“The surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it.”
"Reading", p. 6
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
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W. H. Auden 122
Anglo-American poet 1907–1973Related quotes
“He who has an opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and taste of others, is a slave.”
As quoted in Day's Collacon: an Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations (1884), p. 639
Quoted in Older & Wiser Edited by G. B. Dianda and B. J. Hofmayer (1995)
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Fragments
Though Erdős used this remark, it is said to have originated with his friend Stanisław Ulam, as reported in The Man Who Loved Only Numbers : The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth (1998) by Paul Hoffman
Variants:
The first sign of senility is when a man forgets his theorems. The second sign is when he forgets to zip up. The third sign is when he forgets to zip down.
As quoted in Wonders of Numbers : Adventures in Mathematics, Mind, and Meaning (2002) by Clifford A. Pickover, p. 64
There are three signs of senility. The first sign is that a man forgets his theorems. The second sign is that he forgets to zip up. The third sign is that he forgets to zip down.
Misattributed
Attributed in Paul Hoffman, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth (1998)
This has also been attributed, with variants, to Paul Erdős, who repeated the remark.
