The Clear Word

"Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth."

- Archimedes (287-212 BC), Greek philosopher

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

- Aristotle (384-22 BC), Greek philosopher

"The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful."

- Aristotle (384-22 BC), Greek philosopher

"Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly."

- Aristotle (384-22 BC), Greek philosopher

"That which we must learn to do, we learn by doing."

- Aristotle (384-22 BC), Greek philosopher

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

- Aristotle (384-22 BC), Greek philosopher

"A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake."

- Confucius (551-479 BC), Chinese philosopher

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."

- Confucius (551-479 BC), Chinese philosopher

"There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance."

- Hippocrates (460-357 BC), Greek physician

"Number rules the universe."

- Motto of the Pythagoreans

"The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting."

- Pierre Abelard (1079-1142), French scholastic theologian

"The most misleading assumptions are the ones you don't even know you're making."

- Douglas Adams (1952-2002), British writer

"The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers."

- Scott Adams (1957-), American cartoonist

"No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be."

- Isaac Asimov (1920-92), Russian science fiction writer

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties."

- Francis Bacon (1561-1626), British philosopher

"Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion."

- Francis Bacon (1561-1626), British philosopher

"The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits but not when it misses."

- Francis Bacon (1561-1626), British philosopher

"We do not have to think alike in order to arrive at the same objective conclusion."

- Manly Banister

"Be suspicious of anything that works perfectly--it's probably because two errors are canceling each other out."

- Dave Bartley

"An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."

- Orlando A. Battista

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

- Henri Bergson

"Most problems have either many answers or no answer. Only a few problems have one answer."

- Edmund C. Berkeley

"The joy of discovery is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel."

- Claude Bernard (1813-78), French physiologist

"Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride."

- Claude Bernard (1813-78), French physiologist

"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."

- Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist

"Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question."

- Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."

- Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist

"Never express yourself more clearly than you think."

- Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."

- Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

- Derek Bok, President of Harvard University

"The function of science fiction is not to predict the future, but to prevent it."

- Ray Bradbury (1920-), American writer

"The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them."

- William Bragg (1862-1942), British physicist

"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg."

- Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British novelist

"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."

- Rachel Carson (1907-64), American biologist

"A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets."

- Arthur C. Clarke (1917-), British writer

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

- Arthur C. Clarke (1917-), British writer

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible."

- Arthur C. Clarke (1917-), British writer

"Nothing in life is to be feared, only studied."

- Marie Curie (1867-1934), Polish physicist

"Mathematics seems to endow one with something like a new sense."

- Charles Darwin (1809-82), British biologist

"A fool . . . is a man who never tried an experiment in his life."

- Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), British physician

"The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures."

- Humphrey Davy

"Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems."

- Rene Descartes (1596-1650), French philosopher

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

- Philip K. Dick

"When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

- Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), British writer

"Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of the imagination."

- John Dewey (1859-1952), American philosopher

"Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don't worship it. Feed it."

- Aubrey Eben (1915-), Israeli politician

"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."

- Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor

". . . I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

- Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless."

- Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

- Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."