Repel Quotes (2 quotes)
It is the anvil that makes the hammer fly back
From the original French, “C’est l’enclume qui repousse le marteau,” in 'Des Confeils', L’Esprit (1758), Discourse 4, Chap. 11, 576. English version from Claude Adrien Helvétius and William Mudford (trans.), 'Of Advice', De l’Esprit or, Essays on the Mind and its Several Faculties (1759), Essay 4, Chap. 11, 295.
Our school curricula, by stripping mathematics of its cultural content and leaving a bare skeleton of technicalities, have repelled many a fine mind.
In Number, the Language of Science: A Critical Survey Written for the Cultured Non-mathematician (1930), vii.
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) -- 
