“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
“They say that each generation inherits from those that have gone before; if this were so there would be no limit to man's improvements or to his power of reaching perfection. But he is very far from receiving intact that storehouse of knowledge which the centuries have piled up before him; he may perfect some inventions, but in others, he lags behind the originators, and a great many inventions have been lost entirely. What he gains on the one hand, he loses on the other.” IfsMenMayHas BeensHandsWould BeLostLosesPerfectBehindsGoneGenerationsCenturyLimitsGainsPerfectionImprovementInventionGreat MenReachingReceivingLag Author:Eugene Delacroix
“It is beyond a doubt that during the sixteenth century, and the years immediately preceding and following it, poisoning had been brought to a pitch of perfection which remains unknown to modern chemistry, but which is indisputably proved by history. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was at that time, the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many of which are lost.” YearsLostSecretHistoryDoubtModernCenturyPerfectionRemainsFollowingChemistryMistressInventorCradleModern SciencePoisoning Author:Honore de Balzac
“To stop war by the perfection of engines of destruction alone, might consume centuries and centuries. Other means must be employed to hasten the end.” MeanWarEndsMightCenturyPerfectionDestructionEnginesEmployedStop War Book:The Wireless Tesla Source: The Wireless Tesla
“What came out of that was an intense obsession with status anxiety. So much of these portraits are about fashioning oneself into the image of perfection that ruled the day in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's an antiquated language, but I think we've inherited that language and have forwarded it to its most useful points in the 21st century.” ThinkingLanguageCenturyAnxietyPerfectionOneselfIntenseObsessionPortraits21st Century19th Century Author:Kehinde Wiley
“For centuries the most powerful argument for God's existence from the physical world was the so-called argument from design: Living things are so beautiful and elegant and so apparently purposeful, they could only have been made by an intelligent designer. But [Charles] Darwin provided a simpler explanation. His way is a gradual, incremental improvement starting from very simple beginnings and working up step by tiny incremental step to more complexity, more elegance, more adaptive perfection.” WorldWayHas BeensMadeBeautifulSimplePowerfulExistenceStepsCenturyDesignArgumentPerfectionIntelligentStartingImprovementTinyExplanationDesignerComplexityMost PowerfulElegantEleganceLiving ThingsIntelligent DesignAdaptive Author:Richard Dawkins
“Although images of perfection in people's personal lives can cause unhappiness, images of perfect societies - utopian images - can cause monstrous evil. In fact, forcefully changing society to conform to societal images was the greatest cause of evil in the twentieth century.” PeopleFactsEvilCausesPerfectCenturyPerfectionUnhappinessConformityConformPersonal LifeTwentieth CenturyMonstrousUtopianPerfect Society Author:Dennis Prager
“I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity.” LittlesCareBeautyStruggleCenturyConcernedPerfectionDon't CareI Don't CareIntensityI CareLife Struggle Author:Emile Zola
“The devotion of such titans of spirit as Lenin to an Ideal must bear fruit. The nobility of his selflessness will be an example through centuries to come, and his Ideal will reach perfection.” SpiritCenturyExampleBearsIdealsPerfectionFruitDevotionCommunismSelflessnessNobilityTitans Author:Mahatma Gandhi
“Arts and sciences in one and the same century have arrived at great perfection; and no wonder, since every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies; the work then, being pushed on by many hands, must go forward.” KindArtHandsAgeScienceWonderStudyCenturyParticularHard WorkGeniusPerfectionUniversalArt And ScienceInclineMany Hands Book:The Major Works Source: The Major Works