“The increased abstraction in mathematics that took place during the early part of this century was paralleled by a similar trend in the arts. In both cases, the increased level of abstraction demands greater effort on the part of anyone who wants to understand the work.” WantArtLevelsEffortCasesGreaterCenturyDemandLogicMathematicsCertaintyUncertaintyReasoningTrendsAbstractionOntology Author:Keith Devlin
“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
“Even the word depression itself was the terminological product of an effort to soften the connotation of deep trouble. In the last century, the term crisis was normally employed. With time, however, this acquired the connotation of the misfortune it described.” LastsTermEffortTroubleCenturyProductsCrisisMisfortunesEmployedConnotation Book:The affluent society Source: The affluent society
“In a general way, the literature of the twentieth century is essentially psychological; and psychology consists of describing states of the soul by displaying them all on the same plane, without any discrimination of value, as though good and evil were external to them, as though the effort toward the good could be absent at any moment from the thought of any man.” MenWaySoulStatesMomentsValuesEvilLiteratureEffortPsychologyCenturyDiscriminationPsychologicalPlanesGood And EvilTwentieth CenturyAbsentDescribing Author:Simone Weil
“The effort of painting from life has cost my models a great deal of physical discomfort, and cost me a great deal of money in model fees... I have wanted to make the camera obsolete... because, in my reading about early 20th century art, I found that the most frequently used argument made in favor of abstraction was that the camera made realist painting obsolete.” ArtMadeWantedUsedReadingFoundDealsEffortCenturyPaintingCostPhotographyModelsArgumentCamerasFavors20th CenturyAbstractionDiscomfortObsoleteRealistFees Author:Philip Pearlstein
“Instead of trying to educate the human race, they should imitate the pedagogues of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who concentrated their efforts on the education of a single person.” ShouldTryingHumansPersonsEffortRaceCenturyHuman RaceEducateSingle Person Book:Friedrich Nietzsche (English Edition) Source: Friedrich Nietzsche (English Edition)
“[The right] may never bring prayer back to schools, but it has rescued all manner of rightwing economic nostrums from history's dustbins. Having rolled back the landmark economic reforms of the sixties (the war on poverty) and those of the thirties (labor law, agricultural price supports, banking regulation), its leaders now turn their guns on the accomplishments of the earliest years of progressivism (Woodrow Wilson's estate tax; Theodore Roosevelt's anti-trust measures). With a little more effort, the backlash may well repeal the entire twentieth century.” YearsWellsMayLittlesWarSchoolLawTurnsPrayerEffortLeaderPovertySupportEconomicCenturyTaxesGunLaborReformAccomplishmentRegulationSixtyEstatesBankingTwentieth CenturyWilsonLandmarksBacklashProgressivismTheodoreWar On PovertyDustbinLabor LawsEconomic ReformsEstate Taxes Author:Thomas Frank
“Fifteen hundred years is ample time in which to lose mutual comprehension. Iceland was colonized by the Norwegians at the end of the ninth century AD. Today's Icelanders, with considerable effort, can understand people from the Scandinavian peninsula, but the Scandinavians hardly understand the Icelanders. A thousand years is the minimum time span for a language to change so much that it becomes incomprehensible.” PeopleYearsEndsTodayLanguageLosesEffortCenturyEvolutionThousandHundredMutualAdsFifteenMinimumThousand YearsComprehensionIcelandNorwegiansPeninsulasScandinavians Author:Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
“[Good taste] is a nineteenth-century concept. And good taste has never really been defined. The effort of projecting 'good taste' is so studied that it offends me. No, I prefer to negate that. We have to put a period to so-called good taste.” EffortCenturyPeriodsTasteConceptsDefinedNineteenth CenturyGood Taste Author:Louise Berliawsky Nevelson
“If you young people who today belong to the first generation of the 21st century make an effort now, you may be able to create a happier, more peaceful world. But you can't take for granted that it will happen by itself, you'll need to take action.” PeopleIfsWorldNeedsFirstsMayHappensTodayAbleActionYoungEffortGenerationsCenturyPeacefulGranted21st CenturyPeaceful World Author:Dalai Lama
“Since the early days, [the church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was an apologist for the divine right of kings.” MenMindHas BeensBodyGovernmentLawSocialChurchEffortCenturyDivineTheoryKingsInstitutionsSlaveryAll TimeThrownMind And BodyHabitualDefendersBad GovernmentDivine RightIncorrigibleSocial TheoryBad LawsDivine Right Of Kings Author:H. L. Mencken
“For almost a quarter of a century, Teen Ink has been encouraging young people to write - and then has published those pieces. These heartfelt essays and poems explore the issues faced by teenagers today. I applaud their efforts because they not only help young people deal with their own lives but also encourage the budding authors of the next generation.” PeopleWritingHas BeensHelpingTodayYoungNextDealsEffortIssuesPiecesGenerationsCenturyTeenagerQuartersEssaysInkNext GenerationHeartfeltQuarter Of A Century Author:Anita Silvey
“As an innovation... the establishment of Free Schools was the boldest ever promulgated, since the commencement of the Christian era... Time has ratified its soundness. Two centuries proclaim it to be as wise as it was courageous, as beneficient as it was disinterested. It was one of those grand mental and moral experiments... The sincerity of our gratitude must be tested by our efforts to perpetuate and improve what they established. The gratitude of the lips only is an unholy offering.” TwoSchoolChristianEffortMoralWiseCenturyGratitudeInnovationLipsExperimentsErasCourageousSincerityEstablishmentOfferingTestedCommencementDisinterestedFormal EducationSoundness Author:Horace Mann
“Mars is the symbolic and totally stimulating next objective that could so dominate the next century's exploration efforts. From Mars, the resources of all the asteroids will become readily available.” NextEffortCenturyResourcesAvailableObjectivesExplorationMarsSymbolicAsteroids Author:Buzz Aldrin
“There is a great need for a new approach, new methods and new tools in teaching, man's oldest and most reactionary craft. There is great need for a rapid increase in the productivity of learning. There is, above all, great need for methods that will make the teacher effective and multiply his or her efforts and competence. Teaching is, in fact, the only traditional craft in which we have not yet fashioned the tools that make an ordinary person capable of superior performance. In this respect, teaching is far behind medicine, where the tools first became available a century or more ago.” MenNeedsFirstsPersonsFactsEffortBehindsTeacherTeachingCenturyApproachCapableOrdinaryToolsPerformancesIncreaseMethodMedicineAvailableProductivitySuperiorsTraditionalCraftsRapidsCompetenceReactionariesOrdinary PersonNew ApproachSuperior Performance Author:Peter Drucker
“Legibility, in practice, amounts simply to what one is accustomed to. But this is not to say that because we have got used to something demonstrably less legible than something else would be if we could get used to it, we should make no effort to scrap the existing thing. This was done by the Florentines and Romans of the fifteenth century; it requires simply good sense in the originators & good will in the rest of us.” IfsShouldDoneWould BeUsedEffortPracticeCenturyAmountAccustomedGood WillGood SenseScrapLegibility Author:Eric Gill
“Universal peace as a result of cumulative effort through centuries past might come into existence quickly - not unlike a crystal that suddenly forms in a solution which has been slowly prepared. Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.” Has BeensMightPastFormHumanityGoalResultsEffortExistenceCenturySolutionsUltimateUniversalPreparedCrystalsUltimate GoalBettermentPerversionCumulative Author:Nikola Tesla
“In every major war we have fought in the 19th and 20th centuries. Americans have been asked to pay higher taxes - and nonessential programs have been cut - to support the military effort. Yet during this Iraq war, taxes have been lowered and domestic spending has climbed. In contrast to World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam, for most Americans this conflict has entailed no economic sacrifice. The only people really sacrificing for this war are the troops and their families.” PeopleWorldHas BeensWarEffortPaySupportCuttingSacrificeEconomicCenturyMilitaryHigherConflictTaxesMajorsProgramIraqSpendingWar Of The WorldsVietnamWorld War IiContrastWorld War ITroops20th CenturyKoreanIraq WarKorean War Author:Robert Hormats
“Given how long philosophers have been at conceptual analysis (I mean the 20th century stuff), and how many have been doing it, what can we say are the two most important concept results of all that effort?” MeanLongHas BeensTwoImportantGivenStuffResultsEffortCenturyConceptsPhilosopherAnalysis20th Century Author:Patricia Churchland