Circumlocution Quotes (1 quote)
Modern philosophers, to avoid circumlocutions, call that instrument, wherein a cylinder of quicksilver, of between 28 to 32 inches in altitude, is kept suspended after the manner of the Torricellian experiment, a barometer or baroscope.
Opening sentence of 'A Relation of Some Mercurial Observations, and Their Results', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (12 Feb 1665/6), 1, No. 9, 153. Since no author is identified, it is here assumed that the article was written by the journal (founding) editor, Oldenburg.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
