“I was appalled to find that the mathematical notation on which I had been raised failed to fill the needs of the courses I was assigned, and I began work on extensions to notation that might serve. In particular, I adopted the matrix algebra used in my thesis work, the systematic use of matrices and higher-dimensional arrays (almost) learned in a course in Tensor Analysis rashly taken in my third year at Queen's, and (eventually) the notion of Operators in the sense introduced by Heaviside in his treatment of Maxwell's equations.”
Thoughtful feeling
Thoughtful Quotes — page 165 of 303
“Spaying is a compromise in terms of reverence for life, but perhaps a necessary one in a society which kills millions of dogs and cats a year in "animal shelters".”
“All intimacies are based on differences.”
“Think only what is right there, what is right under your nose to do. It's such a simple thing - that's why people can't do it.”
“We must be careful not to discourage our twelve-year-olds by making them waste the best years of their lives preparing for examinations.”
“Confusing the author and the character seems to be a popular and rather unsophisticated reaction to books.”
“People look at things differently. Imagine going to a village in Southern Sudan and try to explain to someone there the concept of life insurance or retirement. Go to Vietnam and say retirement. Retirement in another country is your body is too racked with pain and your hands are too arthritic from the life in the rice patty fields, so you can't work anymore. So you move in with your son and his new wife takes care of you because that's how families work there.”
“Whenever I write lyrics, in the back of my mind I always see a guy driving to work, driving to a really bad job, one of those horrible institutions, or one of those low squat buildings in Los Angeles. I write with that person in my mind.”
“If you once understand an author's character, the comprehension of his writings becomes easy.”
“... you can never be sure of what has passed between husband and wife or lover and mistress.”
“I don't listen to music when I write - I find it distracting.”
“If the professors don't start or continue to figure out who we are as a people, where we're going and where we've been, then in a sense we are not capable of passing on that knowledge to future generations.”
“Experience teaches us only one thing at a time - and hardly that, in my case.”
“I think that’s what Toni Morrison and Alice Walker understand, the secret language of women. That it’s not a secret at all; men just don’t know how to listen.”
“You have to really care about what you say. And if you don't, it will never come out quite right, unless you go into acting, in which case you have to act fast before you realize it is something which you do not believe in.”
“Let us not overstrain our talents, lest we do nothing gracefully: a clown, whatever he may do, will never pass for a gentleman. [Fr., Ne forcons point notre talent; Nous ne ferions rien avec grace: Jamais un lourdaud, quoi qu'il fasse, Ne saurit passer pour galant.]”
“Lynx-eyes toward our equals, and moles to ourselves. [Fr., Lynx envers nos pareils, et taupes envers nous.]”
“A child who passes through many hands in turn, can never be well brought up. At every change he makes a secret comparison, which continually tends to lessen his respect for those who control him, and with it their authority over him. If once he thinks there are grown-up people with no more sense than children the authority of age is destroyed and his education is ruined.”
“There is no book of mine that I reject. That does not mean that I find them good.”
“Read the Declaration of Independence to your children as a tradition every Fourth of July. Make sure they understand why the word "pursuit" precedes the word "happiness."”