Mug Quotes (2 quotes)
Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, on Christmas Day, 1642: a weakly and diminutive infant, of whom it is related that, at his birth, he might have found room in a quart mug. He died on March the 20th, 1727, after more than eighty-four years of more than average bodily health and vigour; it is a proper pendant to the story of the quart mug to state that he never lost more than one of his second teeth.
In Essays on the life and work of Newton (), 4.
One must be able to say at all times—instead of points, straight lines, and planes—tables, chairs, and beer mugs.
As quoted in Constance Reid, Hilbert: With an Appreciation of Hilbert’s Mathematical Work (1970), 57. The author notes this was a remark made “during his docent days,” to companions in the Berlin station on his way back to Konigsberg. He had attended a lecture in Halle by Hans Wiener, who had an abstract point of view in dealing with geometric entities. Wiener’s abstract approach, evidently, was an influence when Hilbert uttered the quote. This quote is probably not verbatim, but recounted from memory by a Hilbert colleague (or colleagues) interviewed by the author. It is more fully explained in the cited book.
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) -- 
