Source: 11/22/63
“the greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people”
The Reeve's Tale, l. 134
The Canterbury Tales
Variant: The gretteste clerkes been noght wisest men.
Source: The Complete Poetry and Prose
“The greatest weakness of all weaknesses is to fear too much to appear weak.”
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (1709)
“Research, he calls it. Research.”
Pitkin sneered. “Junkie!”
Schwartz matched him sneer for sneer. “Economist!”
Short fiction, Schwartz Between the Galaxies (1974)
“The greatest sin is to think yourself weak”
Source: Pearls of Wisdom
“The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment.”
The Decline and Fall of Science (1976)
Interview in The Hindu (2013)
Context: String theory work done in India is pretty good. … There’s no other country with a GDP per capita comparable to India’s whose string theoretic output is anywhere as good. In fact, the output is better than any country in the European Union, but at the same time not comparable to the EU’s as a whole. So you get an idea of the scale: reasonably good, not fantastic.
The striking weakness of research in India is that research happens by and large only in a few elite institutions. But in the last five years, it has been broadening out a bit. TIFR and the Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) have good research groups; there are some reasonably good young groups in Indian Institute of Science (IIS), Bengaluru; Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai; some small groups in the Chennai Mathematical Institute, IIT-Madras, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kanpur, all growing in strength, The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, has also made good hires in string theory.
“My greatest strength is the love for my people, my greatest weakness is that I love them too much.”
Interview with Sir David Frost on the BBC, 1972.
Quote, Other
“Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.”
No. 162 (5 September 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
