"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."
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Fellows of the Royal SocietyUniversity of Oxford facultyPhysicists from EnglandConservative Party (UK) politiciansEugenicists
Original Language: English
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D. M. B. Butt, quoted in Lord Birkenhead, The Prof in Two Worlds: The Official Life of Professor F. A. Lindemann, Viscount Cherwell (1961), p. 257
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederick_Lindemann%2C_1st_Viscount_Cherwell
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Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell
Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell CH PC FRS (5 April 1886 – 3 July 1957) was a British physicist who was prime scientific adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II.
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