Loiter Quotes (1 quote)
As I had occasion to pass daily to and from the building-yard, while my boat was in progress, I have often loitered unknown near the idle groups of strangers, gathering in little circles, and heard various inquiries as to the object of this new vehicle. The language was uniformly that of scorn, or sneer, or ridicule. The loud laugh often rose at my expense; the dry jest; the wise calculation of losses and expenditures; the dull, but endless, repetition of “the Fulton folly”. Never did a single encouraging remark, a bright hope, or a warm wish, cross my path.
As quoted in Kirkpatrick Sale, The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream (2001), 10. Citing in end notes as from Story, Life and Letters, 24.
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) -- 
