Fortune Quote #3444

...in physics the only observations we must consider are position
observations, if only the positions of instrument pointers. It is a great
merit of the de Broglie-Bohm picture to force us to consider this fact. If
you make axioms, rather than definitions and theorems, about
the "measurement" of anything else, then you commit redundancy and risk
inconsistency. -- J. S. Bell

Fortune Quote #3443

It would seem that the theory [quantum mechanics] is exclusively concerned
about "results of measurement", and has nothing to say about anything
else. What exactly qualifies some physical systems to play the role
of "measurer"? Was the wavefunction of the world waiting to jump for
thousands of millions of years until a single-celled living creature
appeared? Or did it have to wait a little longer, for some better
qualified system ... with a Ph.D.? -- J. S. Bell

Fortune Quote #3442

The first processes, therefore, in the effectual studies of the sciences,
must be ones of simplification and reduction of the results of previous
investigations to a form in which the mind can grasp them. -- J. C.
Maxwell

Fortune Quote #3441

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the highest
complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if
it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which
they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly
taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the
fabric of their lives. -- Tolstoy

Fortune Quote #3440

I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to
facts. -- Mark Twain

Fortune Quote #3439

A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the
moment. -- Willis Player

Fortune Quote #3438

I protest against the use of infinite magnitude as something accomplished,
which is never permissible in mathematics. Infinity is merely a figure of
speech, the true meaning being a limit. -- Carl Friedrich Gauss

Fortune Quote #3437

"Your act was unwise," I exclaimed "as you see by the outcome." He
solemnly eyed me. "When choosing the couse of my action," said he, "I had
not the outcome to guide me." -- Ambrose Bierce

Fortune Quote #3436

Ignorance is preferable to error and he is less remote from the truth who
believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong. -- Thomas
Jefferson

Fortune Quote #3435

Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity. -- William of
Ockham, c 1330

Fortune Quote #3434

In any field, the Establishment is seldom in pursuit of the truth, because
it is composed of those who sincerely believe that they are already in
possession of it. -- E. T. Jaynes

Fortune Quote #3433

In the future, as science becomes more and more oriented to thinking in
terms of information content, Godel's [incompleteness theorem] will be seen
as more of a platitude than a paradox. -- E. T. Jaynes

Fortune Quote #3432

Any regime, elected or not, that works to build a free society should be
seen as a partner, if not a friend. Likewise, any regime, elected or not,
that chokes freedom should be seen as an adversary, if not an
enemy. -- Natan Sharansky

Fortune Quote #3431

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of
us left. -- Oscar Levant

Fortune Quote #3430

It is when a system of materialist ideas presumes to give positive answers
to real problems of our real life that mischief starts. --
Whittaker Chambers

Fortune Quote #3429

If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my
brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true... and hence I
have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms. --
Professor Haldane, quoted in C.S. Lewis, "Miracles"

Fortune Quote #3428

Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out
on the joke of the century. -- Dame Edna Everage

Fortune Quote #3427

The intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many
accomplishments, and is yet willing to learn more. -- Ed Parker

Fortune Quote #3426

Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from
happening. -- Barbara Tober

Fortune Quote #3425

Humility is my greatest asset. Why... without my humility, I would be
nothing at all. -- Axel Gumeson

Fortune Quote #3424

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the
indefensible. -- George Orwell

Fortune Quote #3423

Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate
the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only
difficult. -- Samuel Johnson

Fortune Quote #3422

In science, `fact' can only mean `confirmed to such a degree that it would
be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might
start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in
physics classrooms. -- Stephen Jay Gould

Fortune Quote #3421

Since birth control has become socially acceptable, the rates of teen
pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, infant abandonment, illegitimate
births and divorce have reached epidemic proportions.... This is the
sobering reality that statistics do show: The pill has caused far more
pathology than its advocates could ever dream of preventing. -- Dr.
Jose A. Bufill, "What Ills the Pill Has Wrought", Chicago
Tribune, March 8, 2000

Fortune Quote #3420

By encouraging society to consider a woman's child as a disposable piece
of property, aborting reinforces the image of woman herself as disposable
property and reusable sex object---a renewable resource. It is no
coincidence that the biggest single financial contributor to the cause
of 'abortion rights' is the Playboy Foundation. -- Cecilia Voss Koch

Fortune Quote #3419

Abortion provides the ultimate rationale when pressing for sexual favors.
It makes the female a perpetual and re-usable sex object.... Abortion is a
male sexual fantasy come true. -- Susan Maronek

Fortune Quote #3418

Pro-abortion feminists resent the discrimination against a whole class of
humans because they happen to be female, yet they themselves discriminate
against a whole class of humans because they happen to be very young. They
resent that the value of a woman is determined by whether some man wants
her, yet they declare that the value of an unborn child is determined by
whether some woman wants him. -- Rosemary Bottcher

Fortune Quote #3417

The earliest feminist battles were fought against the legal chattel status
of women. Many feminists were among those who overturned the U.S. Supreme
Court decision of 1857, that a black slave was 'property' and not entitled
to the protection of the Constitution.... Yet when the Court ruled in 1973
that the fetus was the property of its mother, and not entitled to the
protection of the Constitution, 'liberated' women danced in the
streets. -- Daphne de Jong, "Feminism and Abortion: The Great
Inconsistency"

Fortune Quote #3416

The poor cry out for justice and equality, and we respond with legalized
abortion. I believe that in a society that permits the life of even one
individual (born or unborn) to be dependent on whether that life is
`wanted' or not, all its citizens stand in danger...We do not have equal
opportunities. Abortion is a cruel way out. -- Graciela Olivarez,
1972

Fortune Quote #3415

Men tend to take abortion lightly; they...fail to realize the values
involved. The woman who has recourse to abortion is disowning feminine
values, her values...Women learn to believe no longer in what men say...the
one thing they are sure of is this rifled and bleeding womb, these shreds
of crimson life, this child that is not there. -- Simone de
Beauvoir, "The Second Sex", 1952

Fortune Quote #3414

To each group we explained simply what contraception was; that abortion
was the wrong way---no matter how early it was performed it was taking
life; that contraception was the better way, the safer way---it took a
little time, a little trouble, but was well worth while in the long run,
because life had not yet begun. -- Margaret Sanger, founder of
Planned Parenthood, "An Autobiography"