Fellows Of The Royal Society

"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."

"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."

"Compatibility means deliberately repeating other people's mistakes."

"Any problem in computer science can be solved with another level of indirection."

"I’m convinced that science is as deep a human instinctive activity as art or storytelling or music."

"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."

"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."

"... 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."

"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."

"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."

"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, the most distinguished Whig statesman of his generation."

"[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 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."

"[Somers was one of the] brightest ornaments of the bar in the late seventeenth century."

"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."

"[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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"[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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."