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History Quotes

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History Quotes

“Those, who are strongly wedded to what I shall call 'the classical theory', will fluctuate, I expect, between a belief that I am quite wrong and a belief that I am saying nothing new. It is for others to determine if either of these or the third alternative is right.”

Ifs Belief History Power Learning Theory Economics Thirds Determine Alternatives Nothing New Saying Nothing

Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money

Source: General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money

“History is, and has always been trameled by facts. It may ignore some and deny others; but it cannot accommodate itself unreservedly to theories; it cannot be stripped of things evidenced in favor of things surmised.”

May Facts History Theory Deny Favors Accommodate

Author:Agnes Repplier

“... the word "theory" ... was originally an Orphic word, which Cornford interprets as "passionate sympathetic contemplation" ... For Pythagoras, the "passionate sympathetic contemplation" was intellectual, and issued in mathematical knowledge ... To those who have reluctantly learnt a little mathematics in school this may seem strange; but to those who have experienced the intoxicating delight of sudden understanding that mathematics gives, from time to time, to those who love it, the Pythagorean view will seem completely natural.”

Giving May Littles Seems School Understanding Natural Views History Strange Theory Intellectual Mathematics Passionate Delight Mathematical Contemplation Sympathetic

Book:History of Western Philosophy

Source: History of Western Philosophy

“Someone is an ignoramus who would say that, 'Oh, we had three hurricanes this year. This proves that somehow the climate is warming.' The earth is 4.5 billion years old, and you're going to say that we had four hurricanes and so it proves a theory?”

Years Reality Earth Science Three Politics Nature Party History Four Generations Theory Prove Climate Billions Ideology Tea Free Speech Hurricanes Tea Party

Author:Rand Paul

“The French Revolution, Fichte's Theory of Knowledge, and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister are the three greatest tendencies of the age. Whoever takes offence at this combination, and whoever does not consider a revolution important unless it is blatant and palpable, has not yet risen to the lofty and broad vantage point of the history of mankind.”

Doe Important Age Three History Mankind Theory Revolution Tendencies Combination Broads Lofty Risen Offence French Revolution Vantage Point Theory Of Knowledge

Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

“The recurrence of a phenomenon like Edison is not very likely. The profound change of conditions and the ever increasing necessity of theoretical training would seem to make it impossible. He will occupy a unique and exalted position in the history of his native land, which might well be proud of his great genius and undying achievements in the interest of humanity.”

“The history of acceptance of new theories frequently shows the following steps: At first the new idea is treated as pure nonsense, not worth looking at. Then comes a time when a multitude of contradictory objections are raised, such as: the new theory is too fancy, or merely a new terminology; it is not fruitful, or simply wrong. Finally a state is reached when everyone seems to claim that he had always followed this theory. This usually marks the last state before general acceptance.”

Source: Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers

“To think historically is almost the same thing now as if in all ages history had been made according to theory.”

Ifs Thinking Made Age History Theory

Book:Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two

Source: Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two

“How strange it would be if the final theory were to be discovered in our lifetimes! The discovery of the final laws of nature will mark a discontinuity in human intellectual history, the sharpest that has occurred since the beginning of modern science in the seventeenth century. Can we now imagine what that would be like?”

Ifs Humans Would Be Law Science History Imagine Modern Century Strange Theory Intellectual Discovery Mark Lifetime Finals Laws Of Nature Modern Science Discontinuity

Book:Dreams of a Final Theory

Source: Dreams of a Final Theory

“If history is any guide at all, it seems to me to suggest that there is a final theory. In this century we have seen a convergence of the arrows of explanation, like the convergence of meridians toward the North Pole.”

Ifs Seems Science History Century Theory Evidence Finals Guides Explanation Arrows Convergence North Pole

Author:Steven Weinberg

“Psychoanalytic theory is the most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century and a terminal product as well-something akin to a dinosaur or zeppelin in the history of ideas, a vast structure of radically unsound design and with no posterity.”

Wells Ideas Science History Century Design Products Theory Intellectual Structure Tricks Twentieth Century Posterity Dinosaurs Zeppelins Terminal Psychoanalytic

Author:Peter Medawar

“In the expressions we adopt to prescribe physical phenomena we necessarily hover between two extremes. We either have to choose a word which implies more than we can prove, or we have to use vague and general terms which hide the essential point, instead of bringing it out. The history of electrical theories furnishes a good example.”

Two Use Science Term History Example Expression Theory Prove Essentials Extremes Vague Electrical Good Examples Nomenclature Two Extremes

Author:Arthur Schuster

“Years should not be devoted to the acquisition of dead languages or to the study of history which, for the most part, is a detailed account of things that never occurred. It is useless to fill the individual with dates of great battles, with the births and deaths of kings. They should be taught the philosophy of history, the growth of nations, of philosophies, theories, and, above all, of the sciences.”

Should Years Philosophy Individual Language Nations Growth History Study Taught Theory Birth Kings Battle Accounts Useless Devoted Acquisition Birth And Death Great Battle

Author:Robert Green Ingersoll