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| Proverbs, aphorisms, quotations (English) |
by Linux fortune |
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We should realize that a city is better off with bad laws, so long as they
remain fixed, then with good laws that are constantly being altered, that
the lack of learning combined with sound common sense is more helpful than
the kind of cleverness that gets out of hand, and that as a general rule,
states are better governed by the man in the street than by intellectuals.
These are the sort of people who want to appear wiser than the laws, who
want to get their own way in every general discussion, because they feel that
they cannot show off their intelligence in matters of greater importance, and
who, as a result, very often bring ruin on their country.
-- Cleon, Thucydides, III, 37 translation by Rex Warner
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Two things are certain about science. It does not stand still for long,
and it is never boring. Oh, among some poor souls, including even
intellectuals in fields of high scholarship, science is frequently
misperceived. Many see it as only a body of facts, promulgated from
on high in must, unintelligible textbooks, a collection of unchanging
precepts defended with authoritarian vigor. Others view it as nothing
but a cold, dry narrow, plodding, rule-bound process -- the scientific
method: hidebound, linear, and left brained.
These people are the victims of their own stereotypes. They are
destined to view the world of science with a set of blinders. They
know nothing of the tumult, cacophony, rambunctiousness, and
tendentiousness of the actual scientific process, let alone the
creativity, passion, and joy of discovery. And they are likely to
know little of the continual procession of new insights and discoveries
that every day, in some way, change our view (if not theirs) of the
natural world.
-- Kendrick Frazier, "The Year in Science: An Overview," in
1988 Yearbook of Science and the Future, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
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Q: Why do the police always travel in threes?
A: One to do the reading, one to do the writing, and the other keeps
an eye on the two intellectuals.
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What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.
-- Raymond Aron, "The Opium of the Intellectuals"
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No guarantee of accuracy or completeness!
©TU Chemnitz, 2006-2013 |
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