#it

That attitude does not exist so much today, but in those days there was a very sharp distinction between basic physics and applied physics. Columbia did not deal with applied physics. ↗

— Gordon Gould

#attitude #basic #between #columbia #days

Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#either #equate #extended #intrinsic #look

Contrary to current cynicism about past golden ages, the abstraction known as 'the intelligent layperson' does exist - in the form of millions of folks with a passionate commitment to continuous learning. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#abstraction #ages #commitment #continuous #contrary

I love the wry motto of the Paleontological Society, meant both literally and figuratively, for hammers are the main tool of our trade: Frango ut patefaciam - I break in order to reveal. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#break #figuratively #hammers #i #i love

I think there have to be Bachs and Beethovens. We may have - there are so many more people. Musical training is available to so many more, but it may be that we've hit a right wall in terms of accessible styles and since we demand innovation as a criterion of genius, there may not be more innovative styles to be found. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#available #criterion #demand #found #genius

Don't show off every day, or you'll stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one ever discovers the limits of his talent. ↗

— Baltasar Gracian

#day #discovers #displays #each #ever

I'm not a great deductive thinker, but I will admit to having competence in a very wide range of things - not being afraid to try to write about baseball, choral music and dinosaurs in the same week and see connections among them. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#admit #afraid #among #baseball #being

My own field of paleontology has strongly challenged the Darwinian premise that life's major transformations can be explained by adding up, through the immensity of geological time, the successive tiny changes produced generation after generation by natural selection. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#after #challenged #changes #darwinian #explained

Industry has operated against the artisan in favor of the idler, and also in favor of capital and against labor. Any mechanical invention whatsoever has been more harmful to humanity than a century of war. ↗

— Remy de Gourmont

#also #any #artisan #been #capital

Man is the inventor of stupidity. ↗

— Remy de Gourmont

#man #stupidity