“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”
Source: Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
Source: Slapstick (1976), Ch. 48
“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”
Source: Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
Muhammad
Source: About Muhammad, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, p.3
“There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts”
Quantum explanations http://lesswrong.com/lw/pc/quantum_explanations/ (April 2008), part of his Quantum Physics Sequence http://lesswrong.com/lw/r5/the_quantum_physics_sequence/.
Context: There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit to that model.
“Say what you will, but you’re never prepared for the surprise attack.”
“Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!”
Journal entry (4 March 1906); as published in Souvenirs and Prophecies: the Young Wallace Stevens (1977) edited by Holly Stevens, Ch. 8
“History is never surprising—after it happens.”
Logic of Empire (p. 333)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
Politics Drawn from the very words of Holy Scripture edited by Patrick Riley (1990) http://books.google.com/books?id=3jiGsoP_ExgC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=%22In+the+midst+of+the+disguises+and+artifices+that+reign+among+men,+it+is+only+attention+and+vigilance+that+can+save+us+from+surprises.%22&source=bl&ots=4D_c7UqG_l&sig=22Djfz_VN-rbiENWgWqpn4s93KI&hl=en&ei=mDZ7S-vRHqX20wSg8t2pCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22In%20the%20midst%20of%20the%20disguises%20and%20artifices%20that%20reign%20among%20men%2C%20it%20is%20only%20attention%20and%20vigilance%20that%20can%20save%20us%20from%20surprises.%22&f=false
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (1709)
Essay on Atomism: From Democritus to 1960 (1961), p.8