Index Quotes

“The whole course of things being thus entirely changed between us and the ancients, and the moderns wisely sensible of it, we of this age have discovered a shorter, and more prudent method, to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or of thinking. The most accomplished way of using books at present is two-fold: either first, to serve them as some men do lords, learn their titles exactly, and then brag of their acquaintance. Or secondly, which is indeed the choicer, the profounder, and politer method, to get a thorough insight into the index, by which the whole book is governed and turned, like fishes by the tail. For, to enter the palace of learning at the great gate, requires an expense of time and forms; therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back door.”
― Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub and Other Satires

“No matter what danger you might face," the wizard resumed, "within this book is a magical solution."
I did as Ebenzum bade, opening to a page titled "EZ Wizard's Index." I scanned quickly down the righthand column:

Demons, who are about to eat you, 206, 211
Demons, who are about to tear you limb from limb, 207
Demons, who are about thrash you soundly, 206-7
Demons, who have already begun to eat you, 208

"As you can see," my master continued, "quick reference to this index can prepare you for virtually any eventuality.”
― Craig Shaw Gardner, A Difficulty with Dwarves

“The ocean flows of online information are all streaming together, and the access tools are becoming absolutely critical. If you don’t index it, it doesn’t exist. It’s out there but you can’t find it, so it might as well not be there.”
― Barbara Quint

“Index design is also a largely iterative process, based on the SQL generated by application designers. However, it is possible to make a sensible start by building indexes that enforce primary key constraints and indexes on known access patterns, such as a person's name. As the application evolves and testing is performed on realistic sizes of data, certain queries will need performance improvements for which building a better index is a good solution.”
― Andrew Holdsworth, Oracle9i Database Performance Planning

“Your face is not the index of my mind”
― Dr.P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“Index: The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index9
Monitors: Civil liberties, pluralism, political culture and
participation, electoral process
Method: Global ranking
India 2014 ranking: 27
India 2020 ranking: 53
Result: India fell 26 places.
Reasons cited: Classifying India as a ‘flawed democracy’, the
report says ‘democratic norms have been under pressure since
2015. India’s score fell from a peak of 7.92 in 2014 to 6.61 in 2020’.
This was the ‘result of democratic backsliding under the leadership
of Narendra Modi’ and the ‘increasing influence of religion under
Modi, whose policies have fomented anti-Muslim feeling and
religious strife, has damaged the political fabric of the country’. Modi
had ‘introduced a religious element to the conceptualisation of Indian
citizenship, a step that many critics see as undermining the secular
basis of the Indian state’. In 2019, India was ranked 51st in the
Democracy Index, when the report said, ‘The primary cause of the
democratic regression was an erosion of civil liberties in the country.’
It fell two places again in 2020. ‘By contrast,’ The Economist
Intelligence Unit noted, ‘the scores for some of India’s regional
neighbours, such as Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan, improved
marginally.”
― Aakar Patel, Price of the Modi Years

“If one day you are in a position to judge someone, turn your index against you.”
― Corina Abdulahm Negura