“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”
"Laurence Olivier" (1966), p. 208
Profiles (1990)
I.13 Productive | Receptive, p. 33
1921 - 1930, Pedagogical Sketch Book, (1925)
“I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I do not need.”
Attributed to Rodin in: Naum Ya. Vilenkin (1958). Stories about Sets, p. 125
1950s-1990s
“Not merely a chip of the old 'block', but the old block itself.”
Nathaniel Wraxall, "Historical Memoirs of My Own Time", part 2.
Edmund Burke's reaction to Pitt's maiden speech in Parliament. The 'old block' was William Pitt the Elder.
About
“He was not merely a chip of the old Block, but the old Block itself.”
On Pitt's First Speech (26 February 1781), from Wraxall's Memoirs, First Series, vol. i. p. 342
1780s
“Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor”
“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.”
No. 215 (6 November 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
“The object of this process of elimination is”
Introduction
Higher Mathematics for Chemical Students (1911)
Context: In early physical systems we have optics dealing with phenomena perceived by the eye; acoustics treating of auditory percepts, and so on. The subjective concepts of "tone" and "colour" have now been replaced by the objectified concepts of frequency of vibration; and wave-length. The object of this process of elimination is, according to Planck, the striving towards a unification of the whole theoretical system, so that it shall be equally significant for all intelligent beings.
