#them

People enjoy inventing slogans which violate basic arithmetic but which illustrate “deeper” truths, such as “1 and 1 make 1” (for lovers), or “1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1” (the Trinity). You can easily pick holes in those slogans, showing why, for instance, using the plus-sign is inappropriate in both cases. But such cases proliferate. Two raindrops running down a window-pane merge; does one plus one make one? A cloud breaks up into two clouds -more evidence of the same? It is not at all easy to draw a sharp line between cases where what is happening could be called “addition”, and where some other word is wanted. If you think about the question, you will probably come up with some criterion involving separation of the objects in space, and making sure each one is clearly distinguishable from all the others. But then how could one count ideas? Or the number of gases comprising the atmosphere? Somewhere, if you try to look it up, you can probably fin a statement such as, “There are 17 languages in India, and 462 dialects.” There is something strange about the precise statements like that, when the concepts “language” and “dialect” are themselves fuzzy. ↗

— Douglas R. Hofstadter

#mathematics #truth #equality

Trust me, you have to fight. When people are wrong, you've got to let them know it. ↗

— Orlando Cepeda

#got #know #me #people #them

The worst thing is always thinking of titles for records, with some reason behind them, and she just came out with the word, which she thought was a good word, a hard word, and since then we've sort of attached loads of meaning to it. ↗

— Emma Anderson

#attached #behind #came #good #hard

I knew absolutely nothing about acting, and had to be taught everything. Some people are born naturals and know how to walk, talk and hold themselves. I didn't and had to learn everything. ↗

— Richard Briers

#absolutely #absolutely nothing #acting #born #everything

People define themselves aesthetically at a very young age. ↗

— Thom Filicia

#age #define #people #themselves #very

I had a polynomial once. My doctor removed it. ↗

— Michael Grant

#humor #mathematics #humor

If you have to fight a crowd of boys, it's best to go for the biggest one. That way you won't have to fight them all. The others will see that you mean business and you will win their respect. ↗

— Suzanne Vega

#biggest #business #crowd #fight #go

I am inspired by many mediums and use them to express varied aspects of my philosophies and life observations. ↗

— Judith Anderson

#aspects #express #i #i am #inspired

Some people are used to having things done for them by her parents, I am not. I can do it myself. ↗

— Sally Pearson

#done #having #her #i #i am

I didn't want readers to have to make allowances for what they couldn't see, but to be able to say to themselves that the fabric of the magic detailed was perfectly believable. ↗

— Terry Brooks

#allowances #believable #detailed #fabric #i