“The American capitalists are richer and stronger than their counterparts in other lands. They are also younger and more ignorant, and therefore more inclined to seek a rough settlement of difficulties without diplomatic subtlety and finesse. All that does not change the fact that American capitalism operates according to the same laws as the others, is confronted with the same fundamental problems, and is headed toward the same catastrophe.” DoeFactsProblemLawLandCapitalismDifficultyStrongerFundamentalsIgnorantRoughCapitalistCatastropheSubtletySettlementDiplomaticCounterpartsFinesseAmerican Capitalism Author:James P. Cannon
“The basic idea is to shove all fundamental difficulties onto the neutron and to do quantum mechanics in the nucleus.” IdeasDifficultyFundamentalsPhysicsQuantumMechanicQuantum PhysicsQuantum MechanicsNucleusNeutrons Author:Werner Heisenberg
“No nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling... The desire to grasp and be united with another human is so fundamental a part of our nature that our judgement of what is known as 'pure form' is inevitably influenced by it, and one of the difficulties of the nude as a subject for art is that these instincts cannot be hidden.” ShouldHumansArtFeelingsFormDesireUnitedKnownFailingSubjectsPureArt IsDifficultyFundamentalsInstinctJudgementAbstractEroticSpectators Book:The nude: a study in ideal form Source: The nude: a study in ideal form
“I have a name for people who went to the extreme efficient market theory-which is "bonkers". It was an intellectually consistent theory that enabled them to do pretty mathematics. So I understand its seductiveness to people with large mathematical gifts. It just had a difficulty in that the fundamental assumption did not tie properly to reality.” PeopleRealityNamesTheoryDifficultyMathematicsFundamentalsExtremesMathematicalTiesAssumptionConsistentEfficientEfficient Markets Author:Charlie Munger
“The clearer and deeper the public opinion of the world, in the first instance the opinion of the working masses, will understand the contradictions and the difficulties of the socialist development of an isolated country, the higher will it appreciate the results achieved. The less it identifies the fundamental methods of Socialism with the zigzags and errors of the Soviet bureaucracy, the less will be the danger that, by the inevitable revelation of these errors and of their consequences, the authority, not only of the present ruling group, but of the workers' State itself, may decline.” WorldFirstsMayCountryStatesResultsOpinionGroupsDangerDevelopmentHigherAuthorityMassConsequenceAppreciateDifficultyMethodFundamentalsErrorsWorkersDeeperSocialismInstanceInevitableRevelationsContradictionSovietIsolatedDeclineSocialistBureaucracyRulingPublic Opinion Author:Leon Trotsky
“I soon began to sense a fundamental perceptual difficulty among male scholars (and some female ones) for which 'sexism' is too facile a term. It is really an intellectual defect, which might be termed 'patrivincialism' or patrochialism': the assumption that women are a subgroup, that men's culture is the 'real' world, that patriarchy is equivalent to culture and culture to patriarchy, that the 'great' or 'liberalizing' periods of history have been the same for women as for men.” MenWorldHas BeensRealMightCultureTermPeriodsIntellectualFemaleDifficultyFundamentalsMalesAssumptionSexismReal WorldScholarPatriarchyDefects Author:Adrienne Rich
“Everything must be recaptured and relocated in the general framework of history, so that despite the difficulties, the fundamental paradoxes and contradictions, we may respect the unity of history which is also the unity of life.” InspirationalMayMotivationalHistoryDifficultyFundamentalsUnityDespiteContradictionParadoxFramework Book:On History Source: On History
“The whole procedure [of shooting rockets into space] . . . presents difficulties of so fundamental a nature, that we are forced to dismiss the notion as essentially impracticable, in spite of the author's insistent appeal to put aside prejudice and to recollect the supposed impossibility of heavier-than-air flight before it was actually accomplished. An analogy such as this may be misleading, and we believe it to be so in this case.” BelieveMayWholeSpaceCasesAirFutureDifficultyPrejudiceFundamentalsNotionFlightAppealsShootingAccomplishedSpiteAviationPredictionsImpossibilityProceduresRocketsMisleadAnalogies Author:Richard van der Riet Woolley