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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:25:16 GMT 10
I think that it is a relatively good approximation to truth — which is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations — that mathematical ideas originate in empirics
The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work
A large part of mathematics which becomes useful developed with absolutely no desire to be useful, and in a situation where nobody could possibly know in what area it would become useful; and there were no general indications that it ever would be so
The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to over- estimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking
If one has really technically penetrated a subject, things that previously seemed in complete contrast, might be purely mathematical transformations of each other
Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin
Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to themJohn von NeumannHungarian-German-American mathematician and computer scientist (Game Theory) (Born this day 1903) There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:26:02 GMT 10
FIRST OF ALL, we think the world must be changed
Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. It is a question of producing ourselves, not things that enslave us
In a society where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation
Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit
Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption ... is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal
With the destruction of history, contemporary events themselves retreat into a remote and fabulous realm of unverifiable stories, uncheckable statistics, unlikely explanations and untenable reasoning
The more powerful the class, the more it claims not to existGuy DebordFrench situationist philosopher (Born this day 1931) Everyone accepts that there are inevitably little areas of secrecy reserved for specialists; as regards things in general, many believe they are in on the secret
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:26:38 GMT 10
As a rule, one should never place form over content
I am very interested in what has been called bad taste I believe the fear of dis- playing a soi-disant bad taste stops us from venturing into special cultural zones
What's better, a poetic intuition or an intellectual work? I think they complement each other
I allow my intuition to lead my path
What better model of a synthesis than a nocturnal dream? Dreams simplify, don't they?
It's essential not to have an ideology, not to be a member of a political party. While the writer can have certain political views, he has to be careful not to have his hands tied
I don't think humor is forced upon my universe; it's a part of itManuel PuigArgentine author ( Kiss of the Spider Woman) (Born this day 1932) I felt the need to tell stories to understand myself
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:27:17 GMT 10
Too many moralists begin with a dislike of reality
We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided
We talk of our mastery of nature, which sounds very grand; but the fact is we respectfully adapt ourselves, first, to her ways
Ants are good citizens, they place group interests first
The ant is knowing and wise, but he doesn't know enough to take a vacation
There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing
If you don't go to other men's funerals they won't go to yoursClarence Day, US author ( Life with Father) (Died this day 1935) Reason is the servant of instinct
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:28:32 GMT 10
Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason
The most futile thing in this world is any attempt, perhaps, at exact definition of character. All individuals are a bundle of contradictions — none more so than the most capable
If I were personally to define religion I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstance
Assure a man that he has a soul and then frighten him with old wives' tales as to what is to become of him afterward, and you have hooked a fish, a mental slave
The conventional mind is at best a petty piece of machinery. It is oyster-like in its functioning, or, perhaps better, clam-like. It has its little siphon of thought- processes forced up or down into the mighty ocean of fact and circumstance; but it uses so little, pumps so faintly, that the immediate contiguity of the vast mass is not disturbed. Nothing of the subtlety of life is perceived. Not least inkling of its storms or terrors is ever discovered except through accident
Let no one underestimate the need of pity. We live in a stony universe whose hard, brilliant forces rage fiercely
I believe in the compelling power of love. I do not understand it. I believe it to be the most fragrant blossom of all this thorny existenceTheodore Dreiser, US novelist and journalist (Died this day 1945) Shakespeare, I come!(Dreiser’s intended last words — per H. L. Mencken "When Dreiser wrote that he had already framed his last words — 'Shakespeare, I come!' — and asked Mencken what his would be, Mencken replied acidly, ' I regret that I have but one rectum to leave to my country.'")
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 29, 2013 20:30:54 GMT 10
Sunday’s Quotes: 1 of 2:
Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other
To work with the hands or brain, according to our requirements and our capacities, to do that which lies before us to do, is more honorable than rank and title
The sovereignty of one's self over one's self is called Liberty
Doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and discovery, must accompany the stages of man's onward progress. The faculty of doubting and questioning, without which those of comparison and judgment would be useless, is itself a divine prerogative of the reason
A war for a great principle ennobles a nation. A war for commercial supremacy, upon some shallow pretext, is despicable, and more than ought else demonstrates to what immeasurable depths of baseness men and nations can descend
The Universe should be deemed an immense Being, always living, always moved and always moving in an eternal activity inherent in itself, and which, subordinate to no foreign cause, is communicated to all its parts, connects them together, and makes the world of things a complete and perfect whole
One man is equivalent to all Creation. One man is a World in miniatureM. Ill. Bro. Gen. Albert Pike, 33°US frontiersman, attorney, soldier, writer and Freemason (Born this day 1809) What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 29, 2013 20:31:33 GMT 10
2 of 2:That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which make our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commence with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light
The universal medicine for the Soul is the Supreme Reason and Absolute Justice; for the mind, mathematical and practical Truth; for the body, the Quintessence, a combination of light and gold
Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth
It is the motionless and stationary that most frets and impedes the current of progress; the solid rock or stupid dead tree, rested firmly on the bottom, and around which the river whirls and eddies
Nor let him have any alliance with those theorists who chide the delays of Pro- vidence and busy themselves to hasten the slow march which it has imposed upon events: who neglect the practical to struggle after impossibilities: who are wiser than heaven; know the aims and purposes of the Deity, and can see a short and more direct means of attaining them, than it pleases Him to employ
The double law of attraction and radiation or of sympathy and antipathy, of fixedness and movement, which is the principle of Creation, and the perpetual cause of life
Will is the dynamic soul-forceM. Ill. Bro. Gen. Albert Pike, 33°(Born this day 1809) We have all the light we need, we just need to put it in practice
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 29, 2013 20:32:17 GMT 10
Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race
National injustice is the surest road to national downfall
Here is my first principle of foreign policy: Good government at home
Remember the rights of the savage, as we call him. Remember that the happiness of his humble home, remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan among the winter snows, are as sacred in the eye of Almighty God as are your own. Remember that He who has united you together as human beings in the same flesh and blood, has bound you by the law of mutual love, that that mutual love is not limited by the shores of this island, is not limited by the boundaries of Christian civilisation, that it passes over the whole surface of the earth, and embraces the meanest along with the greatest in its wide scope
There should be a sympathy with freedom, a desire to give it scope, founded not upon visionary ideas, but upon the long experience of many generations
As the British Constitution is the most subtile organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off by the brain and purpose of man
The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the practice of all the physicians of all the countries in the worldWilliam Gladstone, FRSBritish Prime Minister (four terms) (Born this day 1809) We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 29, 2013 20:34:01 GMT 10
The birthday of my life is come, my love is come to me
My heart is like a singing bird whose nest is in a water'd shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit
Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads the wind is passing by
Oh roses for the flush of youth, and laurel for the perfect prime; But pluck an ivy branch for me grown old before my time
When I am dead, my dearest, sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head, Nor shady cypress tree: Be the green grass above me with showers and dewdrops wet; And if thou wilt, remember, and if thou wilt, forget
Remember me when I am gone away, gone far away into the silent land
Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sadChristina RossettiEnglish poet ( Goblin Market) (Died this day 1894) Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Will the day's journey take the whole long day? From morn to night, my friend
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 29, 2013 20:34:40 GMT 10
That was Youth with its reckless exuberance when all things were possible pursued by Age where we are now, looking back at what we destroyed, what we tore away from that self who could do more, and its work that's become my enemy because that's what I can tell you about, that Youth who could do anything
Then, what is sacrilege? If it is nothing more than a rebellion against dogma, it is eventually as meaningless as the dogma it defies, and they are both become hounds ranting in the high grass, never see the boar in the thicket. Only a religious person can perpetrate sacrilege: and if its blasphemy reaches the heart of the question; if it investigates deeply enough to unfold, not the pattern, but the materials of the pattern, and the necessity of a pattern; if it questions so deeply that the doubt it arouses is frightening and cannot be dismissed; then it has done its true sacreligious work, in the service of its adversary: the only service that nihilism can ever perform
I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge
We're comic. We're all comics. We live in a comic time. And the worse it gets the more comic we are
If you want to make a million you don't have to understand money, what you have to understand is people's fears about money
Power doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt power
Justice? — You get justice in the next world. In this one you have the lawWilliam GaddisAmerican author (The Recognitions) (Born this day 1922) Stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance
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