Denis > Denis's Quotes

“Scientific knowledge scarcely exists amongst the higher classes of society. The discussion in the Houses of Lords or of Commons, which arise on the occurrence of any subjects connected with science, sufficiently prove this fact…”
― Charles Babbage, Reflections on the Decline of Science in England

“Before Gutenberg, libraries were small -- the Cambridge University library had only 122 volumes in 1424, for instance; after Gutenberg literacy became widespread.”
― Larry Stone, The Story of the Bible

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“I think scientists have a valid point when they bemoan the fact that it's socially acceptable in our culture to be utterly ignorant of math, whereas it is a shameful thing to be illiterate.”
― Jennifer Ouellette, The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

“Everyone’s talking about the death and disappearance of the book as a format and an object. I don’t think that will happen. I think whatever happens, we have to figure out a way to protect our imaginations. Stories and poetry do that. You need a language in this world. People want words, they want to hear their situation in language, and find a way to talk about it. It allows you to find a language to talk about your own pain.

If you give kids a language, they can use it. I think that’s what these educators fear. If you really educate these kids, they aren’t going to punch you in the face, they are going to challenge you with your own language.”
― Jeanette Winterson

“If for us culture means museum and library and open house and art gallery, for them it meant the activities and amenities of everyday life... The rift is... between "folk" culture, where the unschooled can be wise, and print culture, which enslaved the other senses to the eye.”
― Nick Joaquín, Culture and History

“We are not quite conscious of the reason for our disdain when we refer to the illiterate past as wallowing in ignorance... What divides us from them is the column of print. Theirs was a total culture involving all the senses, while ours is a culture concentrated in the literate eye.”
― Nick Joaquín, Culture and History

“We must strive for literacy and education that teach us to never quit questioning and probing at the assumptions of the day.”
― Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason

“With the development of the printing press, not only could text be mass-produced quickly, it could also be mass-produced quickly and incorrectly.”
― The Bureau Chiefs, Write More Good: An Absolutely Phony Guide

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.”
― Bertrand Russell

“As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.”
― Bertrand Russell

“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”
― Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.”
― Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays

“Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know”
― Bertrand Russell

“Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.”
― Bertrand Russell

“Some care is needed in using Descartes' argument. "I think, therefore I am" says rather more than is strictly certain. It might seem as though we are quite sure of being the same person to-day as we were yesterday, and this is no doubt true in some sense. But the real Self is as hard to arrive at as the real table, and does not seem to have that absolute, convincing certainty that belongs to particular experiences.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attibutable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century.”
― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy

“Science can teach us, and I think our hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supporters, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make the world a fit place to live.”
― Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

“Mathematics rightly viewed possesses not only truth but supreme beauty.”
― Bertrand Russell

“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons”
― Bertrand Russell

“Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.”
― Bertrand Russell

“Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn”
― Bertrand Russell

“Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion.”
― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays

“The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.”
― Bertrand Russell

“The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”
― Bertrand Russell

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ”
― Alvin Toffler

“If you don’t get this elementary, but mildly unnatural, mathematics of elementary probability into your repertoire, then you go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.”
― Charles T. Munger, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

“Forecasters who see illusory correlations and assume that moral and cognitive weakness run together will fail when we need them most.”
― Philip Tetlock, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction