Caroline-letters tended to be full of talk about trees she had climbed, squirrels who had admitted her into their circle of trust, boys who had disgusted her, chess-games she had played via post against Leibniz, dreadful books she’d studied, wonderful books she’d read, the weather, logarithms, and timeless disputes among domestic animals.
Neal Stephenson: The Confusion
If the only way to understand anything, would be to understand everything, then we could understand nothing.
Samson Abramsky
Alles Gute und Geschummelte!
There was no helping it. To a child, nothing seemed more stupid in adults than their inability to come to grips with the fact that people grew.
Neal Stephenson: The Confusion
For as I reflect on my career I believe I could have accomplished more if I had not cared so much what people thought of me. Natural Philosophy cannot advance without attacking theories that are old, and beating back new ones that are wrong, neither of which may be accomplished without doing some injury to their professors. I have been a mediocre Natural Philosopher not because I was stupid but because I was, after a fashion, cowardly. Today I shall try boldness for once, and be a better Natural Philosopher for it, and probably get you all hating me by the time I am done.
Daniel Waterhouse in The Confusion by Neal Stephenson