Neccesary Quotes (1 quote)
You well know � for which reason I began searching for a number of demonstrations proving a statement due to the ancient Greeks � and which passion I felt for the subject � so that you reproached me my preoccupation with these chapters of geometry, not knowing the true essence of these subjects, which consists precisely in going in each matter beyond what is necessary. � Whatever way he [the geometer] may go, through exercise will he be lifted from the physical to the divine teachings, which are little accessible because of the difficulty to understand their meaning � and because the circumstance that not everybody is able to have a conception of them, especially not the one who turns away from the art of demonstration.
From the preface to Book on the Finding of Chords (c. 1030), in English from German translation by Heinrich Suter (1910), as quoted and cited in Jens H�yrup, In Measure, Number, and Weight: Studies in Mathematics and Culture (1994), 112.
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) --
Carl Sagan
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