Quotes
Some quotes that I find interesting/amusing/revealing. Some are relevant to science, a few to climate science particularly, others to life generally. Let me know if any are incorrect.
As a disclaimer of sorts, I'll start with this quote from Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan: "It is... quite naive empiricism to provide, in support of some argument, series of eloquent confirmatory quotes by dead authorities. By searching, you can always find someone who made a well-sounding statement that confirms your point of view - and on every topic, it is possible to find another dead thinker who said the exact opposite."
Albert Einstein
All but the very last of these come from Walter Isaacson's superb biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe.
"An academic career in which a person is forced to produce scientific writings in great amounts creates a danger of intellectual superficiality."
"A new idea comes suddenly and in a rather intuitive way. But intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience."
"I resemble a farsighted man who is charmed by the vast horizon and whom the foreground bothers only when an opaque object prevents him from taking the long view."
"The cult of individual personalities is always, in my view, unjustified... It strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few for boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to them."
"Nature hides her secret because of her essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse." More succintly: "Subtle is the Lord, but malicious he is not."
"The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think."
"We must remember that this is a very small star, and probably some of the larger and more important stars may be virtuous and happy."
"Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the world."
"The monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind."
"I simply enjoy giving more than receiving in every respect, do not take myself seriously, am not ashamed of my weaknesses and vices, and naturally take things as they come with equanimity and humor."
"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious."
"Everybody is a genius. But when you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it's stupid." (It's disputed whether Einstein said this or not. I like it regardless.)
Benjamin Franklin
Again, these are all from Walter Isaacson's biography, this one Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.
"Knowledge is obtained rather by the use of the ear than of the tongue."
"I would rather have it said, 'He lived usefully,' than, 'He died rich.'"
"As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by an invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously."
"We are men, all subject to errors. Our opinions are not in our own power, they are formed and governed much by circumstances, that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible."
"Declarations of a fixed opinion, and of determined resolution never to change it, neither enlighten nor convince us."
Others
"Chance favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur
"Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig." - Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers
"You cannot do anything with knowledge unless you know where it stops, and the costs of using it." - Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan pg. 370