Alan Lightman begins his article, “Nothing but the Truth; Science’s and Greatest Weakness Is Also Its Greatest Strength” (Popular Science, May 2015) with an anecdote about Richard Feynman. “40 years ago, the legendary physicist Richard Feynman gave the commencement address at my graduation from the California Institute of technology… Feynman told us that before we went public with new… Continue reading Our Greatest Failing
Category: Quote of the Day
On Saying No to the Adventures Life Presents You
Joseph Campbell on refusing the call that life presents you (a.k.a saying no to life, emphasis mine): “When this refusal of the call happens, there is a kind of drying up, a sense of life lost. Everything you knows that a required adventure has been refused. Anxieties build up. What you have refused to experience… Continue reading On Saying No to the Adventures Life Presents You
When you see a good move…
“When you see a good move, look for a better one.” —Emanual Lasker This chess strategy is also good advice in so many other areas: programming, business strategy, relationships, politics, and on and on.
Resistance to New Ideas
“The resistance to any new idea is proportional to the square of its importance.” —Bertrand Russell
Our Doubts are Traitors
“Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.” —William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
The Job of Clever People
“The job of clever people is to ask difficult questions. The job of very clever people is to ask deceptively simple ones.” —The Economist1 The Economist, September 7, 2013, The man who showed why firms exist [↩]