“Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)
Letter to John Tyndall (19 April 1851); letter 2411, edited by
Context: I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it — and I therefore hope and am fully persuaded that you are working. Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds. Nothing is so good as an experiment which, whilst it sets an error right, gives us (as a reward for our humility in being reproved) an absolute advancement in knowledge.
“Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)
“Political criticism is our enemies' best friend.”
Bernard Kerik (1955) American police chief
Newsday, October 20, 2003
Carl Sagan book Broca's Brain
Source: Broca's Brain (1979), Chapter 24, “Gott and the Turtles” (p. 351)
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Boston Book Review interview by Harvey Blume http://www.dorislessing.org/boston.html (February 1998)
Roberto Mangabeira Unger book The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound
Source: The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound (2007), p. 32
Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) German physicist
As quoted by Ludwig Boltzmann in a letter to Nature (28 February 1895) http://books.google.com/books?id=PnUCAAAAIAAJ
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
Ego Dominus Tuus http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1478/, st. 4 <br class="br">The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) <br class="br">Context: We have lit upon the gentle, sensitive mind<br>And lost the old nonchalance of the hand;<br>Whether we have chosen chisel, pen or brush,<br>We are but critics, or but half create,<br>Timid, entangled, empty and abashed,<br>Lacking the countenance of our friends.