
“It is a dangerous myth that we are better historians than our predecessors. We are not.”
Source: SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
... en matière scientifique, on a souvent des prédécesseurs beaucoup plus anciens qu'on ne le pense a priori.
mentionning Pierre de Maricourt who thoroughly studied magnetic materials in the 13th century. In his Nobel Prize Banquet speech http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1970/neel-speech.html, December 10, 1970.
… en matière scientifique, on a souvent des prédécesseurs beaucoup plus anciens qu'on ne le pense a priori.
“It is a dangerous myth that we are better historians than our predecessors. We are not.”
Source: SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Sparks
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIV - Higgledy-Piggledy
Context: Everything matters more than we think it does, and, at the same time, nothing matters so much as we think it does. The merest spark may set all Europe in a blaze, but though all Europe be set in a blaze twenty times over, the world will wag itself right again.
Source: Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness
Banquet Speech http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1972/bardeen-speech.html, John Bardeen, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1972