Quotes about designer page 2
Gottlob Frege Sense and reference
As cited in: M. Fitting, Richard L. Mendelsoh (1999), First-Order Modal Logic, p. 142. They called this Frege's Puzzle.
Über Sinn und Bedeutung, 1892
Paul Davies (1946) British physicist
Source: The Cosmic Blueprint: New Discoveries In Nature's Creative Ability To Order Universe (1988), Ch. 14: 'Is There a Blueprint?', p. 203
Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) American politician
As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838&ndash;64 https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA192 (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, pp. 192&ndash;193 <br class="br">1860s, Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives (April 1860)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Address to the Nation by the President on San Bernardino (December 2015)
Ayrton Senna (1960–1994) Brazilian racing driver
Interview at the 1990 Australian Grand Prix, November 1990 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9j6dGOGftY4
Alexander the Great (-356–-323 BC) King of Macedon
Vitruvius, De Architectura Bk. 2, Introduction, Sec. 3
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Letter to the Grand Lodge of Free Masons of Massachusetts (27 December 1792) https://www.beliefnet.com/resourcelib/docs/86/Letter_from_George_Washington_to_the_Grand_Master_of_Free_Mas_1.html, published in The Writings Of George Washington (1835) by Jared Sparks, p. 201 <br class="br">1790s
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
“We are specially designed to appeal to the sense of humour.”
Oscar Wilde book De Profundis
De Profundis (1897)
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author
Quoted from the Discovery Channel, 15 August 2011. <br class="br"> "Stephen Hawking There is no God. There is no Fate." from episode 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L7VTdzuY7Y · [Curiosity: Did God Create the Universe?, http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/did-god-create-the-universe.htm, Discovery Communications, LLC., 7 August 2011, 4 July 2013] <br class="br">Curiosity (2011)
Nikolaus Pevsner (1902–1983) German-born British scholar
An Outline of European Architecture (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1942] 1957), p. 23.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Source: Speech to the annual meeting of the Royal and Central Bucks Agricultural Association in Aylesbury (20 September 1876), quoted in 'Lord Beaconsfield At Aylesbury', The Times (21 September 1876), p. 6.
John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher and physician
'Critical Notes Upon Edward Stillingfleet's Mischief and Unreasonableness of Separation' (c. May 1681), quoted in John Marshall, John Locke: Resistance, Religion and Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 110
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1950s, What Desires Are Politically Important? (1950)
Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1925/07/lenin.htm,Letter on Max Eastman's Book, July 1, 1925
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
1780s, The Newburgh Address (1783)
“Human beings are not efficiently designed for a capitalist system of production.”
Eric Hobsbawm book The Age of Extremes
Source: The Age of Extremes (1992), p. 414.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Statement of 25 August 1538, in Table-Talk, as translated by William Hazlitt (1857), DLXXVII
Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan
Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 2 “Cheers in the Wirehouse” (pp. 57-58)
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Detroit, Michigan (12 April 1964)
“We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not to see them.”
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.
As quoted in BusinessWeek (25 May 1998) http://www.businessweek.com/1998/21/b3579165.htm <br class="br">1990s
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Dreams and Facts https://users.drew.edu/jlenz/br-dreams.html (1919) <br class="br">1910s
Virginia Woolf A Letter to a Young Poet
"A Letter to a Young Poet"
The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942)
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
"How to Become a Philosopher" (1942), in The Art of Philosophizing, and Other Essays (New York: Philosophical Library, 1968), p. 2
1940s
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist
From 1980s onwards, Only Integrity is Going to Count (1983)
“Only the most perfect human being can design the most perfect philosophy.”
Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer
Fichte Studies § 651
“Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost.”
Bjarne Stroustrup book The C++ Programming Language
[Stroustrup, Bjarne, The C++ Programming Language, 693]
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Speeches to Ohio Regiments (1864), Speech to One Hundred Forty-eighth Ohio Regiment (1864)
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Source: 1960s, Continuities in Cultural Evolution (1964), p. 338
Freeman Dyson (1923) theoretical physicist and mathematician
Pt. 1, Ch. 10
Disturbing the Universe (1979)
“To all those who by accident or design, have not been included in this book.”
Peter Ustinov book Dear Me
Dedication page
Dear Me (1977)
“What really did I escape from, thought I saw Gods face on the design in my vintage Claiborne”
Nas (1973) American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur
In His Own Words
On Albums, Distant Relatives (2010)
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker
1941 - 1967
Source: Three Hundred Years of American Painting, Alexander Eliot; New York: Time Inc., 1957, p. 298
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Remarks of President Barack Obama To the People of Israel at Jerusalem International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel (21 March 2013)
2013
Friedrich Nietzsche book On the Genealogy of Morality
this is the meaning of 'Arya,' and of corresponding words in Iranian and Slavic
Essay 1, Section 5
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)
“Mass education was designed to turn independent farmers into docile, passive tools of production.”
Noam Chomsky book Class Warfare
Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999, Class Warfare, 1995
Context: Mass education was designed to turn independent farmers into docile, passive tools of production. That was its primary purpose. And don't think people didn't know it. They knew it and they fought against it. There was a lot of resistance to mass education for exactly that reason. It was also understood by the elites. Emerson once said something about how we're educating them to keep them from our throats. If you don't educate them, what we call "education," they're going to take control -- "they" being what Alexander Hamilton called the "great beast," namely the people. The anti-democratic thrust of opinion in what are called democratic societies is really ferocious. And for good reason. Because the freer the society gets, the more dangerous the great beast becomes and the more you have to be careful to cage it somehow.
Hatshepsut (-1507–-1458 BC) Egyptian Pharaoh
Hor-watit signifies "the only Horus
Djeser-Djeseru inscriptions
Context: Hear ye, all persons! Ye people as many as ye are! I have done things according to the design of my heart. … I have restored that which was in ruins, I have raised up that which was unfinished since the Asiatics were in the midst of the Northland, and the barbarians were in the midst of them, overthrowing that which was made, while they ruled in ignorance of Re. He did not do according to the divine command until my majesty. When I was firm upon the throne of Re, I was ennobled until the two periods of years... I came as Hor-watit flaming against my enemies.
Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church
Ash Wednesday General Audience (1 March 2017), as quoted in "Pope Francis: ‘we do not go to heaven in a carriage’" at Vatican Radio (1 March 2017) http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/03/01/pope_francis_‘we_do_not_go_to_heaven_in_a_carriage’_/1295741 <br class="br">2010s, 2017 <br class="br">Context: Every step, every effort, every test, every fall and every recovery has a sense within God’s design for salvation, as He wants life – not death – and joy – not pain – for His people … This doesn’t mean that he did everything and we don’t have to do anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
Context: The liar is a person who uses the valid designations, the words, in order to make something which is unreal appear to be real. He says, for example, "I am rich," when the proper designation for his condition would be "poor." He misuses fixed conventions by means of arbitrary substitutions or even reversals of names. If he does this in a selfish and moreover harmful manner, society will cease to trust him and will thereby exclude him. What men avoid by excluding the liar is not so much being defrauded as it is being harmed by means of fraud. Thus, even at this stage, what they hate is basically not deception itself, but rather the unpleasant, hated consequences of certain sorts of deception. It is in a similarly restricted sense that man now wants nothing but truth: he desires the pleasant, life-preserving consequences of truth. He is indifferent toward pure knowledge which has no consequences; toward those truths which are possibly harmful and destructive he is even hostilely inclined.
Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
Book III, 3.45-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
Context: The various languages placed side by side show that with words it is never a question of truth, never a question of adequate expression; otherwise, there would not be so many languages. The "thing in itself" (which is precisely what the pure truth, apart from any of its consequences, would be) is likewise something quite incomprehensible to the creator of language and something not in the least worth striving for. This creator only designates the relations of things to men, and for expressing these relations he lays hold of the boldest metaphors.' To begin with, a nerve stimulus is transferred into an image: first metaphor. The image, in turn, is imitated in a sound: second metaphor. And each time there is a complete overleaping of one sphere, right into the middle of an entirely new and different one.
Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 1. Why Are People?
Context: Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have a chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to do.
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics
Vol. II, Ch. 1 : Introduction, concerning the time when the Apocalypse was written
Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733)
Context: The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt.
The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify mens curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world. For the event of things predicted many ages before, will then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by providence. For, as the few and obscure Prophecies concerning Christ’s first coming were for setting up the Christian religion, which all nations have since corrupted; so the many and clear Prophecies concerning the things to be done at Christ’s second coming, are not only for predicting but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness. The event will prove the Apocalypse; and this Prophecy, thus proved and understood, will open the old Prophets, and all together will make known the true religion, and establish it. For he that will understand the old Prophets, must begin with this; but the time is not yet come for understanding them perfectly, because the main revolution predicted in them is not yet come to pass. In the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets: and then the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever, Apoc. x. 7. xi. 15. There is already so much of the Prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study, may see sufficient instances of God’s providence: but then the signal revolutions predicted by all the holy Prophets, will at once both turn men’s eyes upon considering the predictions, and plainly interpret them. Till then we must content ourselves with interpreting what hath been already fulfilled.
Amongst the Interpreters of the last age there to scarce one of note who hath not made some discovery worth knowing; and thence I seem to gather that God is about opening these mysteries. The success of others put me upon considering it; and if I have done any thing which may be useful to following writers, I have my design.
Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) American architect
The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered (1896)
Context: We must now heed the imperative voice of emotion.
It demands of us, What is the chief characteristic of the tall office building? And at once we answer, it is lofty. This loftiness is to the artist-nature its thrilling aspect. It is the very open organ-tone in its appeal. It must be in turn the dominant chord in his expression of it, the true excitant of his imagination. It must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line, — that it is the new, the unexpected, the eloquent peroration of most bald, most sinister, most forbidding conditions.
The man who designs in this spirit and with the sense of responsibility to the generation he lives in must be no coward, no denier, no bookworm, no dilettante. He must live of his life and for his life in the fullest, most consummate sense. He must realize at once and with the grasp of inspiration that the problem of the tall office building is one of the most stupendous, one of the most magnificent opportunities that the Lord of Nature in His beneficence has ever offered to the proud spirit of man.
That this has not been perceived — indeed, has been flatly denied — is an exhibition of human perversity that must give us pause.
C. A. R. Hoare (1934) British computer scientist
The Emperor's Old Clothes
Context: There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. It demands the same skill, devotion, insight, and even inspiration as the discovery of the simple physical laws which underlie the complex phenomena of nature.
Grace Hopper (1906–1992) American computer scientist and United States Navy officer
As quoted in Management and the Computer of the Future (1962) by Sloan School of Management, p. 273
Context: We must include in any language with which we hope to describe complex data-processing situations the capability for describing data. We must also include a mechanism for determining the priorities to be applied to the data. These priorities are not fixed and are indicated in many cases by the data.
Thus we must have a language and a structure that will take care of the data descriptions and priorities, as well as the operations we wish to perform. If we think seriously about these problems, we find that we cannot work with procedures alone, since they are sequential. We need to define the problem instead of the procedures. The Language Structures Group of the Codasyl Committee has been studying the structure of languages that can be used to describe data-processing problems. The Group started out by trying to design a language for stating procedures, but soon discovered that what was really required was a description of the data and a statement of the relationships between the data sets. The Group has since begun writing an algebra of processes, the background for a theory of data processing.
Clearly, we must break away from the sequential and not limit the computers. We must state definitions and provide for priorities and descriptions of data. We must state relationships, not procedures.
“The Eternal has his designs from all eternity.”
Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
"Prayers" (1770)
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
Context: The Eternal has his designs from all eternity. If prayer is in accord with his immutable wishes, it is quite useless to ask of him what he has resolved to do. If one prays to him to do the contrary of what he has resolved, it is praying that he be weak, frivolous, inconstant; it is believing that he is thus, it is to mock him. Either you ask him a just thing, in which case he must do it, the thing being done without your praying to him for it, and so to entreat him is then to distrust him; or the thing is unjust, and then you insult him. You are worthy or unworthy of the grace you implore: if worthy, he knows it better than you; if unworthy, you commit another crime by requesting what is undeserved.
In a word, we only pray to God because we have made him in our image. We treat him like a pasha, like a sultan whom one may provoke or appease.
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate
TIME interview (1991)
Context: It's a misperception of me that I am a wild man — I wish I still were. I'm 68 years old. The rage now is, oh, so deep it's almost comfortable. It has even approached the point where I can live with it philosophically. The world's not what I want it to be. But then no one ever said I had the right to design the world.
“Are designations congruent with things? Is language the adequate expression of all realities?”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
Context: Are designations congruent with things? Is language the adequate expression of all realities?
It is only by means of forgetfulness that man can ever reach the point of fancying himself to possess a "truth" of the grade just indicated. If he will not be satisfied with truth in the form of tautology, that is to say, if he will not be content with empty husks, then he will always exchange truths for illusions.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Often the portion of this passage on "Towering genius..." is quoted without any mention or acknowledgment that Lincoln was speaking of the need to sometimes hold the ambitions of such genius in check, when individuals aim at their own personal aggrandizement rather than the common good.
1830s, The Lyceum Address (1838)
Context: It is to deny, what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And, when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion, as others have so done before them. The question then, is, can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found, whose ambition would inspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? — Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. — It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Context: And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) American behaviorist
As quoted in "Unpacking the Skinner Box : Revisiting B. F. Skinner through a Postformal Lens" by Dana Salter in The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology Vol. 4 (2008) edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Raymond A. Horn, Ch. 99, p. 872.
“Color does not add a pleasant quality to design - it reinforces it.”
Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) French painter and printmaker
“Color does not add a pleasant quality to design - it reinforces it.”
Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) French painter and printmaker
Ronald Fisher (1890–1962) English statistician, evolutionary biologist, geneticist, and eugenicist
W. Allen Wallis (1952) at the University of Chicago while honoring Fisher with the Honorary degree of Doctor of Science; cited in: George E. P. Box (1976) " Science and Statistics http://www-sop.inria.fr/members/Ian.Jermyn/philosophy/writings/Boxonmaths.pdf" Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 71, No. 356. (Dec., 1976), pp. 791-799.
Aryabhata (476–550) Indian mathematician-astronomer
Florian Cajori in: A History of Mathematical Notations http://books.google.co.in/books?id=_byqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT961&dq=Notations&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Wz65U5WYDIKulAW1qIGYDA&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Notation&f=false, Courier Dover Publications, 26 September 2013, p. 47.
Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer
Source: Designing the Future (2007), p. 35
Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
"Prayers" (1770)
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
Original: (fr) L’Éternel a ses desseins de toute éternité. Si la prière est d’accord avec ses volontés immuables, il est très inutile de lui demander ce qu’il a résolu de faire. Si on le prie de faire le contraire de ce qu’il a résolu, c’est le prier d’être faible, léger, inconstant; c’est croire qu’il soit tel, c’est se moquer de lui. Ou vous lui demandez une chose juste; en ce cas il la doit, et elle se fera sans qu’on l’en prie; c’est même se défier de lui que lui faire instance ou la chose est injuste, et alors on l’outrage. Vous êtes digne ou indigne de la grâce que vous implorez: si digne, il le sait mieux que vous; si indigne, on commet un crime de plus en demandant ce qu’on ne mérite pas.
En un mot, nous ne faisons des prières à Dieu que parce que nous l’avons fait à notre image. Nous le traitons comme un bacha, comme un sultan qu’on peut irriter ou apaiser.
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.
Interviewed with Wired: Gary Wolf. Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs_pr.html (February 1996) <br class="br">1990s
Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister
First global conference on the human environment (UNCHE) in Stockholm in June 1972 by UN.
Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American motivational speaker
Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future
"Some Principles of History", paragraph 104
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)
“"The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default.”
Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
“One could describe Design as a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose.”
Charles Eames (1907–1978) American designer, half of duo the Eames
In answer of the question: What is your definition of Design?
Design Q & A with Charles Eames, 1972
Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator
Source: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
“It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from.”
Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin
Source: Let the Great World Spin
“Design cannot rescue failed content.”
Edward R. Tufte (1942) American statistician (b.1942) noted for his writings on information design
“Why isn't life better designed so it warns you when terrible things are about to happen?”
Maggie O'Farrell (1972) British writer
Source: After You'd Gone