Preface.
A History of Science Vol.1 Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece (1952)
Context: Some men are abstract-minded, and they naturally think first of unity and God, of wholeness, of infinity and other such concepts, while the minds of other men are concrete and they cogitate about health and disease, profit and loss. They invent gadgets and remedies; they are less interested in knowing anything than in applying whatever knowledge... to practical problems... The first are called dreamers; the second kind are recognized as practical and useful. History has often proved the shortsightedness of the practical men and vindicated the "lazy" dreamers; it has also proved that the dreamers are often mistaken.
“Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”
“Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
A Contrarian Perspective on Altruism : The Dangers of First Contact (September 2002) http://www.setileague.org/iaaseti/brin.pdf, p. 22
“History is written by the dreamers, not the doubters.”
2010s, 2017, June
Ibid., p. 110
The Book of Disquiet
Original: A superioridade do sonhador consiste em que sonhar é muito mais prático que viver, e em que o sonhador extrai da vida um prazer muito mais vasto e muito mais variado do que o homem de acção. Em melhores e mais directas palavras, o sonhador é que é o homem de acção.
“The Outsider has his proper place in the Order of Society, as the impractical dreamer.”
Source: The Outsider (1956), Chapter Three, The Romantic Outsider
