“You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.”
Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl
[199706242038.NAA29853@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997
Lights (1888)
“You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.”
Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl
[199706242038.NAA29853@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997
“You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)
Robert A. Heinlein book If This Goes On
If This Goes On— (p. 432)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
Freeman Dyson book Infinite in All Directions
Source: Infinite in All Directions (1988), Ch. 3 : Manchester and Athens
Context: Fifty years ago Kurt Gödel... proved that the world of pure mathematics is inexhaustible. … I hope that the notion of a final statement of the laws of physics will prove as illusory as the notion of a formal decision process for all mathematics. If it should turn out that the whole of physical reality can be described by a finite set of equations, I would be disappointed, I would feel that the Creator had been uncharacteristically lacking in imagination.
“I can prove anything by statistics except the truth.”
George Canning (1770–1827) British statesman and politician
As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) edited by Tryon Edwards, p. 587.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer
Section 1.16
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
John D. Barrow, Between Inner and Outer Space: Essays on Science, Art and Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-192-88041-1, Part 4, ch. 13: Why is the Universe Mathematical? (p. 88). Also found in Barrow's "The Mathematical Universe" http://www.lasalle.edu/~didio/courses/hon462/hon462_assets/mathematical_universe.htm (1989) and The Artful Universe Expanded (Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-192-80569-X, ch. 5, Player Piano: Hearing by Numbers, p. 250 <br class="br">Misattributed