In modern mathematics, the question of the impossibility of a solution to certain problems plays an important role, and attempts to answer such questions have often been the occasion of discovering new and fruitful fields for research.
We recall in this connection the demonstration by Abel of the impossibility of solving an equation of the fifth degree by means of radicals, the discovery of the impossibility of demonstrating the axiom of parallels, and finally the theorems of Hermite and Lindeman concerning the impossibility of constructing by algebraic means the numbers e and π.
--From (Foundations of Geometry)
“A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and because firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the case against a miracle is—just because it is a miracle—as complete as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined to be. Why is it more than merely probable that all men must die, that lead cannot when not supported remain suspended in the air, that fire consumes wood and is extinguished by water, unless it is that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and for things to go differently there would have to be a violation of those laws, or in other words a miracle? Nothing is counted as a
miracle if it ever happens in the common course of nature. When a man who seems to be in good health suddenly dies, this isn't a miracle; because such a kind of death, though more unusual than any other, has yet often been observed
to happen. But a dead man’s coming to life would be a miracle, because that has never been observed in any age or country. So there must be a uniform experience against every miraculous event, because otherwise the event wouldn't count as a ‘miracle’. And as a uniform experience amounts to a proof, we have here a direct and full proof against the existence of any miracle, just because it’s a miracle; and
such a proof can’t be destroyed or the miracle made credible except by an opposite proof that is even stronger.
This clearly leads us to a general maxim that deserves of
our attention:
No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless it is of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact that it tries to establish. And even in that case there is a mutual destruction of
arguments, and the stronger one only gives us an assurance suitable to the force that remains to it after the force needed to cancel the other has been
subtracted.”
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer, Art is all the rest.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good
psychopaths distill into positions of power in bureaucracies
The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew, and live through it
Plans Are Worthless, But Planning Is Everything
https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/in-just-12-words-winston-churchill-gives-us-a-definition-of-success-that-could-outlast-them-all.html
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Inspiration and growth only comes from adversity and from challenge, from stepping away from what is comfortable and familiar and stepping out in to the unknown. In life we all have tempests to ride and poles to walk to. And metaphorically speaking we could all benefit to getting outside the house a little more often if we could only sum up the courage.
As the saying attributed to the former astronaut and airline boss Frank Borman goes, capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell. Put another way, if financial stability is destabilizing (as Hyman Minsky maintained), too much economic stability induces sclerosis.
(The Price of Time)
The surprising events that sometimes lead from natural history to medical breakthrough would make excellent science fiction—if only they were untrue.
The surprising events that sometimes lead from natural history to medical breakthrough would make excellent science fiction—if only they were untrue.
The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.
Vox Clamantis in Deserto.
a voice crying in the wilderness.
The secret of success is Vitamin N. Three main priorities:
1. Say No.
2. Get the priorities right
3. No Complaining
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Receive submissively what is sent you; wrestling to win the world invites an overthrow. Here there is no continuing home; here is but wilderness. Forth, pilgrim, forth! Forth, beast, out of your stall! Know your true native land, look up, thank God for all things; hold the highway, let your spirit lead you; and truth shall make you free, doubt it not.
It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
Only the educated are free.
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself.
Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
Long hours don’t make anybody more productive or creative; they make people stressed, tired and bitter. But the overwork myths survive “because they justify the extreme wealth created for a small group of elite techies,”
Children and fools always speak the truth
A doctor can bury his mistakes, an architect can only advise his client to plant vines....
The state is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.
