“When I began my physical studies [in Munich in 1874] and sought advice from my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly...he portrayed to me physics as a highly developed, almost fully matured science...Possibly in one or another nook there would perhaps be a dust particle or a small bubble to be examined and classified, but the system as a whole stood there fairly secured, and theoretical physics approached visibly that degree of perfection which, for example, geometry has had already for centuries.” WholeScienceStudyTeacherAdviceCenturyExampleDegreesPerfectionPhysicsDustBubblesParticlesTheoreticalGeometrySecuredJollyMaturedMunichTheoretical Physics Author:Max Planck
“One of the most important axioms is, that as the quantity of any commodity, for instance, plain food, which a man has to consume, increases, so the utility or benefit derived from the last portion used decreases in degree. The decrease in enjoyment between the beginning and the end of a meal may be taken as an example.” MenMayImportantEndsLastsUsedTakenExampleDegreesBenefitsIncreaseInstanceMealsEnjoymentPortionsQuantityCommodityUtilityDecreaseAxioms Book:Papers and correspondence of William Stanley Jevons Source: Papers and correspondence of William Stanley Jevons
“History is filled with examples of men and women who rendered highly effective performance without the conventional badges of accomplishment in terms of certificates, diplomas, or degrees. Diplomas and tests are useful servants, but Congress has mandated the commonsense proposition that they are not to become masters of reality.” MenRealityTermExampleMastersDegreesMen And WomenTestsPerformancesFilledCongressServantAccomplishmentConventionalPropositionsBadgesCertificatesDiploma Author:Warren E. Burger
“The Berbers, among whom even today one finds light skins and blue eyes, do not go back to the Vandal invasions of the fifth century A.D., but to the prehistoric Atlantic Nordic human wave. The Kabyle huntsmen, for example, are to no small degree still wholly Nordic (thus the blond Berbers in the region of Constantine form 10 % of the population; at Djebel Sheshor they are even more numerous).” HumansStillsLightEyeTodayFormCenturyExampleDegreesSkinsBlueWavePopulationRegionsFifthInvasionBlue EyesPrehistoricConstantineNordicVandals Author:Alfred Rosenberg
“...Simplifications have had a much greater long-range scientific impact than individual feats of ingenuity. The opportunity for simplification is very encouraging, because in all examples that come to mind the simple and elegant systems tend to be easier and faster to design and get right, more efficient in execution, and much more reliable than the more contrived contraptions that have to be debugged into some degree of acceptability....Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.” MindLongHardOpportunityIndividualSimpleGreaterAchieveExampleDesignHard WorkDisciplineEasierDegreesImpactSimplicityFasterRangeEfficientExecutionElegantAppreciatedEleganceIngenuityFeatsSimplificationSimplicity And Elegance Author:Edsger Dijkstra
“Some people have a knack, for example, of being able to tell when someone's lying to them. They may not know what the truth is, but they can tell when someone is trying to lead them astray or sell them something shady. I think he had that ability to an amazing degree. I also think he thought, without saying it explicitly, that you can convince a crowd of something that's not true more easily than you can one person at a time.” PeopleThinkingKnowsTryingMayPersonsBookAbleLyingLanguageAbilityExampleTruth IsDegreesSellsCrowdsConvinceKnackShady Author:George Orwell
“Even the new feminist research on sex-role socialization and sex differences has sometimes had the unfortunate consequence of creating a new set of stereotypes about what women feel and how women behave. Despite the large amount of overlap between the sexes in most research, the tendency to label and polarize and thus to exaggerate differences remains in much reporting of data, which may, for example, report the mean scores of male and female populations but not the degree of overlap.” FeelsMayMeanSometimesSexDifferencesRolesExampleAmountDegreesCreatingResearchConsequenceFemaleRemainsMalesPopulationFeministTendenciesDespiteDataLabelsBehaveReportsScoreSexismUnfortunateStereotypeSocializationSex Differences Author:Rosabeth Moss Kanter
“The degree to which the child-rearing professionals continue to be out of touch with reality is astounding. For example, a widely read manual on breast-feeding, devotes fewer than two pages to the working mother.” ChildrenTwoRealityMotherExampleDegreesPagesBreastsFewerFeedingManualsChild Rearing Author:Sylvia Ann Hewlett
“The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature. . . . [In] the formation of the American governments . . . it will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of heaven. . . . These governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.” FirstsPersonsStatesReasonUseGovernmentAmericaReligionHeavenChurchSimpleUnitedPrinciplesUnited StatesAtheismInfluenceExampleDegreesSeparationSensesInterviewsSecularUnited States Of AmericaEmployedChurch And StateFormationSeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersFounding Fathers ChristianState GovernmentUs Founding FathersSeparation Between Church And StateFounding Fathers ReligiousAmerican GovernmentReligion GodChristian ChurchConstitution Of The United StatesFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistDeismReligion ChristianChristian FatherUnited States GovernmentReligion And GovernmentAmerican Constitution Author:John Adams
“We are all what we are, in large degree, because of others who have helped, coached, taught, counseled, who set a standard by example, who've taken an interest in our interests, opened doors, opened our minds, helped us see, who gave encouragement when we needed it, who reprimanded or prodded when we needed it, and at critical moments, inspired.” MindMomentsInterestTakenDoorsExampleTaughtNeededDegreesStandardsEncouragementInspiredCriticalCritical MomentsOpened Doors Author:David McCullough
“The ways sexuality plays out in political economies is central. And Cambodia's political economy is organized around this notion of family. So lesbianism is actually perceived as being threatening to a degree that it would have not been, for example, under socialist East Germany. But it's one of the essential issues of women's freedom: Do you get to do want you want to do with your body? Not if you don't know what your body is for.” IfsKnowsWayWantPlayBodyPoliticalEconomyIssuesExampleEssentialsDegreesNotionSexualityEastYour BodyGermanyOrganizedSocialistThreateningPolitical EconomyCambodiaLesbianismEast Germany Author:Anne Elizabeth Moore
“I don't know what to say about Asians. I think everyone is "racist," to differing degrees, in that everyone's brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at (for example skin color, bone structure), but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn't neutral or self-aware probably increases racism.” ThinkingKnowsSelfRaceBrainInformationExampleColorDegreesRacismSkinsIncreaseStructureBonesRacistAssociatesSkin Color Author:Tao Lin
“There are, however, composers whose music can only be heard in a chromatic sense. George Perle, for example, wrote pieces that you might think of as leaning in a tonal direction but it's very hard to register a pitch as, say, the sixth degree of a scale, whereas in much of my music I think that's often relatively easy to do.” ThinkingHardMightEasyPiecesHeardExampleDegreesScalesComposerRegisterLeaning In Author:Paul Lansky
“There are ways in which you can make that distinction objective to a certain degree. For example, by looking at responses that could be generated in the brain to exactly the same stimulus and there could be differences there.” WayCertainDifferencesBrainExampleDegreesResponseObjectivesDistinctionStimulus Author:Antonio Damasio
“To me, the model example of how to share your faith is Jesus with the woman at the well in John 4. He was patient with her. He took time for her. To some degree, she was kind of disrespectful to Him at first, initially kind of blowing off what he said and blowing off what he was saying to her. But then, as it continued on, she began to understand and ultimately believed.” FirstsWellsKindSaidJesusShareExampleDegreesModelsPatientDisrespectful Author:Greg Laurie