Multitudes Quotes - Page 15

• 'Conservation' (the conservation law) means this ... that there is a number, which you can calculate, at one moment-and as nature undergoes its multitude of changes, this number doesn't change. That is, if you calculate again, this quantity, it'll be the same as it was before. An example is the conservation of energy: there's a quantity that you can calculate according to a certain rule, and it comes out the same answer after, no matter what happens, happens.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Change, Nature, Mean

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• We may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which has been said of the chemists of old; though he may have failed in attaining his principal aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought together such a multitude of facts relative to the history of the earth, and the nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while it feels the want of conviction.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Nature, Science, Curiosity

  Oliver Goldsmith (1847). “A history of the earth and animated nature, with an intr. view of the animal kingdom tr. from the Fr. of baron Cuvier, notes [and] a life of the author by W. Irving”, p.73

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• Unless there exist peculiar institutions for the support of such inquirers, or unless the Government directly interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may derive profit from his ingenuity, whilst he who unravels the laws of light and vision, on which multitudes of phenomena depend, shall descend unrewarded to the tomb.

  Charles Babbage

  Science, Light, Government

  Charles Babbage (1830). “Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes”, p.19

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• When indeed Religion is kindled into enthusiasm, its force like that of other passions is increased by the sympathy of a multitude. But enthusiasm is only a temporary state of Religion, and whilst it lasts will hardly be seen with pleasure at the helm. Even in its coolest state, it has been much oftener a motive to oppression than a restraint from it.

  James Madison

  Passion, Religion, Atheism

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• But nature - that is, biological evolution - has not fitted man to any specific environment. On the contrary, ... he has a rather crude survival kit; and yet -this is the paradox of the human condition - one that fits him to all environments. Among the multitude of animals which scamper, fly, burrow and swim around us, man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Men, Emotional, Animal

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• It consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of our state, and to the multitude of God's gifts, taken one by one. It fills us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and smallest need of life; and that we actually have received, and do now possess as our own, gifts which come direct from God. It is a blessed thought, that from our childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon us, and always in benediction; that even the strokes of his hands are blessings, and among the chiefest we have ever received.

  Henry Edward Manning

  Thanksgiving, Gratitude, Blessed

  "Sermons".

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• It is astonishing that so simple a truth should ever have had an adversary; and it is one among a multitude of proofs, how apt a spirit of ill-informed jealousy, or of too great abstraction and refinement is to lead men astray from the plainest paths of reason and conviction.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Simple, Men, Path

  Alexander Hamilton (1831). “The Federalist on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788, with an Appendix Containing the Letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793”, p.58

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• In a structure as complex as the human brain a multitude of things can go wrong. The wonder is that for most people the brain functions effectively and unceasingly for more than 60 years.

  Seymour S. Kety

  Years, People, Brain

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• There is one element that is worth its weight in gold and that is LOYALTY. It will cover a multitude of weaknesses.

  Philip Danforth Armour

  Loyalty, Gold, Weakness

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• One who has never known the turbulence of life, in whom the petals of the mysterious flower within have never opened; such a one may seem happy, may seem a saint, his single track mind may impress the multitude with its power - but he is ill equipped for life's true adventure into the infinite.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Encouragement, Flower, Adventure

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• If there be any among those common objects of hatred I do contemn and laugh at, it is that great enemy of reason, virtue, and religion, the multitude; that numerous piece of monstrosity, which, taken asunder, seem men, and the reasonable creatures of God, but, confused together, make but one great beast, and a monstrosity more prodigious than Hydra.

  Thomas Browne

  Confused, Taken, Men

  'Religio Medici' (1643) pt. 2, sect. 1

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• Men, to act with vigour and effect, must have time to mature measures, and judgment and experience, as to the best method of applying them. They must not be hurried on to their conclusions by the passions, or the fears of the multitude. They must deliberate, as well as resolve.

  Joseph Story

  Passion, Men, Mature

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: with a preliminary review of the constitutional history of the colonies and states, before the adoption of the Constitution”, p.73

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• By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Innovation, Language, Adopted

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Peter Anthony Motteux, John Gibson Lockhart (1822). “The History of the Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha”, p.277

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• Wherever the bishop shall appear, let the multitude of also be, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic [i.e., universal] church. It is not lawful either to baptize or to celebrate a love feast without the bishop, but whatever he approves of, that is also pleasing to God.

  Ignatius of Antioch

  Jesus, Catholic, Baptism

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• Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.

  Ignatius of Antioch

  Jesus, Catholic, Church

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• It is my fondest desire to bust a host of caps into multitudes of fleshy personages.

  Bill Willingham

  Desire, Host, Caps

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• A multitude of aspects of the natural world that were considered miraculous only a few generations ago are now thoroughly understood in terms of physics and chemistry.

  Carl Sagan

  Religion, Generations, World

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.347, Ballantine Books

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• If the charter of your liberties entails death and despair for untold multitudes, then it is nothing but a license for slaughter.

  Amitav Ghosh

  Despair, Liberty, Slaughter

  "River of Smoke". Book by Amitav Ghosh, 2011.

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• The word patriotism, or its equivalents and derivations, is upon everyone's lips at the present time. It is a magic word which is thought by most people to cover any multitude of sins. To be patriotic in whatever cause is tantamount to being virtuous, while no worse charge can be brought against a man in popular estimation than to say he is unpatriotic.

  Ernest Belfort Bax

  Patriotic, Men, People

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• [We need] someone bold, to put himself at the head of the disaffected and rally them against the oppressor. Some great character who could captivate the people... someone wise who could direct the actions of an unbridled and floating multitude.

  Jean-Paul Marat

  Wise, Character, People

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• Out of the multitude of our sense experiences we take, mentally and arbitrarily, certain repeatedly occurring complexes of sense impression (partly in conjunction with sense impressions which are interpreted as signs for sense experiences of others), and we attribute to them a meaning the meaning of the bodily object.

  Albert Einstein

  Perception, Conjunctions, Certain

  Albert Einstein, Stephen W. Hawking (2007). “A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein”, p.402, Running Press

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• In later life, as in earlier, only a few persons influence the formation of our character; the multitude pass us by like a distant army. One friend, one teacher, one beloved, one club, one dining table, one work table are the means by which one's nation and the spirit of one's nation affect the individual.

  Jean Paul

  Life, Teacher, Character

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• The 'public' is a phantom, the phantom of an opinion supposed to exist in a vast number of persons who have no effective interrelation and though the opinion is not effectively present in the units. Such an opinion is spoken of as 'public opinion,' a fiction which is appealed to by individuals and by groups as supporting their special views. It is impalpable, illusory, transient; "'tis here, 'tis there, 'tis gone"; a nullity which can nevertheless for a moment endow the multitude with power to uplift or destroy.

  Karl Jaspers

  Uplifting, Views, Numbers

  "Man in the Modern Age". Book by Karl Jaspers, 1933.

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• The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing.

  Martin Luther

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Martin Luther, Alexander Chalmers (1872). “The Table Talk of Martin Luther”, p.369

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• The rascal multitude are the proper targets of the mass media and a public education system geared to obedience and training in needed skills, including the skill of repeating patriotic slogans on timely occasions.

  Noam Chomsky

  Patriotic, Media, Skills

  Noam Chomsky (2011). “Deterring Democracy”, p.363, Random House

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