"And so no force however great can stretch a cord however fine into an horizontal line which is accurately straight."

William Whewell Mathematics See all quotes by William Whewell →

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“The catastrophist constructs theories, the uniformitarian demolishes them.”

“Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so; but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of Error is without some latent charm derived from Truth.”

“Six Lectures on Political Economy”

“Profile from History of Economic Thought”

“The system becomes more coherent as it is further extended. The elements which we require for explaining a new class of facts are already contained in our system. Different members of the theory run together, and we have thus a constant convergence to unity. In false theories, the contrary is the case.”

“It is a test of true theories not only to account for but to predict phenomena.”

Resonant Thoughts

"But Strabo rejects this theory as insufficient to account for all the phenomena, and he proposes one of his own, the profoundness of which modern geologists are only beginning to appreciate. 'It is no…"

— Charles Lyell

Philosophy1767–1849

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"First of all, everyone must acknowledge and feel that child slavery still exists in the world, in its ugliest face and form. And this is an evil, which is crime against humanity, which is intolerable,…"

— Kailash Satyarthi

Social Activism1954

#knowledge

"Opinion, my dear fellow, somehow or other, rules all mankind; and not like a kind master, or, which would be more congenial, a gentle mistress, but like a tyrant, whose wish is power, and whose gratif…"

— Laurence Sterne

Religion1713–1768

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"I will not change my opinion, dear people, it is 5 minutes before twelve. Not just here in Holland. but in the whole of Europe. And is that what you want? I take my stand for this country, that which …"

— Pim Fortuyn

Science1948–2002

#change