“There is an old song which asserts 'the best things in life are free.' Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted...and get it without toil, without sweat, without tears. Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.” PeopleBelieveWantedPainLife IsValuesSongEffortDemocracyCenturyTearsBirthVoteBreathsNobleExperimentsBest ThingsTragicSweatCollapseThings In LifeToilTwentieth CenturyFallacyDecadenceBest Things In LifeOld SongBest Things In Life Are Free Book:Starship Troopers Source: Starship Troopers
“The scientist has to take 95 per cent of his subject on trust. He has to because he can't possibly do all the experiments, therefore he has to take on trust the experiments all his colleagues and predecessors have done. Whereas a mathematician doesn't have to take anything on trust. Any theorem that's proved, he doesn't believe it, really, until he goes through the proof himself, and therefore he knows his whole subject from scratch. He's absolutely 100 per cent certain of it. And that gives him an extraordinary conviction of certainty, and an arrogance that scientists don't have.” KnowsGivingBelieveDoneWholeScienceCertainBeliefSubjectsScientistExtraordinaryConvictionProofExperimentsCertaintyArroganceCentsMathematicianColleaguesScratchesPredecessorsTheorems Author:Christopher Zeeman