
Principles of Mathematics (1903), Ch. I: Definition of Pure Mathematics, p. 3
1900s
Comment after the proof that 1+1=2, completed in Principia Mathematica, Volume II, 1st edition (1912), page 86 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=umhistmath&cc=umhistmath&idno=aat3201.0002.001&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=126
1910s
Principles of Mathematics (1903), Ch. I: Definition of Pure Mathematics, p. 3
1900s
“Besides, it's good to force C programmers to use the toolbox occasionally.”
[1991May31.181659.28817@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov, 1991]
Usenet postings, 1991
“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”
Letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp (30 July 1816), denouncing the doctrine of the Trinity.
1810s
Context: Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.
Original German: Der Satz ist eine Wahrheitsfunktion der Elementarsätze
1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
“If you want to program in C, program in C. It's a nice language. I use it occasionally…”
[7577@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990
Anatol Rapoport. " Various meanings of “theory”." http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~fczagare/PSC%20504/Rapoport%20(1958).pdf American Political Science Review 52.04 (1958): 972-988.
1950s
“You can take every one of Spinoza's propositions, and take the contrary propositions, and”
Richard Feynman, in The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1999), Ch. 9. The Smartest Man in the World
Context: My son is taking a course in philosophy, and last night we were looking at something by Spinoza and there was the most childish reasoning! There were all these attributes, and Substances, and all this meaningless chewing around, and we started to laugh. Now how could we do that? Here's this great Dutch philosopher, and we're laughing at him. It's because there's no excuse for it! In the same period there was Newton, there was Harvey studying the circulation of the blood, there were people with methods of analysis by which progress was being made! You can take every one of Spinoza's propositions, and take the contrary propositions, and look at the world and you can't tell which is right.