Quote of the Month... February 2003 (4)

[What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war. Gasoline is much more likely than wheat to be a cause of international conflict.]

--Simone Weil, [The Need for Roots], 1949

Quote of the Month... February 2003 (3)

[... Far more of metal, both white and red, have others, in mines and in exchanges. But among Danes daily bread is to be found in the hovels of the poor. And we have found true riches indeed in our land when few have too much and fewer too little. ...]

--N. F. S. Grundvig, Værker i Udvalg, vol. VII

Quote of the Month... February 2003 (2)

... Some of the challenge of science lies in the art of choosing a strong, if incompletely tested framework for thinking. The sooner one can recognize "correct" hypotheses and reject false ones, the faster the field can be advanced into new territory. However, the benefits must be balanced against the risks of undue speed: superficiality, weak science, and outright error.
--Bertill Hille, Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes, 3 ed.

Quote of the Month... February 2003

Live in the ward. Do not waste the hours of daylight in listening to that which you may read at night. But when you have seen, read. And when you can, read the original descriptions of the masters who, with crude methods of study, saw so clearly.

--Sir William Osler