit integral algebraic functions, needing the binomial expansion of Newton, or a general method of rationalization which did not impose too great algebraic difficulties, for their further development; also, on the authority of Poisson, Fermat is placed out of court, in that he also only applied his method to certain special cases. Following the lead of Roberval, Newton subsequently used the third definition of a tangent, and the idea of time as the independent variable, although this was only to insure that one at least of his working variables should increase uniformly. This uniform increase of the independent variable would seem to have been usual for mathematicians of the period and to have persisted for some time; for later we find with Leibniz and the Bernoullis that d(dy/dx) = (d2y/dx2)dx. Barrow also used time as the independent variable in order that, like Newton, he might insure that one of his variables, a moving point or line or superficies, should proceed uniformly; ...Barrow... chose his own definition of a tangent, the second of those given above; and to this choice is due in great measure his advance over his predecessors. For his areas and volumes he followed the idea of Cavalieri and Roberval."
"Thus we see that in the time of Barrow, Newton, and Leibniz the ground had been surveyed, and in many directions levelled; all the material was at hand, and it only wanted the master mind to "finish the job." This was possible in two directions, by geometry or by analysis; each method wanted a master mind of a totally different type, and the men were forthcoming. For geometry, Barrow; for analysis, Newton, and Leibniz with his inspiration in the matter of the application of the simple and convenient notation of his calculus of s to s and to geometry. With all due honour to these three mathematical giants, however, I venture to assert that their discoveries would have been well-nigh impossible... if they had lived a hundred years earlier; with the possible exception of Barrow, who, being a geometer, was more dependent on the ancients and less on the moderns of his time than were the two analysts, they would have been sadly hampered but for the preliminary work of Descartes and the others I have mentioned (and some I have not—such as Oughtred), but especially Descartes."
"That a formal science like algebra, the creation of our abstract thought, should thus, in a sense, dictate the laws of its own being, is very remarkable. It has required the experience of centuries for us to realize the full force of this appeal."
"Strictly speaking, the theory of numbers has nothing to do with negative, or fractional, or irrational quantities, as such. No theorem which cannot be expressed without reference to these notions is purely arithmetical: and no proof of an arithmetical theorem, can be considered finally satisfactory if it intrinsically depends upon extraneous analytical theories."
"The invention of the symbol ≡ by Gauss affords a striking example of the advantage which may be derived from an appropriate notation, and marks an epoch in the development of the science of arithmetic."
"It may fairly be said that the germs of the modern algebra of linear substitutions and concomitants are to be found in the fifth section of the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae; and inversely, every advance in the algebraic theory of forms is an acquisition to the arithmetical theory."
"A great deal of misunderstanding is avoided if it be remembered that the terms infinity, infinite, zero, infinitesimal must be interpreted in connexion with their context, and admit a variety of meanings according to the way in which they are defined."
"As Gauss first pointed out, the problem of cyclotomy, or division of the circle into a number of equal parts, depends in a very remarkable way upon arithmetical considerations. We have here the earliest and simplest example of those relations of the theory of numbers to transcendental analysis, and even to pure geometry, which so often unexpectedly present themselves, and which, at first sight, are so mysterious."
"Mathews had a knowledge of Latin and Greek as minute and accurate as that generally possessed by professional classical scholars. He wrote pure and elegant Latin."
"Mathews was an accomplished classical scholar; and besides Latin and Greek he was proficient in Hebrew, Sanskrit and Arabic. He also possessed great musical knowledge and skill. His versatility led a colleague at Bangor to assert that Mathews could equally well fill four or more chairs at the college."
"One does not like to differ from a man without knowing the reasons which influenced him."
"A salvage service which hardly exceeds ordinary towage is naturally remunerated on a very different scale from an heroic rescue from imminent destruction."
"As no Court has ever attempted to define fraud, so no Court has ever attempted to define undue influence, which includes one of its many varieties."
"I take it that reasonable human conduct is part of the ordinary course of things."
"I do not wish to shake titles, and I shall do precisely what our predecessors have always done—leave the case where it is. It is a rock ahead that everybody knows."
"I think that common law is better than equity."
"A very ingenious attempt to drive a coach-and-four through this Act of Parliament."
"We, as lawyers, as men of business, as men of experience, know perfectly well what evils necessarily result from handing over a great family estate to a mortgagee in possession, whose only chance of getting his money is to sacrifice the interests of everybody to money-getting."
"There is nothing illegal in keeping up a tomb; on the contrary, it is a very laudable thing to do."
"The welfare of a child is not to be measured by money only, nor by physical comfort only."
"I do not see why, if we can tell what a man intends, and can give effect to his intention as expressed, we should be driven out of it by other cases or decisions in other cases. I always protest against anything of the sort."
"A proceeding may be perfectly legal and may yet be opposed to sound commercial principles."
"When we find a series of decisions running down from the time of Sir William Grant, we should be very cautious, and very slow to overrule them."
"I confess that when I am sought to be driven to a conclusion which appears to me unreasonable and unjust, I at once suspect the validity of the premises, even if I can detect no flaw in the reasoning from them."
"Trade unions up to a certain point have been recognised now as organs for good. They are the only means by which workmen can protect themselves from the tyranny of those who employ them. But the moment that trade unions become tyrants in their turn, they are engines for evil: they have no right to prevent people from working on any terms that they choose."
"It appears to me wrong in principle for any Court or Judge to impose fetters on the exercise by themselves or others of powers which are left by law to their discretion in each case as it arises."
"I do not mean to say that the Court could not give leave to amend, but I cannot conceive that the Court would listen to an application for leave to amend after the trial. That could not have been intended: it would be opposed to all principles of justice."
"I know of no duty of the Court which it is more important to observe, and no powers of the Court which it is more important to enforce, than its power of keeping public bodies within their rights. The moment public bodies exceed their rights] they do so to the injury and oppression of private individuals, and those persons are entitled to be protected from injury arising from such operations of public bodies."
"Unless Parliament has conferred upon the Court that power in language which is unmistakable, the Court is not to assume that Parliament intended to do that which so seriously affect foreigners who are not resident here, and might give offence to foreign Governments. Unless Parliament has used such plain terms as show that they really intended us to do that, we ought not to do it."
"It is a Reasonable presumption that a man who sleeps upon his rights has not got much right."
"Most businesses require liberal dealing."
"The Court must never forget, and will never forget, first of all, the rights of family life which are sacred."
"An English Court cannot judge by the light of nature."
"Courts do not exist for the sake of discipline, but for the sake of deciding matters in controversy."
"A collection of records may be the result of professional knowledge, research, and skill, just as a collection of curiosities is the result of the skill and knowledge of the antiquarian or virtuoso."
"Stereotyped rules laid down by judicial writers cannot be accepted as infallible canons of interpretation in these days, when commercial transactions have altered in character, and increased in complexity; and there can be no hard-and-fast rule by which to construe the multiform commercial agreements with which in modern times we have to deal."
"The object of the discipline enforced by the Court in case of contempt of court is not to vindicate the dignity of the Court or the person of the Judge, but to prevent undue interference with the administration of justice."
"The law has armed the High Court of Justice with the power, and imposed on it the duty of preventing brevi manu and by summary proceedings any attempt to interfere with the administration of justice. It is on that ground, and not on any exaggerated notion of the dignity of individuals that insults to Judges are not allowed."
"Like my brothers who sit with me, I am extremely reluctant to decide anything except what is necessary for the special case, because I believe by long experience that judgments come with far more weight and gravity when they come upon points which the Judges are bound to decide, and I believe that obiter dicta, like the proverbial chickens of destiny, come home to roost sooner or later in a very uncomfortable way to the Judges who have uttered them, and are a great source of embarrassment in future cases. Therefore I abstain from putting a construction on more than it is necessary to do for this particular case."
"At common law, the Attorney-General is, when he is exercising his functions as an officer of the Crown, in no case that I know of a Court in the ordinary sense."
"The only case in which I can conceive a person having breakfast over night is that he is not likely to have it next morning."
"Judges, like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion."
"People must not be wiser than the experience of mankind."
"The duty to prosecute, or not to prosecute, is a social and not a legal duty, which depends on the circumstances of each case. It cannot be said that it is a moral duty to prosecute in all cases. The matter depends on considerations, which vary according to each case. But the person who has to act is bound morally to be influenced by no indirect motive. He is morally bound to bring a fair and honest mind to the consideration and to exercise his decision from a sense of duty to himself and others."
"An honest blunder in the use of the language is not dishonest... What is honest is not dishonest."
". . . The fallacious use of the principle that you cannot look into a man's mind. It is said you cannot do that: therefore what follows? It is said that you are to have fixed rules to tell you that he must have meant something, one way or the other, when certain exterior phenomena arise. The answer is that there is no such thing as an absolute criterion which gives you certain index to a man's mind. There is nothing outside his mind which is an absolute indication of what is going on inside. So far from saying that you cannot look into a man's mind, you must look into it, if you are going to find fraud against him: and unless you think you see what must have been in his mind, you cannot find him guilty of fraud."
"The director is really a watch-dog, and the watch-dog has no right without the knowledge of his master to take a sop from a possible wolf."
"If no appeal were possible, I have no great hesitation in saying that this would not be a desirable country to live in. . . . It is quite true that there is enough difficulty in appealing as it is; but if there is to be no appeal at all possible the system would be intolerable."
"We must take the thing in the grip of our hands."
"The rain, it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella: But chiefly on the just, because The unjust steals the just’s umbrella."
"When I hear of an ‘equity’ in a case like this, I am reminded of a blind man in a dark room—looking for a black hat—which isn’t there."
"Ninety per cent of all the mathematics we know has been discovered (or invented), in the last hundred years... the advances made in each of some dozen directions are converging into one single discipline uniting algebra, topology and analysis."
"During this century mathematics has been transformed..."
"The professional mathematician can scarcely avoid specialization and needs to transcend his private interests and take a wide synoptic view of the whole landscape of contemporary mathematics. His scientific colleagues are continually seeking enlightenment on the relevance of mathematical abstractions. The undergraduate needs a guidebook to the topography of the immense and expanding world of mathematics. There seems to be only one way to satisfy these varied interests... a concise historical account of the main currents... Only by a study of the development of mathematics can its contemporary significance be understood."
"The brilliant summaries by Bourbaki (1969) and Weyl (1951)... set a high standard of exposition, but... there is room for a history of mathematical ideas which will demand less mathematical expertise and offer a more detailed account of the motivation of research."
"This book... is primarily and essentially an account of the discovery or invention of mathematical concepts, and the historical material is... divided and classified, neither chronologically nor biographically, but philosophically."
"From Pythagoras to Boethius, when pure mathematics consisted of arithmetic and geometry while applied mathematics consisted of music and astronomy, mathematics could be characterized as the deductive study of 'such abstractions as quantities and their consequences, namely figures and so forth' (Acquinas ca. 1260). But since the emergence of abstract algebra it has become increasingly difficult to formulate a definition to cover the whole of the rich, complex and expanding domain of mathematics."
"The subject matter of mathematics has increased so rapidly and extensively that there is some element of truth in maintaining that mathematics is not so much a subject as a way of studying any subject, not so much a science as a way of life. We turn, then, from the attempt to characterize the material object of mathematics to an attempt to determine its formal object, i.e., its methodology."
"The concept of 'number' in its most elementary sense as the signless integer appears to be an immediate abstraction from quantitative reality subjected to processes of counting and measurement. Vulgar fractions arise from division of a quantity into equal parts. But in what sense is zero a number? Are there negative numbers? Are there numbers corresponding to incommensurable ratios? Each question requires for its solution a fresh exercise of that kind of creative imagination which we call mathematical abstraction."
"At each stage of in the advance of mathematical thought the outstanding characteristics are novelty and originality. That is why mathematics is such a delight to study, such a challenge to practise and such a puzzle to define."
"There is the definition [of mathematics], boldly proposed by Pierce that 'Mathematics is the science which draws necessary conclusions', and more explicitly formulated by Russel that 'Pure Mathematics is the class of all propositions of the form "p implies q"... it was... the purpose of Russell's treatise to provide a complete, exact and convincing justification of this definition... instead, he and Whitehead collaborated to give a magisterial account of the Principia Mathematica."
"The function of logic in mathematics is critical rather than constructive."
"Logical analysis is indispensable for an examination of the strength of a mathematical structure, but it is useless for its conception and design. The great advances in mathematics have not been made by logic but by creative imagination."
"Pure mathematics is much more than an armoury of tools and techniques for the applied mathematician. On the other hand, the pure mathematician has ever been grateful to applied mathematics for stimulus and inspiration. From the vibrations of the violin string they have drawn enchanting harmonies of Fourier Series, and to study the triode valve they have invented a whole theory of non-linear oscillations."
"The 'language theory' is inadequate as a description of the nature of mathematics."
"Mathematical activity has taken the forms of a science, a philosophy and an art."
"As a science mathematics has been adapted to the description of natural phenomena, and the great practitioners in this field... have never concerned themselves with the logical foundations of mathematics, but have boldly taken a pragmatic view of mathematics as an intellectual machine which works successfully. Description has been verified by further observation, still more strikingly be prediction, and sometimes, more ominously, by control of natural forces. Happily, unresolved problems... still remain as challenges."
"Mathematics has also been developed as a philosophy, in the sense in which this term is defined by A.N. Whitehead as 'the endeavor to frame a coherent, logical and necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our experience can be interpreted'. Substitute 'mathematics' for 'experience' and we have an admirable description of its speculative and philosophic development. ...Philosophy of mathematics... has its paradoxes and antimonies, and also diverse schools of thought..."
"For the great majority of mathematicians, mathematics is... a whole world of invention and discovery—an art. The construction of a new theorem, the intuition of some new principle, or the creation of a new branch of mathematics is the triumph of the creative imagination of the mathematician, which can be compared to that of a poet, the painter and the sculptor."
"Most mathematicians are by nature Platonists who cheerfully, unreflectingly and habitually employ such loaded phrases as 'We assume there exists...' or 'Therefore there exists...' an entity with such and such characteristics. Challenged by the realist they would probably reply that since the truths of mathematics are absolute, universal and eternal it is hard indeed to deny them an existence independent of human intelligence."
"What would geometry be without Gauss, mathematical logic without Boole, algebra without Hamilton, analysis without Cauchy?"
"The history of mathematics throws little light on the psychology of mathematical invention."
"On a novel plan, I have combined the historical progress with the scientific developement of the subject; and endeavoured to lay down and inculcate the principles of the Calculus, whilst I traced its gradual and successive improvements. ...there is little doubt, the student's curiosity and attention will be more excited and sustained, when he finds history blended with science, and the demonstration of formulae accompanied with the object and the causes of their invention, than by a mere analytical exposition of the principles of the subject. He will have an opportunity of observing how a calculus, from simple beginnings, by easy steps, and seemingly the slightest improvements, is advanced to perfection; his curiosity too, may be stimulated to an examination of the works of the contemporaries of Newton; works once read and celebrated: yet the writings of the Bernoullis are not antiquated from loss of beauty, nor deserve neglect..."
"The Authors who write near the beginnings of science, are, in general the most instructive: they take the reader more along with them, shew him the real difficulties, and, which is a main point, teach him the subject, the way by which they themselves learned it."
"There is another point... and that is the method of demonstration by geometrical figures. In the first solution of Isoperimetrical problems, the Bernoullis use diagrams and their properties. Euler, in his early essays, does the same; then, as he improves the calculus he gets rid of constructions. In his Treatise [footnote: Methodus inveniendi, &c.], he introduces geometrical figures, but almost entirely, for the purpose of illustration: and finally, in the tenth volume of the Novi Comm. Petrop. as Lagrange had done in the Miscellanea Taurinensea, he expounds the calculus, in its most refined state, entirely without the aid of diagrams and their properties. A similar history will belong to every other method of calculation, that has been advanced to any degree of perfection."
"Although I am not aware of having omitted any thing that is requisite to the full explanation of the subject, yet I cannot flatter myself that it will be thoroughly understood from this Work alone. For, in general it may be laid down as true, that no doctrine, of novelty and intricacy, can be completely taught by a single Treatise. It seems to be indispensably necessary for the student, that the subject should be put under several points of view: that if not apprehended under one, it may be under another."
"To history we shall adhere no farther, than is sufficient to preserve an unbroken series of methods gradually becoming more exact and extensive; the series beginning with the first rude, though perfectly just, method of James Bernoulli, and ending with Lagrange's exquisite and refined Calculus of Variations."
"The methods of the Bernoullis and of Taylor, were held, at the time of their invention, to be most complete and exact. Several imperfections, however, belong to them. They do not apply to problems involving three or more properties; nor do they extend to cases involving differentials of a higher order than the first: for instance, they will not solve the problem, in which a curve is required, that with its radius of curvature and evolute shall contain the least area. Secondly, they do not extend to cases, in which the analytical expression contains, besides x, y, and their differentials, integral expressions; for instance, they will not solve the second case proposed in James Bernoulli's Programma if the Isoperimetrical condition be excluded; for then the arc s, an integral, since it =\int \!dx \sqrt(1+\frac{dy^2}{dx^2}), is not given. Thirdly, they do not extend to cases, in which the differential function, expressing the maximum should depend on a quantity, not given except under the form of a differential equation, and that not integrable; for instance, they will not solve the case of the curve of the quickest descent, in a resisting medium, the descending body being solicited by any forces whatever."
"Taylor's method... has no recommendation from its neatness and perspicuity, but is justly censured by John Bernoulli for its obscure conciseness."
"In 1810 a work was published in Cambridge under the following title—A Treatise on Isoperimetrical Problems and the Calculus of Variations. By Robert Woodhouse... This work details the history of the Calculus of Variations from its origin until the close of the eighteenth century, and has obtained a high reputation for accuracy and clearness. During the present century some of the most eminent mathematicians have endeavored to enlarge the boundaries of the subject, and it seemed probable that a survey of what had been accomplished would not be destitute of interest and value. Accordingly the present work has been undertaken... As the early history of the Calculus of Variations had been already so ably written, it was unnecessary to go over it again; but it seemed convenient to commence with a short account of the two works of Lagrange and a work of Lacroix..."
"I am not surprised that men are not thankful to me; but I wonder that they are not grateful to God for the good which he has made me the instrument of conveying to my fellow-creatures."
"A sincere acquiescence in the dispensations of Providence will check discomposure of mind beyond any thing. It will produce a calm in the midst of a storm."
"The highest powers in our nature are our sense of moral excellence, the principle of reason and reflection, benevolence to our creatures and our love of the Divine Being."
"It should not forgotten, however, that it was his "Observations on the natural history of the Cuckoo" (1788) that had won him membership in the Royal Society 10 years before. His work on bird migration, although done at about the same time, was not published until after his death in 1823. Both of these papers were landmarks in ornithological history, for no one prior to Jenner had approached these problems, of brood parasitism and migration, in anywhere near so comprehensive a fashion or with such searching questions."
"Like the ski resort full of girls hunting for husbands and husbands hunting for girls the situation is not as symmetrical as it might seem."
"Behold a universe so immense that I am lost in it. I no longer know where I am. I am just nothing at all. Our world is terrifying in its insignificance."
"The calculus is to mathematics no more than what experiment is to physics, and all the truths produced solely by the calculus can be treated as truths of experiment. The sciences must proceed to first causes, above all mathematics where one cannot assume, as in physics, principles that are unknown to us. For there is in mathematics, so to speak, only what we have placed there... If, however, mathematics always has some essential obscurity that one cannot dissipate, it will lie, uniquely, I think, in the direction of the infinite; it is in that direction that mathematics touches on physics, on the innermost nature of bodies about which we know little."
"The geometrical spirit is not so tied to geometry that it cannot be detached from it and transported to other branches of knowledge. A work of morals or politics or criticism, perhaps even of eloquence, would be better (other things being equal) if it were done in the style of a geometer. The order, clarity, precision and exactitude which have been apparent in good books for some time might well have their source in this geometric spirit. ...Sometimes one great man gives the tone to a whole century; Descartes], to whom one might legitimately be accorded the glory of having established a new art of reasoning, was an excellent geometer."
"At the time the book of Marquis de l'Hôpital had appeared, and almost all mathematicians began to turn to the new geometry of the infinite [that is, the new infinitesimal calculus], until then little known. The surprising universality of the methods, the elegant brevity of the proofs, the neatness and speed of the most difficult solutions, a singular and unexpected novelty, all attracted the mind and there was in the mathematical world a well marked revolution [une révolution bien marquée."
"Men are not willing to suffer the decision of things to be too easie, and therefore they mingle their own prejudices with truths, and so create greater perplexities than are Naturally found therein; and those scruples, which our selves frame, give us the most pain to untangle."
"It is more reasonable to remove error from truth, than to venerate error because it is mix'd with truth."
"We can never add more truth to what is true already, nor make that true which is false."
"But why then did the Ancient Priestesses always answer in Verse? ...To this Plutarch replies... That even the Ancient Priestesses did now and then speak in Prose. And besides this, in Old times all People were born Poets. ...[T]hey had no sooner drank a little freely, but they made Verses; they had no sooner cast their eyes on a Handsom Woman, but they were all Poesy, and their very common discourse fell naturally into Feet and Rhime: So that their Feasts and their Courtships were the most delectable things in the World. But now this Poetick Genius has deserted Mankind: and tho' our passions be as ardent... yet Love at present creeps in humble prose. ...Plutarch gives us another reason ...that the Ancients wrote always in Verse, whether they treated of Religion, Morality, Natural Philosophy or Astrology. Orpheus and Hesiod, whom every body acknowledges for Poets, were Philosophers also: and Parmenides, Xenophanes, Empedocles, Eudoxus, and Thales... [the] Philosophers, were Poets too. It is very strange indeed that Poetry should be elder Brother to Prose... but it is very probable... precepts... were shap'd into measured lines, that they might be the more easily remembred: and therefore all their Laws and their rules of Morality were in Verse. By this we may see that Poetry had a much more serious beginning than is usually imagin'd, and that the Muses have of late days mightily deviated from their original Gravity."
"Now, the Priests who belonged to the Temples, scorn'd to use the same Customs in common with these Gypsies; for they thought themselves to be a nobler and graver sort of Fortune-tellers; which makes a mighty difference, I'll assure you, in this great affair."
"[A]bout the time of Alexander the Great, a little before Pyrrhus's days, there appear'd in Greece certain great Sects of Philosophers, such as the Peripateticks and Epicureans, who made a mock of Oracles. The Epicureans especially made sport with the paltry Poetry that came from Delphos. For the Priests hammered out their Verses as well as they could, and they often times committed faults against the common Rules of Prosodia. Now those Fleering Philosophers were mightily concerned that Apollo, the very God of Poetry, should come so far behind Homer, who was but a meer mortal, and was beholding to the same Apollo for his inspirations."
"It was to little purpose to excuse the matter, by saying, that the badness of the Verses was a kind of Testimony that they were made by a God, who nobly scorn'd to be tyed up to rules and to be confined to the Beauty of a Style. For this made no impression upon the Philosophers; who, to turn this answer into ridicule, compared it to the Story of a Painter, who being hired to draw the Picture of a Horse tumbling on his Back upon the ground, drew one running full speed: and when he was told, that this was not such a Picture as was bespoke, he turned it upside down, and then ask'd if the Horse did not tumble upon his back now. Thus these Philosophers jeered such Persons, who by a way of arguing that would serve both ways, could equally prove that the Verses were made by a God, whether they were good or bad."
"So that at length the Priests of Delphos being quite baffled with the railleries of those learned Wits, renounced all Verses, at least as to the speaking them from the Tripos; for there were still some Poets maintain'd in the Temple, who at leisure turned into Verse, what the Divine fury had inspired the Pythian Priestess withal in Prose. It was very pretty, that Men could not be contented to take the Oracle just as it came piping hot from the Mouth of their God. But perhaps, when they had come a great way for it, they thought it would look silly to carry home an Oracle in Prose."
"[T]he intellectual changes of Louis XIV's reign touch the history of science—especially as they represent the extension of the scientific method into other realms of thought. ...we meet the beginnings of the criticism of the French monarchy... acute criticism from... the French intelligentsia who could claim to understand the... state better than the king himself. ...The funeral orations of Fontenelle call attention to an aspect of this movement... [i.e.,] the initial effect of the new scientific movement on political thought. ...The first result ...as Fontenelle makes clear, was the insistence that politics requires the inductive method, the collection of information, the accumulation of concrete data and statistics. ...He describes ...how Vauban... travelled over France, accumulating data, seeing the condition[s]... for himself, studying commerce and the possibilities of commerce... gaining a knowledge of local conditions. Vauban, says Fontenelle, did more than anybody else to call mathematics out of the skies... [he] put statistics to the service of modern political economy and first applied the rational and experimental method in matters of finance. ...Fontenelle tells us that ...Sir , the author of Political Arithmetic, showed how much of the knowledge requisite for government reduces itself to mathematical calculation."
"Fontenelle provides an example of the transfer of the scientific spirit, and the application of methodical doubt, in... the History of Oracles. In a sense he is one of the predursors of the comparative method in the history of religion—the collection of myths of all lands to throw light on the development of human reason. ...he recommends the study of primitive tribes in our own day ...He treats myths as... a natural product, subject to scientific analysis—not the fruits of conscious imposture but the characteristic of a certain stage in human development. The human mind he regards as... the same in all times and ages, but subject to local influences... Here is a self-conscious attempt to show how the scientific method could receive extended application and could be transferred from the examination of purely material phenomena even into... human studies."
"His wit, his Learning, his Knowledge of Mankind, his exquisite Taste in all that is Polite, the Fire of his Imagination, the uncommon Felicity of his Eloquence, and the ready Turn of his Expression, are Reasons which the Publick will think very natural to direct me in this Address to Your Lordship."
"A mere nothing, a tiny fibre, something that could never be found by the most delicate anatomy, would have made of Erasmus and Fontenelle two idiots, and Fontenelle himself speaks of this very fact in one of his best dialogues."
"As proposals for estimating the social scarcity prices of natural resources remain contentious, economic accountants ignore them and governments remain wary of doing anything about them."
"In the quantitative models that appear in leading economics journals and textbooks, nature is taken to be a fixed, indestructible factor of production. The problem with the assumption is that it is wrong: nature consists of degradable resources."
"I assure you that I shall never cease to exert myself to the utmost in the cause of reform, and that I will never decline any office which may increase my power to effect it. I am nearly certain of being nominated to the office of Moderator in the year 1818-1819, and as I am an examiner in virtue of my office, for the next year I shall pursue a course even more decided than hitherto, since I shall feel that men have been prepared for the change, and will then be enabled to have acquired a better system by the publication of improved elementary books. I have considerable influence as a lecturer, and I will not neglect it. It is by silent perseverance only, that we can hope to reduce the many-headed monster of prejudice and make the University answer her character as the loving mother of good learning and science."
"It is now more than twenty years since I somewhat rashly undertook to write the Life of Dr. Young. For many years, however, after making this engagement, I found myself so much occupied by the duties of a very laborious college office, that I had no leisure to commence the work; and when the possession of leisure would have enabled me to have done so, my health became so seriously deranged that I felt myself unequal to any continued and severe literary labour. The undertaking was consequently abandoned, and it was proposed to transfer it to other hands; but it was not found easy to secure the services of a person who possessed sufficient scientific knowledge to enable him to write the life of an author whose works were so various in their character and not unfrequently so difficult to understand and analyse, as those of Dr. Young."
"I Gladly avail myself of the opportunity of inscribing to you, for a second time, a work of mine on Algebra, as a sincere tribute of my respect, affection and gratitude. I trust that I shall not be considered as derogating from the higher duties which, (in common with you), I owe to my station in the Church, if I continue to devote some portion of the leisure at my command, to the completion of an extensive Treatise, embracing the more important departments of Analysis, the execution of which I have long contemplated, and which, in its first volume I now offer to the public, under the auspices of one of my best and dearest friends."
"This work... was designed in the first instance to be a second edition of a Treatise on Algebra, published in 1830, and which has been long out of print; but I have found it necessary, in carrying out the principles developed in that work, to present the subject in so novel a form, that I could not with propriety consider it in any other light than as an entirely new treatise."
"I have separated arithmetical from symbolical algebra, and I have devoted the present volume entirely to the exposition of the principles of the former science and their application to the theory of numbers and of arithmetical processes: the second volume, which is now in the press, will embrace the principles of symbolical algebra: it will be followed, if other and higher duties should allow me the leisure to complete them, by other works, embracing all the more important departments of analysis, with the view of presenting their principles in such a form, as may make them component parts of one uniform and connected system."
"In arithmetical algebra we consider symbols as representing numbers, and the operations to which they are submitted as included in the same definitions as in common arithmetic; the signs + and - denote the operations of addition and subtraction in their ordinary meaning only, and those operations are considered as impossible in all cases where the symbols subjected to them possess values which would render them so in case they were replaced by digital numbers; thus in expressions such as a + b we must suppose a and b to be quantities of the same kind; in others, like a - b, we must suppose a greater than b and therefore homogeneous with it; in products and quotients, like ab and \frac{a}{b} we must suppose the multiplier and divisor to be abstract numbers; all results whatsoever, including negative quantities, which are not strictly deducible as legitimate conclusions from the definitions of the several operations must be rejected as impossible, or as foreign to the science."
"Symbolical algebra adopts the rules of arithmetical algebra, but removes altogether their restrictions: thus symbolical subtraction differs from the same operation in arithmetical algebra in being possible for all relations of value of the symbols or expressions employed... all the results of arithmetical algebra which are deduced by the application of its rules, and which are general in form, though particular in value, are results likewise of symbolical algebra, where they are general in value as well as in form: thus the product of a^{m} and a^{n}, which is a^{m+n} when m and n are whole numbers, and therefore general in form though particular in value, will be their product likewise when m and n are general in value as well as in form: the series for (a+b)^{n}, determined by the principles of arithmetical algebra, when n is any whole number, if it be exhibited in a general form, without reference to a final term, may be shewn, upon the same principle, to the equivalent series for (a+b)^n, when n is general both in form and value."
"I have endeavoured... to present the principles and applications of Symbolical, in immediate sequence to those of Arithmetical, Algebra, and at the same time to preserve that strict logical order and simplicity of form and statement which is essential to an elementary work. This is a task of no ordinary difficulty, more particularly when the great generality of the language of Symbolical Algebra and the wide range of its applications are considered, and this difficulty has not been a little increased, in the present instance, by the wide departure of my own views of its principles from those which have been commonly entertained."
"This principle, which is thus made the foundation of the operations and results of Symbolical Algebra, has been called "The principle of the permanence of equivalent forms", and may be stated as follows: "Whatever algebraical forms are equivalent, when the symbols are general in form but specific in value, will be equivalent likewise when the symbols are general in value as well as in form.""
"MORAL REALITY AND MORAL FACTS -- https://www.whyarewehere.tv/people/george-ellis/"
"WHAT IS FINE-TUNING? -- https://www.whyarewehere.tv/people/george-ellis/"
"TOP-DOWN CAUSATION -- https://www.whyarewehere.tv/people/george-ellis/"
"THE ETERNAL TRUTHS OF MATHEMATICS -- https://www.whyarewehere.tv/people/george-ellis/"
""On the limits of quantum theory: Contextuality and the quantum–classical cut", Annals of Physics 327 (2012) 1890–1932"
"Above all he believes that these mathematically based speculations solve thousand year old philosophical conundrums, without seriously engaging those philosophical issues. The belief that all of reality can be fully comprehended in terms of physics and the equations of physics is a fantasy."
"You cannot do physics or cosmology without an assumed philosophical basis. You can choose not to think about that basis: it will still be there as an unexamined foundation of what you do."
"Attempts to explain values in terms of neuroscience or evolutionary theory in fact have nothing whatever to say about what is good or bad. That is a philosophical or religious question (scientists trying to explain ethics from these kinds of approaches always surreptitiously introduce some unexamined concept of what is a good life by the back door)."
"Actually philosophical speculations have led to a great deal of good science. Einstein’s musings on Mach’s principle played a key role in developing general relativity. Einstein’s debate with Bohr and the EPR paper have led to a great of deal of good physics testing the foundations of quantum physics. My own examination of the Copernican principle in cosmology has led to exploration of some great observational tests of spatial homogeneity that have turned an untested philosophical assumption into a testable – and indeed tested - scientific hypothesis. That’ s good science."
"The Dutch Company, actuated solely by the spirit of gain, and viewing their [Javan] subjects, with less regard or consideration than a West India planter formerly viewed a gang upon his estate, because the latter had paid the purchase money of human property, which the other had not, employed all the existing machinery of despotism to squeeze from the people their utmost mite of contribution, the last dregs of their labor, and thus aggravated the evils of a capricious and semi-barbarous Government, by working it with all the practised ingenuity of politicians, and all the monopolizing selfishness of traders."
"The Crown cannot ever be prejudiced by the misconduct or negligence of any of its officers."
"You need not cite cases that are familiar."
"In a perfectly new case—a case altogether primae impressionis—I think the Judges are bound to hold fast to the principles of the common law—to remember the maxim, "Salus reipublicae suprema lex," and if the condition be really in principle against the public good, to pronounce it in their judgment void."
"You have no right, for the purpose of justifying a libel, to inquire into a man's life and opinions."
"I remember Lord Eldon saying to counsel, " You have told us how far the cases have gone, will you now tell us where they are to stop?" I think it is now time that we should say where the cases are to stop."
"Judges are philologists of the highest order."
"In criminal cases you always begin by proving the corpus delicti, and then connect the prisoner with it."
"The rule is this: that wherever there is a decision of a Court of concurrent jurisdiction, the other Courts will adopt that as the basis of their decision, provided it can be appealed from. If it cannot be appealed from, then they will exercise their own judgment."
"International law, like the moral law, is part of the law of England, but only to the extent that the Courts will not help those that break it."
"Arguments from the American statute are not of much force, because Englishmen are not bound to know it."
"Circumstantial evidence only raises a probability."
"Every man has some peculiar train of thought which he falls back upon when he is alone. This, to a great degree, moulds the man."
"THE prejudice which is commonly entertained against metaphysical speculations seems to arise chiefly from two causes: First, from an apprehension that the subjects about which they are employed, are placed beyond the reach of the human faculties; and, secondly, from a belief that these subjects have no relation to the business of life."
"Among the various subjects of the inquiry, however, which, inconsequence of the vague use of language, are comprehended under the general title of metaphysics, there are some, which are essentially distinguished from the rest, both by the degree of evidence which accompanies their principles, and by the relation which they bear to the useful sciences and arts: and it has unfortunately happened, that these have shared in that general discredit, into which the other branches of metaphysics have fallen. To this circumstance is probably to be ascribed, the little progress which has hitherto been made in the PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND; a science, so interesting in its nature, and so important in its applications, that it could scarcely have failed, in these inquisitive and enlightened times, to have excited a very general attention, if it had not accidentally been classed, in the public opinion with the vain and unprofitable disquisitions of the schoolmen."
"As all our knowledge of the material world is derived from the information of our senses, natural philosophers have, in modern times, wisely abandoned to metaphysicians, all speculations concerning the nature of that substance of which it is composed; concerning the possibility or impossibility of its being created; concerning the efficient causes of the changes which take place in it; and even concerning the reality of its existence, independent of that of percipient beings: and have confined themselves to the humbler province of observing the phenomena it exhibits, and of ascertaining their general laws."
"What we commonly call sensibility, depends, in a great measure, on the power of imagination. Point out two men, any object of compassion; --a man, for example, reduced by misfortune from easy circumstances to indigence. The one feels merely in proportion to what he perceives by his senses. The other follows, in imagination, the unfortunate man to his dwelling, and partakes with him and his family in their domestic distresses.... As he proceeds in the painting, his sensibility increases, and he weeps, not for what he sees, but for what he imagines. It will be said, that it was his sensibility which originally aroused his imagination; and the observation is undoubtedly true; but it is equally evident, on the other hand, that the warmth of his imagination increases and prolongs his sensibility."
"Nothing, in truth, has such a tendency to weaken not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading without reflection."
"With the respectability of the senses and feelings established, textbooks written by the Scottish philosophers began to include such topics as perception, memory, imagination, association, attention, language, and thinking. Such a textbook was written by Dugald Stewart (1753–1828), titled Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792), and was used at Yale University in 1824."
"Physiologists have usually represented that our species holds a middle rank, in the masticatory and digestive apparatus, between the flesh-eating and the herbivorous animals; — a statement which seems rather to have been deduced from what we have learned by experience on this subject, than to result fairly from an actual comparison of man and animals. … The teeth of man have not the slightest resemblance to those of the carnivorous animals, except that their enamel is confined to the external surface. He possesses, indeed, teeth called canine, but they do not exceed the level of the others, and are obviously unsuited to the purposes which the corresponding teeth execute in carnivorous animals. … Thus we find that, whether we consider the teeth and jaws, or the immediate instruments of digestion, the human structure closely resembles that of the simiæ; all of which, in their natural state, are completely herbivorous."
"It is not, I think, going too far to say, that every fact connected with the human organization goes to prove, that man was originally formed a frugivorous animal … This opinion is principally derived from the formation of his teeth and digestive organs, as well as from the character of his skin, and the general structure of his limbs. It is not my intention now to go further into the discussion of this subject, than to observe, that if analogy be allowed to have any weight in the argument, it is wholly on that side of the question which I have just taken. Those animals, whose teeth and digestive apparatus most nearly resemble our own, namely, the apes and monkeys, are undoubtedly frugivorous."
"The year which has passed has not, indeed, been marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear."
"Mathematicians are extremely lucky, they are paid for doing what they would by nature have to do anyway. One should not have a non-teaching fellowship too long, there comes a time when one must make a contribution to society. Great mathematics is achieved by solving difficult problems not by fabricating elaborate theories in search of a problem."
"Conway made a fortuitous match for a Ph.D. adviser in Harold Davenport, considered the leader of the internationally respected British school of number theory. And while politically and socially speaking Conway was a radical, Davenport was a conservative. “All changes are for the worse,” he'd say. And looking back upon his career and his charges, he said: “I had 2 very good students. Baker”—Alan Baker, later a Fields Medalist—“to whom I would give a problem and he would return with a very good solution. And Conway, to whom I would give a problem and he would return with a very good solution to another problem.”"
"The last thirty years [1925 to 1955] have seen an enormous improvement in the position of geometry as a branch of mathematics, or, rather, have seen the re-integration of geometry into the main fabric of mathematics. Indeed, one can go further and say that with the restoration of geometry to its rightful place in the mathematical scheme the process of fragmentation which had been doing so much harm to mathematics has been reversed, and we may look forward to the day in which there are no longer analysts, algebraists, geometers and so on, but simply mathematicians. Mathematical research has two aspects, motivation and technique, and when the latter gains control the result is apt to be excessive specialisation. The revolution of geometrical thought, and the reinstatement of geometry as one of the major mathematical disciplines, have helped to bring about a unification of mathematics which we may justly regard as one of the major contributions of the last quarter century to the subject."
"Hodge's work was in the great tradition of Riemann and Poincaré but his more immediate inspiration came from the work of Lefschetz, for whom he had a tremendous admiration."
"I yield to authority. I think the practice of the Court of Chancery for more than one hundred years, and the authority of Judges of very great eminence, establish such a course of practice and such a chain of authority, that I do not think I am at liberty to assume that either the Court or those very learned Judges were in error as to their powers and jurisdiction."
"I should regard it as certainly a novelty in our jurisprudence if the regular order of a learned Judge could be affected, or qualified, or altered in the slightest degree by what some subordinate officer of the Court thought proper to say in writing about it, even though in so doing he committed this additional irregularity—that to that private correspondence he affixed the seal of the Court."
"We should treat with great respect the opinion of eminent American lawyers on points which arise before us, but the practice, which seems to be increasing, of quoting American decisions as authorities, in the same way as if they were decisions of our own Courts, is wrong. Among other things it involves an inquiry, which often is not an easy one, whether the law of America on the subject in which the point arises is the same as our own."
""Discretion" means, when it is said that something is to be done within the discretion of the authorities that that something is to be done according to the rules of reason and justice, not according to private opinion2; according to law and not humour. It is to be not arbitrary, vague, and fanciful, but legal and regular. And it must be exercised within the limit, to which an honest man, competent to the discharge of his office, ought to confine himself."
"I should regret to place a narrowing construction upon rules intended to remove expense and delay."
"(quote from p. 62)"
"Introduction, p. ix"
"Chapter 2, p. 30"
"Chapter 10, p. 313"
"Chapter 10, p. 338 (remark translated from H. A. Schwarz's Formeln und Lehrsätze zum Gebrauche der elliptischen Funktionen)"
"Chapter 1, p. 1"
"Chapter 10, p. 429"
"Chapter 1, p. 22"
"Chapter 1, p. 27"
"When two surfaces at different temperatures are in presence of one another with a gas between them, there exists a force tending to separate them. The assumption of this force explains a very great number of phenomena, including the motion of the arms of Mr. Crooke's radiometers and the so-called spheroidal state of liquids."
"If Universities do not study useless subjects, who will?"
"... since the Second World War ... the proton magnetometer has revolutionized measurements, satellites have given new impetus to magnetic surveying, discoveries of large mineral deposits have maintained activity in conventional magnetic prospecting, and geomagnetism has continued to play a central role in major scientific developments such as plate tectonics (where the time scale of reversals of the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field still provides the main source of information on the movement of the plates.)"
"Two recent studies of the geomagnetic field in the last 1Myr have found 14 excursions, large changes in direction lasting 5–10kyr each, six of which are established as global phenomena by correlation between different sites. The older picture of the geomagnetic field enjoying long periods of stable polarity may not therefore be correct; instead, the field appears to suffer many dramatic changes in direction and concomitant reduction in intensity for 10–20 per cent of the time. During excursions the field may reverse in the liquid outer core, which has timescales of 500yr or less, but not in the solid inner core, where the field must change by diffusion with a timescale of 3kyr. This timescale is consistent with the remarkably uniform duration of well-dated excursions. The disparity of dynamical timescales between the inner and outer cores, a factor of 10, is consistent with the 10 excursions between full reversals."
"Earthquakes radiate waves with periods of tenths of seconds to several minutes. Rocks behave like elastic solids at these frequencies. Elastic solids allow a variety of wave types and this makes the ground motion after an earthquake or explosion (called an event) quite complex. There are two basic types of elastic wave: one involving compression and rarefaction of the elastic material in the direction of propagation of the wave, and one involving no compression but shear of the elastic material perpendicular to its direction of propagation. These are called P and S waves respectively, for primary and secondary since the P wave travels fastest and arrives first."
"After a large earthquake the earth "rings" like a bell; this motion can be observed on sensitive instruments up to a month after a large event. These oscillations have specific frequencies which are properties of the whole earth and which can be measured very accurately indeed. The lowest frequency oscillation has a period of about one hour. Any combination of seismic waves can be represented as an equivalent combination of normal modes. In practice the mode representation is most useful at low frequency — for seismic waves above about 40 s — since at higher frequencies the number of modes becomes prohibitively large."
"Earthquakes generate elastic waves when one block of material slides against another; the break between the two blocks being called a fault. Explosions generate elastic waves by an impulsive change in volume in the material. Small explosive charges are used in controlled-source seismic experiments in which the waves penetrate only a few kilometres into the earth."
"A space containing electric currents may be regarded as a field where energy is transformed at certain points into the electric and magnetic kinds by means of batteries, dynamos, thermoelectric actions, and so on, while in other parts of the field this energy is again transformed into heat, work done by electromagnetic forces, or any form of energy yielded by currents. Formerly a current was regarded as something travelling along a conductor, attention being chiefly directed to the conductor, and the energy which appeared at any part of the circuit, if considered at all, was supposed to be conveyed thither through the conductor by the current. But the existence of induced currents and of electromagnetic actions at a distance from a primary circuit from which they draw their energy, has led us, under the guidance of Faraday and Maxwell, to look upon the medium surrounding the conductor as playing a very important part in the development of the phenomena. If we believe in the continuity of the motion of energy, that is, if we believe that when it disappears at one point and reappears at another it must have passed through the intervening space, we are forced to conclude that the surrounding medium contains at least a part of the energy, and that it is capable of transferring it from point to point."
"A very simple experiment shows that a black surface is a better radiator, or pours out more energy when hot, than a surface which does not absorb fully, but reflects much of the radiation which falls upon it. If a platinum foil with some black marks on it be heated to redness, the marks, black when cold, are much brighter than the surrounding metal when hot; they are, in fact, pouring out much more visible radiation than the metal."
"When we see the havoc wrought on a sea-wall by a storm, it is easy to believe that ocean waves exert a pressure against the shore on which they beat. But it is not easy to think that the tiny ripples of light also press against every body on which they fall, to think that when a lamp is lighted waves of pressure are sent out from it—pressing against the source from which they start, pressing against every surface which they illuminate. It is a very minute pressure, far too small, even when it is strongest, to be felt by our bodies, and only to be detected by exceeding sensitive apparatus."
"The Earth, then, is very round. If an exact model were made the size of a two-inch billiard ball, we should just be able to see that it was flatter at the poles, and, no doubt, in rolling it would exhibit its want of roundness. The highest mountains would be represented by elevations of \frac {1} {800}th inch, say by the thinnest smear of grease, the deepest oceans by the spreading of a drop into a film but \frac {1} {700}th inch thick."
"The main influence on all of the activity in electromagnetic theory during the later years of the nineteenth century came from Maxwell's famous treatise (Maxwell 1873). Poynting was a member of the group of young physicists led by Heaviside, Fitzgerald, Lodge and Hertz who developed Maxwell's electromagnetic theory in the years following his death in 1879. They transformed his 1873 presentation into the formalism recognizable today as Maxwell's equations. The detailed historical accounts by Hunt (1991) and Warwick (2003) describe Poynting's contributions to electromagnetism, mainly during the 1880s. His name is more familiar to students of electromagnetic theory than those of other important members of the group on account of the widespread use of his eponymous energy-conservation theorem and energy-flow vector."
"Taking, then, this fact as established, it suggests itself as probable that circumcision was by Divine command made obligatory upon the Jews, not solely as a religious ordinance, but also with a view to the protection of health.... One is led to ask, witnessing the frightful ravages of syphilis in the present day, whether it might not be worth while for Christians to adopt the practice."
"It's still unclear whether that takes place (that COVID-19 can spread before people show sings of being infected). But if it does, that might explain why the disease is spreading so quickly."
"The hypothesis that the electron has a magnetic moment was, as is well known, first introduced to account for the duplexity phenomena of atomic spectra. More recently, however, Dirac has succeeded in accounting for these same phenomena by the introduction of a modified wave equation, which conforms both to the principle of relativity and to the general transformation theory. Formally, at least, on the new theory also, the electron has a magnetic moment of εh/mc, but when the electron is in an atom we cannot observe this magnetic moment directly; we can only observe the moment of the whole atom, or, of course, the splitting of the spectral lines, which we may say is “caused” by this moment."
"... in terms of modern solid state physics, what does “transparent” mean? It means that, in the energy spectrum of the electrons in the material, there is a gap of forbidden energies between the occupied states (the valence band) and the empty states (the conduction band); light quanta corresponding to a visible wave-length do not have the energy needed to make electrons jump across it. This gap is quite a sophisticated concept, entirely dependent on quantum mechanics, and introduced for solids in the 1930’s by the pioneering work of Bloch, Peierls and A. H. Wilson. The theory was based on the assumption that the material was crystalline. ... my coworkers and I ... asked the question "how can glass be transparent?"."
"In many materials the electrical behavior changes from metallic to nonmetallic when the pressure, temperature or magnetic field is varied or (as in alloys) when the composition is varied, and the theoretical description of these processes is quite complicated. The interest of the problem lies perhaps mainly in our imperfect understanding of the nature of a metal. In the days before quantum mechanics, when I first attended undergraduate lectures on the electron theory of solids, it was taught that in metals one or more atoms from each electron were free, whereas in nonmetals they were somehow fixed to the atoms or ions or to the chemical bonds. The long mean free paths of electrons in metals extending over hundreds or thousands of atomic spacings were not understood, and neither was the absence of any large contribution from the electrons to the specific heat."
"Any scientist, myself or another, can become so enamoured of his brain child that he resents criticism."
"I have also rendered the phonic molecular vibrations visible, when produced by the longitudinal oscillations of a column of air ..."
"The instruments and processes I am about to describe being all founded on the principles established by Ohm in his theory of the voltaic circuit, and this beautiful and comprehensive theory being not yet generally understood and admitted, even by many persons engaged in original research, I could scarcely hope to make my descriptions and explanations understood without prefacing them with a short account of the principal results which have been deduced from it. It will soon be perceived how the clear ideas of electro-motive forces and resistances, substituted for the vague notions of intensity and quantity which have been so long prevalent, enable us to give satisfactory explanations of most important phenomena, the laws of which have hitherto been involved in obscurity and doubt."
"... Wheatstone was to become a household name for his work on electric telegraphs, and indeed the Prince Consort consulted him as a parent of the telegraph system. Wheatstone had other claims to fame. He held a Chair at King's College London for 41 years and, although he hardly ever gave a lecture, the College subsequently named a laboratory after him. He invented the concertina and he discovered the principle of stereoscopy. He used his encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature to spread scientific ideas. He designed ingenious electro-mechanical devices and pioneered precise electrical measurements."
"Where people worry is when you get to the brain, the germ cells and the sentinel features that help people recognize what is a person, as opposed to a rat or a rabbit. Things like skin texture, facial shape, speech, replacing brain cells with human cells, allowing the development of human germ cells in animals. And particularly where there is any possibility of fertilisation within an animal."
"Changing animals by putting human genes or cells into their structure is one way of making them more resemble the bit of the human condition you're interested in studying."
"“Aldebaran was therefore 40’ before the point of the vernal equinox, according to the Indian astronomy, in the year 3102 before Christ. (…) [Modern astronomy] gives the longitude of that star 13’ from the vernal equinox, at the time of the Calyougham, agreeing, within 53’, with the determination of the Indian astronomy. This agreement is the more remarkable, that the Brahmins, by their own rules for computing the motion of the fixed stars, could not have assigned this place to Aldebaran for the beginning of Calyougham, had they calculated it from a modern observation. For as they make the motion of the fixed stars too great by more than 3” annually, if they had calculated backward from 1491, they would have placed the fixed stars less advanced by 40 or 50, at their ancient epoch, than they have actually done.”"
"The observations on which the astronomy of India is founded, were made more than three thousand years before the Christian era. (…) Two other elements of this astronomy, the equation of the sun’s centre and the obliquity of the ecliptic (…) seem to point to a period still more remote, and to fix the origin of this astronomy 1000 or 1200 years earlier, that is, 4300 years before the Christian era."
"That observations made in India, when all Europe was barbarous or uninhabited, and investigations into the most subtle effects of gravitation made in Europe, near five thousand years afterwards, should thus come in mutual support of one another, is perhaps the most striking example of the progress and vicissitudes of science, which the history of mankind has yet exhibited. (179 0:160)"
"‘These operations are all founded on a very distinct conception of what happens in the case of an eclipse, and on the knowledge of this theorem, that, in a right-angled triangle, the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides. It is curious to find the theorem of PYTHAGORAS in India, where, for aught we know, it may have been discovered, and from whence that philosopher may have derived some of the solid, as well as the visionary speculations, with which he delighted to instruct or amuse his disciples.’"
"Now, it is worth remarking, that this property of the table of sines, which has been so long known in the East, was not observed by the mathematicians of Europe till about two hundred years ago […] If we were not already acquainted withthe high antiquity of the astronomy of Hindostan, nothing could appear more singular than to find a system of trigonometry, so perfect in its principles, in a book so ancient as the Surya Siddhanta […]’ ‘In the progress of science […] the invention of trigonometry is to be considered as a step of great importance, and of considerable difficulty. It is an application of arithmetic to geometry […] (and) a little reflection will convince us, that he, who first formed the idea of exhibiting, in arithmetical tables, the ratios of the sides and angles of all possible triangles, and contrived the means of constructing such tables, must have been a man of profound thought, and of extensive knowledge. However, ancient, therefore, any book may be, in which we meet with a system of trigonometry, we may be assured, that it was not written in the infancy of science.’ ‘As we cannot, therefore, suppose the art of trigonometrical calculation to have been introduced till after a long preparation of other acquisitions, both geometrical and astronomical, we must reckon far back from the date of the Surya Siddhanta, before we come to the origin of the mathematical sciences in India […] Even among the Greeks […] an interval, of at least 1000 years, elapsed from the first observations in astronomy, to the invention of trigonometry; and we have surely no reason to suppose, that the progress of knowledge has been more rapid in other countries.’ ‘A thousand years therefore must be added to the age of the Surya Siddhanta, which we suppose here to be 2000 before Christ, in order that we may reach the origin of the sciences in Hindostan, and this brings us very nearly to the celebrated era of the Calyougham […]’"
"‘We must, therefore, enquire, whether this epoch is real or fictitious, that is, whether it has been determined by actual observation, or has been calculated from the modern epochs of the other tables. For it may naturally be supposed, that the Brahmins, having made observations in later times, or having borrowed from the astronomical knowledge of other nations […] have only calculated what they pretend that their ancestors observed. [...] In doing this, however, the Brahmins must have furnished us with means, almost infallible, of detecting their imposture. It is only for astronomy, in its most perfect state, to go back to the distance of forty-six centuries, and to ascertain the situation of the heavenly bodies at so remote a period. The modern astronomy of Europe […] could not venture on so difficult a task, were it not assisted by the theory of gravitation, and had not the integral calculus […] been able, at last, to determine the disturbances in our system, which arise from the action of the planets on one another. [...] Unless the corrections for these disturbances be taken into account, any system of astronomical tables, however accurate at the time of its formation, and however diligently copied from the heavens, will be found less exact for every instant, either before or after that time, and will continually diverge more and more from the truth, both for future and past ages. [...] It may (therefore) be established as a maxim, that, if there be given a system of astronomical tables, founded on observations of an unknown date (epoch), that date may be found, by taking the time when the tables represent the celestial motions most exactly. Here, therefore, we have a criterion, by which we are to judge of the pretensions of the Indian astronomy to so great antiquity.’ ‘...observations made in India, when all Europe was barbarous or uninhabited, and investigations into the most subtle effects of gravitation made in Europe, near five thousand years afterwards […] thus come in mutual support of one another.’"
"It was well observed by Playfair, some 90 years ago, that "a theory that explains everything explains nothing.""
"Playfair's judicious use of astronomy was countered by John Bentley with a scriptural argument which will not convince many people today. In 1825, Bentley objected: “By his [= Playfair’s] attempt to uphold the antiquity of Hindu books against absolute facts, he thereby supports all those horrid abuses and impositions found in them, under the pretended sanction of antiquity. Nay, his aim goes still deeper, for by the same means he endeavours to overturn the Mosaic account, and sap the very foundation of our religion: for if we are to believe in the antiquity of Hindu books, as he would wish us, then the Mosaic account is all a fable, or a fiction.”"
"One of the earliest estimates of the date of the Vedas was at once among the most scientific. In 1790, the Scottish mathematician John Playfair demonstrated that the starting-date of the astronomical observations recorded in the ephemeris tables still in use among Hindu astrologers (of which three copies had reached Europe between 1687 and 1787) had to be 4300 BC. His proposal was dismissed as absurd or as blasphemous by some, but it has so far not been refuted by any scientist... So, it turns out that the data given by the Brahmins corresponded not with the results deduced from their formulae, but with the actual positions, and this, according to Playfair, for nine different astronomical parameters. This is a bit much to explain away as coincidence or sheer luck."
"‘For a civilization so widely distributed as that of the Indus no uniform ending need be postulated.’"
"The anthropologists who have recently described the skeletons from Harappa remark that there, as at Lothal, the population would appear, on the available evidence, to have remained more or less stable to the present day."
"Archaeology is not a science, it’s a vendetta."
"The Aryan invasion of the Land of Seven Rivers, the Punjab and its envi- rons, constantly assumes the form of an onslaught upon the walled cities of the aborigines. For these cities the term used in the ¸igveda is pur, mean- ing a “rampart,” “fort” or “stronghold.” . . . Indra, the Aryan War god, is puraydara, “fort-destroyer.” He shatters “ninety forts” for his Aryan protégé Divodasa. [. . .] Where are – or were – these citadels? It has in the past been supposed that they were mythical, or were “merely places of refuge against attack, ramparts of hardened earth with palisades and a ditch.” The recent exca- vation of Harappa may be thought to have changed the picture. Here we have a highly evolved civilization of essentially non-Aryan type, now known to have employed massive fortifications, and known also to have dominated the river-system of north-western India at a time not distant from the likely period of the earlier Aryan invasions of that region. What destroyed this firmly settled civilization? Climatic, economic, political deterioration may have weakened it, but its ultimate extinction is more likely to have been completed by deliberate and large-scale destruction. It may be no mere chance that at a late period of Mohenjo-daro men, women and children appear to have been massacred there. On circumstantial evidence, Indra stands accused."
"Wheeler (1968, 3rd edition) proposed the following: It is, simply, this. Sometime during the second millennium B.C. – the middle of the millennium has been suggested, without serious support – Aryan-speaking peoples invaded the Land of Seven Rivers, the Punjab and its neighboring region. It has long been accepted that the tradition of this invasion is reflected in the older hymns of the Rigveda, the composi- tion of which is attributed to the second half of the millennium. In the Rigveda, the invasion constantly assumes the form of an onslaught upon walled cities of the aborigines. For these cities, the term used is pur, meaning a “rampart,” “fort,” “stronghold.” One is called “broad” ( prithvi) and “wide” (urvi). Sometimes strongholds are referred to metaphorically as “of metal” (dyasi). “Autumnal” (saradi) forts are also named: “this may refer to the forts in that season being occupied against the Aryan attacks or against inundations caused by overflowing rivers.” Forts “with a hundred walls” (satabhuji) are mentioned. The citadel may be of stone (afmanmayi): alternatively, the use of mud-bricks is perhaps alluded to by the epithet ama (raw, unbaked); Indra, the Aryan war-god is purandara, “fort-destroyer.” He shatters “ninety forts” for his Aryan protégé, Divodasa. The same forts are doubtless referred to where in other hymns he demolishes variously ninety-nine and a hundred “ancient castles” of the aboriginal leader Sambara. In brief, he renders “forts as age consumes garment.” If we reject the identification of the fortified citadels of the Harappans with those which the Aryans destroyed, we have to assume that, in the short interval which can, at the most, have intervened between the end of the Indus civilization and the first Aryan invasions, an unidentified but formidable civilization arose in the same region and presented an extensive fortified front to the invaders. It seems better, as the evidence stands, to accept the identification and to suppose that the Harappans of the Indus valley in their decadence, in or about the seventeenth century BC, fell before the advancing Aryans in such fashion as the Vedic hymns proclaim: Aryans who nevertheless, like other rude conquerors of a later date, were not too proud to learn a little from the conquered . . . (1968: 131–2)"
"The city, so far from being an unarmed sanctuary of peace, was dominated by the towers and battlements of a lofty man‐made acropolis of defiantly feudal aspect. A few minutes’ observation had radically changed the social character of the Indus civilization and put it at last into an acceptable secular focus. (Wheeler, 1955: 192)"
"One terracotta, from a late level of Mohenjo-daro, seems to represent a horse, reminding us that the jaw-bone of a horse is also recorded from the site, and that the horse was known at a considerably earlier period in northern Baluchistan”"
"One terracotta, from a late level at Mohenjo-daro , seems to represent a horse, reminding us that the jaw-bone of a horse is also recorded from the same site, and that the horse was known at a considerably earlier period in northern Baluchistan." He" notes as well, after referring to the bone of a camel recovered from a low level at Mohenjo-daro: "There is no evidence of any kind for the use of the ass or mule. On the other hand the bones of a horse occur at a high level at Mohenjo-daro , and from the earlier (doubtless pre-Harappan) layer at Rana Ghundai in northern Baluchistan both horse and ass are recorded. It is likely enough that camel, horse and ass were in fact all a familiar feature of the Indus caravans."
"One terracotta, from a late level of Mohenjo-daro, seems to represent a horse, reminding us that a jawbone of a horse is also recorded from the same site, and that the horse was known at a considerably earlier period in Baluchistan."
"Since India’s and Pakistan’s independence, South Asian archaeology was significantly influenced by Sir Mortimer Wheeler (born 1890, died 1976) and, to a lesser degree, by the late Stuart Piggott. Wheeler secured a reputation as one of the most prominent archaeologists in the English speaking world.... If Jones’ had his “philologer paragraph,” Wheeler had his “Aryan paragraphs” which directed archaeological, historical, linguistic, and biological interpretations within South Asian studies for over a half century."
"Given the charge of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944, when he was a brigadier in the British army fighting in North Africa, he revived the ASI and institutionalized a more rigorous stratigraphic method designed to record a site’s evolution period after period. Irascible but magnanimous, theatrical but hard-working, Wheeler energetically put his stamp on Indian archaeology. But having received his archaeological training in the context of the Roman Empire, he transferred its terminology wholesale to the Harappan cities, which thus became peppered with ‘citadels’, ‘granaries’, ‘colleges’, ‘defence walls’, etc., when no one, in reality, had a clue to the precise purpose of the massive structures that had emerged from the thick layers of accumulated mud."
"One important legacy of Wheeler's influence is an a priori acceptance by scholars of the use of migration and stimulus diffusion to describe all major South Asian discontinuities - beginning with the invention of agriculture and ending with the arrival of the British. Alternative explanations of cultural change are not considered. Wheeler's interpretations promoted an encapsulation of South Asian culture history into a series of chronologically and culturally distinct units focused on northern areas. It the became difficult to perceive or reconstruct a cultural account incorporating an integrated sub-continent. Recent archaeological data suggests fundamental interpretive changes are now warranted."
"Wheeler used all his talents and literary skill to Prove that the Indus Valley Civilization was the outcome of the Mesopotamian experiment in city-life; at one place he even goes to the extent of suggesting that the mastercraftsmen came from a foreign country to Mohenjodaro to build the first houses ! In other words, he looked at this civilization not as a ‘primary’ civilization, like that of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, developing on its own soil and produced by its own genius, but as a secondary civilization built by the foreigners,"
"It is commonly said that it was the Mahomedans whom the British displaced as rulers in India. This is true only in a restricted sense. It would be nearer the truth to say that it was the Mahrattas in the main, whom we displaced."
"Now, India presents the greatest of all fields for missionary exertion, greater even than China."
"I shall conclude by reminding you that, as patriotic people, you may be confident that the missions in India are doing a work which strengthens the imperial foundations of British power, and raises our national repute in the eyes of the many millions of people committed to our charge. You may be also confident that the results are fully commensurate with the expenditure."
"I cannot give you an exact idea of the vicious orgies which occur constantly in the Hindu temples. There is a considerable amount of immorality, which is practically the outcome of the religion ;though, on the other hand, there are many domestic virtues practised by the people, showing how much of goodness would be produced, if the religion were purer."
"But for a long time to come the prime movers in these operations must continue to be European. And we hope that a great Christian, and if we may use the term, ecclesiastical army will be raised, the rank and file consisting of natives, while the captains and generals are highly qualified Europeans."
"India is a country which of all others we are bound to en- lighten with eternal truth…. But what is most important to you friends of missions, is this — that there is a large population of aborigines, a people who are outside caste…. If they are attached, as they rapidly may be, to Christianity, they will form a nucleus round which British power and influence may gather. Remember, too, that Hinduism, although it is dying, yet has force … and such tribes, if not converted to Christianity, may be perverted to Hinduism…. You may be confident that the missions in India are doing a work which strengthens the imperial foundations of British power…. I say that, of all the departments I have ever administered, I never saw one more efficient than the missionary department."
"Thus India is like a mighty bastion which is being battered by heavy artillery. We have given blow after blow, and thud after thud, and the effect is not at first very remarkable; but at last with a crash the mighty structure will come toppling down, and it is our hope that some day the heathen religions of India will in like manner succumb.”"
"The missionaries who accompanied the colonial rulers decided to use this idea to further their own proselytizing activities by branding the tribals as followers of “aboriginal” religions distinct from the “Hinduism” allegedly brought in by the theoretically postulated Aryan invaders. In 1866, Sir Richard Temple edited a book “Papers Related to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces”, based primarily on the writings of, and of those inspired by, the missionary Reverend Stephen Hislop (1817-1863), which set the trend in “scholarly” writings on the subject. This rapidly became a matter of colonial policy."
"The reigning Shah whom the victory at Plassey invested with the sovereignty of these Provinces still, it is true, retains his attachment to us, and probably, while he has no other support, will continue to do so; but Mussulmans are so little influenced by gratitude that, should he ever think it his interest to break with us, the obligations he owes us would prove no restraint. ... Moreover, he is advanced in years, and his son is so cruel and worthless a young fellow, and so apparently an enemy to the English, that it will be almost unsafe trusting him with the succession. So small a body as 2000 Europeans will secure us from any apprehensions from either the one or the other; and in case of their daring to be troublesome, enable the Company to take the sovereignty upon themselves. There will be the less difficulty in bringing about such an event, as the natives themselves have no attachment whatever to particular princes; and as under the present Government they have no security for their lives or properties, they would rejoice in so happy an exchange as that of a mild for a despotic government."
"I flatter myself I have made it pretty clear to you that there will be little or no difficulty in obtaining the absolute possession of these rich kingdoms; and that with the Moghul's own consent, on condition of paying him less than a fifth of the revenues thereof. Now I leave you to judge whether an income yearly of upwards of two millions sterling, with the possession of three provinces abounding in the most valuable productions of nature and of art, be an object deserving the public attention; and whether it be worth the nation's while to take the proper measures to secure such an acquisition; an acquisition which, under the management of so able and disinterested a Minister, would prove a source of immense wealth to the kingdom, and might in time be appropriated in part as a fund towards diminishing the heavy load of debt under which we at present labour. Add to these advantages the influence we shall thereby acquire over the several European nations engaged in the commerce here, which these could no longer carry on but through our indulgence, and under such limitations as we should think fit to prescribe. It is well worthy consideration that this project may be brought about without draining the mother country, as has been too much the case with our possessions in America."
"A very few days are elapsed since our arrival; and yet, if we consider what has already come to our knowledge, we cannot hesitate a moment upon the necessity of assuming the power that is in us of conducting, as a Select Committee, the affairs both civil and military of this settlement. What do we hear of, what do we see, but anarchy, confusion, and, what is worse, an almost general corruption."
"Am I not rather deserving of praise for the moderation which marked my proceedings? Consider the situation in which the victory at Plassey had placed me. A great prince was dependent on my pleasure; an opulent city lay at my mercy, its richest bankers bid against each other for my smiles; I walked through vaults which were thrown open to me alone, piled on either hand with gold and jewels! Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation!"
"As to the fictitious treaty, Lord Clive informed your Committee, That ... Omichund had insisted upon 5 per cent, on all the Nabob's treasures...and threatened, if he did not comply with that demand, he would immediately acquaint Serajah Dowla with what was going on, and Mr. Watts should be put to death:—That when he received this advice, he thought art and policy warrantable in defeating the purposes of such a villain; and that his Lordship himself formed the plan of the fictitious treaty, to which the Committee consented; it was lent to Admiral Watson, who objected to the signing of it; but to the best of his remembrance gave the gentleman who carried it (Mr. Lushington) leave to sign his name upon it:—That his Lordship never made any secret of it; he thinks it warrantable in such a case, and would do it again a hundred times."
"I will not patiently stand by and see a great Empire acquired by great abilities, perseverance and resolution, lost by ignorance and indolence."
"That the Americans will be sooner or later master of all the Spanish possessions and make Cape Horn the boundary of their empire, is beyond a doubt."
"Leave me my honour, take away my fortune."
"Flower of the Empire, Defender of the Country, the Brave, firm in War."
"Lord Clive has thus come out of the fiery Trial much brighter than he went into it. His gains are now recorded; and not only, not condemned, but actually approved by Parliament. His reputation too for ability stands higher than ever."
"The origin of all plunders, the source of all robbery."
"The King, a good judge of a fighter, agreed with Pitt in his estimate of Clive. When asked to allow a young lord to go and learn the art of war in Germany, he growled out, “Pshaw! What can he learn there? If he wants to learn the art of war, let him go to Clive.”"
"I owne I am amazed that private interest could make so many forget what they owe to their country, and come to a resolution that seems to approve of Lord Clive's rapine. No one thinks his services greater than I do, but that can never be a reason to commend him in what certainly opened the door to the fortunes we see daily made in that country."
"Violent and bad, thou art Jehovah's servant still, And e'en to thee a dream may be an angel of his will."
"Clive, like most men who are born with strong passions and tried by strong temptations, committed great faults. But every person who takes a fair and enlightened view of his whole career must admit that our island, so fertile in heroes and statesmen, has scarcely ever produced a man more truly great either in arms or in council."
"The fort was more than a mile in circumference; the walls in many places ruinous, the towers inconvenient and decayed, and everything unfavourable to defence. Yet Clive found the means of making an effectual resistance. When the enemy attempted to storm at two breaches, one of fifty and one of ninety feet, he repulsed them with but eighty Europeans and a hundred and fifty sepoys fit for duty; so effectually did he avail himself of his resources, and to such a pitch of fortitude had he exalted the spirit of those under his command."
"Sabit Jang [‘steady in war’]."
"You are a very great Bahadur being always victorious over your enemies...you are a well-known invincible...you are a complete prudent."
"We have lost our glory, honour, and reputation everywhere but in India. ... Clive—that man not born for a desk—that heaven-born general! He it is true had never learned the arts of war or that skill in doing nothing, which only forty years of service can bring! Yet was he not afraid to attack a numerous army with a handful of men with a magnanimity, a resolution, a determination and an execution that would charm a King of Prussia and with a presence of mind that astonished the Indies."
"He was bold and seemingly frank, rather than apologising; and as secure of having gained sufficient support, or above danger, from his credit or the timidity of his judges, or impotence of his adversaries, he dealt his censures liberally, nay, seemingly without discrimination; and though he appeared to have gained wealth enough to indemnify him, he assumed great merit from having acquired no more, attributing to moderation what probably had been the effect of his prudence. His allusions and applications were happy, and when he was vulgar he was rarely trivial. Scorn of his enemies and even of his judges escaped, yet did but make him more formidable; and while the Ministers and the Parliament sunk before him, he shone eminently as a real great man, who had done great things, and who had the merit of not having committed more (perhaps not worse) villanies, when it appeared that he had known how to be more guilty, even with impunity."
"What I like about Clive Is that he is no longer alive. There is a great deal to be said For being dead."
"[T]he LIBERTY we are blessed with. There is no country where this is enjoyed in such extent and perfection. The greatest part of the rest of mankind are slaves. ... While other nations groan under slavery, we rejoyce in the possession of liberty and independency. Our rights and properties are, in general, secured to us beyond the possibility of violation. ... But our religious liberty is the crown of all our national advantages. There are other nations who enjoy civil liberty as well as we, tho' perhaps not so completely. But with respect to religious liberty we are almost singular and unparalleled."
"What is now passing in France is an object of my anxious attention. I am by no means properly informed about the nature and circumstances of the struggle; but as far as it is a struggle for a free constitution of government and the recovery of their rights by the people I heartily wish it success whatever may be the consequence to this country, for I have learnt to consider myself more as a citizen of the world than of any particular country, and to such a person every advance that the cause of public liberty makes must be agreeable."
"A Discourse on the Love of Our Country, delivered on Nov. 4, 1789, at the Meeting-House in the Old Jewry, to the Society for Commemorating the Revolution in Britain (London, 1790)."
"What has the love of their country hitherto been among mankind? What has it been but a love of domination; a desire of conquest, and a thirst for grandeur and glory, by extending territory, and enslaving surrounding countries? What has it been but a blind and narrow principle, producing in every country a contempt of other countries, and forming men into combinations and factions against their common rights and liberties? ... What was the love of their country among the Jews, but a wretched partiality to themselves, and a proud contempt of all other nations? What was the love of their country among the old Romans? We have heard much of it; but I cannot hesitate in saying that, however great it appeared in some of its exertions, it was in general no better than a principle holding together a band of robbers in their attempts to crush all liberty but their own."
"Our Lord and his Apostles ... recommended that UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE which is an unspeakably nobler principle than any partial affections. They have laid such stress on loving all men, even our enemies, and made an ardent and extensive charity so essential a part of virtue, that the religion they have preached may, by way of distinction from all other religions, be called the Religion of Benevolence. Nothing can be more friendly to the general rights of mankind; and were it duly regarded and practised, every man would consider every other man as his brother, and all the animosity that now takes place among contending nations would be abolished."
"The noblest principle in our nature is the regard to general justice, and that good-will which embraces all the world. ... Though our immediate attention must be employed in promoting our own interest and that of our nearest connexions; yet we must remember, that a narrower interest ought always to give way to a more extensive interest. In pursuing particularly the interest of our country, we ought to carry our views beyond it. We should love it ardently, but not exclusively. We ought to seek its good, by all the means that our different circumstances and abilities will allow; but at the same time we ought to consider ourselves as citizens of the world, and take care to maintain a just regard to the rights of other countries."
"The chief blessings of human nature are the three following:—TRUTH—VIRTUE—and LIBERTY.—These are, therefore, the blessings in the possession of which the interest of our country lies, and to the attainment of which our love of it ought to direct our endeavours. By the diffusion of KNOWLEDGE it must be distinguished from a country of Barbarians: by the practice of religious VIRTUE, it must be distinguished from a country of gamblers, Atheists, and libertines: and by the possession of LIBERTY, it must be distinguished from a country of slaves."
"Ignorance is the parent of bigotry, intolerance, persecution and slavery. Inform and instruct mankind; and these evils will be excluded."
"Had I been to address the King on a late occasion, I should have been inclined to do it in a style very different from that of most of the addressers, and to use some such language as the following:—“I rejoice, Sir, in your recovery. I thank God for his goodness to you. I honour you not only as my King, but as almost the only lawful King in the world, because the only one who owes his crown to the choice of his people. ... May you be led to such a just sense of the nature of your situation, and endowed with such wisdom, as shall render your restoration to the government of these kingdoms a blessing to it, and engage you to consider yourself as more properly the Servant than the Sovereign of your people.”"
"Let us, in particular, take care not to forget the principles of the Revolution. ... I will only take notice of the three following: First; The right to liberty of conscience in religious matters. Secondly; The right to resist power when abused. And, Thirdly; The right to chuse our own governors; to cashier them for misconduct; and to frame a government for ourselves."
"The most important instance of the imperfect state in which the Revolution left our constitution, is the INEQUALITY OF OUR REPRESENTATION. I think, indeed, this defect in our constitution so gross and so palpable, as to make it excellent chiefly in form and theory. You should remember that a representation in the legislature of a kingdom is the basis of constitutional liberty in it, and of all legitimate government; and that without it a government is nothing but an usurpation."
"What an eventful period is this! I am thankful that I have lived to it; and I could almost say, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I have lived to see a diffusion of knowledge, which has undermined superstition and error—I have lived to see the rights of men better understood than ever; and nations panting for liberty, which seemed to have lost the idea of it.—I have lived to see THIRTY MILLIONS of people, indignant and resolute, spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with an irresistible voice; their king led in triumph, and an arbitrary monarch surrendering himself to his subjects.—After sharing in the benefits of one Revolution, I have been spared to be a witness to two other Revolutions, both glorious.—And now, methinks, I see the ardor for liberty catching and spreading; a general amendment beginning in human affairs; the dominion of kings changed for the dominion of laws, and the dominion of priests giving way to the dominion of reason and conscience."
"Tremble all ye oppressors of the world! Take warning all ye supporters of slavish governments, and slavish hierarchies! Call no more (absurdly and wickedly) REFORMATION, innovation. You cannot now hold the world in darkness. Struggle no longer against increasing light and liberality. Restore to mankind their rights; and consent to the correction of abuses, before they and you are destroyed together."
"Dr. Price considers this inadequacy of representation as our fundamental grievance... To this he subjoins a note in these words:—"A representation chosen chiefly by the Treasury, and a few thousands of the dregs of the people, who are generally paid for their votes." You will smile here at the consistency of those democratists who, when they are not on their guard, treat the humbler part of the community with the greatest contempt, whilst, at the same time, they pretend to make them the depositories of all power."
"Indeed the systems of Dr. Price and Mr. Burke (as he states his own in 1790) differ little from each other, when fairly contrasted. Dr. Price says, a king may be deposed for misconduct; Mr. Burke says, No! every misconduct will not justify resistance, but there must be a grave and over-ruling necessity accompanying it."
"We persist in regarding ourselves as a great power, capable of everything and only temporarily handicapped by economic difficulties. We are not a great power and never will be again. We are a great nation, but if we continue to behave like a great power we shall soon cease to be a great nation."
"The secret of science is to ask the right question, and it is the choice of problem more than anything else that marks the man of genius in the scientific world."
"It is certain, That the Law of Nature has put no difference nor subordination among Men, except it be that of Children to Parents, or of Wives to their Husbands; so that with Relation to the Law of Nature, all Men are born free; and this Liberty must still be supposed entire, unless so far as it is limited by Contracts, Provisions, or Laws. For a Man can either bind himself to be a Servant, or sell himself to be a Slave, by which he becomes in the power of another, only so far as it was provided by the Contract: since all that Liberty which was not expresly given away, remains still entire: so that the Plea for Liberty always proves it self, unless it appears that: it is given up or limited by any special Agreement."
"[I]n the management of this Civil Society, great distinction is to be made, between the Power of making Laws for the regulating the Conduct of it, and the Power of executing those Laws: The Supream Authority must still be supposed to be lodged with those who have the Legislative Power reserved to them, but not with those who have only the Executive; which is plainly a Trust, when it is separated from the Legislative Power."
"The measures of Power, and by consequence of Obedience, must be taken from the express Laws of any State or Body of Men, from the Oaths that they swear, or from immemorial Prescription, and a long Possession, which both give a Title, and in a long Tract of Time make a bad one be came good, face Prescription, when it passes the Memory of Man, and is not disputed by any other Pretender, gives by the common Sense of all Men a just and good Title: so upon the whole matter, the degrees of all Civil Authority are to be taken either from express Laws, immemorial Customs, or from particular Oaths, which the Subjects swear to their Princes: this being still to be laid down for a Principle, that in all the Disputes between Power and Liberty, Power must always be proved, but Liberty proves it self; the one being founded only upon a Positive Law, and the other upon the Law of Nature."
"[T]he chief Design of our whole Law, and of all the several Rules of our Constitution, is to secure and maintain our Liberty."
"The chief glory of Princes, and the chief of their Titles...is, That they are God's Deputies and Vicegerents here on earth; that they represent him, and by consequence, that they ought to resemble him. The outward respect paid them, carries a proportion to that Character of Divinity which is on them, and that supposes an imitation of the Divine Perfections in them."
"[T]he queen spoke to myself [in 1711]... I asked leave to speak my mind plainly; which she granted: I said, any treaty by which Spain and the West Indies were left to king Philip, must in a little while deliver up all Europe into the hands of France; and, if any such peace should be made, she was betrayed, and we were all ruined; in less than three years' time she would be murdered, and the fires would be again raised in Smithfield: I pursued this long, till I saw she grew uneasy; so I withdrew."
"Damn him, he has told a great deal of truth, but where the devil did he learn it?"
"Nor could any be more qualified for writing the History of his own Times, for he was Curious and Inquisitive, and had a large Acquaintance, and the Opportunity of conversing with all sorts of Persons, of all Ranks, from the Throne downwards. He never heard of any Person of Note, whether at home or abroad, whom he did not take some Opportunity of visiting; and if they were not of themselves ready to declare what they knew, he endeavoured to draw them into it by his curious Questions, as I have been informed by those who knew his ways; so that without Question, there were few who could know more, or so much of the Transactions of these Times he writes of."
"Bishop Burnet was a man of the most extensive knowledge I ever met with; had read and seen a great deal, with a prodigious memory, and a very indifferent judgment: he was extremely partial, and readily took every thing for granted that he heard to the prejudice of those that he did not like: which made him pass for a man of less truth than he really was. I do not think he designedly published any thing he believed to be false. He had a boisterous vehement manner of expressing himself, which often made him ridiculous, especially in the house of lords, when what he said would not have been thought so, delivered in a lower voice, and a calmer behaviour. His vast knowledge occasioned his frequent rambling from the point he was speaking to, which ran him into discourses of so universal a nature, that there was no end to be expected but from a failure of his strength and spirits, of both which he had a larger share than most men; which were accompanied with a most invincible assurance."
"Sir J. Jekyl told me, that he was present at this sermon: I think it was this: and that when the author had preached out the hour-glass, he took it up and held it aloft in his hand, and then turned it up for another hour, upon which the audience (a very large one for the place) set up almost a shout for joy. I once heard him preach at the Temple church, on the subject of popery, it was on the fast-day for the negotiations of peace at Utrecht. He set forth all the horrors of that religion with such force of speech and action, (for he had much of that in his preaching at all times,) that I have never seen an audience any where so much affected, as we all were who were present at this discourse. He preached then, as he generally did, without notes. He was in his exterior too the finest figure I ever saw in a pulpit."
"I had admittance to hear one of these lectures. It was upon the new heavens and the new earth after the general conflagration. He first read to us the chapter in St. Peter, where this is described. Then enlarged upon it with that force of imagination and solemnity of speech and manner, (the subject suiting his genius,) as to make this resemblance of it to affect me extremely even now, although it is near forty years ago since I heard it. I remember it the more, because I never heard a preacher equal to him. There was an earnestness of heart, and look, and voice, that is scarcely to be conceived, as it is not the fashion of the present times; and by the want of which, as much as any thing, religion is every day failing with us."
"Burnet I like much. It is observable, that none of his facts has been controverted, except his relation of the birth of the pretender, in which he was certainly mistaken—but his very credulity is a proof of his honesty. Burnet's style and manner are very interesting. It seems as if he had just come from the king's closet, or from the apartments of the men whom he describes, and was telling his reader, in plain honest terms, what he had seen and heard."
"The merits and faults of Burnet's most familiar book are the merits and faults of the man himself. It is vivid, energetic, and picturesque. It is never dull, and it is never tired. It carries the reader along its stream of words with as little resistance as Burnet's audience opposed to his sermons. And the ease of its style is matched by an ease of fancy. Burnet was a gossip in an age of gossips. He had the same curiosity, the same love of the trivial, as obsessed Aubrey and Anthony à Wood. He did not disdain to record the tricks of manner and speech which differentiate one man from another, and which graver historians omit. For instance, he tells us that Lauderdale's "tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all he talked to"; that Shaftesbury "depended much on what a drunken physician had predicted"; that Orrery "pretended to wit, but it was very luscious"; that Buckingham "has no manner of literature, and all he knows is in chemistry." So much may be set down to his credit. On the other hand, his book is, like himself, garrulous, reckless, and undisciplined. He still preaches to the personages of his History as he preached to them, if he might, when he and they were alive. Withal he was a finished eavesdropper, who combined the keen scent for news with the tireless indiscretion of the modern reporter; and it may be said that there is no side of his own various character that is not illustrated in the History of My Own Time."
"He has given us such a gallery of portraits as you will not find outside the pages of Clarendon. He was not so fine a painter as his great rival, whose scrupulous tact in the selection of virtues and vices was beyond his reach. He was familiar, where Clarendon was austere, happily trivial and even witty, where Clarendon was pompous or priggish. He obtained his results not by choice and omission, but by a careless profusion of detail, and despite his lack of artistry, despite his prejudice, he bears indispensable witness to one of the most interesting periods of our history."
"That it hath been the constant opinion of all ages, that the Parliament of England had an unquestionable Power to Limit, Restrain and Qualify the Succession as they pleased, and that in all Ages they have put their power in practise; and that the Historian had reason for saying, That seldom or never the third Heir in a right Descent enjoy'd the Crown of England."
"The preservation of every Government depends upon an exact adherance unto its Principles, and the essential Principle of the English Monarchy, being that well proportioned distribution of Powers, whereby the Law doth at once provide for the Greatness of the King, and the Safety of the People; the Government can subsist no longer, than whilst the Monarch enjoying the Power which the Law doth give him, is enabled to perform the part it allows unto him, and the People are duly protected in their Rights and Liberties."
"[I]f they mean by these Lovers of Commonwealth Principles, Men passionately devoted to the Publick Good, and to the common Service of their Country, who believe that Kings were instituted for the good of the People, and Government ordained for the sake of those that are to be governed, and therefore complain or grieve when it is used to contrary ends, every wise and honest Man will be proud to be ranked in that number."
"An honest Jury will thankfully accept good Advice from Judges, as they are Assistants; but they are bound by their Oaths to present the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, to the best of their own, not the Judges, knowledge."
"Whosoever hath learnt that, the Kings of England were, ordained for the good Government of the Kingdom in the Execution of the Laws, must needs know, that the King cannot lawfully seek any other benefit in judicial proceedings, than that common Right and Justice be done to the People according to their Laws and Customs."
"Moreover all humane Laws were ordained for the preservation of the Innocent, and for their sakes only are punishments inflicted; that those of our own Country do solely regard this, was well understood by Fortescue, who saith. Indeed I could rather with Twenty Evildoers to escape death through pitty, than one man to be unjustly condemned. Such Blood hath cried to Heaven for Vengeance against Families and Kingdoms, and their utter destruction hath ensued. If a Criminal should be acquitted by too great lenity, caution, or otherwise, he may be reserved for future Justice from Man or God, if he doth not repent; but 'tis impossible that satisfaction or reparation should be made for innocent Bloodshed in the forms of Justice."
"[T]he King's going to a foreign Power, and casting himself into his hands, absolves the People from their Allegiance. He sent an Ambassador to Rome, received a Nuntio from thence, received a foreign Jurisdiction, and set up Romish Bishops in England, that the Popish Religion might intervene with the Government, thereby to subject the Nation to the Pope, as much as to a foreign Prince."
"That King James the Second by going about to Subvert the Constitution, and by Breaking the Original Contract between King and People, and by Violating the Fundamental Laws, and Withdrawing himself out of the Kingdom, hath thereby Renounced to be a King according to the Constitution, by Avowing to Govern by a Despotick Power, unknown to the Constitution, and Inconsistent with it; he hath Renounced to be a King according to the Law, such a King as he Swore to be at his Coronation; such a King to whom the Allegiance of an English Subject is due; and hath set up another kind of Dominion, which is to all Intents an Abdication, or Abandoning of his Legal Title, as fully as if it had been done by express Words. And, my Lords, for these Reasons, the Commons do insist upon the Word Abdicated, and cannot agree to the Word Deserted."
"[T]he greatest Man in the whole Commonwealth of Letters (meaning my Lord Somers)."
"[His name is surrounded] with a mild but imperishable glory, which, in contrast to our dark ignorance respecting all the particulars and details of his life, gives the figure altogether something of the mysterious and ideal."
"I never desire to be thought a better whig than Lord Somers, or to understand the principles of the Revolution better than those, by whom it was brought about, or to read in the Declaration of Right any mysteries unknown to those whose penetrating style has engraved in our ordinances, and in our hearts, the words and spirit of that immortal law."
"[T]he greatest distinction which Somers acquired at the bar, previous to the Revolution, was on the trial of the Seven Bishops. The proposal, that he should be one of their counsel, rather shocked some of the Right Reverend defendants, who at last, driven to question the prerogative of the Crown when directed against the exclusive immunities of the Church, had often preached the doctrine of passive obedience, and had heard this rising young lawyer denounced as "nothing better than a Whig;" but "old Pollexfen insisted upon him, and would not be himself retained without him, representing him as the man who would take most pains, and go deepest into all that depended on precedents and records.""
"[H]e is generally acknowledged to have been a cultivated man of wide interests and an outstanding lawyer-statesman."
"[Somers was one of the] brightest ornaments of the bar in the late seventeenth century."
"Somers, the most distinguished Whig statesman of his generation."
"Somers, who was the leading figure in the Junto in William's reign and remained so for all but the last few years of Anne's, when his health broke down, was a man whose greatness had to be acknowledged even by the Tories. One of the most distinguished lawyers ever to sit on the Woolsack, he contributed the finest intellect in the party, and also qualities of integrity and moral strength in which some of his colleagues were at times deficient."
"[T]he greatest man among the members of the Junto, and, in some respects, the greatest man of that age, was the Lord Keeper Somers. He was equally eminent as a jurist and as a politician, as an orator and as a writer. His speeches have perished; but his State papers remain, and are models of terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence. He had left a great reputation in the House of Commons, where he had, during four years, been always heard with delight; and the Whig members still looked up to him as their leader, and still held their meetings under his roof. In the great place to which he had recently been promoted, he had so borne himself that, after a very few months, even faction and envy had ceased to murmur at his elevation. In truth, he united all the qualities of a great judge, an intellect comprehensive, quick and acute, diligence, integrity, patience, suavity. In council, the calm wisdom which he possessed in a measure rarely found among men of parts so quick and of opinions so decided as his, acquired for him the authority of an oracle."
"[Pitt said] he saw combinations of great Lords against him but for his part he would go his own way; that he was a British subject and he knew he stood upon British ground; that he had learnt his maxims and principles under the great Lord Cobham and the disciples of the greatest lawyers, generals and patriots of King William's days: named Lord Somers and the Duke of Marlborough."
"Somers was a statesman. He was a Whig, unwavering in his allegiance to Revolution politics. Much of the discussion of the time turned on the succession and divine right. Somers maintained that of course people could change their rulers if they were tyrannical. History supported their claim. ... In none of the tracts nor any of those utterance which have come down to us does Somers appear radical in his ideas. ... He was interested in just and modest government by King, Lords and Commons. ... In everything we know about Somers we see the statesman and the temperate supporter of a constitution which secured lives, liberties and properties, provision for common benefit, freedom for all men accused of sins against society. Such sentiments must always be an honour to the Whig tradition."
"Dr. Bathurst always boasted with singular satisfaction, the education of so learned and eloquent a lawyer, so sincere a patriot, and so elegant a scholar, as lord Somers."
"Nothing is so conducive to a right appreciaton of the truth as a right appreciation of the error by which it is surrounded. The successful investigator must bring to test statements and conceptions which have been too long accepted on faith, habit, or good-nature. He must look boldly behind certain large words which are now too often the shelter of ignorance, and he must satisfy himself whether they have any definite value or not. When it is seen how much our current language really signifies, and when all technicalities, which took their rise in old and false methods, have been swept out of sight, we shall feel, perhaps, a little bare, but at any rate we shall have open field for our new researches."
"Education, as contrasted with instruction, is a drawing forth of faculties, a quickening, enlarging, and refining of them when brought out, and an establishment of them in habits; so that virtue and reason become easy and pleasant to us."
"In the fourth century there were not a few eminent physicians in Byzantium, Alexandria, and Asia Minor; still on the whole the Byzantine system stifled mental activity, and medical literature was represented only by such encyclopedias as those of Oribasius, Aetius, and Paul of Aegina, compilations which notwithstanding, by salvage of writings which might otherwise have been utterly lost, did priceless service to the historian. And, beside these, the endless succession of herbaries, recipe books, and antidotariums, like lower organisms, propagated their futile kind."
"... Palissy—like his contemporary Gilbert, and like Galileo who came very soon after him—was one of the chief engineers of the new paths of knowledge, and was in France the chief engineer. Indeed, astronomy and mathematics apart, he with Dodoens and Gesner were the first in Europe since Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Pliny, to pursue modern scientific methods in the worlds of geology, botany, and zoology, and to work and teach from and with the natural objects themselves."
"Now we proceed to consider the oldest race of great stature that has yet been discovered, one which flourished in the south of France when the last of the cold periods was lifting from Europe. The first examples of this race were discovered in 1868, when a railway was being constructed in the valley of the Vézère, a tributary of the Dordogne. A cutting made in the débris at the foot of the limestone cliffs which flank the valley of the Vézère at Cro-Magnon, brought to light the skeletons of a man, of a woman, and part of the skull of a third individual. Hence this ancient type or race is usually named Cro-Magnon."
"In all the medical schools of London a notice is posted over the door leading to the dissecting room forbidding strangers to enter. I propose, however, to push the door open and ask the reader to accompany me within, for, if we are to understand the human body; it is essential that we should see the students at work."
"We have to face the fact that we are the descendants of apelike ancestors. The truth, at first sight, is often ugly and repulsive to our personal feelings, but when it is the truth, its ultimate effects on us are always salutary. ... ... Man's brain does not stand as a thing apart; it is the culmination of an ascending series. There is no part of it and no function manifested by it that cannot be traced to humble beginnings lower in the animal scale. And what we postulate for man's brain we must in all justice apply to that of the ape, the dog, and all other beasts."
"From what we know of living anthropoids, we may infer that the chief mental activities of the group will be three in number—namely, those concerning with mating, maternity, and social behaviour. Each group will be attached to a territory and maintain its isolation."
"I’m convinced that science is as deep a human instinctive activity as art or storytelling or music."
"Any problem in computer science can be solved with another level of indirection."
"Compatibility means deliberately repeating other people's mistakes."
"Low entropy states are not closer to death. Death is characterized by dissipation, decay and dispersion. It is the ultimate high entropy state—literally, the edge of our existential world, when we are gently absorbed back into the universe."
"It is argued that the type IIA 10-dimensional superstring theory is actually a compactified 11-dimensional supermembrane theory in which the fundamental supermembrane is identified with the soltionic membrane of 11-dimensional supergravity. The charged extreme black holes of the 10-dimensional type IIA string theory are interpreted as the Kaluza-Klein modes of 11-dimensional supergravity and the dual sixbranes as the analogue of Kaluza-Klein monopoles. All other p-brane solutions of the type IIA superstring theory are derived from the 11-dimensional membrane and its magnetic dual fivebrane soliton."
"In the case of parallel multi D-branes there can be open strings with one end on one brane and the other end on another brane. Classically, such a string has a minimum energy proportional to the distance between the branes. Supersymmetry ensures that this remains true quantum-mechanically, so additional massless states can appear only when two or more D-branes coincide."
"To get the string of string theory, you have to imagine taking a violin string and just keep pulling on the two ends. Now, if you keep pulling, what happens of course is that the waves on the string move along at a certain speed which depends on the tension with which you pull it. And if you keep pulling on the violin string of course a real one will break. But if you imagine that you keep pulling, then at some point the speed of the waves on the string will increase indefinitely. But not of course indefinitely because there's a fundamental limit which is the speed of light. So when you've reached the point where you pull on your violin strings and you've stretched it to the point where actually the waves on it are now moving at the speed of light, then you have a very strange material and that material is the string of string theory. In a way the branes are essentially the same material but just more extended."
"Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep, Need we to prove a God is here; The Daisy, fresh from Winter's sleep, Tells of his hand in lines as clear."
"The perfection of an art consists in the employment of a comprehensive system of laws, commensurate to every purpose within its scope, but concealed from the eye of the spectator; and in the production of effects that seem to flow forth spontaneously, as though uncontrolled by their influence, and which are equally excellent, whether regarded individually, or in reference to the proposed result."
"While the language of the lips is fleeting as the breath itself, and confined to a single spot as well as to a single moment, the language of the pen enjoys, in many instances, an adamantine existence, and will only perish amid the ruins of the globe. Before its mighty touch time and space become annihilated; it joins epoch to epoch, and pole to pole.[…] But for this, everything would be doubt, and darkness, and death-shade; all knowledge would be traditionary and all experience local; civilized life would relapse into barbarism, and man would have to run through his little, and comparatively insignificant round of existence, the perpetual sport of ignorance and error, uninstructed by science, unregulated by laws, and unconsoled by Revelation."
"Now, happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature: it is a running stream and not a stagnant pool."
"Taste is that faculty which selects and relishes such combinations of ideas as produce genuine beauty, and rejects the contrary."
"Make an effort to overcome the fears of old age. Tell me, would you wish to see me at your death-bed knowing in your last moments that your son was a coward and a coward through your advice? Look back over your life. Was not the day of your departure from Corsica the last day of your glory? ... Before you press me on religious sentiments, read and reread the Roman histories and recall to your mind those models you once sought to emulate. With these in your mind you will give me much better counsel."
"I am determined that the "other side of the mountains" must form part of the Corsican State, all Corsica must be free."
"The island will only know efficient government if the vendetta can be stamped out."
"The vendetta is finished. The old, happy, carefree festivals of the villages which have been abandoned for so long can now be resumed."
"Though the Altar should nourish its ministers, the tithes of those who fail to serve that Altar are the property of the poor."
"My countrymen, Liberty does not go to confession: we leave distinctions of that kind to the Inquisitors of the Holy Office; we have a law here which says that any honest man who lives on the soil of our country is able to take part in the nomination of his magistrates and his representatives: you should obey that law."
"Your fellow citizens in electing you to represent them at this Consulta have placed their dearest interests in your hands. You know their needs, you share their sympathies, and their customs: so examine your consciences, enlighten each other by frank discussion, and be convinced that the resolutions you will take together will become the law of the land, because what they represent will be the sincere expression of the will of the country. Gentleman, let us search our our good together, and work hard to assure the well-being of our community; let us strive calmly and intelligently to undo our enemies' plans which, as you have already seen, count on our divisions to destroy us. We have never yet been defeated and now victory has once more alighted on our standard; but recent events reveal the need of all true patriots to be ever vigilant and ready to oppose the enemies of our State. Let each one of us remember what he owes to his country and resolve that he will seek his own good only in the good of all."
"Already our nation has shown how little claim the Genoese had to our island. All the powers of Europe, especially France, have recognised us in practice as a free and independent people. So France has treated us, until the last few years. Even if Genoa had possessed the sovereignty she falsely claimed would she now be able to transfer it to another nation without the consent of those she professed to govern? She has no right to do so, for the basis of sovereignty is the people."
"Let each take up his appointed position. We will show them that we are not to be treated like a flock of old sheep bought in a market place, for that is what they are trying to do. Always there have been strangers between ourselves and the Genoese, preventing us from a decision by negotiating or by the force of our arms, and always, as a result, Justice and Honour have been trampled in the mud. Now we are face to face with our last enemy. Citizens, I know the danger is great but I know, too, we are not accustomed to count the number of our foes."
"The countryside of France is cultivated but the masses there have no return from their labours. There are more cooking pots and kitchen spits in England, Switzerland and Holland than in all the rest of Europe. In those places you do not see a ragged man or an emaciated countenance. The miracles of Liberty are more frequent, more grand and more useful than those of Saint Anthony of Padua."
"This nomination belongs to you, gentlemen. Are you eager so soon to give up your privileges? If I do not abuse the confidence with which you honour me today, someone else will abuse it tomorrow. Nature has provided you with abundant reason and good sense and you would be wise always to use them and look with a certain suspicion on power vested in a single individual."
"It's not because I am proud, gentlemen, that I refuse your generous offer. But the state of our public finances forbids you to be so free with your money. The public good always comes before private interest."
"Some have called me a tyrant. Well, if they come here they will find that, far from Corsica being a despotism, we have a government here which would serve as a model for any Department in France. Those who call me despot are those who fear me as an obstacle to their partisan and privy projects."
"But what is [Bartolomeo] Arena but a four-day patriot? I drank in liberty with my mother's milk, but they and their connections whirl about with every wind. My patriotism is of long standing. I have been a patriot for 65 years. I am hardly likely to submit to the censure of slaves who have known liberty for only three."
"We are brothers and not subjects. If our loyalty is proved the Commissioners ought not to arraign themselves against us. Certainly our people will not suffer arbitrary power and the abuse of authority under a Republican constitution. The Corsican people cannot be reconciled to despotism."
"French enthusiasm is a vapour. If someone writes an article, if someone speaks in a club, if a few hot heads present an address to the Convention, then down goes the altar set up to today's idol and the string is ripped from the garlands to form a noose for his neck. The lanterne is not far from the Pantheon. If Franklin with his buckleless shoes and leather-stripped breeches arrived in France today, his sober dress would not save him from being hanged as an aristocrat. He would be a diversion, not to the elegant ladies of Versailles, but to the murderous shrews at the foot of the guillotine."
"Religion is an essential part of public order. Without a belief in God we would soon loose our confidence in victory."
"Every Corsican should be a soldier enlisted in the Militia, ready to defend his country: but outside these duties he ought to cultivate the land."
"In a country which wishes to remain free, every citizen must be a soldier, and hold himself always ready to arm himself for the defence of his rights. Disciplined troops act more in the interest of despotism than of freedom. Rome ceased to be free on the day on which she had paid soldiers, and the invincible phalanxes of Sparta were formed from a levy en masse. Lastly, as soon as there is a standing army, an esprit de corps is formed; people speak of the valour of this or that regiment, of this or that company. These are more serious evils than is commonly supposed; and it is good to avoid them as much as possible. We ought to speak of the firm resolve manifested by this or that commune, of the self-sacrifice of the members of this or that family, of the valour of the citizens of so-and-so; in this manner is the emulation of a free nation roused. When our manners shall be as refined as they ought to be, our whole nation will be disciplined, and our militia invincible."
"You would have been much pleased, I am sure, by meeting with General Paoli, who spent the day there, and was extremely communicative and agreeable. I had seen him in large companies, but was never made known to him before; nevertheless, he conversed with me as if well acquainted not only with myself, but my connexions,—inquiring of me when I had last seen Mrs. Montagu? and calling Sir Joshua Reynolds, when he spoke of him, my friend. He is a very pleasing man, tall and genteel in his person, remarkably well bred, and very mild and soft in his manners."
"[T]he music of life has no conductor."
"The Principle of Biological Relativity... simply states that there is no privileged level of causation in biological systems."
"Every time a is needed, the appropriate chemical 'code' is 'read off' the ; this gives the pattern of chemical elements that will make that what it is. Our genes encode the sequences of 100 000 or so proteins that make up the human body."
"A living cell is a continuous action-packed drama. ...Complex chains of molecular interaction happen again and again. We call them 'pathways'... And proteins form the backbone of all these biochemical pathways."
"The DNA causes the proteins, the proteins cause the cells, and so on. ...[T]he inside story, is that the information coded in the genes is being expressed. In biologist-speak, the is 'created by' the . The story is seductive."
"[W]hat does DNA do? As biological molecules go, not very much."
"The real players in the action of life are the proteins. ...DNA is in comparison rather passive."
"Proteins are produced in tiny factories inside the cells... Biologists call them ribosomes. ...A DNA sequence that corresponds to the relevant protein sequence is copied onto another molecule... called a 'messenger', which transmits a form of the sequence to the ribosomes. The messenger molecules, called ... are another kind of sequence. The DNA sequences are... a kind of template... sequence of s... transcribed to produce the message... translated into an amino-acid sequence when the protein is made. (s are the units of which protein is made, just as nucleotides are the units of which DNA is composed)."
"DNA does nothing outside the context of a cell containing these protein systems, just as a CD can do nothing without a CD reader. So we have the paradox that proteins are required for the machinery to read the code to produce the proteins."
"In higher animals, the bits of DNA code that we lump together and call... a 'gene' are... broken up into segments... called 's'... separated by non-coding stretches of DNA, called 's'. The exon codes can be combined in various orders to produce a full protein code."
"[I]f a gene consists of three exons, a, b, and c, it could be read as a, b, c, ab, bc, ac, abc, and perhaps... as cba, ca, ba, each... code for a different protein. At present we do not know the rules..."
"[T]here is no one-to-one correspondence between genes and biological functions. Strictly... to speak of a 'gene for x' is always incorrect."
"[T]he book of life is life itself. It cannot be reduced to just one of its databases. ...[T]he genome is only one of its databases. Function... depends also on... properties... not specified by genes."
"In the Anglo-Saxon world the debate has been dominated by arguments between the gene-centered views of people like Richard Dawkins... and the multi-level selection views of people like Stephen Jay Gould... The gene-centered view... is a metaphorical polemic: the invention of a colourful metaphor to interpret scientific discovery. It is not a straightforward empirical scientific hypothesis."
"[L]iving organisms are open systems. ...All the molecules, organs and systems dance to the tune of the organism and its social context. Those molecules include the sequences of DNA we now call s."
"If you already know a lot of science, you may need to relearn what you thought you knew. Because... the twentieth-century biology went up the wrong street in the interpretation and presentation of its many impressive discoveries."
"[S]ome very influential twentieth-century biologists presented a simplistic gene-centered view..."
"[T]here are no genes 'for' anything. ...Genes are used. They are not active causes."
"[T]here is no complete programme in our DNA. Programmes... are distributed across scales in the organism."
"[T]here is no privileged level of causation, which is the central statement of the theory of Biological Relativity."
"[W]e are far from certain what a gene is... many of the confusions and misrepresentations of biology arise from mixing up different definitions of genes and genetics."
"[I]f genes dance, they have been doing so for... most of the period of the Earth's existence... about 4.5 billion years."
"[E]ven in the most mathematical areas of science, and biology is rapidly becoming one of those, it is usually possible to explain the concepts in common language, once they have been distilled down from the abstract world of equations."
"[L]ike the Bellman in The Hunting of the Snark... 'what I tell you three times is true'. I have deliberately included a certain amount of repetition... usually by expressing the same concept from a different angle or in a different context."
"[T]he book begins with the fundamentals of physics and cosmology, yet ends with the fundamentals of biology and the limits to our knowledge. ...[T]here are many links between these various threads."
"[T]he general principle of relativity informs the whole book."
"He did his first degree at the , then his PhD on ionic currents of the heart with . It was there he produced the first computer simulation of the , an area in which he's made massive contributions to ever since. ...[T]his work really makes him one of the founders and the fathers of the discipline of systems biology. Having done that he moved to Oxford where he's worked ever since. In a landmark series of papers he characterized the repolarizing currents in the heart, and with this work established a framework for analysis of such data... still used to this day. ...[H]e's produced a series of models in the of the heart, and in this played a major role in the establishment of the Physiome Project with the eventual goal of modeling the whole of human . ...Denis' interests ...aren't limited solely to physiology ...He's contributed greatly to the understading of genetics and evolutionary biology. He also is interested in philosophy, and all these combined with a talent for languages makes him a real renaissance man. ...Denis and colleagues founded the organization Save British Science, which this year is celebrating its 30th anniversary under its new name, the"
"Never has the world situation been more ominous. Japan, in the hands of a military Junta, is overruning China... Germany is rearming at a rate unparalleled in the history of the world. Preaching a gospel of force, determined to subjugate Central Europe to her theories... England in its longing for peace is the richest prey for the conqueror, disarmed and defenceless, having tried the Socialist panacea of a bold, generous gesture and pared its defences to the bone, no longer able to control events. Here she lies, the richest prize at the mercy of a conqueror since Rome lay open to Alarich."
"In learning how to manipulate nuclear energy man has taken the greatest step in the control of the forces of nature since his half-human ancestors learnt how to make and maintain fire. Just as fires can be, and in the early days often were, utterly destructive of life in the forests and on the prairies, so this new power may be utterly destructive of all that has been built up in a thousand generations. Man's moral stature has not grown with his intellectual stature, or rather perhaps it would be fairer to say man's institutions have not advanced as fast as his power to harness the forces of nature to his will. For I am convinced that if a vote could be taken the world over as to whether there was any object in the world for which it was worth while to start an aggressive war, not one man in a hundred would say "Yes." Unfortunately, as we have recently seen, modern developments make it so easy for a few vicious leaders to mislead, control and dominate great nations that the natural, decent human instincts of mankind are no adequate safeguard."
"Man is indeed a strange mass of contradictions. Here we are, microscopic creatures scuttling about on the surface of a minor planet circling round a second-rate star in one of half-a-million galaxies. In some ways our minds are so capacious and penetrating. We can judge the weight and composition of stars whose light started before man appeared on this earth. We can unveil the secrets of the nuclei which are so small that if we could put together as many of them as there are drops of water in the ocean they would together scarcely form a particle visible with a microscope. Yet we seem to be unable to order our own affairs so as to avoid exterminating one another. Perhaps the threat of this new weapon may in the end bring home to the various nations the overriding need of finding means, at no matter what cost and sacrifice, of reaching agreement without resort to force. We must pray that this will be achieved in time, for if it is not then the end of civilized life on this planet is at hand."
"It is, I think, undeniable that we have fallen behind the United States and many continental countries in industrial technique because they have produced first rate technologists in far greater numbers than we have here. Unless we can catch up with them, or, better still, overtake them, the future of our industry, especially in the export markets, is bleak."
"Nobody, I imagine, will deny that the whole future of our country depends upon our being able to increase productivity in manufacture, transportation and, generally, industry in all its various branches... If our output per man-year were to be increased by only 10 per cent. most of our economic difficulties would vanish into thin air. There are only two ways of achieving this: either our people must work harder or longer hours, or we must invent new and more efficient methods of carrying out technical processes. Our prosperity, our living standards, our very survival are governed by the one brute fact that unless we can persuade foreign countries to take our exports, they will cease to send us the food on which we live and the raw materials from which our exports are made. And these exports will have to run in increasing measure the gauntlet of competition by the hard-working, highly-competent, industrialised American, Continental and Japanese manufacturers, offering their goods on favourable terms, with every refinement of selling technique, to our former customers."
"[O]ur whole future depends upon our productivity: that is, the amount of useful and valuable output which can be turned out with a given amount of labour and raw materials. To improve this is far and away the most important problem confronting this country—apart, of course, from the need to preserve peace. Unless we succeed in doing it, in a generation our standard of living will sink to that of the people of Portugal and will harm not only Great Britain but the sterling area as a whole."
"Why is it that we have nothing to compare with these great technological universities in this country? The main reason, I fear, is because we suffer from a most lamentable type of intellectual snobbery which causes the majority of our so-called educated people to look down on science and technology as some form of menial intellectual activity, on which civilised, cultured people need not embark and indeed are better without. I am not sure that traces of it have not survived even to this day in this House. I well remember—admittedly it was a good many years ago—mentioning to a Member of your Lordships' House a relative of his, the great Lord Rayleigh, certainly one of the six greatest physicists in the world. His comment was: "Oh, yes, he is a little odd, isn't he?—interested in chemistry and that sort of thing." That was what he said of one of the greatest physicists this country has known. It is to that attitude of mind, which has by no means died out, that many of our troubles are due."
"I hate living in a fool's paradise, and though, like everyone else, I wish U.N.O. could work, I have come reluctantly to the view that in its present form it cannot. It is composed, of course, of men full of the best intentions, and its admirers are equally well-meaning. But I cannot help feeling that people tend to overestimate its power for good and to underrate its potentialities for evil. We know all too well nowadays how easy it is for people to fall victims to phrases, to be hypnotised by slogans, and I am afraid that that is what is happening in the case of U.N.O. "Send it to U.N.O." is becoming a sort of incantation. In many quarters it seems to be treated as a shibboleth. You have only to mouth the words and go through the ceremonial, and all will be well."
"The Assembly is split into a number of blocs. There are the Afro-Asian bloc, the South American bloc and the Iron Curtain bloc, the members of which tend to vote together on their likes and dislikes, in accordance with instructions from their home Government. No one pretends they are influenced by the evidence or the speeches. Practically always the repercussions it will have on the government's own position and interests decides which way a delegate votes: often votes are cast according to some bargain or arrangement; sometimes it is said they are to all intents and purposes peddled about. Judicial impartiality is the last thing that seems to matter. To describe a majority vote of such a body as "a decision of the highest tribunal in the world" is simply laughable. To pillory as criminal any nation which hesitates to comply with its decisions is monstrous."
"We are told that the intention is to substitute law for war; that that is, in essence, the whole object of the United Nations. It is another of those comfortable slogans expressing a desire felt by all of us in rhyming monosyllables, which seem to have an almost hypnotic effect. Of course, we all want the rule of law amongst nations; but what are the laws which we wish to rule? Evidently, it is not the laws accepted in principle for thousands of years—the fulfilment of contracts and the sanctity of treaties. Rather it seems to be commandments promulgated ad hoc by the Assembly whenever differences arise. That is submission to an arbitrary body. It is not law."
"But even if this monstrous interpretation of the word "law" were taken, how is it to be enforced? As everybody knows, law is useless unless it is backed by a police force. It is no use magistrates finding a man guilty if they cannot compel him to make restitution or send him to prison if he refuses. Thus even if we accepted this weird U.N.O. body, with its odd form of voting, as the ultimate tribunal, it would be no good whatever unless it had some way of enforcing its decisions. We are told that in that case all we have to do is to endow U.N.O. with a police force... I think, on analysis, that this also is a case of wishful thinking."
"[W]e are told that no nation can stand out against world opinion; that we can rely upon the moral forces of the Assembly's resolution. Surely this is more wishful thinking. What is more, it is flatly contradicted by experience. For several years now U.N.O. has condemned Egypt for refusing to allow the passage of Israel's ships through the Suez Canal in direct conflict with its obligations under the 1888 Treaty. Has the moral force of this condemnation had any effect on the Egyptians? None whatever. By a huge majority U.N.O. has called upon Russia to withdraw its troops from Hungary. Has the moral force of this resolution had any effect? Ask the Hungarians. If the Russians do not comply, we are told, they will be branded by the Assembly. The trouble is, that they have been branded already, and they do not seem to mind."
"We depend, unhappily, to a great extent upon imports of oil... We cannot allow our people to go cold and hungry just because some people who claim to speak for world opinion have suddenly arbitrarily introduced some novel concept of national sovereignty which apparently permits the Government of any country, at its own sweet will, to repudiate its obligations and refuse to honour its promises. In the old days the victim of such maltreatment would have insisted upon its rights, if necessarily by armed force. But this, we are told, is quite out of fashion—it would be "gunboat diplomacy." We must not use force: we must negotiate. You might as well say that, if someone snatches your watch in the street, you must not resist, still less take it back. You must negotiate with him. I suppose that, if you are lucky, you may recover the chain. If I believed that the Socialist leaders...could not grasp this simple train of reasoning, I should despair of the future of this country. Of course it is no doubt tempting to snatch a Party advantage by making sanctimonious speeches, and generally by taking what purports to be the high moral line in these matters; but it really shocked me that, when it was suggested in another place that the Government spokesman had in mind the protection of our oil supplies, he was greeted with boos and jeers. The Government actually, it seems, were trying to safeguard the vital interests of their country. What a terrible accusation!"
"What I have said will, I fear, arouse indignation in some quarters. That is always the way when comfortable emotional beliefs which cannot be sustained by evidence on logical grounds are challenged. The magic syllables "U.N.O." have acquired the status of an invocation, almost of a prayer. To cast doubt on the Organisation is considered akin to blasphemy. The rôle of the iconoclast is always hateful, but facts and logic cannot simply be brushed aside. I therefore think it my duty, as one not linked in any way with the Government and still less with the Opposition, to refuse to foster what I believe to be a dangerous delusion which is rapidly becoming a snare."
"Rightly or wrongly, Israel is now a fact, which can be obliterated only by exterminating the Jews."
"Perhaps the greatest outrage in the Middle East is the way the Israelis have been treated in comparison with the Egyptians. That this has been allowed to pass with so little protest must, it seems to me, be due to the anti-Semitism, conscious or unconscious, which, unhappily, exists in so many circles. I personally hold no particular brief for the Jews. There are good and bad Jews, just as there are good and bad Englishmen, or even good and bad Scots; and, for all I know, the percentage of bad may be greater in one case than in the other. But whatever the facts, I consider indiscriminate anti-Semitism altogether deplorable. There is not even a difference of colour to explain this violent prejudice which crops up so often in such unexpected places. Whatever the reason, nobody can deny that bias has been shown in the way the Israeli-Egyptian conflict has been handled by the United Nations."
"Israeli ships have been barred from the Suez Canal, through which they had a right to free passage under the 1888 Convention, on the pretext that Egypt was at war with Israel. The Security Council passed various resolutions calling upon the Egyptians to desist from such action, but they took not the slightest notice. During all these years we heard none of the highfalutin talk which has nauseated so many of us during the last few months about the sanctity of the United Nations Charter and the importance of all countries rallying round to enforce it. Egypt continued to defy the Security Council without any action being taken. After all, it was only Jews who were being hurt. But when, finally, the Israelis, finding that the Egyptians were openly proclaiming their intentions of liquidating them, decided last autumn to make a move to defend themselves before it was too late, and reoccupied the Gaza Strip and moved into the Sinai peninsula, there was a most terrific outcry. They were labelled as aggressors, and the whole paraphernalia of the United Nations was mobilised against them."
"The Egyptian claim that they were in a state of war with Israel was forgotten. The Israelis were vilified in the Press, and every conceivable form of pressure was brought to bear to force them to retire, not merely beyond their real legal frontier but right out of the Gaza Strip, to which the Egyptians had no claim whatsoever, except that they had occupied it in the war they unleashed against Israel in 1948 and which, according to their story, still persists. Only Egyptians, apparently, are allowed to break the conditions of the truce. Israelis must fulfil them to the last iota. I can understand a strong anti-Semite taking this line, but it is amazing to find so many honourable people adopting it without any explanation."
"When tackled by R. H. Dundas at the High Table at Christ Church as to how good a scientist Lindemann was, Einstein replied that he had always regarded him as the last of the great Florentines, a man who embraced all science as his province, a great man in the Renaissance tradition."
"He displayed admirable tact and could be a most fascinating companion. That he could be and often was intolerably grumpy, spoilt, unjust, etc., cannot possibly be denied—too many who only met him once or twice saw nothing else. But if all was well he could be entrancingly funny, understanding and kind. He was admirably loyal to his staff, defending them after their blunders, finding them jobs when his Branch was wound up far beyond the mere line of duty. He used, in his off-moments, to drive us all dizzy with irritation, but I do not think that any of us failed to perceive that he had a real scale and greatness in the depth, clarity, speed and severe simplicity of his thought. Certainly in my own experience he can be compared only with Keynes. Perhaps there was an interval between them, but there was a larger one between this pair and the rest of the world."
"After Maynard Keynes I would be inclined to say that he was the cleverest man I have ever known in my life."
"Before he came to Oxford Lindemann's most important contribution had on the whole been theoretical rather than experimental. He had one of the most brilliant theoretical minds I have ever known, and he continued throughout his life here to take a deep interest in the fundamentals of science. His views on all matters of theory were always worth hearing."
"Churchill used to say that the Prof's brain was a beautiful piece of mechanism, and the Prof did not dissent from that judgement. He seemed to have a poor opinion of the intellect of everyone with the exception of Lord Birkenhead, Mr Churchill and Professor Lindemann; and he had a special contempt for the bureaucrat and all his ways. The Ministry of Supply and the Ordnance Board were two of his pet aversions, and he derived a great deal of pleasure from forestalling them with new inventions. In his appointment as Personal Assistant to the Prime Minister no field of activity was closed to him. He was as obstinate as a mule, and unwilling to admit that there was any problem under the sun which he was not qualified to solve. He would write a memorandum on high strategy one day, and a thesis on egg production on the next. He seemed to try to give the impression of wanting to quarrel with everybody, and of preferring everyone's room to their company; but once he had accepted a man as a friend, he never failed him, and there are many of his war-time colleagues who will ever remember him with deep personal affection. He hated Hitler and all his works, and his contribution to Hitler's downfall in all sorts of odd ways was considerable."
"It was typical of Lindemann's mind to bring together ideas in this way from different branches of physics in an order-of-magnitude calculation. His mind was extraordinarily lively, and he also had an unusually wide knowledge of physics, including astronomy, and what is now called geophysics. He had a gift for picking out the essentials in a piece of physics, even if sometimes he went too far in ignoring the aspects of secondary importance. He was a most stimulating conversationalist on matters of physics, and one went away from a session with him feeling that he had rearranged all one's mental furniture and added one or two rather bizarre objects to the room."
"He was one of the cleverest men I ever met, as clever as Rutherford."
"For example, in his 1886 address to graduates of the University of Madras, Governor Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff made a reference to Ramayana as follows: The constant putting forward of Sanskrit literature as if it were preeminently Indian should stir the national pride of some of you Tamil, Telugu, Cannarese. You have less to do with Sanskrit that we English have. Ruffianly Europeans have sometimes been known to speak of natives of India as 'Niggers', but they did not, like the proud speakers or writers of Sanskrit, speak of the people of the South as legions of monkeys. 48"
"…no good can be effected for [the Hindu] people, but only much harm, by introducing European methods of Government, foreign to their characters and conditions. What we can do is to enable these myriad little worlds to live in peace, instead of being perpetually liable to be harried and destroyed by every robber or petty tyrant who could pay a handful of scoundrels to follow him."
"Fossil may tell us many things, but one thing they can never disclose is whether ancestors of anything else."
"Just as pre-Darwinian biology was carried out by people whose faith was in the Creator and His plan, post-Darwinian biology is being carried out by people whose faith is in, almost, the deity of Darwin. They've seen their task as to elaborate his theory and to fill the gaps in it, to fill the trunk and twigs of the tree. But it seems to me that theoretical framework has very little impace on the actual progress of the work in biological research. In a way some aspects of Darwinism seems to me to have held back the progress of science."
"It seemed obvious to [Darwin] that, if his theory of evolution [were] correct, fossils ought to provide incontrovertible proof of it, since each stratum should contain links between the species of earlier and later strata, and if sufficient fossils were collected, it would be possible to arrange them in ancestor descendent sequences and so build up a precise picture of the course of evolution. This was not so in Darwin’s time, and today, after more than another hundred years of assiduous fossil collecting, the picture still has extensive gaps."
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
"They [the English team]…were glad when they beard the Rajah [Shivaji] was returned from Purtaabgur, when the Ambassador solicited Narun Gi Pundit [a Saraswat Brahmin in Shivaji’s service who also functioned as interpreter] to procure his leave to pass up the Hill into Rairee [the famous Raigarh fort] Castle. The next day they receive’d order to ascend the Hill into the Castle, the Rajah having appointed an House for them; which they did; leaving Punckarra about Three in the Afternoon, they arrived at the top of that strong Mountain, forsaking the humble Clouds about Sun-set."
"It is fortified by Nature more than Art, being of very difficult access, there being but one Avenue to it, which is guarded by two narrow Gates, and fortified by a strong Wall exceeding high, and Bastions thereto: All the other part of the Mountain is a direct Precipice so that it’s impregnable, except the Treachery of some in it betray it. On the Mountain are many strong Buildings, as the Raja’s Court, and Houses of other Ministers, to the number of about 300. It is in length about two Miles and an half, but no pleasant Trees, or any sort of Grain grows thereon. Their House was about a Mile from the Rajah’s Palace, into which they retired with no little content."
"Four days after their ascent, by the sollicitation of Narun Gi Pundit, the Rajah gave them Audience, though in busily employed by many other great Affairs, relating to his Coronation and Marriage. Our Ambassador presented him, and his Son Samba Gi Rajah, with the Particulars appointed for them; which they took well satisfied with them; and the Rajah assured them we might trade securely in all his Countries without the least apprehension of ill from him, for that the Peace was concluded. Our Ambassador replied, that was our Intent; and to that intent the President had sent him to this Court to procure the same Articles and Privileges we enjoyed in Indostan and Persia, where we traded. He answered, it is well, and referred our Business to Moro Pundit, his Peshua, or Chancellour, to examine our Articles, and give an account what they were."
"He and his Son withdrew into their private Apartments, to consult with the Brachmines about the Ceremonies preparatory to his Enstalment; which chiefly consisted in Abstinence and Purifying; till which be over, he will hear no farther of Business. They likewise departed to their Lodgings."
"A day or two after our Ambassador went to Narun Gi Pundit, and took his Advice concerning the presenting of the rest; who told him he might go in Person to Moro Pundit, but to the rest he should send by Naran Sinaij what was intended for them: Declaring likewise if he would have his Work speedily effected, and without any impediment, that it was necessary to be at some more charge to present Officers with Pamerins, who were not in their List of Presents; to which he assented, considering the time of the Year was so far spent, and that if he should be forced to stay the whole Rains out at Rairee, the Honourable Company’s Charges would be greater than the Additional Presents: He answered that two Pamerins were not enough for Moro Pundit, that we must present him with four; and Peta Gi Pundit Vocanovice, or Publick Intelligencer, with the Diamond Ring, valued at 125 Rupees…"
"About this time the Rajah, according to the Hindus Custom, was weighed in Gold, and poised about 16000 Pagods, which Money, together with an 100000 more is to be distributed among the Brachmines after the day he is enthroned, who in great numbers flock hither from all parts of his Territories."
"Being earnest to press on his Errand he came for, the Ambassador sent to Narun Gi Pundit to know what was transacted in the Articles; but was returned for Answer. The Rajah stopt his Ears to all Affairs, declaring he had granted all the Demands, except those two Articles, expressing, Our Money shall go current in his Dominions, and his on Bombaim; and that he shall restore whatever Wrecks may happen on his Coasts belonging to the English, and Inhabitants of Bombaim. The first he accounted unnecessary to be inserted, because he forbids not the passing of any manner of Coins; nor on the other side, can he force his Subjects to take those Monies, whereby they shall be Losers; but if our Coin be as fine an Allay, and as weighty as the Moguls, and other Princes, he will not prohibit it. To the other he says, that it is against the Laws of Conchon to restore any Ships, Vessels, or Goods, that are driven ashore by Tempest, or otherwise; and that should he grant us that Privilege, the French, Dutch, and other Merchants, would claim the same Right; which he could not grant without breaking a Custom has lasted many Ages: The rest of our Desires he willingly conceded embracing with much satisfaction our Friendship, promising to himself and Country much Happiness by our Settlement and Trade: Notwithstanding Narun Gi Pundit did not altogether despair of obtaining our Wrecks, because we enjoyed the same Privilege in the Mogul, and Duccan Country."
"Near a Month after they had been here, Narun Gi Pundit sent word, That to Morrow about Seven or Eight in the Morning, the Rajah Seva Gi intended to ascend his Throne; and he would take it kindly if they came to congratulate him thereon; that it was necessary to present him with some small thing, it not being the Custom of the Eastern Parts to appear before a Prince empty-handed. The Ambassador sent him word, according to his Advice; he would wait on the Rajah at the prescribed time. Accordingly next Morning he and his Retinue went to Court, and found the Rajah seated on a Magnificent Throne, and all his Nobles waiting on him in Rich Attire; his Son Samba Gi Rajah, Peshuah Mora Pundit, and a Brachmine of Great Eminence, seated on an Ascent under the Throne; the rest, as well Officers of the Army as others, standing with great Respect. The English made their Obeisance at a distance; and Narun Sinai held up the Diamond Ring that was to be presented him: He presently took notice of it, and ordered their coming nearer, even to the Foot of the Throne, where being Vested, they were desired to retire; which they did not so soon, but they took notice on each side of the Throne there hung (according to the Moors manner) on heads of Gilded Launces many Emblems of Dominion and Government; as on the Right-hand were two great Fishes Heads of Gold, with very large Teeth; on the Left, several Horses Tails, a Pair of Gold Scales on a very high Launce’s head, equally poized, an Emblem of Justice and as they returned, at the Palace Gate stood two small Elephants on each side, and two fair Horses with Gold Trappings, Bridles, and Rich Furniture, which made them admire how they brought them up the Hill, the Passage being both difficult and hazardous. Two days after this, the Rajah was married to a Fourth Wife, without State; and doth every day bestow Alms on the Brachmines…"
"I will only add one Passage during the Stay of our Ambassador at Rairee: The Diet of this sort of People admits not of great Variety or Cost, their delightfullest Food being only Cutchery, a sort of Pulse and Rice mixed together, and boiled in Butter, with which they grow Fat: but such Victuals could not be long pleasing to our Merchants, who had been used to Feed on good Flesh: It was therefore signified to the Rajah, That Meat should be provided for them; and to that end a Butcher that served those few Moors that were there, that were able to go to the Charge of Meat, was ordered to supply them with what Goat they should expend (nothing else here being to be gotten for them), which he did accordingly, to the consumption of half a Goat a Day, which he found very profitable for him…The honest Butcher had made an Adventure up the Hill, though very old, to have the sight of his good Masters, who had taken off of his hands more Flesh in that time they had been there than he had sold in some Years before; so rare a thing is it to eat Flesh among them…"
"In 1973 two protégés (Derek Capper and the author) discovered that the conformal invariance under Weyl rescalings of the metric tensor gμν(x → Ω2(x) gμν(x) displayed by classical massless field systems in interaction with gravity no longer survives in the quantum theory. Since then these have found a variety of applications in black hole physics, cosmology, string theory and statistical mechanics."
"On compactification to six spacetime dimensions, the fundamental heterotic string admits as a a dual string whose effective worldsheet action couples to the background fields of the dual formulation of six-dimensional supergravity."
"Superunification underwent a major paradigm shift in 1984 when eleven-dimensional supergravity was knocked off its pedestal by ten-dimensional superstrings. This last year has witnessed a new shift of equal proportions: perturbative ten-dimensional superstrings have in their turn been superseded by a new non-perturbative theory called ', which describes supermembranes and superfivebranes, which subsumes all five consistent string theories and whose low energy limit is, ironically, eleven-dimensional supergravity."
"Theoretical physicists like to ask the big questions: How did the Universe begin? What are its fundamental constituents? What are the laws of nature that govern these constituents? The smallest constituents of matter are, by definition, the s. But what is an elementary particle, exactly? How do we know when we have reached the bottom line? Well, it turns out to be easier to say what an elementary particle is not."
"lies at the heart of quantum information theory, with applications to quantum computing, teleportation, cryptography and communication. In the apparently separate world of quantum gravity, the of radiating black holes has also occupied centre stage. Despite their apparent differences, it turns out that there is a correspondence between the two. ... Whenever two very different areas of theoretical physics are found to share the same mathematics, it frequently leads to new insights on both sides. Here we describe how knowledge of string theory and M-theory leads to new discoveries about Quantum Information Theory (QIT) and vice-versa (Duff 2007; Kallosh and Linde 2006; Levay 2006)."
"The danger to the peace of India, internally and externally, was never so great as it is now. The Dobbs mission has been in Cabul for four months and apparently has accomplished nothing. That is a humiliating fact which must tell against our prestige throughout the whole of the East. It is admitted. It has been admitted in this House that the Afghans, while negotiating with our Mission, concluded a Treaty with the Bolsheviks.' Since then, according to the Manchester Guardian, a supplementary clause has been added to that Treaty providing for a subsidy of one million gold or silver roubles, and also the construction of a telegraph line from Kustk through Herat and Kandahar to Cabul, with any technical assistance which may be required. The object of that telegraph line is obvious. But it is also reported now that another Treaty has been made with the Nationalist Turks by the Afghans. So it seems that the Afghans are rapidly falling under the influence either of the Bolsheviks, or of Pan-Islam, or possibly of both."
"Besides that, fighting is now constantly taking place on the frontier, as we read almost every day. With a hostile Afghanistan, or even an unfriendly Afghanistan, frontier warfare would be far more serious and more continuous than it was in the past. In 1897 we employed 120,000 troops on the frontier, though the Afghans at that time were quite friendly to us. In the spring of 1919 when the Afghans invaded India, we required over 200,000 troops on the frontier, or, with non- combatants, about 300,000 men, though only part of the tribes rose at that time. Is the Government sure that when the Army is reduced as proposed it will be able to deal with the much greater troubles that may at any time arise on the frontier and at the same time be sufficient to preserve order in India?"
"The internal situation, in my opinion, was never so menacing as it is to-day. I am most anxious not to seem to exaggerate the situation, but I must say that some of the reports we receive are really most fallacious. Latterly, I have seen it said that Mr. Gandhi is rapidly losing his influence with the educated classes and that his non-cooperation movement is breaking down. That may be true to some extent, but what is forgotten is that his appeal to the ignorant and fanatical masses has aroused a feeling of race hatred which may take years before it subsides, if, indeed, it ever does subside. He has followed Mrs. Besant's earlier efforts but with much greater effect, working upon the masses and upon the boys and students, to imbue them with dislike and contempt not only of the British Government, but of all British officials in India, and the strength of that appeal lies in its religious aspects. Mr. Ghandi and his myrmidons teach that British rule is satanic, that it is the duty of all religious Indians to get. rid of it. No one who has not lived in India can quite understand how dangerous such teaching is, especially when the teacher claims, and is conceded, supernatural powers and supernatural sanction."
"The Moslem extremists are even more violent in their language than Mr. Gandhi himself, and the wildest falsehoods about our treatment of the holy places of Islam have been widely circulated amongst the fanatical classes in India. During the last month we have seen two shocking outbreaks of violence, one at Malegaon in the Bombay Presidency, and the other on the Bengal coalfield. The police were easily overpowered, and loss of life and destruction occurred because troops were not available in time to deal with these disturbances. Then the forces of Bolshevism are certainly being brought to bear upon parts of India at the present time. The objects of the Bolsheviks, of course, differ from those of Mr. Gandhi and his associates, but they reinforce each other, because they both agree in the determination to turn us out of India."
"There was a period of time when we were starting OpenAI when I wasn’t exactly sure how the progress would continue. But I had one very explicit belief, which is: one doesn’t bet against deep learning. Somehow, every time you run into an obstacle, within six months or a year researchers find a way around it."
"I’ve always been inspired and motivated by the idea. It wasn’t called AGI back then, but you know, like, having a neural network do everything. I didn’t always believe that they could. But it was the mountain to climb."
"... the safeguards he wants to design: a machine that looks upon people the way parents look on their children. “In my opinion, this is the gold standard,” he says. “It is a generally true statement that people really care about children.” (Does he have children? “No, but I want to,” he says.)"
"It may be that today's large neural networks are slightly conscious."
"I lead a very simple life. I go to work; then I go home. I don’t do much else. There are a lot of social activities one could engage in, lots of events one could go to. Which I don’t."
"In a nutshell, I had the realization that if you train, a large neural network on a large and a deep neural network on a big enough dataset that specifies some complicated task that people do, such as vision, then you will succeed necessarily. And the logic for it was irreducible; we know that the human brain can solve these tasks and can solve them quickly. And the human brain is just a neural network with slow neurons. So, then we just need to take a smaller but related neural network and train it on the data. And the best neural network inside the computer will be related to the neural network that we have in our brains that performs this task."
"The thing you really want is for the human teachers that teach the AI to collaborate with an AI. You might want to think of it as being in a world where the human teachers do 1% of the work and the AI does 99% of the work. You don't want it to be 100% AI. But you do want it to be a human-machine collaboration, which teaches the next machine."
"The past few years have seen several exciting developments in the field of symplectic geometry, and a beginning has been made towards solving many important and hitherto inaccessible problems. The new techniques which have made this possible have come both from the calculus of variations and from the theory of elliptic partial differential operators. This paper describes some of the results that obtained using elliptic methods, and then shows how applied these elliptic techniques to develop a new approach to , which has important applications in the theory of 3- and 4-manifolds as well as in symplectic geometry."
"Symplectic geometry is the geometry of a closed skew-symmetric form. It turns out to be very different from the with which we are familiar. One important difference is that, although all its concepts are initially expressed in the smooth category (for example, in terms of differential forms), in some intrinsic way they do not involve derivatives. Thus symplectic geometry is essentially topological in nature. Indeed, one often talks about symplectic topology. Another important feature is that it is a 2-dimensional geometry that measures the area of complex curves instead of the length of real curves."
"Over the past 15 years symplectic geometry has developed its own identity, and can now stand alongside traditional Riemannian geometry as a rich and meaningful part of mathematics. The basic definitions are very natural from a mathematical point of view: one studies the geometry of a skew-symmetric bilinear form ω rather than a symmetric one. However, this seemingly innocent change of symmetry has radical effects. For example, one dimensional measurements vanish since ω(v, v) = −ω(v, v) by skew-symmetry. ... The theory has two faces. There are two kinds of geometric subobjects in a symplectic manifolds, hypersurfaces and Lagrangian submanifolds that appear in dynamical constructions, and even-dimensional symplectic submanifolds that are closely related to Riemannian and complex geometry. As we shall see, the analog of a geodesic in a symplectic manifold is a two-dimensional surface called a ."
"... Gelfand amazed me by talking of mathematics as if it were poetry. He tried to explain to me what von Neumann had been trying to do and what the ideas were behind his work. That was a revelation for me — that one could talk about mathematics that way. It is not just some abstract and beautiful construction but is driven by the attempt to understand certain basic phenomena that one tries to capture in some idea or theory. If you can’t quite express it one way, you try another. If that doesn’t quite work, you try to get further by some completely different approach. There is a whole undercurrent of ideas and questions."
"On two different occasions recently, (male) mathematicians asked me in all innocence: But you surely never suffered any discrimination?"
"Was I ever discriminated against? There are two kinds of discrimination: explicit and implicit. For the most part, explicit discrimination did not affect me much. However, in retrospect, implicit discrimination—for example, the fact that I was so isolated as a postdoc because I could not share in college life—as well as my own internalized misogyny, did have a significant effect, though I hardly noticed this at the time. Another important factor, and one that I was aware of, was pervasive but not overt: it was very rare that women became professional scientists in Britain at the time, largely because science (and particularly “hard” as opposed to “life” science) was considered such a very unfeminine thing to do. ... These days, when most of the obvious barriers to women’s participation in mathematics have been removed, there still remain very strong and insidious internal barriers, shown in such phenomena as stereotype threat or imposter syndrome. The prejudices that lead to people accepting as completely normal that women should not get degrees at Cambridge (they first could get Cambridge degrees in 1948) are very strong and do not disappear immediately when the external barrier is removed. ... In the 1960s there were, of course, very visible manifestations of the idea that academic life is not for women. At the time, most Ivy League universities in the States did not admit women, and in Britain almost all the colleges at the most prestigious universities (Oxford and Cambridge) were single sex."
"My scheme is if possible to govern this country [Ireland] without a party and make those that receive favours from the Crown think themselves obliged to it and not to their party here: for as Lords Lieutenant are often changed, whoever has any favours to ask, endeavours to obtain it by the means of some powerful person here, and if they carry their point think themselves more obliged to the person that recommended them than they are to the government that has given it them."
"My view is to reduce the power of that office [Speaker of the Irish House of Commons] and to suffer no person or party to grow so powerful as to presume to dictate to government, and in order to do so, I would break the present parties and then keep a strict eye to prevent any others from growing too powerful."
"The plan is undoubtedly the best that could be formed, the only difficulty will be to make it hold...the utmost of my abilities are to see an administration settled that will endeavour with firmness and unanimity to extricate this country out of the dangerous situation it is in at present."
"Devonshire had been a moderate among men of great political passion. If scarcely a spectator in the play of events, he had never bestrode the stage. His death, coming just after those of Hardwicke and Legge, deprived the Whigs of three material men. Given health, he might have returned to office in the Crown's restless pursuit of ministers up to 1770. He had been a man with a concern for king and country. He died the acknowledged leader of the Whigs."
"Unfortunately there was no really effective secondary leaders to deputize for Pitt. The obvious man for the role, the eminently sensible and highly respected Duke of Devonshire, had died in 1764, a mortality which...left a marked gap in the ranks of the Minority...[and] effectively destroyed a generation in the 'Old Whig' leadership."
"[The Duke of Devonshire is] the great engine, on whom the whole turns at present."
"He was eminently a fit man for the post; his rank as a born leader of the whigs, his experience in the House of Commons, and his popularity in Ireland all recommended him, and he was sworn in as first lord of the treasury on 16 Nov. 1756. He was not, however, a success in his new capacity; his leader of the House of Commons, Sir Thomas Robinson, only excited the risibility of Pitt, and Pitt himself soon recognised the necessity of making up his differences with the Duke of Newcastle. In May 1757, therefore, Devonshire...resigned to the Duke of Newcastle, and was appointed lord-chamberlain of the household, a post which he held until 1762."
"The Marquis [of Hartington] was more fashioned [than his father], but with an impatience to do everything, and a fear to do anything, he was always in a hurry to do nothing. His discretion was so great that he would sooner whisper to a man's prejudice, than openly deliver a harmless opinion; and these whispers had the more effect as he was too civil ever to own himself an enemy. Nor was this all malice; if he had had reflection enough to design all the mischief he did he would have been less capable of doing it. They are the tales of the gentle and the good that stab."
"[W]ithout flattery to your Grace, I must look and ever shall upon you and your connections as the solid foundations on which every good, which has happened to this country since the Revolution, have been erected... What a medley of government is probably soon to take place & when it does what an alarm will ensue!"
"I was from beginning to end, in a most violent agitation and was obliged to speak notwithstanding, three times. I got a good draft of Madeira before I went to the House."
"Alarms begin to operate a little. The fond hopes of instantaneously subduing America are very much subsided. The Conduct of France begins to be deemed liable to suspicion."
"I confess I agree too much with my friend the Duke of Richmond, in thinking that all is over for this country. I nevertheless do feel most strongly that there is a duty, which I perhaps most particularly owe, to the Persons of those who not only encouraged & incited me, but also whose Principles deserve a better fate, than to be buried in the Ruins of their Country. I confess I feel a sollicitude even for myself—I would wish to have it to say, & I would wish to have it remember'd & recorded, that to the last moment we struggled in Behalf of this poor infatuated Country. I am clear, that nothing can possibly effectually avail, unless this country itself recollects & reassumes its genuine principles."
"I REJOICE very much in the spirit which now seems rising in all parts of this country. Yorkshire has done itself great honour in taking the lead, and I am happy that so much sense and discretion prevailed in the outset of the business at the meeting of York... My mind, I confess, is by no means at ease in regard to certain rumours respecting some vague and crude propositions, which I am told are likely to be brought forth. I don't like the idea of tests, and especially on vague and unexplicit propositions. The being elected a representative, if it implies a trust, is most highly honourable, but if it is to lock up your reasoning faculties of deliberating and judging, and is to tie you up beforehand, and preclude you from acting according to your conscience at the moment, I think it would be a disgraceful bondage, and what many men of the nicest sense of honour cannot submit to."
"There is still one speculation on the proposition of a more equal representation which from its magnitude is indeed a most grave, solemn, and important object of consideration. The proposition, I mean, is that as matters now are, the people, as they are called, are not represented. It is held, that retaining the right of voting to freeholders in a county, is an arbitrary and unconstitutional assumption of power. The same opinions are held in regard to the now settled rights of voting in towns and boroughs. The assertion is, that all men (the whole people) should give their votes."
"I confess I have no idea of anything but confusion and weakness from annual parliaments. I by no means disagree to the idea of equitable reform, in regard to what are called rotten boroughs, &c."
"The grievances we feel, and the cause of our misfortune, arise from the corruption of men when chosen into Parliament. Cut off the ways and means of corruption, and the effect must and will naturally cease. Mr. Burke's plan cuts off thirty-nine offices tenable and now held by members of the House of Commons. It also cuts off eleven now held by Peers in the House of Lords. This, indeed, is striking in earnest at the influence of the Crown over persons in Parliament."
"I really feel more solid grounds of hope that the constitution, the liberty and happiness of this country may revive, than I ever expected to have done, for many years past. I think most seriously that if this county of York, at their next proceedings, adheres to the great objects of enforcing frugal expenditure, and striking at the root of corruption, by reducing the ways and means of influence in the Crown, success will attend their endeavours; but if various speculations are gone into, even though they might be partly well founded in principles, I fear, nay, indeed, I am certain, that there are so many visionary schemes and expedients by way of reforms on float, that a general confusion and disagreement will ensue."
"A man worthy to be held in remembrance, because he did not live for himself. His abilities, industry, and influence, were employed without interruption to the last hour of his life, to give stability to the liberties of his country, security to its landed property, increase to its commerce, independence to its public councils, and concord to its empire. These were his ends. For the attainment of these ends, his policy consisted in sincerity, fidelity, directness, and constancy. His virtues were his arts. In opposition, he respected the principles of Government; in Administration, he provided for the liberties of the people."
"He far exceeded all other statesmen in the art of drawing together, without the seduction of self-interest, the concurrence and co-operation of various dispositions and abilities of men, whom he assimilated to his character and associated in his labours. For it was his aim through life to convert party connection, and personal friendship (which others had rendered subservient only to temporary views and the purposes of ambition,) into a lasting depository of his principles, that their energy should not depend upon his life, nor fluctuate, with the intrigues of a Court, or with the capricious fashions amongst the people; but that by securing a succession in support of his maxims, the British Constitution might be preserved, according to its true genius, on ancient foundations, and institutions of tried utility."
"Rockingham was an old whig of sterling honesty who, during a long period of adversity, contended manfully against a corrupt system of government. He was, however, by no means a great statesman. His policy towards America and Ireland was mere opportunism. At the commencement of the Wilkes affair he erred by defect, and towards its close by excess, of zeal. In his just jealousy of the influence of the crown he showed a disposition to push economy to the verge of cheeseparing, while he ignored the far weightier question of the reform of the representative system."
"His parts were by no means great: he was nervous, and mere necessity alone made him at all a speaker in Parliament; where, though he spoke good sense, neither flattery nor partiality could admire or applaud. He was rather trifling and dilatory in business than indolent. Virtues and amiability he must have possessed; for his party esteemed him highly, and his friends loved him with unalterable attachment. In the excess of faction that we have seen, he was never abused; and no man in public life, I believe, had ever fewer enemies. His death may be more remembered than his actions would have been, and may have greater consequences than any plan of his would have had; for he countenanced a system rather than instigated it. Whoever is his successor will not be of so negative a character."
"Lord Sandwich having abused Lord Rockingham in the House of Lords, Lord Gower said to him, "Sandwich, how could you worry the poor dumb creature so!""
"He should not do justice to his feelings, if he did not express to the House, and to his hon. friend, the satisfaction he had received from one of the most masterly and eloquent speeches he had ever heard; a speech which could not fail to reflect the greatest lustre upon his hon. friend, and entitled him to the thanks of that House, of the people of England, of all Europe, and of the latest posterity."
"You can hardly form to yourself an idea of the labour I have gone through; but I am repaid by the maintenance of peace, which is all this country has to desire. We shall now, I hope, for a very long period indeed enjoy this blessing, and cultivate a situation of prosperity unexampled in our history. The state of our commerce, our revenue, and, above all, that of our public funds, is such as to hold out ideas which but a few years ago would indeed have appeared visionary, and which there is now every hope of realizing."
"I bless God, that we had the wit to keep ourselves out of the glorious enterprize of the combined armies, and that we were not tempted by the hope of sharing the spoils in the division of France, nor by the prospect of crushing all democratical principles all over the world at one blow."
"All my ambition is that I may at some time hereafter, when I am freed from all active concern in such a scene as this is, have the inexpressible satisfaction of being able to look back upon it, and to tell myself that I have contributed to keep my own country at least a little longer from sharing in all the evils of every sort that surround us. I am more and more convinced that this can only be done by keeping wholly and entirely aloof, and by watching much at home, but doing very little indeed; endeavouring to nurse up in the country a real determination to stand by the Constitution when it is attacked, as it most infallibly will be if these things go on; and, above all, trying to make the situation of the lower orders among us as good as it can be made. In this view, I have seen with the greatest satisfaction the steps taken in different parts of the country for increasing wages, which I hold to be a point of absolute necessity, and of a hundred times more importance than all that the most doing Government could do in twenty years towards keeping the country quiet. I trust we may again be enabled to contribute to the same object by the repeal of taxes, but of that we cannot yet be sure. Sure I am, at least I think myself so, that these are the best means in our power to delay what perhaps nothing can ultimately avert, if it is decreed that we are again to be plunged into barbarism."
"The hands of Government must be strengthened if the country is to be saved; but, above all, the work must not be left to the hands of Government, but every man must put his shoulder to it, according to his rank and situation in life, or it will not be done."
"The spirit of the people is evidently rising, and I trust that we shall have energy enough in the country to enable the Government to assert its true situation in Europe, and to maintain its dignity."
"The assertion of the House of Commons, in which their lordships committee had unanimously concurred, was, that they were satisfied there was a design now openly professed and acted upon, which aimed at nothing less than a traitorous conspiracy for the subversion of the established laws and constitution of the kingdom, and to introduce that system of anarchy and confusion which had fatally prevailed in France; and he was sorry to say, that this had not been discouraged, on the contrary it had been encouraged in many instances, and that at a time when we were at war for the maintenance of every thing that was dear to us, and to every civilized nation in the world. From the first moment that those who brought on the revolution in France found themselves strong enough to avow their real principles and designs, their mischievous system commenced, and they began to disturb this and other countries, under the name of reform."
"Besides this, their lordships would perceive in these societies a studious imitation of the proceedings of the National Convention: they adopted all their phrases in speaking, and all their forms in transacting business. All this proved, to his mind, that their views were to familiarize the lower classes of the people of this country to these proceedings, in order to prepare them to come to a resolution, for the destruction of all rank, distinction, and order in society: every thing was to be swallowed up in the jacobinical term, citizen."
"We, in the present instance, should regard the fate of the monarchy of France as a lesson; therefore, though the individuals were insignificant in number, in talents, and in character, that was no reason for not checking their proceedings, for they might soon become dangerous if suffered to proceed."
"If we listen to the ideas of peace in the present moment (even supposing it were offered), it can be only because we confess ourselves unable to carry on the war. Such a confession affords but a bad security against the events which must follow, in Flanders, in Holland, and (by a very rapid succession) in this island."
"I have no other view of the contest in which we are engaged, nor ever have had, than that the existence of the two systems of Government is fairly at stake, and in the words of St. Just, whose curious speech I hope you have seen, that it is perfect blindness not to see that in the establishment of the French Republic is included the overthrow of all the other Governments of Europe."
"I can see no grounds, in the state of this country, to hope for such an exception in our favour, and I do verily believe that we must prepare to meet the storm here, and that we must not count upon the continuance of a state of domestic tranquillity which has already lasted so much beyond the period usually allotted to it in the course of human events. I trust that we shall at least meet it with more firmness than our neighbours, but even in order to do this, we ought not to blind ourselves at the moment of its approach. It seems too probable that it is decreed by Providence that a stop should be put (for reasons probably inscrutable to us) to the progress of arts and civilization among us. It is a melancholy reflection to be born to the commencement of such a scene, and to be called to bear a principal share in it, but I trust we may hope that our strength may be proportioned to our trial."
"[There is an] advantage, and even necessity, of uniting at this time in the public service the great bulk of the landed property of the country, and doing away all distinctions of party between those who wish the maintenance of order and tranquillity here."
"The treasonable speeches and writings which had of late been so assiduously disseminated at public meetings, most particularly called for the interference of parliament. As one of the king's servants, indeed, he might say as a member of that House, he felt it an indispensable duty to endeavour to check their flagitious tendency."
"He considered the present bill as part of a system for suppressing an evil, that not only threatened the security of the subject, but menaced the very existence of the constitution. The system to overthrow all order had been gradually proceeding for three years. The fact was notorious."
"In all periods of our history, instances were to be found of the evils arising from tumultuous assemblies; and experience must show, from the frequency with which they were now held, the absolute necessity for their suppression."
"It is a curious speculation in history to see how often the good people of England have played this game over and over again, and how incorrigible they are in it. To desire war without reflection, to be unreasonably elated with success, to be still more unreasonably depressed by difficulties, and to call out for peace with an impatience which makes suitable terms unattainable, are the established maxims and the regular progress of the popular mind in this country. Yet, such as it is, it is worth all the other countries of the world put together, so we must not too much complain of it."
"The task which is now left to us, is no doubt arduous and difficult. It would not be in the least so with a country united, and feeling its own strength: but to contend against dejection, cowardice and disaffection at home, aiding a powerful enemy from without, is not a light or easy matter. It must, however, be tried; for I have no conception that any other use can be made of this event by the Directory, than that of exacting from us concessions, which I trust neither the country nor Parliament will bring themselves to listen to."
"Ireland is our weakest point, and to that our attention must be most directed; for anything else I have very little apprehension."
"The Corresponding Societies in England had been mentioned. What those societies were, he need not remind their lordships: their publications, their meetings, their declarations, were in the memory of every man. A criminal had lately been convicted at Maidstone, of attempting to seduce the troops, and he was found to belong to these societies. A noble lord had told them, that even the United Irishmen would not have proceeded to the lengths they had done, without the encouragement of these societies. In one word, he could distinctly state, that, in every corner of the king's dominions, whatever sedition or treason could be found, whatever incitement to domestic tumult, whatever encouragement to foreign invasion, to these societies it was uniformly to be traced."
"We have gone through such scenes as this country has never before known; where we have been wanting in firmness, we have suffered for it; where we have shown courage adequate to the danger, God has borne us through it; and so I trust He will do. At all events, our lives, and honour, and the existence of our country, are staked upon the issue, and nothing but resolution can save us."
"We in truth formed our opinions on the subject together, and I was not more convinced than you were of the soundness of Adam Smith's principles of political economy till Lord Liverpool lured you from our arms into all the mazes of the old system. I am confident that provisions, like every other article of commerce, if left to themselves, will and must find their level; and that every attempt to disturb that level by artificial contrivances has a necessary tendency to increase the evil it seeks to remedy."
"You know, I believe, that it was always my opinion—and I think it is yours—that the Union with Ireland would be a measure extremely incomplete and defective as to some of the most material benefits to be expected from it, unless immediate advantage were taken of it to attach the great body of the Irish Catholics to the measure itself, and to the government as administered under the control of the United Parliament."
"He thought the terms fraught with degradation and national humiliation."
"We were enfeebled, but not broken down: we were lowered, but not debased. Some of our out-works had been demolished; many of them surrendered to the foe; but the citadel yet remained; and while it was defended by the noble courage of united Britons, it would bid defiance to attack. We should meet with mortifications and disappointments; but we should, he trusted, still preserve our honour, our constitution, and our religion."
"As to the state of public affairs, it seems to me that war is inevitable—that war, if it comes, must a little sooner or a little later, place the government in Pitt's hands; and that this ought to be the wish of every man, who thinks it at all material to himself, whether Bonaparte shall or not treat us in twelve months, precisely in the style he has now treated the Swiss."
"Obedience to the laws was very properly regarded as a principal source of improvement. He admitted that no country could be tranquil or prosperous, where the laws were not generally obeyed; but before they could expect that general obedience, the laws themselves ought to be made equal to all."
"The object of effecting a revolution in this country by inflaming the worst passions of the lowest orders of society has been unremittedly pursued for many years past. During the war its success was in great measure impeded by the large amount of military force then at the disposal of Government, by the extraordinary powers given by Parliament to the Crown, and by the great interest which the mass of our community took, and very justly, in the success of that contest. Since the peace the progress of these designs has been manifestly much more rapid. It has indeed been favoured, from time to time, by circumstances of temporary and local distress; but these have not been greater, they may be truly said to have been much less, than had before been frequently experienced without leading to any such results. So great a change as has been shown since the peace in the general temper and conduct of a large proportion of our population, has perhaps rarely occurred in any country. It seems no exaggeration to say, that if the promoters of general confusion can make as much new way in the next three or four years as they have done in the last, we must consider insurrection and civil bloodshed as inevitable; though even then we may hope that their issue would not be doubtful."
"The final resolution must be now taken, either to stop the evil here, or to acquiesce in its progress until it actually brings us to insurrection and civil war."
"As one of those who had always been favourable to the concession of the Catholic claims, he answered, that, from passing this bill, the greatest of all benefits would accrue—the benefit of doing justice."
"I cannot forbear writing one line to congratulate you and myself on the account which I have just now received, that the Bill for repealing the Roman Catholic disabilities is actually a part of the law of the land. I may now say that I have not lived in vain."
"The uncommon diligence which Mr. W. Grenville has continued to apply to his studies ever since he was settled here does him no small honour, and his pains are not lost. I have the happiness to see frequent proofs of the improvement he makes by them...they contain marks of various and well directed reading, of an habit of elegant observation &, which is more to the purpose than all the rest, of a good heart. His progress in the mathematical lecture is really astonishing, and if your lordship has any turn for that sort of study, you may be convinced of it by a continued dissertation in the way of analysis which he has written on the six first books of Euclid that would have done credit to a profess'd mathematician in the last age... From such a setting out one may without partiality expect more than common attainments."
"From a party point of view Grenville's career, taken as a whole, was inconsistent. This inconsistency of political conduct was due to his inbred alarm at the spread of revolutionary principles abroad, and his belief in the efficacy of repressive measures at home. It should, however, always be remembered, when Grenville's consistency is called in question, that he twice gave up office rather than sacrifice his principles on the subject of catholic emancipation, and that his views on that question practically excluded him from office during the rest of his political life."
"[T]he great staple of his discourse was argument, and this, as well as his statement, was clear and impressive, and, I may say, authoritative. His declamation was powerful, and his attacks hard to be borne. The industry with which he mastered a subject previously unknown to him, may be judged from his making a clear and impressive speech upon the change proposed in 1807 in the Court of Session; and no lawyer could detect a slip on any of the points of Scotch law which he had to handle."
"In the House of Lords, Lord Grenville moved the resolutions upon the Union with Ireland in a speech of four hours; putting the arguments on strong grounds of detailed political necessity."
"Sheridan said upon this occasion that he had known many men knocked their heads against a wall, but he had never before heard of any man who collected the bricks and built the very wall with an intention to knock out his own brains against it."
"For strength of reasoning, for the enlarged views of a great statesman, for dignity of manner, and force of eloquence, Lord Grenville's was one of the best speeches that I have ever heard delivered in Parliament."
"[I am struck by his] great attention, clearness and precision."
"They were not now in the situation of arguing, for the first time, whether they should act on the principle of restriction or not. For not only on the subject of corn, but on all great branches of trade in this country, they had, from time immemorial, proceeded on a system of restriction. And therefore, he contended, they were not now placed in a situation of discussing first principles. They were not now, for the first time, to inquire, whether they were to act on this principle or not. The system had been acted on for a long period, and we could not depart from it without encountering a frightful revulsion, which it would be dreadful to combat. It was not, therefore, a question between restriction and non-restriction—but how they were to apply principles, that had been long called into action, to the existing circumstances of the country. This was the only ground on which he would now recommend the measure he was about to submit to their consideration."
"He had always given it as his opinion, that the restrictive system of commerce in this country was founded in error, and calculated to defeat the object for which it was adopted."
"We certainly do not want a Catholic Association to assist us. If they attempt to excite our fears, they will fail; for they will enlist our pride, at least as strong as any other feeling, against them. We shall betray our duty; we shall do mischief to Ireland; we shall render her incapable of enjoying the benefits which she has lately acquired, or which she may hereafter acquire, unless we make up our minds steadily and firmly to put an end to this Association, which I sincerely believe to be the bane and curse of the country."
"The King has behaved admirably, and has shown his sincere desire to keep Canning's Government together upon the principles upon which it was formed. It is our duty to do our part to preserve it as long as we can, and to do all in our power not to disappoint his Majesty's expectations, or to thwart his genuine objects. We must forget all that is unpleasant in what has occurred, and act cordially and frankly together. If we do, and start well, depend upon it the country will support the King in his resolution to support us, particularly if we exert ourselves bonâ fide to get rid of, or at least to nullify, the odious distinctions of Whig and Tory, and to get the press, if possible, to support the Government, not so much on account of its individual composition, but because it is the King's Government and founded upon just and honourable principles."
"He had made a sacrifice of many preconceived opinions, of many early predilections, and of many long-cherished notions."
"When I introduced, in 1815, the Corn Bill of that day, I did it...with the greatest reluctance. I was not a Member of the Government; that is to say, I only held a subordinate situation in it—and when the Earl of Liverpool sent to desire that I would move the measure, I took the liberty of expressing to him that I had a great objection to the principle of any Corn Law whatever. I thought then—I have thought ever since—that a Corn Law is in itself an evil to be justified solely by the establishment of some paramount necessity, sufficient to overcome the magnitude of the objection, and to sanction the imposition on the country of what is in itself an evil."
"Indeed, it would have been impossible for me to have supported a Corn Law as a part of a great system of national policy intended to give uniform and universal protection to native industry, because over and over again I have laid down the opposite principle with reference to protection; and I have shared year after year in measures and arguments, the object of which was to break in the principle of what is called protection to British industry, and to get rid, as speedily as circumstances would permit, first of prohibition, and then of protection, which I have always held to be injurious not only to the country generally, but ultimately to the very interests which it is designed to serve."
"The only ground on which I reconciled myself to the fitness of a Corn Law at all was my apprehension—an apprehension which I most sincerely entertained—that this country would become, or might become, more dependent than in prudence she ought to be upon supplies of corn from foreign countries."
"Mr. Robinson sat down amid demonstrations of applause more loud and more general than perhaps ever before greeted the opening of a ministerial statement of finance."
"If adverse critics charged him with shallow reasoning and a diffuse diction, his clear and flowing style, and copiousness of illustration, with the art which he certainly possessed of enlivening even dry subjects of finance with classical allusions and pleasant humour, made his speeches always acceptable to a large majority of his hearers."
"Let me not omit what gave me and all his friends sincere pleasure, that Frederick Robinson highly distinguished himself in the best young man's speech I ever heard in the Parliament. Peel, when he has spoken, has been more flowery, and with more classical allusion; but in readiness, in clear, forcible, and demonstrative language, and in the appearance of an old and able debater, Robinson beat him, and indeed all his contemporaries. Whitbread, who spoke after him, paid him very handsome compliments."
"For three or four miles the ground is covered with bodies of men and horses, many not dead. Wretches wounded unable to crawl, crying for water amidst heaps of putrefying bodies. Their screams are heard at an immense distance, and still ring in my ears. The living as well as the dead are stripped by the barbarous peasantry, who have not sufficient charity to put the miserable wretches out of their pain. Our victory is most complete. It must be owned that a victory is a fine thing, but one should be at a distance."
"The whole subject of the Eucharist is too mysterious and difficult for me to arrive at any positive conviction; but in a case of this kind, to inflict penalties upon a man for believing more than his neighbour, in a matter neither of them can comprehend, would amount to a tyranny, and I therefore deprecate the threatened eviction of the Archdeacon."
"And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God: but the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight (I Chronicles xxii. 7, 8)."
"I recommend that my grandson be partly educated in Scotland that he do not despise his own country."
"We abolished the Aberdeen cabinet, the ablest we have had, perhaps, since the Reform Act—a cabinet not only adapted, but eminently adapted for every sort of difficulty save the one it had to meet—which abounded in pacific discretion, and was wanting only in the "dæmonic element;" we chose a statesman Lord Palmerston] who had the sort of merit then wanted, who, when he feels the steady power of England behind him, will advance without reluctance, and will strike without restraint. As was said at the time, "We turned out the Quaker, and put in the pugilist.""
"Aberdeen was a spare man, of grave and formal but singularly refined manners, with studious habits and fastidious tastes. Though he was an ungraceful speaker, and his voice dull and monotonous, his speeches were weighty and impressive. Without genius or ambition he showed a remarkable love of justice, honesty, and simplicity, and singular courage in expressing unpopular opinions. Despite his cold exterior he was a delightful companion. With the exception of the Greek intervention in 1829, Aberdeen, while foreign secretary, resolutely followed a policy of nonintervention. His cautious and conciliatory foreign policy contrasted strangely with Palmerston's methods, and the friendly relations which he had established with the foreign courts often led to unjust suspicions of his sympathy with continental despotism."
"Behold a chosen band shall aid thy plan, And own thee chieftain of the critic clan. First in the ranks illustrious shall be seen The travelled Thane! Athenian Aberdeen."
"It is surprising that all these Jacobites shd frequent the Kirk. There is every variety here, for an odd log church on the road is of the free variety. I pointed it out to Ld Aberdeen who wd like to set it on fire."
"I will name then the following characteristics, one and all of which were more prominent in him than in any public man I ever knew: mental calmness; the absence (if for want of better words I may describe it by a negative) of all egoism; the love of exact justice; a thorough tolerance of spirit; and last and most of all an entire absence of suspicion."
"Now and then Sir Robert Peel would show some degree of unconscious regard to the mere flesh and blood, if I may so speak, of Englishmen; Lord Aberdeen was invariably for putting the most liberal construction upon both the conduct and the claims of the other negotiating state."
"Walked twice with Lord Aberdeen, he talked a good deal, reckoned that he had planted about 14 millions of trees in his time. Nothing when he came to it at Haddo but the limes and a few Scotch firs."
"Greek was nothing more than Sanskrit turned topsy-turvy."
"The fact, however, that he (Pythagoras) derived his doctrines from an Indian source is very generally admitted. Under the name of Mythraic, the faith of Buddha had also a wide extension."
"Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife, Throughout the sensual world proclaim, One crouded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name."
"You're a good chap, Barker," said the magistrate. "No, I won't do it again. Who's the fellow who talks of 'one crowded hour of glorious life'? By George! it's too fascinating. I had the time of my life! Talk of fox-hunting! No, I'll never touch it again, for it might get a grip of me."
"It is not many years since the production of such a pillar would have been impossibility in the largest foundries of the world, and even now there are comparatively few where a similar mass of metal could be turned out."
"Long before it became a scientific aspiration to estimate the age of the earth, many elaborate systems of the world chronology had been devised by the sages of antiquity. The most remarkable of these occult time-scales is that of the ancient Hindus."
"Long before it became a scientific aspiration to estimate the age of the earth, many elaborate systems of the world chronology had been devised by the sages of antiquity. The most remarkable of these occult time-scales is that of the ancient Hindus, whose astonishing concept of the Earth's duration has been traced back to Manusmriti, a sacred book."
"I whose ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go ..."
"From what I have said of the Natives of New-Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon Earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary Conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a Tranquillity which is not disturb'd by the Inequality of Condition: The Earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life, they covet not Magnificent Houses, Household-stuff &c., they live in a warm and fine Climate and enjoy a very wholesome Air. ... In short they seem'd to set no Value upon any thing we gave them, nor would they ever part with any thing of their own for any one article we could offer them; this in my opinion argues that they think themselves provided with all the necessarys of Life and that they have no superfluities."
"If I have failed in discovering a Continent it is because it does not exist."
"The study of Cook is the illumination of all discovery."
"For the aborigins of Australia, and to a lesser extent for the Maori of New Zealand, the Cook expedition was the beginning of a catastrophe from which they have never fully recovered."
"The government of Athens, after the abolition of Monarchy, was truly democratic and, so much convulsed by those civil dissensions which are the inevitable consequences of that kind of government, that of all the Grecian states the Athenian may be the most strictly termed the seat of faction."
"The ‘Lost River of the Indian Desert was none other than the Sutlej, and that it was “lost” when the river turned westwards to join the Bias [Beas]’... ‘It may have been . . . that the Jumna [Yamunā], after leaving the hills, divided its waters . . . and that the portion which flowed to the Punjab was known as the Saraswati while that which joined the Ganges was called the Yamuna.’... (that double desertion of the Sarasvatī, by the Sutlej and the Yamunā, which brought about) ‘a considerable change in the hydrography of the region’... ‘a tradition prevalent, on the borders of Bikaner, to the effect that the waters of the Hakra spread out in a great lake at a place called Kak, south of the Mer country’."
"Impressed as we are with a deep sentiment of the consistency and strength which the revolutionary party have obtained, and are hourly increasing throughout Europe, we shall not fail to recur to the subject whenever we see the press of this country called in aid of the schemes of Buonaparte, or of Buonaparte's auxiliaries, and we shall contribute our mite to the resolution of that famous problem, whether, in a free press, the force of reason and truth, and the principles of order, good morals and true religion, are a match for the adroitness and the audacity of the philosophers of the Revolution and their disciples—the loose in morals, the factious in politics—the preachers of liberty, the practisers of despotism."
"We despise and abominate the details of partizan warfare, but we now are, as we always have been, decidedly and conscientiously attached to what is called the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative, party; a party which we believe to compose by far the largest, wealthiest, and most intelligent and respectable portion of the population of this country, and without whose support any administration that can be formed will be found deficient both in character and stability."
"Even though the East Retford case had never happened, or even though it had been decided in a different way, there occurred subsequently other events, as we shall by and by show, which would inevitably have brought us to the present crisis; which, we repeat, has been produced by the state of parties, and not by any general desire for Reform in the public mind. It was the state of parties which waked the spirit of Reform, and not Reform which created the state of parties; and it was only as the Retford question happened to operate on the state of parties, that it had any immediate effect on the question of Reform."
"The public mind of France had become so excited and perverted by a variety of causes great and small, and of grievances real and imaginary, that at the proclamation for assembling the States-General the whole nation went mad, and to this hour has never recovered from its insanity."
"The fatal consequences are that Peel, by betraying the precise and specific principle upon which he was brought into office, has ruined the character of public men, and dissolved, by dividing, the great landed interest—the only solid foundation on which any Government can be formed in this country. I care comparatively little about his actual corn law experiment; it will fail, and England will right herself from this fraudulent humbug; but while that process is going on, we shall be running all the risks, if not suffering the actual infliction, of a revolution. On the principle on which we have truckled to the League, how are we to resist the attack on the Irish Church—the Irish Union—both much worse cases (in that view) than the Corn Laws. How to maintain primogeniture, the Bishops, the House of Lords, the Crown? Sir Robert Peel has put these into more peril than Cobbett, or Cobden, or O'Connell, or they altogether could have done, and his personal influence has carried away individuals; he has broken up the old interests, divided the great families, and commenced just such a revolution as the Noailles and Montmorencies did in 1789. Look at father and son, and brother and brother, and uncle and nephew—thrown into personal hostility in half the counties of England, and all for what?—to propitiate Richard Cobden."
"My memory and observation of public affairs are about coeval with that event [the French Revolution]. I was in my ninth year when the Bastille was taken; it naturally made a great impression on me, and the bloody scenes that so rapidly followed rendered that impression unfavourable. Such also was the feeling of my wise and excellent parents, and an alliance between our family and that of Mr. Burke helped to confirm us in that great man's prophetic opinions, which every event from that day to this appears to me to have wonderfully illustrated and fulfilled."
"There is nothing for which one—at least I—should so much envy as Sir W. Scott as the bold facility with which he seized a subject and by the first glance determined all its properties. He was perpetually wrong in his details, but always right, luminous, and I had almost said exact, in his general view—but I am not of that power. I do nothing at all approaching to well but what I understand in its details. Would I could."
"I prefer an ounce of fact to a ton of imagination."
"Croker, it is true, was always going to write a general history of the Revolution... Croker spent a life-time accumulating material for that purpose. But he never produced the finished article, he was more a seeker after curia, a collector of autographs, than a historian. At least he went to France to get the stuff, bequeathing to the British Museum the finest collection of printed material in existence. He was even aware of the Sections, the sans-culottes. And he did much more for the future of revolutionary studies than any of the others."
"At a distance of forty years, [it was] the most brilliant scene in the House of Commons during the twenty-three years he was member of it."
"To the British Museum. I looked over the Travels of the Duke of Tuscany, and found the passage the existence of which Croker denies. His blunders are really incredible. The article has been received with general contempt. Really Croker has done me a great service. I apprehended a strong reaction, the natural effect of such a success; and, if hatred had left him free to use his very slender faculties to the best advantage, he might have injured me much. He should have been large in acknowledgment; should have taken a mild and expostulatory tone; and should have looked out for real blemishes, which, as I too well know, he might easily have found. Instead of that, he has written with such rancour as to make everybody sick. I could almost pity him. But he is a bad, a very bad, man: a scandal to politics and to letters."
"He was manifestly a man of strict honour, of high principle, of upright life, of great courage, of untiring industry, devoted with singleness of heart to the interests of his country, a loyal friend, and in his domestic relations unexceptionable. Living in the days when party rancour raged, prominent as a speaker in parliament, and wielding a trenchant and too often personally aggressive pen in the leading organ of the tory party, he came in for a very large share of the misrepresentation which always pursues political partisans. His literary tastes were far from catholic in their range, and he made himself obnoxious to the newer school by the dogmatic and narrow spirit and the sarcastic bitterness which are apt to be the sins that more easily beset the self-constituted and anonymous critics of a leading review. Thus to political adversaries he added many an enemy in the field of literature."
"Croker is the calumniator general of the human race."
"I have just heard your friend Croker, and you could not wish him or any favourite of yours to have made a stronger or more favourable impression upon the House. His speech was one which was calculated to conciliate at this side of the Channel and to gratify at the other. It was replete with ingenuity and yet free from fanciful refinement. It was characterised by an acuteness of legal deduction, and yet exempt from sophistry or the pedantry of profession. It treated a worn-out subject so as to make it appear a new one. But its principal merit in my eyes lay in its frankness, warmth, and sincerity. It redeemed the pledge and fulfilled the promise of his ‘Historical Sketch.’ It showed him to be an honest Irishman no less than an able statesman. It showed him at this moment to be disinterested, and ready to quit the road of fortune under the auspices of his personal friend Peel, if the latter was only to be conciliated by what Oxonians term orthodoxy, and we Cantabs consider as intolerance."
"I am much obliged to you for...your poem, which I have read with great satisfaction. I did not think a battle could be turned into anything so entertaining."
"It is... most gratifying to my soul that, after spending a large part of my life in other universities, I can be linked in the University of Oxford with the prince of geometers Dr John Wallis as colleague and the most scholarly Dr as successor."
"[T]he easier, simpler and less composite these theories are, the more they will be consonant not only with what has already been observed... but with what is yet to be observed, and with the very machine of the world which was constructed by the supreme creator with the greatest simplicity."
"Although in every age there have been those who cultivated astronomy, either by... observations... or by theories and systems made up according to the state of understanding of any period, or by a talent for exposition, yet the lucubrations of all these astronomers do not reveal the ways of the heaven any more than they reveal the skill and experience of their progenitors in geometrical matters."
"[I]t is by the help of geometry that all the arts necessary for improving life,.. as geography,.. rules of navigation,.. determining of times... [etc.], have been carried to such an incredible pinnacle of distinction."
"[W]ithin the memory of ourselves and... our fathers, philosophers began to extend the limits of geometry in order to found the kingdom of astronomy. This they have carried out... with such success that now no one can be received into astronomical citizenship who is not a visiting citizen in the most abstruse geometry and has not arisen from the patrician, that is the geometrical, family of philosophers."
"In the past many very base Remus’s leapt over the walls of the astronomical city, but now the geometers have so fortified it with a ditch and a rampart that the portals of the sun receive those whom impartial Appollonius has loved and whom Kepler, Wren, Wallis and Newton have borne to the aetherial regions, and accordingly the profane, that is ungeometrical men, are exiled and depart from the grove and wander away over the whole heaven."
"[W]hat sharpness of mind was employed by John Kepler... when, from there being just five regular solids... he inferred that the number of the planets was six, and by inscription of spheres within these solids and circumscription of spheres around them related the distances and ratios of the orbits. It can scarcely be said with what power of prophecy and by what labours he succeeded in arriving at that great theorem of the elliptical planetary orbits with a common focus at the sun... in such a way that the areas that the radius vector of the planet from the sun traverses are proportional to the times. Nevertheless... so great a man... owned himself unequal to... solving directly the problem of determining for a given time the place of the planet in the elliptical orbit. Here geometry, his goddess-mother, was of no avail... But... he brought forward a conjecture of great use, namely, that the squares of the periodic times are in the same ratio as the cubes of the distances between the planets and the sun. Finally, he discovered a marvellous property of bodies by which in the minimally resisting ether they seek each other and as it were attract. From this he also deduced the tides in a clear but brief discourse in his immortal Commentaries on the star Mars, and was as it were a prophet and a precursor of a great geometer born among the English."
"[G]lory has been reserved to our era and to the English people, who since the instauration of the sciences have made such advances... And passing over the immense labours undergone by the most fruitful astronomers of our people... [H]ow easy and how exact... how geometrical, astronomy has been left to us by that most acute geometer... or astronomer, the Right Reverend Dr Seth sometime Bishop of Salisbury, who while he was among men adorned this chair. How geometrically and acutely he determined the positions and species of the orbit and other related matters, following Kepler and substituting as mean motion the angle at the other focus (which he accordingly called that of the mean motion) in place of the areas to the sun that the radius vector describes and as it were sweeps out. Content with this artifice he did not detain himself over the solution of Kepler’s problem, in which the division of the area of an ellipse in a given ratio by a straight line through a focus is required. But, being a most perspicacious man, he was conscious of what delays arose hence in the construction of tables, and, in order to show the world that astronomy was to be advanced by the help of geometry whatever hypotheses it depended upon, he accomplished the same astronomical problems geometrically from the circular hypothesis."
"After great and fruitful efforts both in the purer geometry and the more intricate and complex physics, the most skilful geometer Sir Christopher Wren, who among other luminaries of the University of Oxford graced this professorship, solved the following problem: To find the law of gravity or centripetal force by which several bodies moved around a common centre of forces are driven, given that the squares of the periodic times are as the cubes of the radii, as was observed by Kepler for the planets moved around the sun. The most renowned Wren found that the required law of gravity was such that the centripetal forces were reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the centre of forces, and that no other law would agree with what was observed."
"After Kepler’s bold and fruitful efforts to advance natural philosophy by the help of geometry, there should have appeared any philosopher and particularly a geometer, namely Descartes, who should leave this one narrow path and try to investigate the causes of things logically, or rather, sophistically. What is to be said of him who while certainly learned in geometry would build his cosmic system (which he valued so highly and of which he boasted so grandiloquently) from vortices, without previously examining whether bodies carried around by a vortex at different distances from the centre would have periodic times whose squares were as the cubes of the distances from the centre? But he was intoxicated by easier and less composite laws, and, not applying his geometric ability in the slightest, fell into errors from which we were at length liberated by the aid of geometers."
"[W]e have come into the age where questions that were once cosmographical are being transformed into geometrical problems. For it has now been shown not only that the areas which bodies driven in a circuit describe by the radii drawn to the centre of forces are in immobile planes and proportional to the times, but also conversely that every body moved in this way is impelled by a centripetal force that tends towards the aforesaid point. By this proposition alone the Ptolemaic system is destroyed, for the primary planets by radii drawn to the Earth describe areas in no way proportional to the times, while with the radii drawn to the sun it is established that they run over areas sufficiently proportional to the times."
"Since two or more mutually gravitating bodies describe orbits around a common immobile centre of gravity, and since by common consent there is an immense difference between the quantity of matter in the sun and that in the Earth, it is clear that neither the sun nor, much less, the sun in the company of five planets can revolve around an immobile Earth. Thus is shown not only the falsity but the impossibility of the ."
"Mr Issac Newton in addition to the geometric figure in any orbit of a projectile sought also to find the measure of the (tending to a given centre) of the body borne in that orbit, from whatever cause that force may arise, be it from a deeper mechanical one or from a law imposed by the supreme creator of all things. He inquires geometrically into the law of centripetal force of a body moved in the circumference of a circle with the force tending to a given point either on the circumference or anywhere outside it or inside it, or even infinitely removed. By the same method he seeks the law of centripetal force tending to the centre of a plane nautical spiral (that is one that the radii cut in a given angle) which will drive a body in that spiral. Also the law of centripetal force that would make a body rotate in an ellipse when the centre of the ellipse coincides with the centre of forces. If the ellipse is changed into a hyperbola and the centripetal force into a centrifugal one the same things apply to the hyperbola. Also the resolution of the same problem when the centre of forces coincides with either focus of the ellipse shows that the law of centripetal force is reciprocally in the duplicate ratio of the distance [as the inverse square of the distance]; others had long before shown that this was the one and only law that would satisfy the other phenomenon observed by Kepler in the motion of the planets. These results also apply to the hyperbola and the parabola when the centre of forces is situated in a focus of the conic section."
"[W]ith this one problem... three years ago, after the above was published, Gottfried Leibniz... produced a construction... in terms of his system—not without the blemish of paralogism."
"But... Kepler’s problem was to be resolved, to find the position of a body moved in an elliptical orbit at a given time. As concerns an algebraic resolution... adapted to the construction of tables, we... also have produced a work not... to be ashamed of."
"But, since the law of centripetal force employed by nature is to be discovered from its symptoms, the indisputably elliptical orbit and the sesquialteral ratio of the periodic times and the distances from the centre of forces, the same great Newton solved not only the universal problem of determining the trajectory and the motion in it for any given centripetal force, but also its converse. After this universal problem had been solved the sequel was to find other [quantities] in the geometric figure that are measures of physical qualities; for example, that the periodic times in ellipses are in the sesquiplicate ratio of the transverse axes [the squares of the times are as the cubes of the axes], and as many other things similar to these as possible. Also, for instance, to compare this force, which we experience in the planets, with another given force near to us, namely gravity. But also the new philosophy was to concern itself with movable elliptical orbits, in which the line of apsides either advances or retires. Also, for instance, a more exact [theory] of rectilinear descent and of the motion of pendulous bodies than the Huygenian one, since that supposes the centre to be infinitely removed. Therefore also, other s different from the common one and variously devised according as the pendulum oscillates inside or outside the surface of the Earth. And let that suffice for this problem. But also on account of the mutual actions of bodies moving around a centre the orbits usually turn out to be deformed, and also an investigation of these actions and of the deformity arising from them, whence arise many minor inequalities of the planets, such as the motion of the nodes, the variation of maximum latitude, and other things in the moon."
"Although the celestial spaces in which the planets move around are... unresisting, yet media are considered in which the moving body is resisted, and this resistance is considered in conjunction with gravitation or centripetal force. Among others, this problem now presents itself for solution: Given the direction, the law of centripetal force, and the law of resistance, to construct the path of the projectile. In particular, if the law of centripetal force is posited as reciprocally duplicate to the distances and the resistance is in the duplicate ratio of the speed, then indeed the problem of Galileo will be solved, as is fitting."
"Descartes's cosmic system, which he jokingly called his fable of the world, is shown to be a fable indeed."
"[T]he motion of comets is found to be not at all dissimilar to the motion of the planets, depending on the same principles and undergoing continual revolutions. But, since these planets move in ellipses in which the distance of the foci has a great ratio to the transverse axis, and that major axis is immense, their periodic times greatly exceed the periodic times of the common planets, for they are in the sesquialteral ratio [3:2] of the transverse axes [their squares are as the cubes of the axes]. Thus Descartes’s rectilinear cometary trajectory, which he filched from Kepler, collapses, and many things about comets in his fable of the world may be added, which almost two thousand years ago had been shown to be impossible by Lucretius. Such is the free motion in full spaces, to say nothing of the fact that in his system the motion is from time to time against the motion of the vortex. But, in place of so eccentric ellipses whose more remote parts cannot be observed because the comet is not visible there, parabolae may be assumed in calculation, and many things useful for improving astronomy and physics and advancing them further may thus be deduced with the help of the more intricate geometry."
"The phenomena prove that the tail of a comet is vapour from its head which, when the comet is greatly heated in the neighbourhood of the sun in perihelion, continually rises up and moves away into the regions opposite the sun."
"[T]he increases of optics, geography and other sciences... are also due to the application of the more intricate geometry to philosophical matters. Hence has been made clear the curvature of the rays of light in the same medium; hence the causes of extraordinary s have been laid bare; hence, given one surface of a lens, another may be determined by means of which a ray entering the lens with given position will have a given position in emerging from it; hence in geography the excess of the normal diameters of the axis over the axis is found, and also the al figure of any planet; hence the varying gravity of the same body in different parts of the Earth, and the varying length of an isochronous pendulum according to the latitude of its place, and then indeed, after the due correction, the construction of a universal measure and of a perfect ."
"[F]or the further improvement of natural philosophy a more advanced geometry must be found. ...[T]he reason why physical science has here been brought to a level that is the envy of foreigners is the knowledge... of some more universal geometry. Of what part of this the learned owe to this renowned university and in it to the prince of geometers I shall not speak lest I appear to be fawning, which in a mathematician would be unseemly."
"My design in publishing this Book, was, that the Celestial Physics, which the most sagacious Kepler had got the scent of, but the Prince of Geometers Sir Isaac Newton, brought to such a pitch as surprises all the World, might, by my... illustrating, become easier to such as are desirous of being acquainted with Philosophy and Astronomy."
"[T]he Physics, it is all taken out of the above mention'd Authors; but is here intermix'd with Astronomy, in such places as seem'd proper and convenient; the Geometry to be met with in it, I have either borrowed elsewhere, and quoted... or delivered it Lemmatrically."
"[T]hose who are less vers'd in the more abstruse parts of Geometry, or less concerned about the Physical parts, may pass over, and only read the Astronomy separately and distinct..."
"The Celestial Physics, or Physical Astronomy, is not only the first in dignity of all inquiries into Nature... but the first in order, because it is the easiest."
"For the Sun and Planets are separated from one another by so immense a distance, as renders them incapable of exerting most of those forces whereby all Bodies act upon one another; so that they have no other force left them whereby they can affect one another, but the single force of universal Gravity: Whereas in the production of several Phænomena, that are observ'd upon our Earth, innumerable other forces are exerted, such as are very hard to be distinguish'd from one another; which notwithstanding, if not accurately done, in vain do we attempt Nature, and make any inquiry into it."
"Upon this account it is, that every Problem in the Terrestrial Physics is very operose and perplex'd, on the contrary, in the Celestial Physics, much more easy and simple; tho' even the latter has its difficulties, arising from the different distances and magnitudes of the Celestial Bodies, For the Fix'd Stars are so vastly distant asunder, that they have no mutual action upon each other, observable by us..."
"[T]hose persons seem to apply their thoughts but to a very indifferent purpose in the study of Nature, that overlook this part of Astronomy, from whence the principal and most simple Laws of Nature are to be learn'd."
"[T]he Physics delivered in the following Work... was both known and diligently cultivated by the most ancient Philosophers. ...[T]he true System of the World, approv'd of Pythagoras, and others among the Ancients..."
"[W]e do still tread in the steps of the Ancients in this Physical Astronomy; inasmuch as they knew that the Celestial Bodies gravitated towards each other, and were retain'd in their Orbits by the force of Gravity; and were also apprized of the Law of this Gravity."
"[I]f we look back to the first Rise of Astronomy... we shall find nothing better approv'd of, nothing more universally entertained among the several Sects of Philosophers, than this notion of the Gravity of the Celestial Bodies."
"That saying is well known, so often used by Anaxagoras, and his Scholars, Achelaus and Euripides, Namely, "That the Sun and Stars were fiery or red-hot Stones and Golden Clods." Of the same mind also were Democritus, Metrodorus, and Diogenes..."
"[A]s we are told by Democritus these notions about the Sun and Moon are not to be ascrib'd to Anaxagoras as their original... He had them from his Master Anaximenes whose Opinion... was, that the Stars were of a fiery nature and substance, that there were also mingled with them certain Earthly Bodies... [H]e plainly means, Planets of a terrestrial nature, performing their revolutions in the System of every Fix'd Star."
"These notions Anaximenes received from Anaximander, Anaximander from Thales himself, who was the Head and Founder of the Ionic Philosophy; and spread this opinion of the Gravity of the Fix'd Stars among his Sect."
"[A]fterwards it diffused it self thro' the Italic Philosophy, the followers of which taught, that each Star was a World in the infinite Æthereal Space, containing Earth, Air and Æther; and that the Moon, not only was like our Earth, but inhabited by Animals of a larger size, and furnish'd with Plants of a more beautiful appearance."
"Nor were they so absurd in their conceptions about Gravity, as to think that it was done by the virtue of any point within the Earth, or of a Center, to which all heavy Bodies placed any where tended; but they thought it was done by the power of the whole Matter in the Terrestrial Globe attracting all things to it self: And as the power of the is composed of the powers of the several parts combin'd together, so they believed that the Gravity towards the whole Earth, resulted from the Gravity towards each single part of it. ...[T]hey believ'd there was a Gravity towards the Moon and Sun, acting in the same manner as it does towards the Earth; and that each Planet, like a Stone, whirl'd in a sling, was kept in its Orbit by the same principle, and for the same reason revolving always about us."
"From some things mention'd by Diogenes Laertius concerning Plato, which also are obscurely hinted at in his Timæus I am apt to believe with Galileo that the divine Philosopher suppos'd the Mundane Bodies, when they were first formed, were moved with a Rectilinear motion (by the means of Gravity,) but after that they had arrived to some determined places, they began to revolve by degrees in a Curve, the Rectilinear Motion being chang'd into a Curvilinear one."
"'Tis from this Doctrine of Gravity, that all Bodies gravitate mutually to one another, 'tis by this that Lucretius, taught by Epicurus and Democritus, labours to prove, that the Universe has no Center or lowest Place, but that there is an infinity of Worlds like ours in the immense Space. His Argument... If the nature of things were bounded any where, then the outmost Bodies, since they have no other beyond them, towards which they may be made to tend by the force of Gravity, wou'd not stand in an Equilibrio, but make towards the inner and lower Bodies, being necessarily inclin'd that way by their Gravity, and therefore having made towards one another, during an infinite space of time, would have long ago met, and lye in the middle of the whole, as in the lowest place."
"Lucretius and those whom he followed, believ'd that all Bodies did Gravitate towards the Matter placed around them, and that every single Body was carried by the more prevailing Gravity, towards that region where there was most Matter."
"[S]o also they were not unacquainted with the Law and Proportion which the action of Gravity observ'd according to the different Masses and Distances. For that Gravity is proportional to the Quantity of Matter in the heavy Body, Lucretius does sufficiently declare, as also that what we call light Bodies, don't ascend of their own accord, but by the action of a force underneath them, impelling them upwards, just as a piece of Wood is in Water; and further, that all Bodies, as well the heavy as the light, do descend in vacuo, with an equal celerity."
"[T]he famous Theorem about the proportion whereby Gravity decreases in receding from the Sun, was not unknown at least to Pythagoras. This indeed seems to be that which he and his followers would signify to us by the Harmony of the Spheres: That is, they feign'd Apollo playing upon an Harp of seven Strings, by which Symbol, as it is abundantly evident from Pliny, Macrobius and , they meant the Sun in Conjunction with the seven Planets, for they made him the leader of that Septenary Chorus, and Moderator of Nature; and thought that by his Attractive force he acted upon the Planets (and called it Jupiter's Prison, because it is by this Force that he retains and keeps them in their Orbits, from flying off in Right Lines) in the Harmonical ratio of their Distances. For the forces, whereby equal tensions act upon Strings of different lengths (being equal in other respects) are reciprocally as the Squares of the lengths of the Strings."
"For Pythagoras as he was passing by a Smith's Shop, took occasion to observe, that the Sounds the Hammers made, were more accute or grave in proportion to the weights of the Hammers; afterwards stretching Sheeps Guts, and fastning various Weights to them, he learn'd that here likewise the Sounds were proportional to the Weights. Having satisfy'd himself of this, he investigated the Numbers, according to which Consonant Sounds were generated. Whether the whole of this Story be true, or but a Fable, 'tis certain Pythagoras found out the true ratio between the sound of Strings and the Weights fasten'd to them."
"[U]niversally, the Weights which generate all Tones in Strings, are reciprocally as the Squares of the lengths of Strings of equal Tension, producing the same sound in any Musical Instrument."
"Pythagoras... applied the proportion he had thus found by experiments, to the Heavens, and from thence learn'd the Harmony of the Spheres. And, by comparing these Weights with the Weights of the Planets, and the intervals of the Tones, produced by the Weights, with the interval of the Spheres; and lastly, the lengths of Strings with the Distances of the Planets from the Center of the Orbs; he understood, as it were by the Harmony of the Heavens, that the Gravity of the Planets towards the Sun (according to whose measures the Planets move) were reciprocally as the Squares of their Distances from the Sun."
"[T]he Opinion of the Ancients concerning Gravity... they were perswaded that Gravity was not an affection of Terrestrial Bodies only, but of the Celestial also, that all Bodies gravitate towards one another; and that the Planets are retained in their Orbits by the force of Gravity, and lastly, that the Gravity of the Planets towards the Sun are reciprocally as the Squares of their Distances from it. What the industry and skill of the Moderns have added to these inventions of the Ancients, the following Pages do declare at large."
"Gregory, David, nephew of preceeding James Gregory (1638-1675)], was born at Aberdeen in 1661, and died 1708, Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford. He published, 1. 'Exercitatio Geometrica de Dimensione Figurarum,' 4to. Edinb. 1684. 2. 'Catoptricæ et Diopticræ Sphericæ Elementa,' 8vo. Oxon. 1695. 3. 'Astronomæ Physicæ et Geometriæ Elementa,' fol. Oxon. 1702, and 4to. Genev. 1726. 4. 'Treatise of Practical Geometry,' originally written in Latin, and of which a translation by Mr. MacLaurin, was published in 8vo. 1745, and again in 1751. 5. 'A Short Treatise of the Nature of Arithmetic and Logarithms,' printed at the end of Keill's translation of Commandine's Euclid, besides several papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions.'"
"David Gregory’s manuscript ‘Isaaci Neutoni methodus fluxionum’ is the first systematic presentation of the method of fluxions written by somebody other than Newton. It was penned in 1694, when Gregory was the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. ...[I]t sheds light upon Gregory’s views on how Newton’s mathematical innovations related to... other mathematicians, both British and Continental. This paper... proves that Newton, far from being—as often stated—wholly isolated and reluctant to publish the method of fluxions, belonged to a network of mathematicians who were made aware of his discoveries. Second, it shows that Gregory—very much as other Scottish mathematicians such as George Cheyne and John Craig—received Newton’s fluxional method within a tradition that was independent from England and that, before getting in touch with Newton, had assimilated elements of the calculi developed on the Continent."
"The Science of Astronomy which is as much esteem'd and admir'd for its great and manifold uses for the Service of Mankind, as it is delightful and entertaining to the more curious and contemplative, has in all ages been cultivated and improv'd, by Men the most eminent for their parts and learnings; and is now brought... to the utmost degree of perfection, and that chiefly by the Superior Genius and Industry of those of our own Nation. But since nothing considerable therein, has been as yet writ in our own Language... I could not oblige my Country-Men more than in publishing an English Edition of the most valuable and finish'd piece of Astronomy now extant. It is generally reckoned to be a Book that contains not only all the Discoveries and Philosophical Sentiments of the great Kepler, and the various Hypotheses of the most noted Astronomers before and since his Time; but is chiefly valued by the best Judges, for the large and instructive Comments... on the Writings of the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, as well as on the Several Astronomical Dissertations of the Sagacious Dr. Halley, which the Reader will find here every where interspers'd. ...I shall, in a very little time, present... another Volume, containing correct Astronomical Tables, for the ready computing of the Planets Places, Eclipses, &c. all done by a Person of known ability, from the true Theory of Gravity, deliver'd in this Book: For it was by no means judged proper that I should annex to so intire a piece as this, any imperfect Tables, drawn from a different Principle from what is here established, such it seems all those as yet published are."
"After I had taken holy orders, I returned to the college, and went on with my own studies there, particularly the mathematicks, and the Cartesian philosophy; which was alone in vogue with us at that time. But it was not long before I, with immense Pains, but no assistance, set myself, with the utmost zeal, to the Study of Sir Isaac Newtons wonderful discoveries in his ', one or two of which Lectures I had heard... read in the publick Schools, though I understood them not at all... Being indeed greatly excited thereto by a Paper of Dr. Gregory’s when he was Professor in Scotland; wherein he had given the most prodigious Commendations to that work, as not only right in all things, but in a manner the Effect of a plainly divine genius, and had already caused several of his Scholars to keep Acts, as we call them, upon several branches of the Newtonian Philosophy; while we at Cambridge, poor Wretches, were ignominiously studying the fictitious Hypotheses of the Cartesian, which Sir Isaac Newton had also himself done formerly, as I have heard him say."
"It was also during my being chaplain to bishop More, that I published my first work, intitled, A New Theory of the Earth, from its Original to the Consummation of all Things, wherein the Creation of the World in Six Days, the Universal Deluge, and the General Conflagration, as laid down in the Holy Scriptures, are Shewn to be perfectly agreeable to Reason and Phylosophy. ...In the New Theory, fifth edition... Lem. xxxii. Schol. instead of its latter part, read, as Sir Isaac Newton also did in his latter writing of this nature, I mean the Theory of the Moon, publimed by Dr. Gregory, and has suppofed the sun's parallax, 10″; and from this hypothesis I made these and the following calculations. Which therefore cannot be far from truth..."
"I will add another thing which I also had from Dr. Bentley himself. Mr. Halley was then thought of for successor, to be in a mathematick professorship at Oxford; and bishop Stillingfleet was desired to recommend him at court; but hearing that he was a sceptick, and a banterer of religion, he scrupled to be concern'd; 'till his chaplain, Mr. Bentley, should talk with him about it; which he did. But Mr. Halley was so sincere in his infidelity, that he would not so much as pretend to believe the christian religion, tho' he thereby was likely to lose a professorship; which he did accordingly; and it was then given to Dr. Gregory: Yet was Mr. Halley afterwards chosen into the like professorship there, without any pretence to the belief of christianity. Nor was there any enquiry made about my successor Mr. Sandersons christianity, even when the university of Cambridge had just banished me for believing and examining it so throughly, that I hazarded all I had in the world for it."
"A LETTER published in the year 1734, under the title of ' first gave occasion to the ensuing Treatise; and several reasons concurred to induce me to write on this subject at so great a length. The Author of that Piece had represented the as founded on false Reasoning, and full of Mysteries. His Objections seemed to have been occasioned in a great measure, by the concise manner in which the Elements of this Method have been usually described; and their having been so much misunderstood by a person of his abilities, appeared to me a sufficient proof that a fuller Account of the Grounds of them was requisite."
"Though there can be no comparison made betwixt the extent or usefulness of the antient and modern Discoveries in Geometry, yet it seems to be generally allowed that the Antients took greater care, and were more successfull in preserving the Character of its Evidence entire."
"This determined me, immediately after that Piece came to my hands, and before I knew any thing of what was intended by others in answer to it, to attempt to deduce those Elements after the manner of the Antients, from a few unexceptionable principles, by Demonstrations of the strictest form."
"I perceived that some Rules were defective or inaccurate; that the Resolution of several Problems which had been deduced in a mysterious manner, by second and third s, could be completed with greater evidence, and less danger of error, by first Fluxions only; and that other problems had been resolved by Approximations, when an accurate Solution could be obtained with the same or greater facility."
"These, with other observations concerning this method, and its application, led me on gradually to compose a Treatise of a much greater extent than I intended, or would have engaged in, if I had been aware of it when I began this Work, because my attendance in the University could allow one to bestow but a small part of my time in carrying it on."
"And as this has been the occasion of my delay in publishing... I hope it will serve for an apology, if some mistakes have escaped me in treating of such a variety of subjects, in a manner different from that in which they have usually been explained."
"[T]he Defense of the , and of the great Inventor, was not neglected."
"Besides an answer to '... the Author concealed his real name... a second, by the same hand, in Defense of the first, a Discourse by Mr. Robins, a Treatise of Sir Isaac Newton, with a Commentary by Mr. Colson, and several other Pieces, were published on this Subject."
"After I saw that so much had been written upon it to no good purpose, I was rather induced to delay the publication of this Treatise, til I could finish my design."
"I accommodated my Definition of the Variation of Curvature in Chap. xi. to Sir Isaac Newtons, to prevent mistakes, as I have observed in Article 386, but made no material alteration in any thing else."
"The greatest part of the first Book was printed in 1737: but it could not have been so useful to the Reader without the second; and I... recommend... to peruse the first Chapters of the second Book, before the five last of the first; there being a few passages... that will be better understood by... [having] some knowledge of the principal Rules of the Method of Computation... in the second Book."
"In explaining the Notion of & , I have followed Sir Isaac Newton in the first Book, imagining that there can be no difficulty in conceiving Velocity wherever there is Motion; nor do I think that I have departed from his Sense in the second Book; and in both I have endeavoured to avoid several expressions, which, though convenient, might be liable to exceptions, and, perhaps, occasion disputes. I have always represented Fluxions of all... Orders by finite Quantities, the Supposition of an infinitely little Magnitude being too bold a Postulatum for such a Science as Geometry."
"But, because the Method of Infinitesimals is much in use, and is valued for its conciseness, I thought it was requisite to account explicitly for the truth, and perfect accuracy of the conclusions that are derived from it; the rather, that it does not seem to be a very proper reason that is assigned by Authors, when they determine what is called the Difference (but more accurately the ) of a Quantity, and tell us, That they reject certain Parts of the Element, because they become infinitely less than the other parts; not only because a proof of this nature may leave some doubt as to the accuracy of the conclusion, but because it may be demonstrated that those parts ought to be neglected by them at any rate, or that it would be an error to retain them."
"If an Accountant, that pretends to a scrupulous exactness, should tell us that he had neglected certain Articles, because he found them to be of small importance, and it should appear that they ought not to have been taken into consideration by him on that occasion, but belong to a different account, we should approve his conclusions as accurate, but not his reason. This method, however, may be considered as an easy and ready way of distinguishing what Parts of an Element are to be rejected, and which are to be retained, in determining the precise Fluxion of a Quantity, or the rate according to which it increases or decreases."
"Several Treatises have appeared while this was in the press, wherein some of the same Problems have been considered, though generally in a different manner. I have had occasion to mention most of them in the last Chapter of the second Book; but had not there an opportunity to take notice, that the Problem in 480 has been considered by Mr. Euler in his Mechanics."
"In most of the instances wherein my conclusions did not agree with those given by other Authors, I have not mentioned their names."
"If, upon the whole, the Evidence of this method be represented to the satisfaction of the Reader, some of the abstruse parts illustrated, or any improvements of this useful Art be proposed, I shall be under no great concern, though exceptions may be made to some modes of Expression, or to such Passages of this Treatise as are not essential to the principal design."
"GEOMETRY is valued for its extensive usefulness, but has been most admired for its evidence; mathematical demonstration being such as has been always supposed to put an end to dispute, leaving no place for doubt or cavil. It acquired this character by the great care of the old writers, who admitted no principles but a few self-evident truths, and no demonstrations but such as were accurately deduced from them."
"The science being now vastly enlarged, and applied with success to philosophy and the arts, it is of greater importance than ever that its evidence be preserved perfect."
"But it has been objected on several occasions, that the modern improvements have been established for the most part upon new and exceptionable maxims, of too abstruse a nature to deserve a place amongst the plain principles of the ancient geometry: and some have proceeded so far as to impute false reasoning to those authors who have contributed most to the late discoveries, and have at the same time been most cautious in their manner of describing them."
"In the method of indivisibles, lines were conceived to be made up of points, surfaces of lines,and solids of surfaces; and such suppositions have been employed by several ingenious men for proving the old theorems, and discovering new ones, in a brief and easy manner. But as this doctrine was inconsistent with the strict principles of geometry, so it soon appeared that there was some danger of its leading them into false conclusions: therefore others, in the place of indivisible, substituted infinitely small divisible elements, of which they supposed all magnitudes to be formed; and thus endeavoured to retain, and improve, the advantages that were derived from the former method for the advancement of geometry."
"After these came to be relished, an infinite scale of infinites and s (ascending and descending always by infinite steps) was imagined and proposed to be received into geometry, as of the greatest use for penetrating into its abstruse parts. Some have argued for quantities more than infinite; and others for a kind of quantities that are said to be neither finite nor infinite, but of an intermediate and indeterminate nature."
"This way of considering what is called the sublime part of geometry has so far prevailed, that it is generally known by no less a title than the Science, Arithmetic, or Geometry of infinites. These terms imply something lofty, but mysterious; the contemplation of which may be suspected to amaze and perplex, rather than satisfy or enlighten the understanding... and while it seems greatly to elevate geometry, may possibly lessen its true and real excellency, which chiefly consists in its perspicuity and perfect evidence; for we may be apt to rest in an obscure and imperfect knowledge of so abstruse a doctrine... instead of seeking for that clear and full view we ought to have of geometrical truth; and to this we may ascribe the inclination... of late for introducing mysteries into a science wherein there ought to be none."
"There were some, however, who disliked the... use of infinites and infinitesimals in geometry. Of this number was Sir Isaac Newton (whose caution was almost as distinguishing a part of his character as his invention), especially after he saw that this liberty was growing to so great a height. In demonstrating the grounds of the method of fluxion, he avoided them, establishing it in a way more agreeable to the strictness of geometry."
"He considered magnitudes as generated by a or motion, and showed how the velocities of the generating motions were to be compared together. There was nothing in this doctrine but what seemed to be natural and agreeable to the antient geometry. But what he has given us on this subject being very short, his conciseness maybe supposed to have given some occasion to the objections which have been raised against his method."
"When the certainty of any part of geometry is brought into question, the most effectual way to set the truth in a full light, and to prevent disputes, is to deduce it from s or first principles of unexceptionable evidence, by demonstrations of the strictest kind, after the manner of the antient geometricians. This is our design in the following treatise; wherein we do not propose to alter Sir Isaac Newtons notion of a , but to explain and demonstrate his method, by deducing it at length from a few self-evident truths, in that strict manner: and, in treating of it, to abstract from all principles and postulates that may require the imagining any other quantities but such as may be easily conceived to have a real existence."
"We shall not consider any part of space or time as indivisible, or infinitely little; but we shall consider a point as a term or limit of a line, and a moment as a term or limit of time: nor shall we resolve curve lines, or curvilineal spaces, into rectilineal elements of any kind."
"In delivering the principles of this method, we apprehend it is better to avoid such suppositions: but after these are demonstrated, short and concise ways of speaking, though less accurate, may be permitted, when there is no hazard of our introducing any uncertainty or obscurity into the science from the use of them, or of involving it in disputes."
"The method of demonstration, which was invented by the author of fluxions, is accurate and elegant; but we propose to begin with one that is somewhat different; which, being less removed from that of the antients, may make the transition to his method more easy to beginners (for whom chiefly this treatise is intended), and may obviate some objections that have been made to it."
"[C]onsider the steps by which the antients were able... from the mensuration of right-lined figures, to judge of such as were bounded by curve lines; for as they did not allow themselves to resolve curvilineal figures into rectilineal elements, it is worth examin[ing] by what art they could make a transition from the one to the other: and as they... finish their demonstrations in the most perfect manner... by following their example... in demonstrating a method so much more general than their's, we may best guard against exceptions and cavils, and vary less from the old foundations of geometry."
"They found, that similar triangles are to each other in the duplicate ratio of their homologous sides; and, by resolving similar polygons into similar triangles, the same proposition was extended to these polygons also. But when they came to compare curvilineal figures, that cannot be resolved into rectilineal parts, this method failed."
"Circles are the only curvilineal plane figures considered in the elements of geometry. If they could have allowed... these as similar polygons of an infinite number of sides (as some have done who pretend to abridge their demonstrations), after proving that any similar polygons inscribed in circles are in the duplicate ratio of the diameters, they would have immediately extended this to the circles themselves and would have considered the second proposition of the twelfth book of the Elements as an easy corollary from the first. But there is ground to think that they would not have admitted a demonstration of this kind. It was a fundamental principle with them, that the difference of any two unequal quantities, by which the greater exceeds the lesser, may be added to itself till it shall exceed any proposed finite quantity of the same kind: and that they founded their propositions concerning curvilineal figures upon this principle... is evident from the demonstrations, and from the express declaration of Archimedes, who acknowledges it to be the foundation...[of] his own discoveries, and cites it as assumed by the antients in demonstrating all their propositions of this kind. But this principle seems to be inconsistent with... admitting... an infinitely little quantity or difference, which, added to itself any number of times, is never supposed to become equal to any finite quantity whatsoever."
"They proceeded therefore in another manner, less direct indeed, but perfectly evident. They found, that the inscribed similar polygons, by increasing the number of their sides, continually approached to the areas of the circles; so that the decreasing differences betwixt each circle and its inscribed polygon, by still further and further divisions of the circular arches which the sides of the polygons subtend, could become less than any quantity that can be assigned: and that all this while the similar polygons observed the same constant invariable proportion to each other, viz. that of the squares of the diameters of the circles. Upon this they founded a demonstration, that the proportion of the circles themselves could be no other than that same invariable ratio of the similar inscribed polygons; of which we shall give a brief abstract, that it may appear in what manner they were able... to form a demonstration of the proportions of curvilineal figures, from what they had already discovered of rectilineal ones. And that the general reasoning by which they demonstrated all their theorems of this kind may more easily appear, we shall represent the circles and polygons by right lines, in the same manner as all magnitudes are expressed in the fifth book of the Elements."
"But to return to Kepler, his great sagacity, and continual meditation on the planetary motions, suggested to him some views of the true principles from which these motions flow. In his preface to the commentaries concerning the planet Mars, he speaks of gravity as of a power that was mutual betwixt bodies, and tells us that the earth and moon tend towards each other, and would meet in a point so many times nearer to the earth than to the moon, as the earth is greater than the moon, if their motions did not hinder it. He adds that the tides arise from the gravity of the waters towards the moon. But not having just enough notions of the laws of motion, he does not seem to have been able to make the best use of these thoughts; nor does he appear to have adhered to them steadily, since in his epitome of astronomy, published eleven years after, he proposes a physical account of the planetary motions, derived from different principles."
"He [Kepler] supposes, in that treatise [epitome of astronomy], that the motion of the sun on his axis is preserved by some inherent vital principle; that a certain virtue, or immaterial image of the sun, is diffused with his rays into the ambient spaces, and, revolving with the body of the sun on his axis, takes hold of the planets and carries them along with it in the same direction; as a load-stone turned round in the neighborhood of a magnetic needle makes it turn round at the same time. The planet, according to him, by its inertia endeavors to continue in its place, and the action of the sun's image and this inertia are in a perpetual struggle. He adds, that this action of the sun, like to his light, decreases as the distance increases; and therefore moves the same planet with greater celerity when nearer the sun, than at a greater distance. To account for the planet's approaching towards the sun as it descends from the aphelium to the perihelium, and receding from the sun while it ascends to the aphelium again, he supposes that the sun attracts one part of each planet, and repels the opposite part; and that the part which is attracted is turned towards the sun in the descent, and that the other part is towards the sun in the ascent. By suppositions of this kind he endeavored to account for all the other varieties of the celestial motions."
"The difficulty in presenting a rigorous as well as clear statement of the theory of limits is inherent in the subject. ...If the reader has found some difficulty in grasping it he may be less discouraged when he is told that it eluded even Newton and Leibniz. ... Many contemporaries of Newton, among them ... taught that the calculus was a collection of ingenious fallacies. ... decided that he could found calculus properly... The book was undoubtedly profound but also unintelligible. One hundred years after the time of Newton and Leibniz, Joseph Louis Lagrange... still believed that the calculus was unsound and gave correct results only because errors were offsetting each other. He, too, formulated his own foundation... but it was incorrect. ...D'Alembert had to advise students of the calculus... faith would eventually come to them. This is not bad advice... but it is no substitute for rigor and proof. ... About a century and a half after the creation of calculus... Augustin Louis Cauchy... finally gave a definitive formulation of the limit concept that removed doubts as to the soundness of the subject."
"The Gregory-Newton interpolation formula was used by Brook Taylor to develop the most powerful single method for expanding a function into an infinite series. In his Methodus Incrementorum Directa et Inversa Taylor derived the theorem... he praises Newton but makes no mention of Leibniz's work of 1673 on finite differences, though Taylor knew this work. Taylor's theorem was known to James Gregory in 1670 and was known... by Leibnez, however these two men did not pubish it. John Bernoulli did publish practically the same result in the Acta Eruditorium of 1694; and though Taylor knew his result he did not refer to it. ...Colin Maclaurin in his Treatise of Fluxions (1742) stated that... [Mclaurin's theorem] was but a special case of Taylor's result."
"Colin Maclaurin was descended of an ancient family, which had been long in possession of the island of Tirrie, upon the coast of Argyleshire. His grandfather, Daniel, removing to Inverara, greatly contributed to restore that town, after it had teen almost entirely ruined in the time of the civil wars; and, by some memoirs which he wrote of his own times, appears to have been a person of worth and superior abilities. John, the son of Daniel, and father of our author, was minister of Glenderule; where he not only distinguished himself by all the virtues of a faithful and diligent pastor, but has left, in the register of his provincial synod, lasting monuments of his talents for business, and of his public spirit. He was likewise employed by that synod in Completing the version of the Psalms into Irish, which, is still used in those parts of the country where divine service is performed in that language. He married a gentlewoman of the family of Cameron, by whom he had three sons; John, who is still living, a learned and pious divine, one of the ministers of the city of Glasgow; Daniel, who died young, after having given proofs of a most extraordinary genius; and Colin born at Kilmoddan in the tnonth of February 1698."
"His father died six weeks after; but that loss was in a good measure supplied to the orphan family, by the affectionate care of their uncle Mr. Daniel Maclaurin, minister of Kilfinnan, and by the virtue and prudent œconomy of Mrs. Maclaurin. After some stay in Argyleshire, where her sisters and she had a small patrimonial estate, she removed to Dumbarton, for the more convenient education of her children: but dying in 1707, the care of them devolved entirely to their uncle."
"Had the celebrated Author lived to publish his own Work, his Name would, alone, have been sufficient to recommend it to the Notice of the Publick: But that Task having, by his lamented premature Death, devolved to the Gentlemen whom he left entrusted with his Papers, the Reader may reasonably expect some Account of the Materials of which it consists, and of the Care that has been taken in collecting and disposing them, so as best to answer the Author's Intension, and fill up the Plan he had designed."
"He seems, in composing this Treatise, to have had three three Objects in view."
"1. To give the general Principles and Rules of the Science, in the shortest, and at the same time, the most clear and cemprehensive Manner that was possible. Agreeable to this, though every Rule is properly exemplified, yet he does not launch out into what we may call, a Tautology of Examples. He rejects some Applications of Algebra, that are commonly to be met with in other Writers; because the Number of such Applications is endless: And, however usefull they may be in Practice, they cannot, by the Rules of good Method, have place in an Elementary Treatise. He has likewise omitted the Algebraical Solution of particular Geometrical Problems, as requiring the Knowledge of the Elements of Geometry; from which those of Algebra ought to be kept, as they really are, entirely distinct; reserving to himself to treat of the mutual Relation of the two Sciences in his Third Part, and, more generally still, in the Appendix. He might think too, that such an Application was the less necessary, that Sir Isaac Newton's excellent Collection of Examples is in every body's Hands, and that there are few Mathematical Writers, who do not furnish numbers of the same kind."
"2. Sir Isaac Newton's Rules, in his ', concerning the Resolution of the higher Equations, and the Affectations of their Roots, being, for the most part, delivered without any Demonstration, Mr. MacLaurin had designed, that his Treatise should serve as a Commentary on that Work. For we here find all those difficult Passages in Sir Isaac's Book, which have so long perplexed the Students of Algebra, clearly explained and demonstrated. How much such a Commentary was wanted, we may learn from the Words of the late eminent Author.The ablest Mathematicians of the last Age (says he) did not disdain to write Notes on the Geometry of Des Cartes; and surely Sir Isaac Newton's Arithmetic no less deserves that Honour. To excite some one of the many skilful Hands that our Times afford to undertake this Work, and to shew the Necessity of it, I give this Specimen, in an Explication of two Passages of the '; which, however, are not the most difficult in that Book.What this learned Professor so earnestly wished for, we at last see executed; not separately nor in the loose disagreeable Form which such Commentaries generally take, but in a Manner equally natural and convenient; every Demonstration being aptly inserted into the Body of the Work, as a necessary and inseparable Member; an Advantage which, with some others, obvious enough to an attentive Reader, will, 'tis hoped, distinguish this Performance from every other, of the Kind, that has hitherto appeared."
"3. After having fully explained the Nature of Equations, and the Methods of finding their Roots, either in finite Expressions, when it can be done, or in infinite converging Series; it remained only to consider the Relation of Equations involving two variable Quantities, and of Geometrical Lines to each other; the Doctrine of the Loci; and the Construction of Equations. These make the Subject of the Third Part."
"Upon this Plan Mr. Mac-Laurin composed a System of Algebra, soon after his being chosen Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh; which he, thenceforth, made use of in his ordinary Course of Lectures, and was occasionally improving to the Perfection he intended it should have, before he committed it to the Press."
"And the best Copies of his Manuscript having been transmitted to the Publisher, it was easy, by comparing them, to establish a correct and genuine Text. There were, besides, several detached Papers, some of which were quite finished, and wanted only to be inserted in their proper Places. In a few others, the Demonstrations were so concisely expressed, and couched in Algebraical Characters, that it was necessary to write them out at more Length, to make them of a piece with the rest. And this is the only Liberty the Publisher has allowed himself to take; excepting a few inconsiderable Additions, that seemed necessary to render the Book more compleat within itself, and to save the Trouble of consulting others who have written on the same Subject."
"MR. MACLAURIN a most eminent mathematician and philosopher, was the son of a clergyman, and born at Kilmoddan, in Scotland, in the year 1698."
"He was sent to the University of Glasgow in 17Q9; where he continued five years, and applied to his studies in a very intense manner, and particulariy to the mathematics."
"His great genius for mathematical learning discovered itself... at twelve years of age; when, having accidentally met with a copy of Euclid's Elements in a friend's chamber, he became in a few days master of the first 6 books without... assistance: and... in his 16th year he had invented many of the propositions which were afterwards published as part of his work entitled Geometria Organica."
"In his 15th year he took the degree of Master of Arts; on which occasion he composed and publicly defended a Thesis on the Power of Gravity, with great applause."
"After this he quitted the University, and retired to a country seat of his uncle, who had the care of his education; his parents being dead some time."
"Here he spent two or three years in pursuing his favourite studies; but, in 1717, at 19 years of age... he offered himself a candidate for the Professorship of Mathematics in the of , and obtained it after a ten days' trial against a very able competitor."
"In 1719... Maclaurin visited London... where he became acquainted with Dr. Hoadley... Bishop of Bangor, Dr. Clarke, Sir Isaac Newton, and other eminent men; at which time... he was admitted... [to] the ..."
"In 172S, Lord Polwarth... engaged Maclaurin to go as a tutor and companion to his eldest son... on his travels. After... Paris, and... other towns in France, they fixed in Lorrain; where he wrote his piece, On the Percussion of Bodies, which gained... the prize of the Royal Academy of Sciences... 1724. But his pupil dying soon after at Montpelier, he returned... to his profession at Aberdeen."
"He was hardly settled... when he received an invitation to Edinburgh... University... that he should supply the place of Mr. James Gregory, whose great age and infirmities had rendered him incapable of teaching."
"He had here some difficulties to encounter, arising from competitors... and... from the want of an additional fund... which, however, at length were all surmmounted, principally by the means of Sir Isaac Newton."
"[M]athematical classes soon became very numerous... generally upwards of 100 students attending his Lectures... who being of different standings and proficiency, he was obliged to divide them into four or five classes..."
"In the first class he taught the first 6 books of Euclid's Elements, Plane Trigonometry, Practical Geometry, the Elements of Fortification, and an Introduction to Algebra. The second class studied Algebra, with the 11th and 12th books of Euclid, Spherical Trigonometry, Conic Sections, and the General Principles of Astronomy. The third... in Astronomy and Perspective... a part of Newton's Principia, and... experiments... illustrating them: he afterwards... demonstrated the Elements of Fluxions. Those in the fourth class read a System of Fluxions, the Doctrine of Chances, and the remainder of Newton's Principia."
"In 1734, Dr. Berkley, , published a piece called ... which he took occasion, from... disputes... concerning the grounds of the fluxionary method, to explode the method... and... charge mathematicians... with infidelity in religion."
"Maclaurin thought himself included in this charge, and began an answer to Berkley's book: but [so many] other answers... discoveries... new theories and problems occurred to him, that, instead of a vindicatory pamphlet he produced a Complete System of Fluxions, with their application to the most considerable problems in Geometry and Natural Philosophy."
"This work was published at Edinburgh in 1742, 2 vol. 4to.; and as it cost him infinite pains, so it is the most considerable of all his works, and will do him immortal honour, being indeed the most complete treatise on that science... yet..."
"In the mean time, he was continually obliging the public with some observation or performance of his own, several of which were published in the 5th and 6th volumes of the Medical Essays at Edinburgh."
"Many... were... published in the Philosophical Transactions; as the following: 1. On the Construction and Measure of Curves, vol. 30.---2. A New Method of describing all Kinds of Curves, vol. 30.---3. On Equations with impossible Roots, vol. 34.---4. On the Roots of Equations, &c. vol. 34.---5. On the Description of Curve Lines^ vol. 39.---6. Continuation of the same, vol. 39.---7. Observations on a Solar Eclipse, vol. 40.---8. A Rule for finding the Meridional Parts of a Spheroid with the same Exactness as in a Sphere, vol. 41.---9. An Account of the Treatise of Fluxions, vol. 42.---10. On the Bases of the Cells where the Bees deposit their Honey, vol. 42."
"[H]e was always ready to lend his assistance in contriving and promoting any scheme which might contribute to the public service."
"When the Earl of Morton went... 1789, to... his estates in Orkney and Shetland, he requested... Maclaurin to assist him in settling the geography... very erroneous in all our maps; to examine their natural history, to survey the coasts, and to take the measure of a degree of the meridian. ...[F]amily affairs would not permit him to comply... [so] he drew up a memorial of what he thought necessary to be observed, and furnished proper instruments... recommending Mr. Short, the noted optician, as... operator..."
"Mr. Maclaurin had... another scheme for the improvement of geography and navigation... the opening of a passage from Greenland to the South Sea by the North Pole. That such a passage might be found, he was so fully persuaded, that he used to say, if his situation could admit... he would undertake the voyage even at his own charge."
"But when schemes... were laid before the Parliament in 1744, and... before he could finish the memorials he proposed to send, the premium was limited to the... North West passage: and he used to regret that the word West was inserted, because he thought that passage, if at all to be found, must lie not far from the Pole."
"In 1745, having been... active in fortifying the city of Edinburgh against the rebel army, he was obliged to fly from thence into England, where he was invited by Dr. Herring, Archbishop of York, to reside with him... however, being exposed to cold and hardships, and... of a weak and tender constitution... much more enfeebled by close application to study, he laid the foundation of an ilness which put an end to his life in June 1746, at 48 years of age, leaving his widow with two sons and three daughters."
"Mr. Maclaorin was a very good as well as a very great man, and worthy of love as well as admiration."
"His... merit as a philosopher was, that all his studies were accommodated to general utility; and we find, in many places of his works, an application even of the most absruse theories to the perfecting of mechanical arts. For the same purpose, he had resolved to compose a course of Practical Mathematics, and to rescue several useful branches of the science from the ill treatment... often met with in less skilful hands. These intentions... were prevented fay his death; unless we... reckon, as a part of his intended work, the translation of... David Gregory's Practical Geometry, which he revised, and published with additions, in 1745."
"In his life-time..., he had frequent opportunities of serving his friends and his country by his great skill."
"Whatever difficulty occurred concerning the constructing or perfecting of machines, the working of mines, the improving of manufactures, the conveying of water, or the execution of any public work, he was always ready to resolve it."
"He was employed to terminate some disputes of consequence that had arisen at Glasgow concerning the gauging of vessels; and for that purpose, presented to the commissioners of the excise two elaborate memorials, with their demonstrations, containing rules by which the officers now act."
"He made... calculations relating to the provision, now established by law, for the children and widows of the Scotch clergy, and of the professors in the Universities, entitling them to certain annuities and sums upon the voluntary annual payment of a certain sum by the incumbent. In contriving and adjusting this wise and useful scheme he bestowed a great deal of labour, and contributed not a little towards bringing it to perfection."
"In 1740, he... shared the prize of the... [Royal] Academy with ... D. Bernoulli and Euler, for resolving the problem relating to the motion of the tides from the theory of gravity... He bad only ten days to draw up this paper in, and could not... transcribe a fair copy; so ... the Paris edition... is incorrect. He afterwards revised the whole, and inserted it in his Treatise of Fluxions."
"Since his death... two... volumes have appeared; his Algebra, and his Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries."
"The Algebra, though not finished by himself, is... excellent in its kind; containing, in no large volume, a complete elementary treatise of that science, as far as it has hitherto beea carried; besides some neat analytical papers on curve lines."
"His Account of Newton's Philosophy was occasioned in the following manner:---Sir Isaac dying in the beginning of 1728, his nephew, Mr. Conduitt, proposed to publish an Account of his Life, and desired Mr. Maclaurin's assistance. The latter, out of gratitude to his great benefactor, cheerfully undertook, and soon finished, the History of the Progress which Philosophy had made before Newton's time; and this was the first draught of the work in hand, which, not going forward on account of Mr. Conduitt's death, was returned to Mr. Maclaurin. To this he afterwards made great additions, and left; it in the state in which y it now appears."
"His main design seems to have been to explain only those parts off Newton's Philosophy which have been controverted: and this is supposed to be the reason why his grand discoveries concerning light and colours, are but transiently and generally touched upon; for it is known, that whenever the experiments, on which his doctrine of light and colours is foimded, had been repeated with due care, this doctrine had not been contested; while his accounting for the celestial motions, and the other great appearances of nature, from gravity, had been misunderstood, and even attempted to be ridiculed."
"The Revolution is not to be considered as a mere effort of the nation on a pressing emergency to rescue itself from the violence of a particular monarch; much less as grounded upon the danger of the Anglican church, its emoluments, and dignities, from the bigotry of a hostile religion. It was rather the triumph of those principles which, in the language of the present day, are denominated liberal or constitutional, over those of absolute monarchy, or of monarchy not effectually controlled by stated boundaries. It was the termination of a contest between the regal power and that of parliament, which could not have been brought to so favourable an issue by any other means."
"The principal works of this judicious and learned writer are A View of Europe during the Middle Ages, The Constitutional History of England, and An Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. With the skill of an advocate he combines the calmness of a judge; and he has been justly called "the accurate Hallam," because his facts are in all cases to be depended on. By his clear and illustrative treatment of dry subjects, he has made them interesting; and his works have done as much to instruct his age as those of any writer. Later researches in literature and constitutional history may discover more than he has presented, but he taught the new explorers the way, and will always be consulted with profit, as the representative of this varied learning during the first half of the nineteenth century."
"Hallam's View of Europe, during the Middle Ages. 2 vols. A work of profound research, and displaying a free and vigorous spirit of inquiry and criticism."
"Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, in 4 vols. This is a production of the greatest value, and distinguished like his other work, for research, judgment, taste and elegance."
"In Hallam's "Constitutional History of England," the good qualities of the antiquarian student are united with a masterly and impartial analysis of the growth of our political institutions, and set off by a classical grace of diction, and much power of exciting interest. The work is the only one of its kind and time, that combines, in a high degree, literary skill with valuable matter; and its merit is the greatest that can belong to an historical work, avowedly and designedly dissertative rather than narrative. The distinguished writer, (whose varied learning we shall yet meet on different ground,) conferred another standard work on our language, in his "View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages.""
"Now there’s ane end of ane old song."
"Samuel Warren, though able, yet vainest of men, Could he guide with discretion his tongue and his pen, His course would be clear for—"Ten Thousand a Year," But limited else to a brief—"Now and Then.""
"Why should Honesty seek any safer retreat From the lawyers or barges, odd-rot-'em? For the lawyers are just at the top of the street, And the barges are just at the bottom!"
"O thou who read'st what 's written here, Commiserate the lot severe, By which, compell'd, I write them. In vain Sophia I withstand, For Anna adds her dread command; I tremble—and indite them. Blame Eve, who, feeble to withstand One single devil, rais'd her hand, And gather'd our damnation; But do not me or Adam blame, Tempted by two, who did the same— His Wife—and her Relation."
"It has been shown by and others that when bombarded by s of emits a radiation of great penetrating power, which has an absorption coefficient in lead of about 0.3 (cm.)–1. Recently and found, when measuring the ionisation produced by this beryllium radiation in a vessel with a thin window, that the ionisation increased when matter containing hydrogen was placed in front of the window. The effect appeared to be due to the ejection of protons with velocities up to a maximum of nearly 3 × 109 cm. per sec. They suggested that the transference of energy to the proton was by a process similar to the , and estimated that the beryllium radiation had a quantum energy of 50 × 106 s."
"The idea that there might exist small particles with no electrical charge has been put forward several times. , for example, suggested that a neutral particle might be formed by a negative electron and an equal positive charge, and that these "s" might possess many of the properties of the ether; while at one time suggested that the s emitted by radioactive substances consisted of small neutral particles, which, on breaking up, released a negative electron. The first suggestion of a neutral particle with the properties of the neutron we now know, was made by Rutherford in 1920. He thought that a proton and an electron might unite in a much more intimate way than they do in the hydrogen atom, and so form a particle of no nett charge and with a mass nearly the same as that of the hydrogen atom. His view was that with such a particle as the first step in the formation of atomic nuclei from the two elementary units in the structure of matter — the proton and the electron — it would be much easier to picture how heavy complex nuclei can be gradually built up from the simpler ones. He pointed out that this neutral particle would have peculiar and interesting properties."
"During our march the simoom was fearful, and the heat so intense that it was impossible to draw the guncases out of their leather covers, which it was necessary to cut open. All woodwork was warped; ivory knife-handles were split; paper broke when crunched in the hand, and the very marrow seemed to be dried out of the bones. The extreme dryness of the air induced an extraordinary amount of electricity in the hair and in all woollen materials. A Scotch plaid laid upon a blanket for a few hours adhered to it, and upon being withdrawn at night a sheet of flame was produced, accompanied by tolerably loud reports."
"He is a fool who thinks by force or skill To turn the current of a woman's will."
"A fop? In this brave, licentious age To bring his musty morals on the stage? Rhime us to reason? and our lives redress In metre, as Druids did the savages."
"Friendship's an empty name, made to deceive Those whose good nature tempts them to believe: There's no such thing on earth; the best that we Can hope for here is faint neutrality."
"He ought not to pretend to friendship's name, Who reckons not himself and friend the same."
"Happiness is a stranger to mankind, And, like to a forc'd motion, it is ever Strongest at the beginning; then languishing With time, grows weary of our company."
"He, who the rules of temperance neglects, From a good cause may produce vile effects."
"For 'tis not where we lie, but whence we fell; The loss of heaven's the greatest pain in hell."
"I do math and statistics. That's what I do, so I come at the whole business of turning numbers into stories. ...How can we turn numbers into stories?"
"What we use in the book... are ways which we think might... provide gripping narratives, and yet provide a realistic way of communicating small risks..."
"If you go to the English Parachuting Association web site... you find this lovely Excel spreadsheet which has got all the deaths... [F]or the last 20 years, 4.6 million jumps, 48 deaths... or 10 in a million. On average, with going up in a plane... I thought there's around 7 or 10 in a million chances of me dying. There's 50 million people in England and Wales... Every day 50 of them have accidental or violent deaths... not to do with their health. So a couple are murdered a day, a few are run over, some people fall off ladders, etc... So that's 1 in a million... Our daily dose of acute risk is a [a 1 in a million chance of dying]. So jumping out of a plane is only about a week's worth. ...[I]n terms of overall mortality... at my age, 59, it's 7,000 micromorts a year in terms of my chances of dying. So an extra 7 or 10 on top of that... [I]t's worthwhile doing... it once....So I did it [parachuted], and I survived."
"The point is... that you can make these comparisons quite easy... is... 8 [micromorts], running a marathon is... 7, ... 5, 's going to be 400..."
"So... in the book we make all these comparisons... That's acute timing risk, things that are going to kill you on the spot. ...What about the other sort of risks? ...You can have your spam ...[T]hat is not going to kill you on the spot. Well, it might. ...You might choke on...[it]... but it's... unlikely..."
"So it's a different sort of risk. These are chronic risks. ...[T]hings that... if you carry on with them, are likely to shorten your life. So how can we express these... [T]hese are the ones that newspapers tend to get terribly wrong."
"This is called a hazard curve. ...This is the chance of dying before your next birthday, on average. ...[I]t's... on a , so 10%... (1 in 10) 83 year olds will not see 84... 1 in 100 people like me [age 59] will not see their next birthday. 1 in 1,000 thirty-two year olds, and 1 in 10,000 7 year olds... and there is a... lump, sadly jumping up at 17, as you can imagine... boys... a risk-taking lump, but if you ignore that lump... it's a... straight line between... 7 and 90."
"This was discovered by Gompertz in 1825. There's something about our bodies, the way that we age, that means that every year our chance of dying increases by the same amount, 9%."
"When epidemiologists... do studies, when they follow lots of people for years, they measure the effects of various habits, in terms of s. This is what it does to your hazard every year. So if you have a daily sausage or a bacon sandwich, this goes up by about 10%, a fixed amount... as your... annual risk. 10% increase in your annual risk of death, of not making it to your next birthday."
"These s that epidemiologists report, as Michael has so ably shown, tend to get... badly reported in the newspapers. So this... in the '... "Less Meat, More Veg is the Secret for Longer Life" which... probably could well be the case, but the way they report it... They said that if we cut down the amount of red meat... 10% of all deaths would be avoided. ...So 10% of us will live forever eating nuts. This is not true. ...[T]hey're talking about relative risk, but they don't understand."
"So we've been trying to think of another metaphor... and the one we caught hold of is... speed of aging. So it's turning these numbers, rather bold numbers quite difficult to understand, into stories, and the story we've got is, "Getting older quicker" or "Aging Slower"..."
"Gompertz's observation said that between the ages of 25 and 80, your risk of dying increases by about 9% per year. ...[T]hat means that every eight years your risk of dying doubles, essentially. ...[I]t's going to get you in the end. Mathematics proves it. You can't go on forever, because it's this exponential increase in the risk. Amazing, really powerful. That's why you peg out in the end. It's going to get you."
"That change in life expectancy is not that gripping in itself. So what we've done in the book, it does seem a rather a strange thing to say... "Over an adult lifetime, about... 50-60 years... take a year off your life." It's like losing roughly 1/50 of your life. It's actually ' because of... these daily habits... like losing a week every year of your life, the same as losing 1/2 hour off a day. So we could say... that... 2 hours watching television... it's as if it's taking 1/2 hour... off your life. ...You're aging an extra 1/2 hour sitting on your backside watching television ..."
"There'a a nice thing about 1/2 hour because an adult life expectancy is 55 to 60 years... is actually a million 1/2 hours. A million 1/2 hours is 57 years. So you have got, not all of you... some of you have got a million 1/2 hours to fritter away."
"Life-expectancy reduced by 1 year = about 30 minutes off your life expectancy for each day with the habit = 1"
"One of the other things we do in the book is talk about radiation... [Y]ou can say exposure to radiation, you can talk in terms of micro-lives or cigarette equivalents. So... a flight to New York, the radiation you get from that is equivalent to smoking a couple of cigarettes, about 1/2 hour of your life... The whole body CT scan... exposing yourself... to possibly an unhealthy dose of radiation... 150 microlives, smoking about 300 cigarettes, about the same as standing about 1 1/2 miles from the Hiroshima explosion. ...[W]hen they advertise these things for a thousand quid, they don't tell you that."
"[W]e can compare hang gliding... taking heroin... health treatments, with standing next to Hiroshima. We're deliberately... using these numbers to tell uncomfortable stories."
"Probability was only invented a few hundred years ago. It's not a natural way to think at all. It's extremely difficult and complex. Anything that can help people do it, is of benefit."
"Psychologists got hold of this lovely idea of why we're trying to do it. I don't care what people do, so I'm not trying to change what they do, particularly. ...It would be nice if they could remember it... get the gist of something... learn something, but I don't even care too much about that. Psychologists have got this great scheme of what, perhaps, we're really trying to do, which is trying to breed some immunity to misleading anecdote, which is... the fact that we're so influenced by idiotic stories we hear on the web, or from our friends and neighbors."
"Misleading anecdote is someone smokes 20 a day and lives to 110, [or] who buys some tablets off the web and their cancer goes away... These are not representative... stories... [T]his is an active area of research, and it's been shown that if you present information in the way that Michael was presenting, as icon arrays, show both the good and the bad, show the totality, [it's been] shown empirically that you can make people less influenced by misleading anecdotes."
"There is a way... which comes from economics and social science. It was developed by... Frank Knight, and Keynes used this... The distinction between risk and uncertainty... [R]isk is about things... we... understand... known unknowns, to use Donald Rumsfeld's... great phrase... [something] we can put numbers on, things within... circumscribed situations... A lot of medicine is like this... repetition, a lot of data. ...[I]nsurance is like this ...We know roughly what the chances are, and we can talk about the numbers. Uncertainty is when... we don't know the numbers, or... deeper... we don't even know... the problem... the options... the possible outcomes..."
"[W]e tend to think... of something that's going to happen... soon, or is well understood as risk, but if we're talking about what will happen in the world in ten years time. Who's going to start putting chances on this. You'd be... deluded... There's much... deeper uncertainty or... radical uncertainty..."
"This current COVID-19 virus... is a classic situation... of... an uncertainty problem, rather than a risk problem because we... don't know the parameters. We don't know... how it might spread in Great Britain. We don't know the effectiveness of the interventions that are going to be made. So... when you're making projections... over the next 6 months, there's a massive range of possibilities, up to 1/2 million deaths... from about 5... the most optimistic... [A]ny quantification, giving any probabilities would be... very ambitious..."
"[S]easonal flu—average year—kills 6,000 people in this country. Mainly old... vulnerable... frail...[etc.] So we are hit by this, year after year... epidemics... we've got to put this into perspective... [T]o an extent it is a trade-off between massive disruption... [I]f you say everyone has to stay in their home for 4 weeks... that's not just economic loss. It has a massive... health... [detriment] in terms of... mentality and fitness. Norsemen of harm will be done... so it's not just a matter of... "Minimize the number of deaths.""
"We know from studying and going... back to Geoffrey Rose's idea that the biggest impact on public health... is not by picking out the real high-risk people and maybe stopping them drinking. It's by reducing the exposure of the vast mass of people at intermediate risk. So... the biggest impact on public health would be if everybody drank a little bit less... But the problem... is the Rose paradox... the very people you want to change the behavior [of] are the ones who don't see why they should change their behavior, because the impact is minimal. They won't notice the benefits. You're asking them to give up something they enjoy for the benefit... they will... never notice... [I]t's only noticeable when... multiplied... ten million times./* Understanding Risk (Mar 24, 2020) */Ref: "a large number of people at a small risk may give rise to more cases of disease than the small number who are at"
"When it comes to vaccines and infectious diseases, nobody is an individual... [With] [i]nfectious diseases... measles when it comes to vaccine decisions, or COVID-19 when it comes to taking precautions, we're not individuals. We are members of society, and there's no... "optimize your individual situation." You have... an absolute responsibility... to protect the people around you, particularly the vulnerable... [T]hat's why... people who avoid vaccinating their kids is outrageous and irresponsible... they are endangering weaker kids who might not be able to have the vaccines because their immune system is compromised or for some [other] reason... [S]imilarly, if young... healthy people... not... harmed by the virus, go around being irresponsible, they are endangering the lives of older people surrounding them, in particular, their own family."
"When it comes to trying to prevent you endangering other people, I don't see anything wrong with persuasion. ...[Y]ou shouldn't be... [endangering people] and you should be trying to be persuaded, if not forced... I get quite Stalinist on these things because... it's so irresponsible for some people to endanger the health of others. If they wanted to make their own decision that only affects them, it's very different, and I wouldn't want to persuade anyone..."
"[I]n medicine... ... not manipulation or coercion, is when... as a doctor or... authority, you genuinely believe that this action is in the person's best interests, but they don't... want to do it. ...How do you make that an ethical persuasion? It's based on... two things, first... respecting the autonomy of the individuals, that they can refuse... no matter what, respect their ability to choose... the other thing is your authenticity, your integrity, that... you are doing this on behalf of that individual, for their best interest; not... to keep your clinic numbers up or to stop this person being a nuisance...[etc.]"
"Communication is not a one-way process. It's not just telling people things. ...[T]he first rule of communication is to shut-up and... just listen... and good doctors will do that. ...Good doctors will listen and explore the person's values and concerns, and... explore to what extent... that person want[s] to be guided... to be told what to do... and that's... appropriate to want... guidance from a trusted source. ...And ...make sure ...before ...that stage, you have ...genuinely laid out the options in a way that gives it balance. You haven't tried to manipulate them... into a particular direction. ...Very difficult ...but ...a worthy objective, and... having done that, it's perfectly reasonable to... then, give advice."
"The worst... medical care would be just say, "Oh well, it's completely up to you. I'm not going to give you any advice." Well... you're the guy who knows... [the] supposed... expert. ...I want your advice. ...[T]his is an invaluable process which I hope all medical students have been taught. How to engage... It's not . ...Paternalism is ...immediately saying, "...I think you should do this," without really allowing that person a full autonomy to choose."
"[s] don't have to get into fantastically complicated statistics. ...It's all just to do with proportions, that's all! It's not a skill. Well, it is a skill in how to tell a story. ...[C]linicians now—we've got some online courses that do this—can learn to do it... Getting a rough idea of magnitudes is very important, and... to avoid words like "chances" and... I'm not even that keen on "s." So I'd much rather say... Experience shows that out of 100 people who match you in these characteristics—They're not you, but would be matching—This is what we would expect to happen, about 60 of them would survive this and... 30 blah, blah, blah... Just as a descriptor, and you could draw a little picture...[etc.] So we've got these possibilities. ...We don't know which one of these you'll be, and then it's very reasonable to tune it: but in your circumstances we... think you're better... other factors... put your chances a little higher... but we can't guarantee it either way."
"We spent ages... working... for child heart surgery... such a delicate area, trying to find the wording for... random error or binomial variability... [Y]ou can give a percentage... 95% . Well, am I going to be one of the 5% or one of the 95%? We don't know. It's just chance or luck, fortune. We can't... use those words in... delicate situations... operating on children... Then we came up with a good phrase... which we used and tested on parents... It's "unforeseeable factors," not "unforeseen factors," because that would suggest someone's to blame... [T]he unforeseeable factors could lead some people to... not survive the operation, and some to survive. So... we can put you in a group, but we can't go beyond that... [O]nly what develops over time, in terms of complications, or something like that, could... put... you in one group or another. "Unforeseeable factors," I really like that phrase. I try to use it all the time, I recommend it."
"s are disastrous. ...Relative risks are deeply misleading. They're a manipulative form of communication. To ever say, "Oh, this doubles your risk, or increases your risk 50%," absolute No-no! They are hopeless. In some situations they can be very valuable... but in general, medical things what... should be always given... s... with and without something... Like my s... I was getting... 15%, 10 year risk: 15 out 100 people like me might expect to have a heart attack or stroke. So I... roughly halved it... only in terms of relative risk... from 15% to 7-8%. ...Being told it halved it does sound good, but if wasn't a very big number in the first place, halving it is of no interest... especially if the thing's going to give me some side-effects... if it did, it would be completely pointless... [Y]ou cannot know... whether you should do something... [Y]ou cannot trade off the benefits... [and] the harms from a medical treatment without knowing the absolute risk. You cannot do it in any rational way whatsoever. ...A lot of the communication now is using absolute risk, which is a huge improvement."
"s are very valuable in... low probability, high impact events. Every time you cross the road there is a low probability and high impact that you're going to get run over. ...You take extra precautions to reduce... very small risk to... even smaller. ...[O]n an absolute risk scale, you [might] say, "Oh, I'm not going to bother... It's not worth doing..." but... by making that low risk even smaller, it's... valid... [P]eople discovered this... doing earthquake predictions... [T]he absolute risk... it's always low. They're very unpredictable... but telling people it's 10 times normal, or 100 times normal, people will act... appropriately. ...They won't panic. They won't rush away. ...[I]n Italy ...they ...sleep outside for a bit. ...So in certain circumstances relative risk can be very valuable... [U]sing both in... situations... with very small risks.., where... consequences are... severe... [and] the cost of the intervention, the action, is... minimal. Taking a bit more precautions, being a bit more careful... not putting a big investment into making a very small risk even smaller.... not walking under ladders... a low-cost change in your behavior to make a small risk even smaller... [A]bsolute risks really don't deal well with that, because you're talking 0.000..."
"We find it very difficult to deal with... low numbers, one in a million, one in a billion... Once I have to start counting the zeros, all intuition and feeling goes. So it's hopeless, and of course we're bad at it. Why should we be good at doing that sort of thing? ...[I]t's more and more reported that people will use this expected frequency format, where instead of talking about... .03 per person year... What does that mean, for heaven's sakes. It's absolutely ridiculous scientific language for something. No, what you say is, out of 100 people... we would expect 3 for this to happen each year. ...You talk about a specific group of people, which you can... draw a... picture of... and that helps enormously. You... want to bring things to... whole numbers, small numbers, preferably between 1 and 100, or between 1 and 50... magnitudes that people have got a feeling for, and... no decimal places, no multiple zeros. You've got to get rid of all of that. You've got to get things to units people can understand, preferably on a scale of 1 to 10."
"Framing is absolutely vital. ...All the work in communications is driven by the work of psychologists like Kahneman, Tversky...[etc.] The simplest one... is not always to talk about s, but to talk about s, and preferably... to give both. Our predict systems are almost always... positively framed, all in terms of survival. So we draw survival curves, not mortality curves... How long can you be without this condition. ...In a way you should give both, but ...it makes a big difference ...whether you talk about 2% mortality or 98% survival. ...2% mortality sounds rather terrifying while 98% survival sounds rather good, and we don't want to unnecessarily upset people... [W]e are all going to die ...It's 100% mortality in the end, but you want to show a decline in survival ...because it's just fairer and more likely to get people engaged rather than frighten them off immediately. ...[W]hen we ...provide an icon array that shows everybody, it shows the deaths ...patients like it. ...They like seeing out of 100 people ...in 10 years time, how many people are going to be alive ...because they have the chemotherapy now, or dead because of breast cancer...[etc.]"
"We need to think slow instead of fast, and resist drawing causal links between events where none may exist."
"It’s a common human tendency to attribute a causal effect between different events, even when there isn’t one present..."
"[S]omeone is diagnosed with autism after receiving the , so people assume a causal connection – even when there isn’t one."
"[W]hen... there have been 30 "thromboembolic events" after around 5m vaccinations, the crucial question... is: how many would be expected anyway, in the normal run..?"
"(DVTs) [normally] happen to around one person per 1,000 each year... out of 5 million people getting vaccinated, we would expect... 5,000 DVTs a year, or... 100 every week. So it is not at all surprising that there have been 30 reports."
"In the trials that led to the vaccines... adverse events were reported by 38% of those receiving the real vaccine... 28% of those who received the control [dummy, or fake vaccine, of which some were meningitis vaccine] also reported a side-effect. ...[F]ewer than 1% reported a serious adverse event, and of these... slightly more had received the dummy than the active vaccine. ...So there was no evidence of increased risk ..."
"In the UK, adverse reactions are reported using the “yellow card”... Up to 28 February, around 54,000 yellow cards have been reported... from... 10 million vaccinations... three to six reports per 1,000 jabs [0.3-0.6%]. That means a far greater number of side-effects are reported in the trials..."
"The most serious problem is anaphylactic reactions, and the advice is not to inject anyone with a previous history of allergic reactions to either a prior [vaccine] dose... or its ingredients."
"So far, these vaccines have shown themselves to be extraordinarily safe."
"Randomised trials have proved the effectiveness of some Covid treatments and saved vast numbers of lives... also showing... overblown claims about treatments... as hydroxychloroquine and , were incorrect."
"Currently, there are few books that can help at school level with communication issues in statistics and DS. One exception is Spiegelhalter, a masterpiece in how to communicate easy, not-so-easy, hard, and very difficult topics in statistics. It uses real-world problem solving as a starting point for introducing statistical ideas. One reviewer of the book suggested “it should be compulsory reading for teachers and students of statistics (indeed all subjects that use or produce data), in schools, colleges and universities.” Although the Spiegelhalter book is a great example of communication, the paucity of material in this area shows that there is an urgent need to develop a pedagogy and a corresponding range of resources in writing and communicating statistics and DS."
"The first consideration on reaching Egypt was where to be housed. In those days there was no luxurious close to the ; if any one needed to live there, they must either live in a tomb or in the Arab village. As an English engineer had left a tomb fitted with door and shutters I was glad to get such accommodation. When I say a tomb, it must be understood to be the upper chamber where the Egyptian fed his ancestors with offerings, not the actual sepulchre. And I had three rooms, which had belonged to separate tombs originally ; the thin walls of rock which the economical Egyptian left between his cuttings, had been broken away, and so I had a doorway in the middle into my living-room, a window on one side for my bedroom, and another window opposite for a store-room. I resided here for a great part of two years; and often when in draughty houses, or chilly tents, I have wished myself back in my tomb. No place is so equable in heat and cold, as a room cut out in solid rock ; it seems as good as a fire in cold weather, and deliciously cool in the heat."
"In 1893-1894 I went to to search for remains of the dynastic race, which presumably had entered Egypt at that point from the Red Sea. In the lowest part of the temple foundations we found parts of three colossal figures of the local god , each with surface carvings of animals, &c. They obviously belonged to a far earlier art than anything known in Egypt, and all later discoveries confirm their being placed as the earliest works of the , long before the establishment of the . One figure is at Cairo, and two are in the Asmolean Museum at Oxford."
"In few kinds of work are the results so directly dependent on the personality of the worker as they are in excavating. The old saying that a man finds what he looks for in a subject, is too true; or if he has not enough insight to ensure finding what he looks for, it is at least sadly true that he does not find anything that he does not look for. Whether it be , , , or that excavators have been seeking, they have seldom preserved or cared for anything but their own limited object. Of late years the notion of digging merely for profitable spoil, or to yield a new excitement to the jaded, has spread unpleasantly—at least in Egypt. A concession to dig is sought much like a grant of a monastery at the : the man who has influence or push, a title or a trade connection, claims to try his luck at the spoils of the land. Gold digging has at least no moral responsibility, beyond the ruin of the speculator; but spoiling the past has an acute moral wrong in it, which those who do it may be charitably supposed to be too ignorant or unintelligent to see or realise."
"To the Egyptian the gods might be mortal; even , the sun-god, is said to have grown old and feeble, was slain, and , the great hunter of the heavens, killed and ate the gods. The mortality of gods has been dwelt on by ('), and the many instances of tombs of gods, and of the slaying of the deified man who was worshipped, all show that immortality was not a divine attribute. Nor was there any doubt that they might suffer while alive; one myth tells how Ra, as he walked on earth, was bitten by a magic serpent and suffered torments. The gods were also supposed to share in a life like that of man, not only in Egypt but in most ancient lands. Offerings of food and drink were constantly supplied to them, in Egypt laid upon the altars, in other lands burnt for a sweet savour."
"From the ' diggers, I secured a lot of seventy-five Attic s in perfect condition, which served to show the accuracy of the mint in Athens, for most of the coins would have passed our own mint standard."
"He found archaeology in Egypt a treasure hunt; he left it a science."
"Flinders Petrie had no school or university training. His mother was the only child of , a naval officer who served under Bligh of ', and later explored and surveyed much of the coast of Australia. This lady taught her son the rudiments of knowledge and imbued him at an early age with the love of collecting and studying Greek and Roman coins."
"In 1880 … Petrie set out on an expedition to Egypt long contemplated and prepared for, but delayed in the fruitless hope that his father might accompany him. So the survey of the pyramids, begun with an open mind but in the end intended to settle once for all controversy about prophetic feet and inches, was undertaken almost single-handed, the only helper being an old Egyptian who, as a child, had served , and later and . When Petrie, after two winters in Egypt and a year’s work on the plans, submitted his account to the in 1883 Francis Galton reported so favourably on it that £100 was granted for publication. Galton continued his encouragement in subsequent years, and , who, with and others, had just founded the , insisted that this new body should give the young man an opportunity to excavate. Thus his excavations commenced when he was thirty; they continued, with very rare exceptions, every year for over fifty years."
"The Uzbeks manage all their affairs by means of slaves, who are chiefly brought from Persia by the Toorkmuns. Here these poor wretches are exposed for sale, and occupy thirty or forty stalls, where they are examined like cattle, only with this difference, that they are able to give an account of themselves vivâ voce. On the morning I visited the bazar, there were only six unfortunate beings, and I witnessed the manner in which they are disposed of. They are first interrogated regarding their parentage and capture, and if they are Mahommedans, that is, Soonees [Sunni]. The question is put in that form, for the Uzbeks do not consider a Shiah to be a true believer; with them, as with the primitive Christians, a sectary is more odious than an unbeliever. After the intended purchaser is satisfied of the slave being an infidel (kaffir), he examines his body, particularly noting if he be free from leprosy, so common in Toorkistan, and then proceeds to bargain for his price. Three of the Persian boys were for sale at thirty tillas of gold apiece; and it was surprising to see how contented the poor fellows sat under their lot. I heard one of them telling how he had been seized south of Meshid, while tending his flocks. There was one unfortunate girl, who had been long in service, and was now exposed for sale by her master, because of his poverty. I felt certain that many a tear had been shed in the court where I surveyed the scene; but I was assured from every quarter that slaves are kindly treated; and the circumstance of so many of them continuing in the country after they have been manumitted, seems to establish this fact. The bazars of Bokhara are chiefly supplied from Orgunje. Russian and Chinese are also sold, but rarely. The feelings of an European revolt at this most odious traffic; but the Uzbeks entertain no such notions, and believe that they are conferring a benefit on a Persian when they purchase him, and see that he renounces his heretical opinions."
"From the slave-market I passed on that morning to the great bazar, and the very first sight which fell under my notice was the offenders against Mahommedanism of the preceding Friday. They consisted of four individuals, who had been caught asleep at prayer time, and a youth, who had been smoking in public. They were all tied to each other, and the person who had been found using tobacco led the way, holding the hookah, or pipe, in his hand. The officer of police followed with a thick thong, and chastised them as he went, calling aloud, ‘Ye followers of Islam, behold the punishment of those who violate the law!’ Never, however, was there such a series of contradiction and absurdity as in the practice and theory of religion in Bokhara. You may openly purchase tobacco and all the most approved apparatus for inhaling it; yet if seen smoking in public you are straightway dragged before the Cazee [Kazi], punished by stripes, or paraded on a donkey, with a blackened face, as a warning to others. If a person is caught flying pigeons on a Friday, he is sent forth with the dead bird round his neck, seated on a camel. If seen in the streets at the time of prayers, and convicted of such habitual neglect, fines and imprisonment follow; yet there are bands of the most abominable wretches, who frequent the streets at evening for purposes as contrary to the Koran as to nature. Every thing, indeed, presents a tissue of contrarieties; and none were more apparent to me than the punishment of the culprits who were marching, with all the pomp of publicity, past the very gateway of the court where human beings were levelled with the brutes of the earth, no doubt against the laws of humanity, but as certainly against the laws of Mahommed."
"The Hindoos of Bokhara courted our society, for that people seem to look upon the English as their natural superiors. They visited us in every country we passed, and would never speak any other language than Hindoostanee, which was a bond of union between us and them. In this country they appeared to enjoy a sufficient degree of toleration to enable them to live happily. An enumeration of their restrictions might make them appear a persecuted race. They are not permitted to build temples, nor set up idols, nor walk in procession: they do not ride within the walls of the city, and must wear a peculiar dress. They pay the ‘jizyu,’ or poll-tax, which varies from four to eight rupees a year; but this they only render in common with others, not Mahommedans. They must never abuse or ill-use a Mahommedan. When the king passes their quarter of the city, they must draw up, and wish him health and prosperity; when on horseback outside the city, they must dismount if they meet his majesty or the Cazee [Kazi]. They are not permitted to purchase female slaves, as an infidel would defile a believer; nor do any of them bring their families beyond the Oxus. For these sacrifices the Hindoos in Bokhara live unmolested, and, in all trials and suits, have equal justice with the Mahommedans. I could hear of no forcible instance of conversion to Islam, though three or four individuals had changed their creed in as many years. The deportment of these people is most sober and orderly; — one would imagine that the tribe had renounced laughter, if he judged by the gravity of their countenances. They themselves, however, speak highly of their privileges, and are satisfied at the celerity with which they can realise money, though it be at the sacrifice of their prejudices. There are about 300 Hindoos in Bokhara, living in a caravansary of their own. They are chiefly natives of Shikarpoor in Sinde, and their number has of late years rather increased. The Uzbeks, and, indeed, all the Mahommedans, find themselves vanquished by the industry of these people, who will stake the largest sums of money for the smallest gain."
"Among the Hindoos we had a singular visiter in a deserter from the Indian army at Bombay. He had set out on a pilgrimage to all the shrines of the Hindoo world, and was then proceeding to the fire temples on the shores of the Caspian! I knew many of the officers of the regiment (the 24th N. I.) to which he had belonged, and felt pleased at hearing names which were familiar to me in this remote city. I listened with interest to the man’s detail of his adventures and travels, nor was he deterred by any fear that I would lodge information against him, and secure his apprehension. I looked upon him as a brother in arms, and he amused me with many a tale of my friend Moorad Beg of Koondooz, whom he had followed in his campaigns, and served as a bombardier. This man, when he first showed himself, was disguised in the dress of a pilgrim; but the carriage of a soldier is not to be mistaken, even if met at Bokhara."
".–During the voyage of the and subsequently, Mr Darwin made a profound study of s, and has given a theory of their mode of formation which has since been universally accepted by scientific men. Darwin's theory may be said to rest on two facts—the one physiological, and the other physical—the former, that those species of corals whose skeletons chiefly make up reefs cannot live in depths greater than from 20 to 30 fathoms; the latter, that the surface of the earth is continually undergoing or ."
"When we cast a retrospective glance at the history of , we find that nearly all the great advances in geography took place among commercial—and in a very special manner among maritime—peoples. Whenever primitive races commenced to look upon the ocean, not as a terrible barrier separating lands, but rather as a means of communication between distant countries, they soon acquired increased wealth and power, and beheld the dawn of new ideas and great . Down even to our own day the power and progress of nations may, in a sense, be measured by the extent to which their seamen have been able to brave the many perils, and their learned men have been able to unravel the many riddles, of the great ocean. The history of civilisation runs parallel with the history of navigation in all its wider aspects."
"The was organised by the during the years 1871 and 1872 at the suggestion of the . The ship was fitted out under the direction of , at that time , and she sailed from in December 1872. The special object of the Expedition was the scientific exploration of the physical, chemical, geological, and biological conditions of the great s. In addition to a full complement of specially selected Naval Officers, the Expedition comprised a scientific staff of six civilians, under the direction of . After circumnavigating the globe, and carrying on deep-sea and other investigations in many regions of the ocean, the Challenger returned to England in May 1876, and the crew was paid off after the ship had been in commission for over three years and seven months."
"Murray's great opportunity came in 1872 when he was appointed to the staff of the , that famous expedition, organised in , which will probably be for all time recognised as the most important in the history of oceanic exploration. Murray played a large part in the preliminary organising and fitting out as well as in the conduct of the expedition. During the four years of the actual voyage he specialised particularly in the collection and study of pelagic organisms and deep-sea deposits, but his greatest work in this connection and the great work of his life was after the return of the expedition. Owing to the failing health of the main share in organising the working out of the enormous collections fell very soon to Murray, and after Thomson's death in 1882 he became in name, as he already was in fact, responsible for this side of the work. For nineteen years Murray managed the most remarkable team of scientific workers which was probably ever brought into collaboration. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Huxley, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , : all these, in addition to other and younger workers, contributed, and contributed of their best, to these wonderful fifty volumes which form not merely the foundation but a great part of the whole edifice of modern ."
"The majority of fishes produce s in enormous numbers, amounting in some cases to several millions, and correlated with this the size of the individual egg has become much reduced. The average diameter of a ean egg may be taken as about 1 . In an egg of this size segmentation of so markedly meroblastic a character would be puzzling except on the hypothesis that the meroblastic condition had arisen in ancestral forms in which the eggs were much larger."
"The general lecture course in is accompanied by laboratory work extending over a hundred hours. In great part this follows the usual lines such as are laid down in and Hurst’s Text-book, but a special feature is made of the study of a valuable series of demonstration specimens. This includes the study, under high-power s, of such organisms as s, , s, and s. Experience has shown that students fully appreciate the privilege of being able to examine such preparations for themselves, and that they take the greatest care not to do damage. Opportunities are also given for seeing Trypanosomes, , e and so on, in the living condition. This demonstration part of the course is regarded as being of special value in arousing and gripping the interest of the student."
"Imperfect as is the , how infinitely more imperfect must necessarily be our knowledge of that record! The largest s, , and other excavations made by man, are in themselves relatively insignificant scratches on the surface of the vast mass of fossil-bearing rocks, but yet how small a fraction of the material obtained in such excavations ever passes under the detailed scrutiny of the palaeontologist."
"He once jokingly referred to the report, published in , of his award of the in 1955 as "a very pleasant obituary notice"."
"The name }} is assigned by botanists to a large group or natural class of ic or flowerless plants, which form the principal and characteristic vegetation of the waters. The sea, in no climate from the s to the , is altogether free from them, though they abound on some shores much more than on others, a subject which will come particularly under notice when we speak of the distribution of their several tribes. Species abound likewise in fresh water, whether running or stagnant, and in mineral springs. The strongly impregnated sulphureous streams of Italy,—the eternal snows of the and regions,—and the of Iceland, have each their peculiar species ; and even chemical solutions, if long kept, produce Algae. Very few, comparatively, inhabit stations which are not submerged or exposed to the constant dripping of water; and, in all situations where they are found, great dampness, at least, is necessary to their production."
"So long as was encumbered with its pseudo-classical incubus its votaries were few in number. The more it grew into a science founded on observation, the more it attracted popular attention. The writings of , composed in a clear and elegant style, and offering a systematic arrangement such as all could readily understand, contributed more than those of any other naturalist to the spread of a taste for his favourite science. He was eminently a popular writer, and, no matter what criticism may now be passed on his system, it must be admitted that to it is greatly owing the rapidity with which the natural sciences advanced in public favour in the early part of last century."
"In 1853 Harvey started on a prolonged tour to the East; his route included Egypt, Ceylon, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and sundry of the islands of the Pacific, and he returned ultimately by way of and Panama. The journey was originally undertaken in the interests of the and resulted in a large addition to its treasures. His extensive collections contained a huge mass of material, all of which was practically new. He took all available opportunities of exploring the of the different coasts to which he had access and amassed such a wealth of material that the collection was unequalled by any other of the time. The use he made of it is shown by the great Phycologia Australica which occupied him for five years after his return."
"His appointment as abbot may have been an excellent thing for the monastery, but it cannot be denied that it was a great misfortune for science."
"... of may allow us to say that "this object is hotter or colder than that one." But even this apparently simple statement is fraught with pitfalls for the unwary. For example, take hold in turn of a block of , a piece of expanded and a rod of , all near room temperature but differing slightly slightly in temperature from one another. It is not easy to make any useful statements about which is hotter or colder. This means, of course, that the is a poor thermometer, but the reasons for this being so are by no means straight-forward: they are related to the way in which sensations of hotness and coldness are generated in the human body ..."
"It has long been recognized that the basic units in science – such as the and the – should be defined in terms of fundamental physical phenomena. Indeed in 1870 James Clerk Maxwell recognized that the units of , and would only remain unchanged and reproducible if they were defined by the , period of vibration and absolute mass of molecules rather than by the physical properties of the Earth. However, it took over a century for the metre and the second to be defined in terms of the quantum properties of atoms. And it was only in 1990 that reproducible standards of and were linked to quantum phenomena."
"In my house I have four , I sometimes adjust them so that at least two, but rarely more than three, strike the hour within a few seconds of each other. Fortunately, the pleasure I get from my clocks does not depend on them all telling the same time. When I switch on the in my car, however, things are different. It very quickly latches on to at least four atomic clocks high in the sky, all of which tell the same time to about a hundred millionth of a second. If they did not, my GPS would guide me to somewhere other than my desired destination."
", the science of measurement, is part of the essential but largely hidden infrastructure of the modern world. We need it for high-technology manufacturing, human health and safety, the protection of the environment, global climate studies and the basic science that underpins all these. Highly accurate measurements are not exclusively the preserve of the and engineering; many areas of chemistry, and medicine are now dependent on accurate quantitative measurements. in all manufactured and agricultural products is strictly controlled by regulations that need accurate metrology for their implementation."
"On 19 March 1791 five of the great luminaries of French science, Laplace, Lagrange, Condorcet, and , met at the in Paris and drew up a document that laid down the definition of the new basic unit of length, the , for the proposed new system of measurement that would become the ."
"With what high chiefs I play'd my early part, With Parsons first, whose eye, with piercing ken, Reads through their hearts the characters of men; Then how I aided, in the foll'wing scene, Death-daring Putnam—then immortal Greene— Then how great Washington my youth approv'd, In rank preferred, and as a parent lov'd."
"His list'ning sons the sire shall oft remind, What parent sages first in Congress join'd; The faithful Hancock grac'd that early scene, Great Washington appear'd in godlike mien, Jay, Laurens, Clinton, skill'd in ruling men, And he, who earlier, held the farmer's pen. 'Twas Lee, illustrious, at the father's head, The daring way to independence led. The self-taught Sherman urg'd his reasons clear, And all the Livingstons to freedom dear; What countless names in fair procession throng, With Ruttledge, Johnson, Nash, demand the song!"
"Some days elaps'd, I jogg'd quite brave on And found my Trumbull at New-Haven; Than whom, more humour never man did Possess—nor lives a soul more candid— But who, unsung, would know hereafter, The repartees, and peals of laughter, Or how much glee those laughters yield one, Maugre the system Chesterfieldian! Barlow I saw, and here began My friendship for that spotless man; Whom, though the world does not yet know it, Great nature form'd her loftiest poet. But Dwight was absent at North-Hampton, That bard sublime, and virtue's champion. To whom the charms of verse belong, The father, of our epic song!"
"See the great cabin nigh, its doors unfold, Shew fleeting forms from mirrors fix'd in gold! O'er painted ceilings brighter prospects rise, And rural scenes again delight our eyes."
"Our Polish friend, whose name still sounds so hard, To make it rhyme would puzzle any bard; That youth, whom bays and laurels early crown'd, For virtue, science, arts and arms renown'd!"
"Yes thank your stars, Columbia's happy dames! Ye need not fear those frightful fun'ral flames: Of other lands let foreign bards be dreaming, But this, this only is the land for women;— Here ye invert the Bramins' barb'rous plan, And stretch your sceptre o'er the tyrant—man."
"And let philosophers say what they please, You're not grown less by coming o'er the seas."
"Your vict'ries won—your revolution ended— Your constitution newly made—and mended— Your fund of wit—your intellectual riches— Plans in the closet—in the senate speeches— Will make this age of heroes, wits and sages The first in story to the latest ages!— Go on—and prosper with your projects blest, Till your millennium rises in the west:— We wish success to your politic scheming, Rule ye the world!—and then—be rul'd by women!"
"For here, ye fair, no servile rites bear sway, Nor force ye—(though ye promise)—to obey: Blest in the mildness of tins temp'rate zone, Slaves to no whims, or follies—but your own.— Here custom, check'd in ev'ry rude excess, Confines its influence to the arts of dress, O'er charms eclips'd the side-long hat displays, Extends the hoop, or pares away the stays, Bedecks the fair with artificial gear, Breast-works in front, and bishops in the rear:— The idol rears, on beauty's dazzling throne, Mankind her slaves, and all the world her own; Bound by no laws a husband's whims to fear, Obey in life, or burn upon his bier; She views with equal eye, sublime o'er all, A lover perish—or a lap-dog fall— Coxcombs or monkeys from their chains broke loose— And now a husband dead—and now a goose."
"... whether the natives of India are to be treated as equal to Europeans in all respects . Under present circumstances it cannot fail to interest many to dissect the writings of one of the most prominent members of the native community , that we may lay bare and understand his motives and modes of action , and thus ascertain how far Europeans were justified in refusing to submit to the jurisdiction of natives in criminal actions."
"The rulers whom we supplanted were, like ourselves, aliens and usurpers. We found the Hindoos a conquered people, and, little by little, we substituted one yoke for another."
"The visit of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to Montreal last autumn was much more than a startling innovation… it was a surprising testimony to the social and political change that has come over the British Empire within the quarter of a century."
"It should be earnestly remembered that besides the blessings of the Gospel, Christianity is the only remedy for the rapid decline of the northern Indians, and the terrible distresses they sometimes endure."
"One will see a layer of smooth stones, popularly called fluitati [diluvium], and over these another layer of smaller pebbles, thirdly sand, and finally earth, and you will see this repeatedly...up to the summit of the Mountain. This clearly shows that the order has been caused by many floods, not just one."
"Many have observed and many still expect to observe, but not everyone has observed well, and others do not know how to observe, nor perhaps do they know how tricky the art of observation is, easily misunderstanding one thing for another, being blinded by the light, or not looking with due attention and diligence at what is to be looked at."
"It is tempting to assume that the process of natural selection has brought about a nicety of adjustment between the seed output and mortality, and this presumption is implicit in most of the writings on this topic. If true, it involves as a necessary corollary that the potential of a species is a measure of its susceptibility to natural mortality."
"... the is extremely tolerant of . It can grow quite well with as much as 1.5% of salt in the sand and will tolerate up to 6%. Moreover, it will endure quite prolonged inundation by a high tide."
"All the British s produce viable fruits without the necessity for fertilization () so that, although they have all the advantages of dispersal associated with normal seed production (in this instance of the parachute-bearing fruits), yet their reproduction is equivalent to vegetative propagation."
"It was not till the middle of the nineteenth century that the rich harvest of American s really began to be garnered, though the had already introduced from there in 1663."
"From the woods of north-west America came that familiar evergreen shrub ', which in some gardens to-day is almost a weed; yet such was the enthusiasm with which it was first received that roots commanded a price of ten s each."
"During his long period on the academic staff of Salisbury’s scientific reputation rose steadily with the publication of a succession of research papers in botanical and other journals and of several important books, including The reproductive capacity of plants (1942), and also through his frequent and much acclaimed lectures to a wide range of botanical and horticultural audiences. He was President of the in 1928, Vice-President of the in 1928-9, and in 1933 he was elected a . In 1937 he became President of Section K of the and in 1939 was made Then in 1943 he was appointed to the Directorship of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, made vacant by the death of ."
"An article in ' in June 1959 described Sir Edward James Salisbury as a “prophet and propagandist of botany”. Inspired by the plants that grew wild in his native , he became a pioneering ecologist, lecturer, author – The Living Garden (1935) was a bestseller – and, from 1943-56, director of the . He was also a keen photographer and a large collection of his glass plate negatives – natural landscapes and individual plant studies – was recently discovered in the archives."
"In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. Not the man who finds a grain of new and precious quality but to him who sows it, reaps it, grinds it and feeds the world on it."
"There seems to be one quality of mind which seems to be of special and extreme advantage in leading him to make discoveries. It was the power of never letting exceptions go unnoticed."
"The love of experiment was very strong in him, and I can remember the way he would say, "I shan't be easy till I have tried it," as if an outside force were driving him. He enjoyed experimenting much more than work which only entailed reasoning, and when he was engaged on one of his books which required argument and the marshalling of facts, he felt experimental work to be a rest or holiday."
"For books he had no respect, but merely considered them as tools to be worked with. Thus he did not bind them, and even when a paper book fell to pieces from use, as happened to Müller’s ‘Befruchtung,’ he preserved it from complete dissolution by putting a metal clip over its back. In the same way he would cut a heavy book in half, to make it more convenient to hold. He used to boast that he had made Lyell publish the second edition of one of his books in two volumes, instead of in one, by telling him how ho had been obliged to cut it in half. Pamphlets were often treated even more severely than books, for he would tear out, for the sake of saving room, all the pages except the one that interested him, The consequence of all this was, that his library was not ornamental, but was striking from being so evidently a working collection of books."
"Civilization in its higher form today, though highly complex, forms essentially a unitary mass. It has no longer to be sought out in separate luminous centers, shining like planets through the surrounding night. Still less is it the property of one privileged country or people. Many as are the tongues of mortal man, its votaries, like the Immortals, speak a single language. Throughout the whole vast area illumined by its quickening rays its workers are interdependent and pledged to a common cause."
"For indeed it is one of the lessons of the history of science that each age steps on the shoulders of the ages which have gone before. The value of each age is not its own, but is in part, in large part, a debt to its forerunners. And this age of ours, if, like its predecessors, it can boast of something of which it is proud, would, could it read the future, doubtless find much also of which it would be ashamed."
"A theory which cannot be mortally endangered cannot be alive."
"It is the aim of science to co-ordinate all observable phenomena within a single natural order and it is its faith that such is possible. Hence the basic objection to acceptance of the supernatural. If the scientific stand is justified, then everything, whether of matter, energy, mind or spirit, belongs to one vast scheme—it is all one and every part has meaning in relation to the whole. This is as much a tenet of faith as any other belief, but it forms the working hypothesis of all real scientific endeavor. As a basis for action or inquiry it is worth pushing to the limit...If facts or phenomena, in whatever field, fail to fit in, then we modify or rebuild our conceptions until they do, on the assumption that they belong and that there is no separate pigeonhole for mystic revelation and no possibility for arbitrary intervention by any powers that be. If this brings the divine down to earth, so much the better for earthly inhabitants."
"Although the theory of s (s where the underlying space is a and the group operations are ) goes back to around 1870 the theory of topological groups in a more general sense seem not to have been considered until 1925 when and , independently, made the basic definitions, rather in the spirit of , and since then this too has developed into a major branch of . It was Weil (1937) who wrote the first definitive study of s and applied the theory to both s and topological groups. However the basic idea was already emerging early in the century, indeed the concepts of and were well understood by Weierstrass and by Cauchy before him."
"Although the main field of Laplace's research was , he also made important contributions to the and . In his (Analytical theory of probability) of 1812 he summarized, in a masterly introduction, all that was then known in the area of probability and its applications. This work introduces the technique known later as the Laplace transform, a simple and elegant method of solving s."
"Despite poor eyesight, Kepler was one of the pioneers of research into optics. He found a good approximation to the . Descartes, the discoverer of the precise law, said that Kepler was his true teacher in optics, who knew more about this subject than did any of those who preceded him. This research was published in his of 1611, which also contained an account of a new . Towards the end of his life he wrote a small work on the gauging of wine casks, which is regarded as one of the significant works in the ."
"is much more common than classical . It is estimated to affect about one in every three or four hundred of the general population. More than half a million people in the United Kingdom have some kind of disorder on the autistic spectrum, with over 200,000 of them having Asperger's syndrome. Disorders of the autistic spectrum are found much more often in men than in women, although this may be because women are better at compensating for some of their more noticeable features, being better at social relationships and less likely to exhibit narrow interest patterns."
"The successful launching of the Sputnik was a demonstration of one of the highest scientific and technological achievements of man—a tantalizing invitation both to the militarist in search of ever more devastating means of destruction and to the astronomer searching for new means of carrying his instruments away from their earthbound environment."
"I am a Professor in the Departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (see contact information below)."
"My research group studies microbial communities, primarily using cultivation-independent approaches such as genomics (metagenomics) and community proteomics."
"Physically-based techniques facilitate the creation of models capable of automatically synthesizing complex shapes and realistic motions that were, until recently, attainable only by skilled animators, if at all."
"Physically-based modeling adds new levels of representation to graphics objects. In addition to geometry — forces, torques, velocities, accelerations, kinetic and potential energies, heat, and other physical quantities are used to control the creation and evolution of models. Simulated physical laws govern model behavior, and animators can guide their models using physically-based control systems. Physically-based models are responsive to one another and to the simulated physical worlds that they inhabit."
"I would like to talk about deformable models, which are physically-based models of nonrigid objects. I have worked on deformable models for graphics applications primarily with Kurt Fleischer and also with John Platt and Andy Witkin. Deformable models are based on the continuum mechanics of flexible materials. Using deformable models, we can model the shapes of flexible objects like cloth, plasticine, and skin, as well as their motions through space under the action of forces and subject to constraints."
"Here is a simulated physical world — a very simple world consisting of a room with walls and a floor. A spherical obstacle rests in the middle of the floor. You’re seeing the collision of an elastically deformable solid with the sphere. Of course, we’re also simulating gravity."
"The , which measures the , together with the total energy density of the Universe, sets the size of the observable Universe, its age, and its radius of curvature. Excellent progress has been made recently toward the measurement of the Hubble constant: a number of different methods for measuring distances have been developed and refined, and a primary project of the has been the accurate calibration of this difficult-to-measure parameter. The recent progress in these measurements is summarized, and areas where further work is needed are discussed. Currently, for a wide range of possible s, the Universe appears to have a . Combined with current estimates of stellar ages, the results favor a . They are consistent with either an , or a with a non-zero value of the ."
"We are at an interesting juncture in cosmology. With new methods and technology, the accuracy in measurement of the has vastly improved, but a recent tension has arisen that is either signaling or as-yet unrecognized uncertainties. Just under a century ago, Edwin Hubble revolutionized cosmology with his discovery that the . Hubble found a relationship between radial velocity and the distance to nearby galaxies, determining the proportionality constant Ho (=v/r), that now bears his name. The Hubble constant remains one of the most important parameters in cosmology. An accurate value of Ho can provide a powerful constraint on the cosmological model describing the evolution of the universe. In addition, it characterizes the expansion rate of the Universe at the current time, defines the observable size of the Universe, and its inverse sets the ."
"... after finishing my postdoc, I became a faculty member at , and then ended up being the scientific leader of this project to measure the rate at which the universe is expanding. ... when that project finished, .. we .. resolved the issue. We went from a factor of 2 uncertainty — we measured an uncertainty of 10%."
"[negative numbers] ‘…darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature excessively obvious and simple.’"
"...they make no use of tables; but only of the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of certain numbers, of which we do not presently discern the ground, nor to what these numbers refer."
"It is the characteristic of error to be feeble, fluctuating, and anxious: it is the property of truth to be constant in the unity of its perceptions, and calm in the consciousness of its own power. The assailant who is ever attacking, and ever changing the ground of his attack, may prove his anxiety, his vigilance, the hostility of his purpose, and the boldness of his daring; but he will also prove the weakness of his own resources, and the impregnable resistance of that which he is seeking to overthrow."
"What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind."