Consequently Quotes (7 quotes)
I believe that the laws of physics such as they are, such as they have been taught to us, are not the inevitable truth. We believe in the laws, or we experiment* with them each day, yet I believe it is possible to consider the existence of a universe in which these laws would be extended, changed a very tiny bit, in a precisely demarcated way. Consequently we immediately achieve extraordinary results, different yet certainly not far from the truth. After all, every century or two a new scientist comes along who changes the laws of physics, isn’t that so? After Newton there were many who did, and there were even more after Einstein, right? We have to wait to see how the laws in question will change over time, then… In any case, without being a scientist myself I can still hope to reach parallel results, if you will, in art.
Epigraph, in James Housefield, Playing with Earth and Sky: Astronomy, Geography, and the Art of Marcel Duchamp (2016), ix. As modified by James Housefield, from Guy Viau interview of Marcel Duchamp on Canadian Radio Television (17 July 1960), 'Simply Change Your Name', translated by Sarah Skinner Kilborne in Tout-Fait: the Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal 2, no. 4 (2002). [*Note: Where the Housefield in the Epigraph uses the word “experiment”, the original French gives “expérimentons”, which in the unmodified translation by Sarah Skinner Kilborne is written more correctly as “experience.” —Webmaster]
It is above all the duty of the methodical text-book to adapt itself to the pupil’s power of comprehension, only challenging his higher efforts with the increasing development of his imagination, his logical power and the ability of abstraction. This indeed constitutes a test of the art of teaching, it is here where pedagogic tact becomes manifest. In reference to the axioms, caution is necessary. It should be pointed out comparatively early, in how far the mathematical body differs from the material body. Furthermore, since mathematical bodies are really portions of space, this space is to be conceived as mathematical space and to be clearly distinguished from real or physical space. Gradually the student will become conscious that the portion of the real space which lies beyond the visible stellar universe is not cognizable through the senses, that we know nothing of its properties and consequently have no basis for judgments concerning it. Mathematical space, on the other hand, may be subjected to conditions, for instance, we may condition its properties at infinity, and these conditions constitute the axioms, say the Euclidean axioms. But every student will require years before the conviction of the truth of this last statement will force itself upon him.
In Methodisches Lehrbuch der Elementar-Mathemalik (1904), Teil I, Vorwort, 4-5.
Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in numerous small details of habits, tastes, and dispositions between two or more domestic races, or between nearly-allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument that they are descended from a common progenitor who was thus endowed; and consequently that all should be classed under the same species. The same argument may be applied with much force to the races of man.
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Often in evolutionary processes a species must adapt to new conditions in order to survive. Today the atomic bomb has altered profoundly the nature of the world as we know it, and the human race consequently finds itself in a new habitat to which it must adapt its thinking.
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Over the years it has become clear that adjustments to the physical environment are behavioral as well as physiological and are inextricably intertwined with ecology and evolution. Consequently, a student of the physiology of adaptation should not only be a technically competent physiologist, but also be familiar with the evolutionary and ecological setting of the phenomenon that he or she is studying.
From 'Interspecific comparison as a tool for ecological physiologists', collected in M.E. Feder, A.F. Bennett, W.W. Burggren, and R.B. Huey, (eds.), New Directions in Ecological Physiology (1987), 17.
The Pestilence can never breed the Small-Pox, nor the Small-Pox the Measles, nor they the Crystals or Chicken-Pox, any more than an Hen can breed a Duck, a Wolf a Sheep, or a Thistle Figs; and consequently, one Sort cannot be a Preservative against any other Sort.
In Ludvig Hektoen, 'Thomas Fuller 1654-1734: country physician and pioneer exponent of specificness in infection and immunity', Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago (Mar 1922), 2, 321. In the reprint of the paper alone, the quote is on page 3.
We may consider the renting of a property for several years as a sale of the usufruct during the time of the lease. Now nine years' possession, for example, is equal to more than a third of the value of the property, supposing the annual product to be one twentieth of the capital. It would then be reasonable to apply to this sort of sale the laws which govern that of landed property, and consequently the mutation tax. The person who cannot or will not cultivate his soil, instead of alienating the property itself, binds himself to alienate the usufruct for a time, and the price is paid at stated intervals instead of all at once. There is farm rent.
From Appendix A, 'Extracts From the Unpublished Writings of Carnot', Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat (1890, 2nd ed. 1897), 214.
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) -- 
