xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“The principal means of realizing it will be the formation of an alliance between philosophers and the working classes, for which both are alike prepared by the negative and positive progress of the last five centuries. The direct object of their combined action will be to set in motion the force of Public Opinion.”

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) French philosopher

Source: A General View of Positivism (1848, 1856), p. 153

“To understand a science it is necessary to know its history.”

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) French philosopher

A Course of Positive Philosophy (1832 - 1842) [Six volumes]

“There are three successive states of morality answering to the three principal stages of human life; the personal, the domestic, and the social stage.”

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) French philosopher

Source: A General View of Positivism (1848, 1856), p. 104

“Social positivism only accepts duties, for all and towards all. Its constant social viewpoint cannot include any notion of rights, for such notion always rests on individuality.”

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) French philosopher

Le Catéchisme positiviste (1852)
Context: Social positivism only accepts duties, for all and towards all. Its constant social viewpoint cannot include any notion of rights, for such notion always rests on individuality. We are born under a load of obligations of every kind, to our predecessors, to our successors, to our contemporaries. These obligations then increase or accumulate, for it is some time before we can return any service. … Any human right is therefore as absurd as immoral. Since there are no divine rights anymore, this concept must therefore disappear completely as related only to the preliminary regime and totally inconsistent with the final state where there are only duties based on functions.

“Thus the social position of women is in this respect very similar to that of philosophers and of the working classes. And we now see why these three elements should be united. It is their combined action which constitutes the moral or modifying force of society.”

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) French philosopher

Source: A General View of Positivism (1848, 1856), p. 235

“Rushin' Lullaby.”

John Coltrane (1926–1967) American jazz saxophonist

Coltrane answering producer Bob Weinstock's question "Trane, what was the name of that tune?". Coltrane and his band were actually playing a fast tempo version of Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullaby".[citation needed]

“I thought about this question. I answered it as best I could [at the press conference]. I felt I didn't tell [the reporter] what I really wanted to say. He thought I was Christian. And I am by birth; my parents were and my early teachings were Christian. But as I look upon the world, I feel all men know the truth. If a man was a Christian, he could know the truth and he could not. The truth itself does not have any name on it. And each man has to find it for himself, I think.”

John Coltrane (1926–1967) American jazz saxophonist

Liner notes for Live in Japan. Impulse. GRD-4-102, 1991.

“Keep a thing happenin' all throughout.”

John Coltrane (1926–1967) American jazz saxophonist

Chatter before studio version of "Dearly Beloved", addressing pianist Mccoy Tyner. (1964)[citation needed]

“I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.”

John Coltrane (1926–1967) American jazz saxophonist

“My advice is to get involved and get started.”

Jack Kilby (1923–2005) American electrical engineer

From his autobiography http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2000/kilby-autobio.html. The Nobel Prizes 2000, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, 2001 <br class="br">Context: I've reached the age where young people frequently ask for my advice. All I can really say is that electronics is a fascinating field that I continue to find fulfilling. The field is still growing rapidly, and the opportunities that are ahead are at least as great as they were when I graduated from college. My advice is to get involved and get started.

“Discoveries in physics are made when the time for making them is ripe, and not before.”

Clinton Davisson (1881–1958) physicist

[Davisson, Clinton, The Discovery of Electron Waves, Nobel Lectures, Physics 1922-1941, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1937/davisson-lecture.html, Amsterdam, Elsevier Publishing Company (1965), 1937]

“In the past century, and even nowadays, one could encounter the opinion that in physics nearly everything had been done. There allegedly are only dim 'cloudlets' in the sky or theory, which will soon be eliminated to give rise to the 'theory of everything'. I consider these views as some kind of blindness. The entire history of physics, as well as the state of present-day physics and, in particular, astrophysics, testifies to the opposite. In my view we are facing a boundless sea of unresolved problems.”

Vitaly Ginzburg (1916–2009) Russian Physicist

in his Nobel lecture, December 8, 2003, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University.

“Every physicist (naturally, this equally applies to other specialities, but I re- strict myself to physicists for definitiveness) should simultaneously know, apart from theoretical physics, a wealth of facts from different branches of physics and be familiar with the newest notable accomplishments.”

Vitaly Ginzburg (1916–2009) Russian Physicist

in his Nobel lecture http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2003/ginzburg-lecture.html, December 8, 2003, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University.

“Indifference and contempt will always be able to take on an aura of intellectual superiority over sympathy and love for others.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Immer wird die Gleichgültigkeit und die Menschenverachtung dem Mitgefühl und der Menschenliebe gegenüber einen Schein von geistiger Ueberlegenheit annehmen können.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 75.

“Misanthropy is a suit of armor lined with thorns.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 81.

“Nowadays people are born to find fault. When they look at Achilles, they see only his heel.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Die jetzigen Menschen sind zum tadeln geboren. Vom ganzen Achilles sehen sie nur die Ferse.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 19.

“One thought cannot awake without awakening others.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Ein Gedanke kann nicht erwachen, ohne andere zu wecken.
Aphorisms (1880/1893)

“Spurned pity can turn into cruelty just as spurned love turns into hate.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Verschmähtes Erbarmen kann sich in Grausamkeit verwandeln, wie verschmähte Liebe in Haß.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 33.