
“The scholar's greatest weakness: calling procrastination research.”
Source: 11/22/63
The Reeve's Tale, l. 134
The Canterbury Tales
Variant: The gretteste clerkes been noght wisest men.
Source: The Complete Poetry and Prose
“The scholar's greatest weakness: calling procrastination research.”
Source: 11/22/63
“Usually life’s greatest gifts come wrapped in adversity.”
Source: Finding Noel
Article in the New York Herald Tribune (17 February 1957)
“We see the wisest, most intelligent people take steps in life, that we must shake our head over.”
Wir sehen die klügsten, verständigsten Menschen im Leben Schritte tun, über die wir den Kopf schütteln müssen.
Über den Umgang mit Menschen (1788)
[In the Company of the Holy Mother, 200]
J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 146
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)
An Analytical Study of 'Sanskrit' and 'Panini' as Foundation of Speech Communication in India and the World
Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter VIII : Concluding Remarks, The Noxious Influence of Authority, p. 220.
Context: To me it is far more pleasant to agree than to differ; but it is impossible that one who has any regard for truth can long avoid protesting against doctrines which seem to him to be erroneous. There is ever a tendency of the most hurtful kind to allow opinions to crystallise into creeds. Especially does this tendency manifest itself when some eminent author, enjoying power of clear and comprehensive exposition, becomes recognised as an authority. His works may perhaps be the best which are extant upon the subject in question; they may combine more truth with less error than we can elsewhere meet. But "to err is human," and the best works should ever be open to criticism. If, instead of welcoming inquiry and criticism, the admirers of a great author accept his writings as authoritative, both in their excellences and in their defects, the most serious injury is done to truth. In matters of philosophy and science authority has ever been the great opponent of truth. A despotic calm is usually the triumph of error. In the republic of the sciences sedition and even anarchy are beneficial in the long run to the greatest happiness of the greatest number.