Thomas A Edison

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -- Thomas A Edison

Good one!

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Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author

Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East- to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them- who were above such trifling. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Once again, Thoreau seems to be nothing but a contrarian. I suppose one might find fault with the builders of the pyramids, for example, but it seems only perverse to call the work trifling. Considering the human cost of those particular monuments, I might call them monstrous, but not trifling.

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Ambrose Bierce, writer

Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914)

As is often the case, I have to disagree with Mr. Bierce, at least to some degree, and with Dr. Johnson also in this case. While I believe that patriotism can be misused by scoundrels, that doesn't make it rubbish. There is probably no sentiment that can't be abused, and one that is a social virtue has greater potential for destructive use than more private ones. Although not popular with moderns, patriotism is still a virtue.

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Andy Rooney

"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done." -- Andy Rooney

Mr. Rooney is pushing his curmudgeonly image here, but he is wrong. While it is certainly true that computers aren't absolutely required to do much of anything, they do in fact make it easier to do many very important things, such as distributing food and other necessities. A better example might be the distribution of electricity, which could not be done as it is today without the use of computers.

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Winston Churchill

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." -- Winston Churchill

I hesitate to criticize Winston Churchill, but I think he is doing something funny with the words here. "To be" indicates a state, not an action; "to change" is obviously an action. A true statement along the lines of Churchill's thought would be, "To be perfect is to have changed often." Less awkward would be, "To become perfect is to change often."

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Rudolf Arnheim, psychologist and author

Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination as a zebra. Apparently it does not occur to nature whether or not a creature is within our range of vision, and the suspicion arises that even the zebra was not designed for our benefit. -Rudolf Arnheim, psychologist and author (1904-2007)

The phenomenon Arnheim draws our attention to is indeed worth pondering. I think I would draw a slightly different lesson from it, however. Instead of an impersonal "nature," I think about the God of nature and wonder what he has in mind in the design of the minuscule insect. To me it brings to mind the superabundance in God. "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand." (Ps 139:17-18)

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