Solomon Vimal

“Now and then, teaching may approach poetry, and now and then it may approach profanity. May I tell you a little story about the great Einstein? I listened once to Einstein as he talked to a group of physicists in a party. "Why have all the electrons the same charge?" said he. "Well, why are all the little balls in the goat dung of the same size?" Why did Einstein say such things? Just to make some snobs to raise their eyebrows? He was not disinclined to do so, I think. Yet, probably, it went deeper. I do not think that the overheard remark of Einstein was quite casual. At any rate, I learnt something from it: Abstractions are important; use all means to make them more tangible. Nothing is too good or too bad, too poetical or too trivial to clarify your abstractions. As Montaigne put it: The truth is such a great thing that we should not disdain any means that could lead to it. Therefore, if the spirit moves you to be a little poetical, or a little profane, in your class, do not have the wrong kind of inhibition." - George Polya's Mathematical Discovery, Volume 11, pp 102, 1962.”
― George Pólya, Mathematical Discovery on Understanding, Learning and Teaching Problem Solving, Volumes I and II

“We can be skeptical -- demanding evidence before we believe in people -- but hopeful knowing they can change for the better”
― Jamil Zaki

“Who scouts through wilderness and cold
And finds the stone that turns to gold,
The gems of Nature's wealth untold--
The Engineer.

Who gets five paltry plunks per day
To give the thing he finds away
To some one else who makes it pay--
The Engineer.

Who's heart is always in the game,
When trouble comes it's just the same,
But when it comes, who gets the blame?
The Engineer.

- Robert Elmer Horton (Water Power and Water Supply Preliminaries, 1913, Michigan Engineer)”
― Robert Elmer Horton

“Message to the Future (1959) - Bertrand Russel

“I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral. The intellectual thing I should want to say is this: When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed. But look only, and solely, at what are the facts. That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say.

The moral thing I should wish to say… I should say love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more closely and closely interconnected we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.”

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
― Bertrand Russell