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Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961) was an Austrian physicist, one of the founders of quantum theory, and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics. His ideas were heavily influenced by monist philosophy and he is particularly well known for original interpretations of the significance of the wave function and for devising the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment.

Quotes

 * This life of yours which you are living is not merely apiece of this entire existence, but in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula which is yet really so simple and so clear; tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again, in such words as "I am in the east and the west, I am above and below, I am this entire world.
 * in Moore, Walter J., Schrödinger: Life and Thought Cambridge University Press (1992). pp.170-73. quoted from    Malhotra, R., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2018). Being different: An Indian challenge to western universalism.

 * But it is quite easy to express the solution in words, thus: the plurality that we perceive is only an appearance; it is not real. Vedantic philosophy, in which this is a fundamental dogma, has sought to clarify it by a number of analogies, one of the most attractive being the many-faceted crystal which, while showing hundreds of little pictures of what is in reality a single existent object, does not really multiply the object... 'You may suddenly come to see, in a flash, the profound rightness of the basic conviction of Vedanta: … knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sentient beings.'
 * in 'The Mystic Vision' as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber, Shambala Publications, Boston. quoted from    Malhotra, R., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2018). Being different: An Indian challenge to western universalism.

 * 'If finally we look back at that idea of [Ernst] Mach [1838-1916], we shall realize that it comes as near to the orthodox dogma of the Upanishads as it could possibly do without stating it expressis verbis . The external world and consciousness are one and the same thing.'
 * Schrödinger, Erwin. My View of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1964. quoted from    Malhotra, R., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2018). Being different: An Indian challenge to western universalism.

 * Nirvana is a state of pure blissful knowledge... It has nothing to do with the individual. The ego or its separation is an illusion. Indeed in a certain sense two "I"'s are identical namely when one disregards all special contents — their Karma. The goal of man is to preserve his Karma and to develop it further... when man dies his Karma lives and creates for itself another carrier.
 * Writings of July 1918, quoted in A Life of Erwin Schrödinger (1994) by Walter Moore ISBN 0521437679

 * No self is of itself alone. It has a long chain of intellectual ancestors. The "I" is chained to ancestry by many factors … This is not mere allegory, but an eternal memory.
 * Writings of July 1918, quoted in A Life of Erwin Schrödinger (1994) by Walter Moore

 * The stages of human development are to strive for: (1) Besitz [Possession] (2) Wissen [Knowledge] (3) Können [Ability] (4) Sein [Being]
 * Writings of August 1918, quoted in A Life of Erwin Schrödinger (1994) by Walter Moore

 * For thousands of years men have striven and suffered and begotten and women have brought forth in pain. A hundred years ago, perhaps, another man sat on this spot; like you he gazed with awe and yearning in his heart at the dying light on the glaciers. Like you he was begotten of man and born of woman. He felt pain and brief joy as you do. Was he someone else? Was it not you yourself? What is this Self of yours? What was the necessary condition for making the thing conceived this time into you, just you and not someone else?
 * "Seek for the Road" (1925)

 * $$ \frac{\partial \psi}{\partial t} = -\frac{2 \pi i}{h} E \psi $$
 * The "Schrödinger equation", equation (3') in "Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem, Vierte Mitteilung", Annalen der Physik (1926)

 * Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.
 * As quoted in The Observer (11 January 1931); also in  Psychic Research (1931), Vol. 25, p. 91

 * Conditions are admittedly such that we can always manage to make do in each concrete individual case without the two different aspects leading to different expectations as to the result of certain experiments. We cannot, however, manage to make do with such old, familiar, and seemingly indispensable terms as "real" or "only possible"; we are never in a position to say what really is or what really happens, but we can only say what will be observed in any concrete individual case. Will we have to be permanently satisfied with this...? On principle, yes. On principle, there is nothing new in the postulate that in the end exact science should aim at nothing more than the description of what can really be observed. The question is only whether from now on we shall have to refrain from tying description to a clear hypothesis about the real nature of the world. There are many who wish to pronounce such abdication even today. But I believe that this means making things a little too easy for oneself.
 * "The Fundamental Idea of Wave Mechanics", Nobel lecture, (12 December 1933)

 * If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.
 * On the conditions of the "Schrödinger's cat" thought-experiment, as presented in The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics (1935), translated by John D. Trimmer

 * I would not call [entanglement] one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought. [italics in the original]
 * "Discussion of Probability Relations Between Separated Systems" (1935)

 * God knows I am no friend of probability theory, I have hated it from the first moment when our dear friend Max Born gave it birth. For it could be seen how easy and simple it made everything, in principle, everything ironed and the true problems concealed. Everybody must jump on the bandwagon [Ausweg].  And actually not a year passed before it became an official credo, and it still is.
 * Letter to Albert Einstein (13 June 1946), as quoted by Walter Moore in Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1989) ISBN 0521437679

 * we never experiment with just one electron or atom or (small) molecule. In thought-experiments we sometimes assume that we do.
 * "Are There Quantum Jumps? Part II (1952)

 * I insist upon the view that 'all is waves'.
 * Letter to John Lighton Synge (9 November 1959), as quoted by Walter Moore in Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1989) ISBN 0521437679

 * The multiplicity is only apparent. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads. And not of the Upanishads only. The mystical experience of the union with God regularly leads to this view, unless strong prejudices stand in the way.
 * As quoted in The Eye of Shiva: Eastern Mysticism and Science (1981) by Amaury de Riencourt

 * Multiplicity is only apparent, in truth, there is only one mind...
 * "The Oneness of Mind", as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber

 * Consciousness is never experienced in the plural, only in the singular. Not only has none of us ever experienced more than one consciousness, but there is also no trace of circumstantial evidence of this ever happening anywhere in the world. If I say that there cannot be more than one consciousness in the same mind, this seems a blunt tautology — we are quite unable to imagine the contrary...
 * "The Oneness of Mind", as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber

 * In itself, the insight is not new. The earliest records, to my knowledge, date back some 2500 years or more... the recognition ATMAN = BRAHMAN (the personal self equals the omnipresent, all-comprehending eternal self) was in Indian thought considered, far from being blasphemous, to represent the quintessence of deepest insight into the happenings of the world. The striving of all the scholars of Vedanta was after having learnt to pronounce with their lips, really assimilate in their minds this grandest of all thoughts. Again, the mystics of many centuries, independently, yet in perfect harmony with each other (somewhat like the particles in an ideal gas) have described, each of them, the unique experience of his or her life in terms that can be condensed in the phrase: DEUS FACTUS SUM (I have become God). To Western ideology, the thought has remained a stranger... in spite of those true lovers who, as they look into each other's eyes, become aware that their thought and their joy are numerically one, not merely similar or identical...
 * "The I That Is God" as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber

 * The plurality that we perceive is only an appearance; it is not real. Vedantic philosophy... has sought to clarify it by a number of analogies, one of the most attractive being the many-faceted crystal which, while showing hundreds of little pictures of what is in reality a single existent object, does not really multiply that object...
 * "The Mystic Vision" as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber

 * It is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling, and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings. But not in this sense — that you are a part, a piece, of an eternal, infinite being, an aspect or modification of it... For we should then have the same baffling question: which part, which aspect are you? what, objectively, differentiates it from the others? No, but, inconceiveable as it seems to ordinary reason, you — and all other conscious beings as such — are all in all. Hence, this life of yours... is, in a certain sense, the whole... This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula... 'Tat tvam asi'  — this is you. Or, again, in such words as 'I am in the east and in the west, I am below and above, I am this whole world.' Thus you can throw yourself flat on the ground, stretched out upon Mother Earth, with certain conviction that you are one with her and she with you … For eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end.
 * "The Mystic Vision" as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber

 * Our mind, by virtue of a certain finite, limited capability, is by no means capable of putting a question to Nature that permits a continuous series of answers. The observations, the individual results of measurements, are the answers of Nature to our discontinuous questioning.
 * As quoted in Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1989) by Walter Moore

 * Some blood transfusion from the East to the West is a must to save Western science from spiritual anaemia.
 * source: Long Walk to Enlightenment, Dr Thillayvel Naidoo. Quoted from Gewali, Salil (2013). Great Minds on India. New Delhi: Penguin Random House.

What Is Life? (1944)

 * What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell (1944) This work is famous for introducing the idea of an "aperiodic crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration, which inspired James D. Watson to become a geneticist and to work on the discovery of the genetic role of DNA.

 * The spread, both in and width and depth, of the multifarious branches of knowledge by during the last hundred odd years has confronted us with a queer dilemma. We feel clearly that we are only now beginning to acquire reliable material for welding together the sum total of all that is known into a whole; but, on the other hand, it has become next to impossible for a single mind fully to command more than a small specialized portion of it. I can see no other escape from this dilemma (lest our true who aim be lost for ever) than that some of us should venture to embark on a synthesis of facts and theories, albeit with second-hand and incomplete knowledge of some of them -and at the risk of making fools of ourselves.

 * What we call thought (1) is itself an orderly thing, and (2) can only be applied to material, i.e. to perceptions or experiences, which have a certain degree of orderliness. This has two consequences. First, a physical organization, to be in close correspondence with thought (as my brain is with my thought) must be a very well-ordered organization, and that means that the events that happen within it must obey strict physical laws, at least to a very high degree of accuracy. Secondly, the physical impressions made upon that physically well-organized system by other bodies from outside, obviously correspond to the perception and experience of the corresponding thought, forming its material, as I have called it. Therefore, the physical interactions between our system and others must, as a rule, themselves possess a certain degree of physical orderliness, that is to say, they too must obey strict physical laws to a certain degree of accuracy. PHYSICAL LAWS REST ON ATOMIC STATISTICS AND ARE THEREFORE ONLY APPROXIMATE

 * In physics we have dealt hitherto only with periodic crystals. To a humble physicist's mind, these are very interesting and complicated objects; they constitute one of the most fascinating and complex material structures by which inanimate nature puzzles his wits. Yet, compared with the aperiodic crystal, they are rather plain and dull. The difference in structure is of the same kind as that between an ordinary wallpaper in which the same pattern is repeated again and again in regular periodicity and a masterpiece of embroidery, say a Raphael tapestry, which shows no dull repetition, but an elaborate, coherent, meaningful design traced by the great master.

 * The laws of physics and chemistry are statistical throughout.

 * It is these chromosomes … that contain in some kind of code-script the entire pattern of the individual's future development and of its functioning in the mature state. Every complete set of chromosomes contains the full code...

 * We have just introduced the term gene for the hypothetical material carrier of a definite hereditary feature...

 * In Darwin's theory, you just have to substitute 'mutations' for his 'slight accidental variations' (just as quantum theory substitutes 'quantum jump' for 'continuous transfer of energy'). In all other respects little change was necessary in Darwin's theory...

 * How would we express in terms of the statistical theory the marvelous faculty of a living organism, by which it delays the decay into thermodynamical equilibrium (death)?... the device by which an organism maintains itself stationary at a fairly high level of orderliness... really consists in continually sucking orderliness from its environment.

 * We must therefore not be discouraged by the difficulty of interpreting life by the ordinary laws of physics. For that is just what is to be expected from the knowledge we have gained of the structure of living matter. We must also be prepared to find a new type of physical law prevailing in it. Or are we to term it a non-physical, not to say a super-physical, law?

 * The only possible alternative is simply to keep to immediate experience that consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown; that there is only one thing and that what seems to be a plurality is merely a series of different aspects of this one thing, produced by a deception (the Indian MAJA); the same illusion is produced in a gallery of mirrors, and in the same way Gaurisankar and Mt Everest turned out to be the same peak seen from different valleys.

 * From the early great Upanishads, the recognition ATHMAN = BRAHMAN (the personal self equals the omnipresent, all-comprehending eternal self) was in Indian thought considered, far from being blasphemous, to represent the quintessence of deepest insight into the happenings of the world. The striving of all the scholars of Vedanta was, after having learnt to pronounce with their lips, really to assimilate in their minds this grandest of all thoughts.
 * quoted from    Malhotra, R., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2018). Being different: An Indian challenge to western universalism.

My View of the World (1951)

 * Mein Leben, meine Weltansicht [My Life, My Worldview or My View of the World] (1951)

 * Not one word is said here of acausality, wave mechanics, indeterminacy relations, complementarity, … etc. Why doesn’t he talk about what he knows instead of trespassing on the professional philosopher’s preserves? Ne sutor supra crepidam. On this I can cheerfully justify myself: because I do not think that these things have as much connection as is currently supposed with a philosophical view of the world.
 * pp. vii-viii

 * The unphilosophical and philosophical attitudes can be very sharply distinguished (with scarcely any intermediate forms) by the fact that the first accepts everything that happens as regards its general form, and finds occasion for surprise only in that special content by which something that happens here today differs from what happened there yesterday; whereas for the second, it is precisely the common features of all experience, such as characterise everything we encounter, which are the primary and most profound occasion for astonishment.
 * p. 10

 * The self is not so much linked to its ancestors, it is not so much the product, and merely the product, of all that, but rather, in the strictest sense of the word, the same thing as all that: the strict, direct continuation of it, just as the self aged fifty is the continuation of the self aged forty.
 * p. 28

 * If I try to hold on the currently predominant view and derive the unity of my self, … I find myself with an impenetrable thicket of questions. … Why is it precisely at this intermediate level in the hierarchy of successively superimposed unities (cell, organ, human body, state)—why, I ask, it is precisely at the level of my body that unitary self-consciousness comes into the picture, whereas the cell and the organ do not as yet possess it and the state possesses it no longer?
 * p. 33

 * This life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of this entire existence, but in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula which is yet really so simple and so clear; tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again, in such words as "I am in the east and the west, I am above and below, I am this entire world."

 * There is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction... The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad.
 * Chapter 4

 * Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.
 * Chapter 5

Science and Humanism (1951)

 * I am born into an environment — I know not whence I came nor whither I go nor who I am. This is my situation as yours, every single one of you. The fact that everyone always was in this same situation, and always will be, tells me nothing. Our burning question as to the whence and whither — all we can ourselves observe about it is the present environment. That is why we are eager to find out about it as much as we can. That is science, learning, knowledge; it is the true source of every spiritual endeavour of man. We try to find out as much as we can about the spatial and temporal surroundings of the place in which we find ourselves put by birth…

 * It seems plain and self-evident, yet it needs to be said: the isolated knowledge obtained by a group of specialists in a narrow field has in itself no value whatsoever, but only in its synthesis with all the rest of knowledge and only inasmuch as it really contributes in this synthesis toward answering the demand, "Who are we?"

 * I consider it extremely doubtful whether the happiness of the human race has been enhanced by the technical and industrial developments that followed in the wake of rapidly progressing natural science.

 * You may ask — you are bound to ask me now: What, then, is in your opinion the value of natural science? I answer: Its scope, aim and value is the same as that of any other branch of human knowledge. Nay, none of them alone, only the union of all of them, has any scope or value at all, and that is simply enough described: it is to obey the command of the Delphic deity: gnothi seauton... get to know yourself!

Nature and the Greeks (1954)

 * I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously.

 * We do not belong to this material world that science constructs for us. We are not in it; we are outside. We are only spectators. The reason why we believe that we are in it, that we belong to the picture, is that our bodies are in the picture. Our bodies belong to it. Not only my own body, but those of my friends, also of my dog and cat and horse, and of all the other people and animals. And this is my only means of communicating with them.

 * Science cannot tell us a word about why music delights us, of why and how an old song can move us to tears.

 * The observing mind is not a physical system, it cannot interact with any physical system. And it might be better to reserve the term "subject" for the observing mind. … For the subject, if anything, is the thing that senses and thinks. Sensations and thoughts do not belong to the "world of energy."

 * The scientific world-picture vouchsafes a very complete understanding of all that happens — it makes it just a little too understandable. It allows you to imagine the total display as that of a mechanical clockwork which, for all that science knows, could go on just the same as it does, without there being consciousness, will, endeavor, pain and delight and responsibility connected with it — though they actually are. And the reason for this disconcerting situation is just this: that for the purpose of constructing the picture of the external world, we have used the greatly simplifying device of cutting our own personality out, removing it; hence it is gone, it has evaporated, it is ostensibly not needed.

 * In particular, and most importantly, this is the reason why the scientific worldview contains of itself no ethical values, no esthetical values, not a word about our own ultimate scope or destination, and no God, if you please. Whence came I and whither go I?

Mind and Matter (1958)

 * The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived. Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist.

 * If we were bees, ants, or Lacedaemonian warriors, to whom personal fear does not exist and cowardice is the most shameful thing in the world, warring would go on forever. But luckily we are only men — and cowards.

 * There is obviously only one alternative, namely the unification of minds or consciousnesses. Their multiplicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind.

 * The material world has only been constructed at the price of taking the self, that is, mind, out of it, removing it; mind is not part of it...

 * Matter and energy seem granular in structure, and so does "life", but not so mind.

 * Nature has no reverence towards life. Nature treats life as though it were the most valueless thing in the world.... Nature does not act by purposes.

 * The sensation of colour cannot be accounted for by the physicist's objective picture of light-waves.

 * To my view the ‘statistical theory of time’ has an even stronger bearing on the philosophy of time than the theory of relativity. The latter, however revolutionary, leaves untouched the undirectional flow of time, which it presupposes, while the statistical theory constructs it from the order of events. This means a liberation from the tyranny of old Chronos. What we in our minds construct ourselves cannot, so I feel, have dictatorial power over our mind, neither the power of bringing it to the fore nor the power of annihilating it. But some of you, I am sure, will call this mysticism. So with all due acknowledgement to the fact that physical theory is at all times relative, in that it depends on certain basic assumptions, we may, or so I believe, assert that physical theory in its present stage strongly suggests the indestructibility of Mind by Time.

Quotes about Schrödinger

 * Schrödinger, who was born in Vienna in 1887, was a fascinating man. I met him a few months before he died in 1961. All the inventors of the quantum theory, as it happened, were men of very broad culture, perhaps attributable in part to their European gymnasium educations, but even in this group Schrödinger stood out. He read very widely in a variety of languages, ancient and modern. He was a scientific polymath with a deep interest in Eastern religions. He was also a rather romantic figure who wrote poetry. I was told by that when Schrödinger appeared in 1939 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Dublin, where he had been offered sanctuary during the war, he did so with what Professor Frank referred to as two ‘‘wives.’’ (This was the least of it. Schrödinger had several mistresses, with whom he fathered at least two daughters.)
 * Jeremy Bernstein, Quantum Profiles (1991), John Stewart Bell: Quantum Engineer

 * It is a poorly-kept secret that the grandfathers of quantum mechanics, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Heisenberg, Einstein, de Broglie, Jeans, but in particular Schrödinger were fascinated and inspired by Vedic cosmology.
 * -J. Peter Burgess in Science Blurring its Edges into Spirit: The Quantum Path to Ātma. Millennium Journal, 2018

 * Seventy-five years ago Erwin Schrödinger published... What Is Life?... based on a series of lectures he gave in Dublin in 1943 during the height of World War II... [S]chrödinger was the... co-architect of one of the most difficult scientific theories that we know, quantum mechanics, but he was unable to wrap his head around the nature of life. He was baffled. He made some progress, but the key point he wanted to address was whether life can be explained by physics. ...[I]t's really important... to distinguish between known physics, what you find in the textbooks, and new physics.
 * Paul Davies, "The Demon in the Machine by Paul Davies" (Sep 7, 2019) 6th International FQXi Conference, "Mind Matters: Intelligence and Agency in the Physical World" 0:12.

 * [T]hose people who say "Life is baffling, we can't explain it," aren't necessarily saying we need or a miracle. They might just be saying "We need some new physics... or laws of life," if you like, and Schrödinger was open to that, he said "We must be prepared to find a new kind of physical law prevailing in it."
 * Paul Davies, "The Demon in the Machine by Paul Davies" (Sep 7, 2019) 6th International FQXi Conference, "Mind Matters: Intelligence and Agency in the Physical World" 1:19.

 * You are the only contemporary physicist, besides Laue, who sees that one cannot get around the assumption of reality — if only one is honest. Most of them simply do not see what sort of risky game they are playing with reality — reality as something independent of what is experimentally established. Their interpretation is, however, refuted most elegantly by your system of radioactive atom + amplifier + charge of gun powder + cat in a box, in which the psi-function of the system contains both the cat alive and blown to bits. Nobody really doubts that the presence or absence of the cat is something independent of the act of observation.
 * Albert Einstein in a letter to Schrödinger (1950)

 * Just a few months after de Broglie's suggestion, Schrödinger took the decisive step... by determining an equation that governs the shape and the evolution of probability waves, or as they became known, s. It was not long before Schrödinger's equation and the probabilistic interpretation were being used to make wonderfully accurate predictions. By 1927, therefore, classical innocence had been lost. Gone were the days of a  whose individual constituents were set in motion at some moment in the past and obediently fulfilled their inescapable, uniquely determined destiny. According to quantum mechanics, the universe evolves according to a rigorous and precise mathematical formalism, but this framework determines only the probability that any particular function will happen—not which future actually ensues.
 * Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (1999) Ch. 4 Microscopic Weirdness, p. 107.

 * So if we're going to ask... What is life? ...Erwin Schrödinger wrote a famous book on that theme ...Two famous ideas ...emerged ...one ...was ...that genes are a code-script, and that was the first time anybody had used the word "code-script" or really thought in terms of information, in biology. ...This was before DNA was discovered. He was a direct inspiration to Watson and Crick and many others. The second theme... was how life maintains its organization over time, and why don't we just fall to pieces as entropy would tend to suggest... He talked about life feeding on negative entropy, or "negentropy"... [H]e talked about continually sucking order... from its environment. ...[I]t's a wonderful book. ...[H]e said, "If I had been catering for physicists alone I should have let the discussion turn on free energy instead." ...In more modern terms he's saying something like life is the harnessing of chemical energy in such a way that the energy-harnessing device makes a copy of itself. ...[H]e's linking the two key themes of biology ...information and energy together.
 * Nick Lane, Why is life the way it is? (Feb 2, 2017) 15:51 A YouTube video presentation from "The Royal Society" channel.

 * The unity and continuity of Vedanta are reflected in the unity and continuity of wave mechanics. In 1925, the world view of physics was a model of a great machine composed of separable interacting material particles. During the next few years, Schrodinger and Heisenberg and their followers created a universe based on super imposed inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. This new view would be entirely consistent with the Vedantic concept of All in One.
 * Walter J. Moore in Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1989) ISBN 0521437679

 * Like Schopenhauer, he accepted an hierarchical view of our understanding of the world, with philosophy above and physics below.
 * Walter J. Moore in Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1989) ISBN 0521437679

 * He rejected traditional religious beliefs (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic) not on the basis of any reasoned argument, nor even with an expression of emotional antipathy, for he loved to use religious expressions and metaphors, but simply by saying that they are naive.
 * Walter J. Moore in Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1989) ISBN 0521437679

 * The unity and continuity of Vedanta are reflected in the unity and continuity of wave mechanics. In 1925, the world view of physics was a model of a great machine composed of separable interacting material particles. During the next few years, Schrödinger and Heisenberg and their followers created a universe based on superimposed inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. This new view would be entirely consistent with the Vedantic concept of All in One.
 * Rajiv Malhotra, Being different: An Indian challenge to western universalism (2018) paraphrasing some information gathered from Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber, including Ch. 10, "The Mystic Vision"

 * His soft, cheerful speech, his whimsical smile are engaging. And Dubliners are proud to have a Nobel Prize winner living among them.
 * Time covering his "What is Life?" lectures at Trinity College, Dublin (5 April 1943)

title: Erwin Schrödinger


text:
Pierre de Fermat

Pierre de Fermat (Between 31 October and 6 December 1607 to 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the greatest and the smallest ordinates of curved lines, which is analogous to that of differential calculus, then unknown, and his research into number theory. He made notable contributions to analytic geometry, probability, and optics. He is best known for his Fermat's principle for light propagation and his Fermat's Last Theorem in number theory, which he described in a note at the margin of a copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica. He was also a lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France.

Quotes

 * Cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet.
 * I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem which this margin is too small to contain.
 * Note written on the margins of his copy of Claude-Gaspar Bachet's translation of the famous Arithmetica of Diophantus, this was taken as an indication of what became known as Fermat's last theorem, a correct proof for which would be found only 357 years later; as quoted in Number Theory in Science and Communication (1997) by Manfred Robert Schroeder

 * Et cette proposition est généralement vraie en toutes progressions et en tous nombres premiers; de quoi je vous envoierois la démonstration, si je n'appréhendois d'être trop long.
 * And this proposition is generally true for all progressions and for all prime numbers; the proof of which I would send to you, if I were not afraid to be too long.
 * Fermat (in a letter dated October 18, 1640 to his friend and confidant Frénicle de Bessy) commenting on his statement that p divides ap−1 − 1 whenever p is prime and a is coprime to p (this is what is now known as Fermat's little theorem).

 * There is scarcely any one who states purely arithmetical questions, scarcely any who understands them. Is this not because arithmetic has been treated up to this time geometrically rather than arithmetically? This certainly is indicated by many works ancient and modern. Diophantus himself also indicates this. But he has freed himself from geometry a little more than others have, in that he limits his analysis to rational numbers only; nevertheless the Zetcica of Vieta, in which the methods of Diophantus are extended to continuous magnitude and therefore to geometry, witness the insufficient separation of arithmetic from geometry. Now arithmetic has a special domain of its own, the theory of numbers. This was touched upon but only to a slight degree by Euclid in his Elements, and by those who followed him it has not been sufficiently extended, unless perchance it lies hid in those books of Diophantus which the ravages of time have destroyed. Arithmeticians have now to develop or restore it. To these, that I may lead the way, I propose this theorem to be proved or problem to be solved. If they succeed in discovering the proof or solution, they will acknowledge that questions of this kind are not inferior to the more celebrated ones from geometry either for depth or difficulty or method of proof: Given any number which is not a square, there also exists an infinite number of squares such that when multiplied into the given number and unity is added to the product, the result is a square.
 * Letter to Frénicle (1657) Oeuvres de Fermat Vol.II as quoted by Edward Everett Whitford, The Pell Equation (1912)

 * The result of my work has been the most extraordinary, the most unforeseen, and the happiest, that ever was; for, after having performed all the equations, multiplications, antitheses, and other operations of my method, and having finally finished the problem, I have found that my principle gives exactly and precisely the same proportion for the s which Monsieur Descartes has established.
 * Epist. XLII, written at Toulouse (Jan. 1, 1662) and reprinted in Œvres de Fermat, ii, p. 457; i, pp. 170, 173, as quoted by, A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity from the Age of Descartes to the Close of the Nineteenth Century (1910) p. 10.

Quotes about Fermat

 * Fermat's Last Theorem is to the effect that no integral values of x, y, z can be found to satisfy the equation xn+yn=zn if n is an integer greater than 2. ...It is possible that Fermat made some... erroneous supposition, though it is perhaps more probable that he discovered a rigorous demonstration. At any rate he asserts definitely that he had a valid proof—demonstratio mirabilis sane—and the fact that no theorem on the subject which he stated he had proved has been subsequently shown to be false must weigh strongly in his favour; the more so because in making the one incorrect statement in his writings (namely, that about binary powers) he added that he could not obtain a satisfactory demonstration of it. … it took more than a century before some of the simpler results which Fermat had enunciated were proved, and thus it is not surprising that a proof of the theorem which he succeeded in establishing only towards the close of his life should involve great difficulties. ...I venture however to add my private suspicion that continued fractions played a not unimportant part in his researches, and as strengthening this conjecture I may note that some of his more recondite results—such as the theorem that a prime of the form 4n+1 is expressible as the sum of two squares— may be established with comparative ease by properties of such fractions.
 * Walter William Rouse Ball, Mathematical Recreations and Essays (1920)

 * Descartes' method of finding tangents and normals... was not a happy inspiration. It was quickly superseded by that of Fermat as amplified by Newton. Fermat's method amounts to obtaining a tangent as the limiting position of a secant, precisely as is done in the calculus today. ...Fermat's method of tangents is the basis of the claim that he anticipated Newton in the invention of the differential calculus.
 * Eric Temple Bell, The Development of Mathematics (1940)

 * Perhaps nowhere does one find a better example of the value of historical knowledge for mathematicians than in the case of Fermat, for it is safe to say that, had he not been intimately acquainted with the geometry of Apollonius and Viéte, he would not have invented analytic geometry.
 * Carl B. Boyer, History of Analytic Geometry (1956) Preface, p. viii.

 * Fermat had recourse to the principle of the economy of nature. Heron and Olympiodorus had pointed out in antiquity that, in reflection, light followed the shortest possible path, thus accounting for the equality of angles. During the medieval period Alhazen and Grosseteste had suggested that in refraction some such principle was also operating, but they could not discover the law. Fermat, however, not only knew (through Descartes) the law of refraction, but he also invented a procedure—equivalent to the differential calculus—for maximizing and minimizing a function of a single variable. ...Fermat applied his method ...and discovered, to his delight, that the result led to precisely the law which Descartes had enunciated. But although the law is the same, it will be noted that the hypothesis contradicts that of Descartes. Fermat assumed that the speed of light in water to be less than that in air; Descartes' explanation implied the opposite.
 * Carl B. Boyer, The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959) Preface

 * Since Fermat introduced the conception of infinitely small differences between consecutive values of a function and arrived at the principle for finding the maxima and minima, it was maintained by Lagrange, Laplace, and Fourier, that Fermat may be regarded as the first inventor of the differential calculus. This point is not well taken, as will be seen from the words of Poisson, himself a Frenchman, who rightly says that the differential calculus "consists in a system of rules proper for finding the differentials of all functions, rather than in the use which may be made of these infinitely small variations in the solution of one or two isolated problems."
 * Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematics (1893)

 * J.M. Child... has made a searching study of Barrow and has arrived at startling conclusions on the historical question relating to the first invention of the calculus. He places his conclusions in italics in the first sentence as follows Isaac Barrow was the first inventor of the Infinitesimal Calculus... Before entering upon an examination of the evidence brought forth by Child it may be of interest to review a similar claim set up for another man as inventor of the calculus... Fermat was declared to be the first inventor of the calculus by Lagrange, Laplace, and apparently also by P. Tannery, than whom no more distinguished mathematical triumvirate can easily be found. ...Dinostratus and Barrow were clever men, but it seems to us that they did not create what by common agreement of mathematicians has been designated by the term differential and integral calculus. Two processes yielding equivalent results are not necessarily the same. It appears to us that what can be said of Barrow is that he worked out a set of geometric theorems suggesting to us constructions by which we can find lines, areas and volumes whose magnitudes are ordinarily found by the analytical processes of the calculus. But to say that Barrow invented a differential and integral calculus is to do violence to the habit of mathematical thought and expression of over two centuries. The invention rightly belongs to Newton and Leibniz.
 * Florian Cajori, "Who was the First Inventor of Calculus?" The American Mathematical Monthly (Jan. 1919) Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 15-20.

 * Fermat applied his method of tangents to many difficult problems. The method has the form of the now-standard method of differential calculus, though it begs entirely the difficult theory of limits.
 * Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (1972)

 * Fermat knew that under reflection light takes the path requiring least time and, convinced that nature does indeed act simply and economically, affirmed in letters of 1657 and 1662 his Principle of Least Time, which states that light always takes the path requiring least time. He had doubted the correctness of the law of refraction of light but when he found in 1661 that he could deduce it from his Principle, he not only resolved his doubts about the law but felt all the more certain that his Principle was correct. ...Huygens, who had at first objected to Fermat's Principle, showed that it does hold for the propagation of light in media with variable indices of refraction. Even Newton's first law of motion, which states that the straight line or shortest distance is the natural motion of a body, showed nature's desire to economize. These examples suggested that there might be a more general principle. The search for such a principle was undertaken by Maupertuis.
 * [Morris Kline]], Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (1972)

 * One may regard Fermat as the first inventor of the new calculus. In his method De maximis et minimis he equates the quantity of which one seeks the maximum or the minimum to the expression of the same quantity in which the unknown is increased by the indeterminate quantity. In this equation he causes the radicals and fractions, if any such there be, to disappear and after having crossed out the terms common to the two numbers, he divides all others by the indeterminate quantity which occurs in them as a factor; then he takes this quantity zero and he has an equation which serves to determine the unknown sought. ...It is easy to see at first glance that the rule of the differential calculus which consists in equating to zero the differential of the expression of which one seeks a maximum or a minimum, obtained by letting the unknown of that expression vary, gives the same result, because it is the same fundamentally and the terms one neglects as infinitely small in the differential calculus are those which are suppressed as zeroes in the procedure of Fermat. His method of tangents depends on the same principle. In the equation involving the abscissa and ordinate which he calls the specific property of the curve, he augments or diminishes the abscissa by an indeterminate quantity and he regards the new ordinate as belonging both to the curve and to the tangent; this furnishes him with an equation which he treats as that for a case of a maximum or a minimum. ...Here again one sees the analogy of the method of Fermat with that of the differential calculus; for, the indeterminate quantity by which one augments the abscissa x corresponds to its differential dx, and the quantity ye/t, which is the corresponding augmentation [Footnote: Fermat lets e be the increment of x, and t the subtangent for the point x,y on the curve.] of y, corresponds to the differential dy. It is also remarkable that in the paper which contains the discovery of the differential calculus, printed in the Leipsic Acts of the month of October, 1684, under the title Nova methodus pro maximis et minimis etc., Leibnitz calls dy a line which is to the arbitrary increment dx as the ordinate y is to the subtangent; this brings his analysis and that of Fermat nearer together. One sees therefore that the latter has opened the quarry by an idea that is very original, but somewhat obscure, which consists in introducing in the equation an indeterminate which should be zero by the nature of the question, but which is not made to vanish until after the entire equation has been divided by that same quantity. This idea has become the germ of new calculi which have caused geometry and mechanics to make such progress, but one may say that it has brought also the obscurity of the principles of these calculi. And now that one has a quite clear idea of these principles, one sees that the indeterminate quantity which Fermat added to the unknown simply serves to form the derived function which must be zero in the case of a maximum or minimum, and which serves in general to determine the position of tangents of curves. But the geometers contemporary with Fermat did not seize the spirit of this new kind of calculus; they did not regard it but a special artifice, applicable simply to certain cases and subject to many difficulties, ...moreover, this invention which appeared a little before the Géométrie of Descartes remained sterile during nearly forty years. ...Finally Barrow contrived to substitute for the quantities which were supposed to be zero according to Fermat quantities that were real but infinitely small, and he published in 1674 his method of tangents, which is nothing but a construction of the method of Fermat by means of the infinitely small triangle, formed by the increments of the abscissa e, the ordinate ey/t, and of the infinitely small arc of the curve regarded as a polygon. This contributed to the creation of the system of infinitesimals and of the differential calculus.
 * J. Lagrange, "Lecons sur le calcul des fonctions," leçon dix-huitiéme, (Euvres de Lagrange, publiées par J.A. Serret, Tome X, p. 294 as translated by Florian Cajori, "Who was the First Inventor of Calculus?" The American Mathematical Monthly (Jan. 1919) Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 15-20.

 * This great geometrician expresses by the character E the increment of the abscissa; and considering only the first power of this increment, he determines exactly as we do by differential calculus the subtangents of the curves, their points of inflection, the maxima and minima of their ordinates, and in general those of rational functions. We see likewise by his beautiful solution of the problem of the refraction of light inserted in the Collection of the Letters of Descartes that he knows how to extend his methods to irrational functions in freeing them from irrationalities by the elevation of the roots to powers. Fermat should be regarded, then, as the true discoverer of Differential Calculus. Newton has since rendered this calculus more analytical in his Method of Fluxions, and simplified and generalized the processes by his beautiful theorem of the binomial. Finally, about the same time Leibnitz has enriched differential calculus by a notation which, by indicating the passage from the finite to the infinitely small, adds to the advantage of expressing the general results of calculus, that of giving the first approximate values of the differences and of the sums of the quantities; this notation is adapted of itself to the calculus of partial differentials.
 * Pierre Simon Laplace, Essai philosophique sur le calcul des probabilities (1812) Tr. F.W. Truscott and F.L. Emory, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities by Pierre Simon Marquis de Laplace  (1902) Part I, Chapter V, p. 46 as quoted by Cajori, ibid.

 * I had a hint of this method [of fluxions] from Fermat's way of drawing tangents, and by applying it to abstract equations, directly and invertedly, I made it general.
 * Isaac Newton as quoted by Louis Trenchard More, Isaac Newton, A biography (1934) p. 185, note 35

 * Fermat is... honored with the invention of the differential calculus on account of his method of maxima and minima and of tangents, which, of the prior processes, is in reality the nearest to the algorithm of Leibniz; one could with equal justice, attribute to him the invention of the integral calculus; his treatise De æquationum localium transmutatione, etc., gives indeed the method of integration by parts as well as rules of integration, except the general powers of variables, their sines and powers thereof. However, it must be remarked that one does not find in his writings a single word on the main point, the relation between the two branches of the infinitesimal calculus.
 * , "Fermat" in La Grande Encyclopédie (Berthelot) as quoted by Florian Cajori, "Who was the First Inventor of Calculus?" op. cit.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Pierre de Fermat


text:
Wedding Crashers

Wedding Crashers is a 2005 film about a pair of committed womanizers who sneak into weddings to take advantage of the romantic tinge in the air.
 * Directed by David Dobkin. Written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher.

On July 15th, they're coming to your wedding...with or without invitations. (taglines)

John Beckwith

 * There he is, the big guy!
 * I don't even know what the fuck a quail is!
 * I think he's on steroids. It's like trying to cover a fucking race horse.
 * It's the first quarter of the big game and you wanna toss up a hail Mary? I'd like to be pimps from Oakland or cowboys from Arizona but it's not Halloween. Grow up, Peter Pan! Count Chocula! Look, we've been to a million weddings and you know what? We've rocked them all.
 * You better lock it up.

Jeremy Grey

 * Oh please! You and I both know I'm a phenomenal dancer!
 * I don't even wear a belt...beltless.
 * Rule number 76: no excuses. Play like a champion.
 * You go have fun. I'm gonna go ice my balls and spit up blood, Team Player!
 * Did you hear what I just said to you? Stage five? Virgin? Clinger? Let’s go, I’m gonna start the car, I’m serious, let’s go.
 * I don’t think that you’re appreciating the urgency here. Not only is she a virgin, she’s totally off the reservation. I’m terrified of this broad.
 * I'm a little too traumatized to enjoy a scone right now.
 * I was first-team All-State. I can put the ball wherever I want to. I'll make it rain out here.
 * I'm not perfect, but who are we kidding, neither are you. And you want to know what? I dig it.
 * It feels so good when he jokes.
 * Lock it up!
 * The painting was a gift, Todd. I'm taking it with me.
 * Yeah that, or it could have been the midnight rape, or the nude gay art show that took place in my room last night.
 * Give me a break! That was my first Asian!
 * I happen to know everything there is to know about maple syrup. I love maple syrup! I love it on pancakes, I love it on pizza! I love to take maple syrup and put a little bit in my hair when I've had a rough week. What do you think holds it up, slick?
 * Proper girl in the hat just eye-fucked the shit out of me.
 * I'm a cocksman!
 * You motor-boating son of a bitch, you old sailor you!
 * I mean, I had an imaginary friend when I was a kid and his name was Shiloh. We used to play checkers with each other every day and bless his heart, Shiloh'd always let me win!
 * This is the real world, lady! You can't just go shooting people on a whim!
 * I felt like Jodie Foster in 'The Accused'
 * I hope you flip your bike over and knock out your two front teeth, you selfish son-of-a-bitch!

Sack's Friends

 * Crab cakes and football, that's what Maryland does!
 * Are you ready to have the noise brought on you?
 * That's what we call a sack lunch! Num-num-num-num-num!
 * Daiquiris.

William Cleary

 * Well, the guy wants to run for president, he thinks Moby Dick is a venereal disease.
 * You know, she's not just another notch on your belt.
 * Now Todd, it wouldn't kill ya to play some competitive sports, once in a while, would it?
 * Todd, that's good! Tell that mean ocean!
 * Nature versus nurture, Lodge. Nature always wins.
 * [about Todd] Oh, he says he believes in art, but all I've seen him do is dribble his own blood on a canvas and smear it around with a stick!
 * Sailor! Good Man.

Todd Cleary

 * Death, you are my Bitch Lover!
 * I made you a painting ... I call the painting 'Celebration'(shows painting). It's sexual and violent. I thought you might like it.
 * Would that make you love me?!
 * I'll be in my room painting homo things.
 * I'll pop out at the right moment!
 * Let's play tummy sticks.
 * We had a moment at the dinner table.
 * Jeremy tried to seduce me!

Chaz Reinhold

 * What the fuck do you want?
 * God darn you! I almost nun-chucked you. You don't even realize!
 * I'm just living the dream.
 * Hey, Ma! Can we get some meatloaf?!
 * Hey, Ma! The meatloaf! We want it now! The meatloaf!
 * What is she doing? I never know what she is doing back there.
 * Ma! The meatloaf! Fuck!
 * Come on in for the real thing.
 * It's like fishing with dynamite.
 * Dude died in a hang gliding accident. What an idiot! Ha ha. "A-a-ah! I'm hang-gliding, honey! Take a good picture! I'm dead!" What a freak!
 * Jay-Bone!
 * (Upon finding out that Jeremy is getting married) What?! What an idiot! What a loser! Good! Good! More for me and you!
 * You're coming with!

Other People

 * Wife: You shut your mouth when you're talking to me!
 * Husband: Yeah, that's right, go comatose for me, baby!
 * Grandma: He was a doll! The wife, though, Eleanor, big dyke. Huge dyke. A real rug muncher. Looked like a big lesbian mule.
 * Chazz's mom: Chazz, there's someone here to see you! And pick up your fucking skateboard!
 * Husband: Hey, I got an idea, why don't you just kiss my left nut!\\\\\\

Dialogue

 * John: No, don't waste your time on girls with hats. They tend to be very proper.
 * Jeremy: Yeah, well the proper girl in the hat just eye fucked the shit out of me.
 * [the guests in front of them turn and look at Jeremy]
 * John: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Why don't you say it a little louder? I don't think the priest heard you.
 * Jeremy: Look, John, I'm sorry I'm not sorry, okay? I'm not gonna apologize. I'm a cocksman!
 * [they turn around again]
 * John: Tourette's.

 * Jeremy: I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, John, I'm fried.
 * John: Soft mattress?
 * Jeremy: Yeah, that could've been it. Could've been the soft mattress, or it could've been the midnight rape. Or the nude gay art show that took place in my room. One of those probably added to the lack of sleep.
 * John: Try one of these scones, you're gonna love them.
 * Jeremy: I'm a little too traumatized to have a scone. Let's move.

 * Jeremy: I don't give a baker's fuck! I just had my own sock duct taped into my mouth last night!
 * John: Whoa, what?
 * Jeremy: Yeah, the, the sock that I wore all day, playing football in, pouring sweat in, was shoved into my mouth and then was duct taped over it!
 * John: Well, then let's talk about it. I'm a good listener.
 * Jeremy: I'm not going to discuss this. I felt like Jodie Foster in "The Accused" last night.

 * Jeremy: Mr. Environmental is also a hunter. That's kind of an interesting combination.
 * Sack: I hunt quail, Jeremy. They're overpopulated in this region and they're decimating the grub worm population. You got a fucking problem with that?
 * Jeremy: Not nearly as much as I do with the, uh, attire you have on or just your general point of view toward everybody, but let's go kill some birds. I'm psyched.

 * John: Why can't we hunt something cool like a hawk or an eagle, something with some talons?
 * Jeremy: That'd be awesome. We could get something like big game. Even like gorilla or rhinoceros or fucking human being! That'll get you jacked up.
 * John: That's a little heavy.
 * Jeremy: I mean like, like a human being right now, most dangerous game. Like a worthy adversary. Not a human being that's armed, but a clever, a clever, human being who knows the jungle. Or the woods.

 * Todd: I want my painting back.
 * Jeremy: Your painting was a gift, Todd. I'm taking it with me.

 * Jeremy: Why don't you try getting jacked off under the table in front of the whole damn family and have some real problems, jackass. What were they like anyway? They looked pretty good, are they real? Are they built for speed or for comfort? What'd you do with them? Motorboat? You play the motorboat? [makes motorboat noises] You motor-boating son of a bitch, you old sailor, you! Where is she? She still in the house?
 * John: What is wrong with you?
 * Jeremy: What do you mean, what's wrong with--? What's wrong with you?
 * John: No, what's wrong with you?
 * Jeremy: No, what's wrong with you? You're projecting!
 * John: Drop it.
 * Jeremy: You drop it! You stop projecting on me! Why don't you go enjoy yourself while I go ice my balls and spit up blood.
 * John: Drop it!
 * Jeremy: Team player!

 * Janice: Why do you need this?
 * Jeremy: I sleep over at John's house every year for his birthday.
 * Janice: Okay, that's not creepy.
 * Jeremy: I guess it is a little creepy, when a young man, who happens to be an only child, loses both of his parents in a tragic accident one month before his birthday and then has his best friend make a vow that he will never spend his birthday alone. Yea, maybe that would fall under the category of creepy.
 * Janice: Oh my god, I'm so sorry.
 * Jeremy: That's okay.
 * Janice: No, you're really sweet. I've got the perfect girl for you.
 * Jeremy: Ah, Janice, I apologize to you if I don't seem real eager to jump into a forced awkward intimate situation that people like to call dating. I don't like the feeling. You're sitting there you're wondering "Do I have food on my face? Am I eating? Am I talking too much? Are they talking enough? Am I interested? I'm not really interested. Should I play like I'm interested? But I'm not that interested, but I think she might be interested. But do I want to be interested, but now she's not interested, so now all of a sudden I'm getting--I'm started to get interested." And when am I supposed to kiss her? Do I have to wait for the door 'cause then it's awkward? It's like, well, "Goodnight. Do you do like the ass-out hug? Where you like, you hug each other like this and the ass sticks out because you're trying not to get too close or just go right in and kiss them on the lips or don't kiss them at all?" It's very difficult trying to read the situation. And all the while your just really want to know are we going to get hopped up enough to make some bad decisions. And perhaps play a little game called just the tip, just for a second, just to see how it feels, or "Ouch, ouch, you're on my hair."
 * Janice: Okay.
 * Jeremy: Okay, could you, could you put that so he--he can't see it. Thank you. Hey, Janice, great talk.

 * Jeremy: Sorry, just--just a sampler. Told you this would be classy, right?
 * John: Yes, you did. Class, first class all the way. I'm not blind.
 * Jeremy: Class, class, class. They've got some kind of seasoning on here, it must be sprinkled.
 * John: Okay, go get us seats near, but not too near the bridal party. I'm going to go drop this box of fresh Wyoming air.
 * Jeremy: Oh, and if you see any crab cakes, get your hands on some because I love the crab cakes.
 * John: Consider it done.

 * John: Fondue set.
 * Claire: Excuse me?
 * John: The present you're holding is a sterling silver fondue set. John Ryan. (puts out hand to shake)
 * Claire: Claire Cleary. Uh, so how do you know that?
 * John: Well, I'm a psychic.
 * Claire: You're psychic?
 * John: I am.
 * Claire: Really?
 * John: Yes.
 * Claire: What's that one.
 * John: Knife set. German, very nice.
 * Claire: Hmm. And that?
 * John: Cotton linens, Egyptian.
 * Claire: Ooh, what about that?
 * John: Oh, I'll go all day. Place settings, candle sticks, crystal stemware, which they'll probably never use 'cause it's crystal stemware.
 * Claire: Okay, how about that?
 * John: This, uh, massage oils and a book on tantra probably from a wacky aunt.
 * Claire: Let's check.
 * John: Who's it from?
 * Claire: Aunt Milly.
 * John: Yes!
 * Claire: Well, you--you have a gift.
 * John: I know, unfortunately my powers only apply to useless consumer products.
 * Claire: Well, you know if the police are missing a Belgium waffle maker, you could, um, give them a hand.

 [last lines]
 * Jeremy: So what's next?
 * Gloria: I'm starving.
 * Jeremy: Uchimora wedding, 3 PM.
 * John: Hey, hey.
 * Jeremy: I'm just throwing it out there. I'm just saying, just--
 * John: (to Claire) They would have great tempura.
 * Jeremy: We don't even have a back story. I'm just--
 * John: Forget it, forget it.
 * Jeremy: Just talking out loud.
 * Claire: We're a folk singing group from Salt Lake City!
 * Gloria: Yeah!
 * Jeremy: Yes, we are.

 * Jeremy: (confesses to a priest) She's good. I mean, I believed that she was a virgin and it hurts to be lied to like that. It's a horrible feeling to feel that way. But I, you know, was looking to take advantage of something, too, so could I really feel that bad? It's not like I was who I was. You know what I'm saying? So fair play. And let's be honest with each other here, okay? Let's put all the cards on the table. She's fit for a straight-jacket, this broad is fucked three ways towards the weekend, and you want to know what? I dig it! It turns me on! Yeah, it turns me on! Because you want to know what the kicker is, Father? Maybe I'm a little fucking crazy! That's right, maybe Jeremy is a little nuts! And there's something about me that I'm a little cuckoo. I know it's a surprise. I know it's not on the surface. Man, I had a little imaginary friend when I was a kid. His name was Shiloh. We used to play checkers with each other everyday and bless his heart, Shiloh would always let me win.
 * Priest: Ha-ha-ha-ha.
 * Jeremy: And that ain't normal! There's something odd in that, but maybe that's what it takes to make you feel connected to somebody. I don't know! But I know when that red-head starts getting kooky, there's something about me that feels alive inside. Diggin' talking with ya. You're a really enlightened cat and I like that about you. Think you're a special special man. Come in for the real thing. Get in here for the real thing. (kisses the priest) I love you, you're a sweet man.
 * Priest: Dear God.

 * Jeremy: Well don't worry about it. We'll burn 'em with a post.
 * John: No, I got a better idea. Look, I want what you to fake the post and throw an interception to Claire, get her to feel good, you know? Get us a moment, you think you can do that?
 * Jeremy: John, I was first-team All-State. I can put the ball wherever I want to. I'll make it rain out here. Alright guys, bring it in. Blue 17, blue 17! Red 7, red 7!
 * John (to Claire): Oh, you're going to cover me?
 * Claire: Like white on rice.
 * John: Alright, I like my odds here.
 * John (to Claire): Let me give you a little warning, I'm going downtown.
 * Jeremy: (to everyone) Hot route! Red 7, red 7, red 7!
 * John (to Claire): Look for me in the end zone. I'll be the guy holding the ball.
 * Jeremy: (to John) John!
 * John: What?
 * Jeremy: Red 7!
 * John: I don't know what Red 7 means!
 * Jeremy: Hot route!
 * John: I don't--what is hot route?
 * Jeremy: Would you just go stand on the other side please?

 * Jeremy: I wanted to tell you about Gloria. I tried to, I didn't know how. And I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I'll level with ya, I care about her a lot. I love her.
 * John: What?! You're unbelievable. Judas! Rule number 15, you're an idiot.
 * Jeremy: You're wrong about the rule book on this. There was never any rules about this. What's the rule about walking away? Never walk away on a crasher in a funny jacket, rule number hundred and fifteen. You're an asshole.

 * Jeremy: (with sleeping bag) Happy birthday. Can't let a little pissing and moaning break tradition.
 * John: Alright, it's today.
 * Jeremy: See you've been getting into a little light reading.
 * John: It's not mine, I bought that for a friend.
 * Jeremy: Yeah. So how ya been?
 * John: Great, really spectacular.
 * Jeremy: Well good. What have you been up to?
 * John: Ya, you know, this and that. Crashing weddings.
 * Jeremy: Alone?
 * John: No, not alone.
 * Jeremy: Well, who have you been crashing with then?
 * John: Chazz.
 * Jeremy: Chazz?
 * John: Chazz.
 * Jeremy: John, you don't even know Chazz. Don't st--
 * John: Yes, I do. He's a great guy. We've been having a ball together.
 * Jeremy: Alright look. I wanted to come by here and, and tell you I really feel bad about everything that's happened between us. Your friendship means a lot to me. I miss seeing ya.
 * John: I know, I--look I'm, I'm happy for you. I'm glad you found someone.
 * Jeremy: I can't tell you how glad it makes me to hear you say that man. Get on in here, let the big bear get his paws on ya (hugs him). You know I love you. It's good to see you.
 * John: It's good to see you.
 * Jeremy: Are you sure you've been okay, this does not look like a guy who's been okay.
 * John: Ah, I know. Looks like a pig sty.
 * Jeremy: Like a mosh pit in here. Listen, I'm getting married.
 * John: Get out.
 * Jeremy: What? You just sat there and said you were happy for me that I'm--
 * John: I'm hanging by a thread. I'm reading "don't kill myself" books.
 * Jeremy: You said that the book wasn't yours.
 * John: Don't worry about the book. It isn't mine, but I glanced at it.
 * Jeremy: John, you've been my friend for 16 years. I'm getting married. I need you there to be my best man.
 * John: Kindly leave!
 * Jeremy: I'm trying--
 * John: Kindly leave.
 * Jeremy: Mean a lot to me if you came.
 * John: Oh, I bet it would! Hillbilly!
 * Jeremy: What?!
 * John: White trash!
 * Jeremy: What are you talking about?
 * John: Out. Out.
 * Jeremy: You better get your ass to that wedding.

 * Jeremy: We are going to have tons and tons of opportunities to meet gorgeous ladies that are so aroused by the thought of marriage that they'll throw their inhibitions to the wind.
 * John: And who's going to be there to catch them?
 * Jeremy: Grab that net and catch that beautiful butterfly pal! What do you like better, Christmas or Wedding season? (raises hand)
 * John: Mister Grey.
 * Jeremy: Yes, um, the answer would be, um, wedding season?
 * John: Bingo. I'm gonna go get my suit. Oh, and now who are we this time?

 * Sack: Trapster, it's Sack.
 * Trapster: Sackmaster! How was the wedding?
 * Sack: Oh, it was boring, you know, but the bachelor party, of course, rocked. We got Heidi a couple of those fucking sluts from the environmental group, remember them?
 * Trapster: No way! Did you tap that again?
 * Sack: Once at my place, then once back in the cab.
 * Trapster: Damn! Sluts! Oh, how's Claire? Still trying to figure out what she's doing with her life?
 * Sack: Claire? She's, you know, whatever, I don't know. She's saving the world one maladjusted kid at a time. But that'll all change when we're married, 'cause I want a wife. I don't want a fucking martyr, right?
 * Trapster: I hear that, my friend.
 * Sack: Hey, man, listen, l-l-l-I got--do you remember that private detective we used to set up that Shearson Lehman prick?
 * Trapster: The big sleazy, Tommy Gufano. He's a wop genius.
 * Sack: Yes. I need you to get some dirt on these two guys John and Jeremy Ryan. They're brothers from New Hampshire. They got some sort of N.P.O. Called "Holy Shirts & Pants."
 * Trapster: I will check into them.
 * Sack: Excellent, bro.
 * Trapster: You DA man!
 * Sack: Take it easy.

 * Todd: Mom make you feel her tits?
 * John: Did you say something Todd?
 * Todd: Mom make you feel her tits?
 * John: Todd, where are you going with this?
 * Todd: Just don't, don't say anything to my dad though. Some friend of my sisters. She said something to my dad a couple of years ago. He now lives in a shack in Guam.  Not by choice.

 * Jeremy: Who else wants something?
 * Boy: I want a bicycle.
 * Jeremy: A bicycle? Well, a bicycle, that would take a lot of balloons and honestly Uncle Jeremy's a little tired right now so why don't we do something like, uh, let's say a giraffe?
 * Boy: I just want a bicycle!
 * Jeremy: Wh-why are you yelling at me?
 * Boy: Whatever, make me a bicycle, clown!
 * Jeremy: I'm gonna make you a bicycle. But I don't want to make you a bicycle.
 * Boy: Shut your mouth, funny guy, and make it!

 * Woman: Shlomo? I thought you were renouncing all your possessions and moving to Nepal. Shlomo, don't you remember me?
 * John: Oh my God, you didn't hear. I'm so sorry. Shlomo had a scuba diving accident. Yeah, he came up too fast, and the oxygen deprivation...poor guy, he doesn't remember anyone, even me, his own brother. I'm just some nice guy who helps him out.
 * Woman: You poor thing!
 * John: He actually can't hear anything either. It's part of the accident. So you're here for the Cleary's wedding?
 * Woman: Oh, yes, yes, but I-I have to leave. I-I've got a flight to Madrid, but--
 * John: Oh, you have to leave?
 * Woman: Yes.
 * John: Oh, okay.
 * Woman: I could hang out for a few minutes.
 * [Jeremy begins to do hand gestures]
 * John: Oh, actually, that won't be necessary. Shlomo would now like me to take him to the bathroom, and then get him some crab cakes. So, yeah, no, that's o--[Jeremy does it even more] Okay, okay! Okay, I'm gonna take you to get crab cakes first, then I'll take you to the bathroom.
 * Woman: You know what? Here is my number. If there is anything I can do to help--
 * John: Have a safe flight. Don't worry about us. We're gonna be fine. We're gonna make it.
 * [she leaves]
 * Jeremy: Doctor. She looked good. I'm gonna give it a shot.
 * John: How are you gonna call her? She thinks you're deaf.
 * Jeremy: Everyone wants to be a part of a miracle. I turned a corner. She's a part of it. People helping people. It's powerful stuff.
 * John: God, you're a sick man. You also may be a genius.

 * Jeremy: The great 19th century philosopher Schopenhauer, he said, at that moment when a human sees another human in danger, that there's this breaking in of metaphysical awareness. Do you know what that awareness is, Gloria?
 * Gloria: What?
 * Jeremy: That we're all one. That separateness is an illusion, and that I'm one with everyone--with the Prime Minister of England, and my cousin Harry, you and me, the fat kid from "What's Happening!", The Olsen twins, Natalie Portman, the guy who wrote "Catcher in the Rye," Nat King Cole, Carrot Top, Jay-Z, Weird Al Yankovic, Harry Potter, if he existed, the whore on the street corner, your mother--we're all one.
 * Gloria: We are?

 * [sees Jeremy carrying the grandmother back to her room]
 * Randolph: You banging the daughter and the grandma? How much jam you got, man?
 * Jeremy: Jam? L--
 * Randolph: Listen, man, the family dog lives downstairs. I can wake him up for you, if you like. His name is Snooky.
 * Jeremy: You could not be more wrong about what's happen--
 * Randolph: Just be gentle with her, okay? She be pushing 90! Jesus Christ.

 * [John has come to Jeremy's house to confront him for not backing him up against Sack. He quickly catches Gloria and Jeremy having sex.]
 * John:[angry] Perfect!
 * [John storms off as Jeremy puts his pants on.]
 * Jeremy: Johnny wait.
 * Gloria:[getting herself ready] Oh my God, what time is it?!
 * [Jeremy chases after John. John then demands an answer from him for sneaking off to see Gloria behind his and Senator Clary's back]
 * Jeremy: I wanted to tell you about Gloria. I didn't know how and I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I'll level with you, I care about her so much. I love her.
 * John: What?! I can't believe you. Judas! Rule number five, you're an idiot.
 * Jeremy: You're wrong about the rule book on this. There was never any rules about this. What's the rule about walking away? Never walk away on a crasher in a funny jacket. Rule number hundred and fifteen, you're an asshole.

Taglines

 * On July 15, they're coming to your wedding...with or without invitations.
 * They're just a couple of guys who need a good wife.
 * Hide Your actual IQ rating.
 * Life's a Blessing, Remember to Pray.

Cast

 * Owen Wilson as John Beckwith
 * Vince Vaughn as Jeremy Grey
 * Christopher Walken as United States Secretary of the Treasury William Cleary
 * Rachael McAdams as Claire Cleary
 * Isla Fisher as Gloria Cleary
 * Jane Seymour as Kathleen "Kitty Kat" Cleary
 * Ellen Albertini Dow as "Grandma" Mary Cleary (final film role)
 * Keir O'Donnell as Todd Cleary
 * Bradley Cooper as Sack Lodge
 * Henry Gibson as Father O'Neil
 * Ron Canada as Randolph
 * Jenny Alden as Christina Cleary
 * Will Ferrell (uncredited) as Chazz Reinhold
 * Doria Baird as Vivian
 * Dwight Yoakam and Rebecca De Mornay as Mr. and Mrs. Kroger
 * Kathryn Joosten as Mrs. Reinhold
 * Richard Riehle (uncredited) as Funeral guest

title: Wedding Crashers


text:
User talk:AmiUhle

~ MosheZadka (Talk) 12:27, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:AmiUhle


text:
Category:1950s films

This is a selection of films with Wikiquote pages that were released in the 1950s.

See also the Wikipedia articles for these years in film:

1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959

title: Category:1950s films


text:
User talk:Singlefinger

I know I’m not going for perfection – unless there’s such a thing as the perfect mistake. ~John Prine Don't worry too much about perfection -- constant improvement is good enough :) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 16:16, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Singlefinger


text:
User:Singlefinger

I know I’m not going for perfection – unless there’s such a thing as the perfect mistake. ~ John Prine

title: User:Singlefinger


text:
Talk:Chess

Life
"Of chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess." This quote is attributed to Irving Chernev here, and some web pages agree. Other web pages attribute the quote to William Ewart Napier. Can anyone confirm one or the other with something more authoritative than a bald assertion?

I just added the Benjamin Franklin quote. I am fairly certain it is accurate. I got it from www.ctchess.com

Attribution
Several quotes on this page are attributed to "Jamie Walter Adams". The only place outside of this Wikiquote page that this name can be found is when other WWW pages cite this page. The name "Jamie Walter Adams" cannot be found anywhere in chess history, as either a player, an author, or researcher. I suspect someone has decided to add their own quotes on chess, with no credentials. -
 * You are correct and I have removed these quotes from the page. ~ UDScott 18:00, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

RE: Who cares who added them? Where in history does it require one to have credentials to put quotes online, or to add anything for that matter? I don't recall seeing in his/her (I have no idea who this is either) quotes claiming to be anything great. I don't know who this person is, or even if they exist, but I liked the quotes and they are on my Facebook page. They helped me with my perspective on the game, that's why I am a bit perturbed when I put them on here and you took them off. I had always "over-analyzed" chess and because of that, I made mistakes. Jamie's quotes helped me to view the pieces as actual infantrymen or warriors, and in that context, I proteced them more and used them more wisely, as opposed to wood-pushing or envisioning moves that would never happen. Anyway, I don't really care if you have removed them or not, that's not the issue here. The real issue here is that lately America has been getting robbed of freedoms and this is just one more instance of the new "trend" to censor something online for personal motive. I am getting so tired of sites deleting peoples messages on here, on forums, or wherever (when they are not obscene in any way), it's just because they can! I don't care that you took the quotes off, as they are not mine anyway... but you shouldn't censor people just because "you" have a certain opinion on wat content should go on your site. It's chess related, it's valid content and it's not obscene or denigrating in any way. Just because some whining, jealous,crybaby came on here and told you that this content should be removed, doesn't mean you had to oblige him.He was just mad because he couldn't think of anything himself. Just wanted to let you know, to feel free to delete my account on here as well ,as I won't be back to this site again. I will go to a site which will allow me to write whatever I want without censorship. I will also warn others. Buh Bye.

 * How could we make it more readily apparent, to all visitors to this site, that Wikiquote is for "quotations from notable people and creative works" (Main Page) and that "we limit ourselves to quotations which are notable" (Wikiquote)? Many visitors evidently do not notice this at the outset, and become very frustrated when it is pointed out after they have already made good-faith efforts to contribute to the site. Some of them, had they understood the site's mission, might have become valued contributors rather than going away mad. ~ Ningauble 19:54, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Quotations can be marked with different font, for example.

Editing
Can anyone tell me why all the "edit" links cluster down at the letter "O" instead of appearing once each time in the letters above? I can't figure it out.
 * It's a bug in Firefox. The problem does not appear with IE.

Adams
It's ashamed that you took the Adams quotes off of here notwithstanding. I went up an extra 500 points because of the focused advice. Who cares who he is, it says Wiki quote, Not Wiki quote for famous people. Maybe he is a chessmaster, that just can't show his face in public, because he lives like Robert Fisher did. Who knows. This blatant attack is unwarranted though, he's just trying to help others.Maybe he just doesn't want to be famous.But he is here to help us and is asking for nothing in return.Why did you remove his quotes, yet leave up Anonymous quotes and Courtney Love who calls the pieces "horseys" This is just ridiculous.
 * Please read WQ:WQ and WQ:NOT to understand why quotes from your non-famous acquaintances are not suitable for the site. Wikiquote is an accurate and comprehensive collection of notable quotations. If the person who said it is not famous and the quote itself is not widely known, the quote is not considered notable. Krychek (talk) 16:25, 12 September 2018 (UTC)

Unsourced quotes
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 * ...for chess, that superb, cold, infinitely satisfying anodyne to life, I feel the ardor of a lover, the humility of a disciple. – Herbert Russell Wakefield.

A

 * All that matters on the chessboard is good moves. – Bobby Fischer
 * A chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third... when you know you're going to lose! – Savielly Tartakower
 * A good player is always lucky. – José Raúl Capablanca

 * As a chess player one has to be able to control one’s feelings, one has to be as cold as a machine. – Levon Aronian
 * All draws are final Towers. – Savielly Tartakower

B

 * Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be. – Small Gods

C

 * Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy. – Siegbert Tarrasch
 * Chess is in its essence a game, in its form an art, and in its execution a science. – Baron Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa
 * Chess is the game which reflects most honour on human wit. – Voltaire
 * Chess is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game. – Paul Morphy
 * Chess is the touchstone of intellect. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 * Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe. – Indian proverb
 * Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent has a freer position. If you do have a center, then you really have something to worry about. – Siegbert Tarrasch
 * Chess is mental torture. – Garry Kasparov
 * Chess is so deep, I simply feel lost. – Vladimir Kramnik
 * [Chess is] as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere outside an advertising agency. – Raymond Chandler in The Long Goodbye
 * Chess is a fathead and feudal game. – Georges Perec (in a book promoting Go)
 * Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders. – Savielly Tartakower
 * Chess is beautiful enough to waste your life for. – Hans Ree
 * Chess is a beautiful mistress. – Bent Larsen
 * Chess is life. – Bobby Fischer
 * Chess is like life. – Boris Spassky
 * Chess is everything – art, science, and sport. – Anatoly Karpov
 * Chess is not relaxing; it's stressful even if you win. – Jennifer Shahade
 * Chess is 99 percent tactics. – Richard Teichmann
 * Chess is really 99 percent calculation. – Andrew Soltis
 * Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people. – Nigel Short
 * Chess is as much a mystery as women. – Cecil Purdy
 * Chess you don't learn, chess you understand. – Viktor Korchnoi
 * Chess is a master that strengthens the spirit and frees from suffering. – Albert Einstein
 * Chess is an effective means to educate and train the human intellect. – Che Guevara
 * Chess is particularly trainer, both in the intellectual plane as in the trial. - René Haby

E

 * Every chess master was once a beginner. – Irving Chernev

I

 * I'd rather have a pawn than a finger. – Reuben Fine
 * It all depends: which pawn and which finger? – Roman Dzindzichashvili
 * If chess is a Battle then Go is War. – Anonymous
 * It's the horsey-shape piece that moves in an L shape. It's what makes chess complicated, and why stupid people can't play chess. Go play checkers! Knights are the first piece you look at. They elevate the game. No chess master wants to lose her knights. – Courtney Love

L

 * Life's too short for chess. – Talbot in play Our Boys by Henry James Byron
 * Life is a kind of chess. – Benjamin Franklin
 * Life is like a game of Chess, changing with each move. – Lelouch Lamperouge

M

 * Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all. – Bobby Fischer

N

 * No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King. – Alexander Koblencs

O

 * Of chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess. – attributed to both Irving Chernev and William Ewart Napier
 * Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. – Italian proverb
 * On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not last long. Emanuel Lasker
 * One bad move nullifies forty good ones. – Israel Albert Horowitz

P

 * Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine. – Rudolf Spielmann

T

 * The Chess-Board is the World, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the Laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. – Thomas Huxley
 * The center of the chessboard is a magnet, which pulls to itself all the pieces. – Ashot Nadanian
 * The pawns are the soul of chess. – François-André Danican Philidor
 * The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made. – Savielly Tartakower
 * The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. – Savielly Tartakower
 * There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine. – Mikhail Tal

V

 * Vimes had never got on with any game much more complex than darts. Chess in particular had always annoyed him. It was the dumb way the pawns went off and slaughtered their fellow pawns while the kings lounged about doing nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns united, maybe talked the rooks round, the whole board could've been a republic in a dozen moves. – Thud!

W

 * When the chess game is over, the pawn and the king go back to the same box. – Irish saying contributed by Etienne Goldstein

Y

 * You cannot play chess if you are kind-hearted. – French Proverb

Advice on the game of Chess

 * A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused. – Rudolf Spielmann
 * A thorough understanding of the typical mating continuations makes the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them not only not difficult, but almost a matter of course. – Tarrasch
 * All that matters on the Chessboard is good moves. – Bobby Fischer
 * Before the endgame, the gods have placed the middlegame. – Tarrasch
 * Chess is the art of analysis. – Mikhail Botvinnik
 * Chess mastery essentially consists of analysing chess positions accurately. – Mikhail Botvinnik
 * Discovered check is the dive-bomber of the chessboard. – Reuben Fine
 * Examine moves that smite! A good eye for smites is far more important than a knowledge of strategical principles. – Purdy
 * Even a poor plan is better than no plan at all. – Mikhail Chigorin
 * First restrain, next blockade, lastly destroy. – Aron Nimzowitsch
 * Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no one knows in advance which half – Jan Timman
 * He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess. – Siegbert Tarrasch
 * If the student forces himself to examine all moves that smite, however absurd they may look at first glance, he is on the way to becoming a master of tactics. – Purdy
 * If your opponent cannot do anything active, then don't rush the position; instead you should let him sit there, suffer, and beg you for a draw. Jeremy Silman
 * In positions of strategic manoeuvring seek the worst placed piece. Activating that piece is often the most reliable way of improving your position. – Mark Dvoretsky
 * In the perfect chess combination as in a first-rate short story, the whole plot and counter-plot should lead up to a striking finale, the interest not being allayed until the very last moment. – Frederick Yates and William Winter
 * It's always better to sacrifice your opponent's men. – Savielly Tartakower
 * It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek, but a realisable plan. – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky
 * It is not possible to become a great player without having learned how to analyse deeply and accurately. – Mark Dvoretsky
 * Methodical thinking is of more use in chess than inspiration. – Purdy
 * Modern chess is too concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it, checkmate ends the game. – Nigel Short
 * Play the opening like a book, the middlegame like a magician and the endgame like a machine – Rudolf Spielmann
 * Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation. – Max Euwe
 * The choice of moves should not be made on an exact verdict of the final position, but on whether or not your position has improved or worsened. – Jacob Aagaard
 * The combination player thinks forward; he starts from the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind. – Emanuel Lasker
 * The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary. – Aron Nimzovich
 * The great master places a Knight at K5 (e5); checkmate follows by itself. – Savielly Tartakower
 * The middlegame I repeat is chess itself; chess with all its possibilities, its attacks, defences, sacrifices, etc. – Znosko-Borovsky
 * The Pin is mightier than the sword. – Fred Reinfeld
 * The tactician knows what to do when there is something to do; whereas the strategian knows what to do when there is nothing to do. – Gerald Abrahams
 * The scheme of a game is played on positional lines; the decision of it, as a rule, is effected by combinations. – Reti
 * To play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess. – Mikhail Tal
 * Training in analysis (like any other form of chess training) should be treated very seriously. – Mark Dvoretsky
 * When you see a good move, look for a better one. – Emanuel Lasker
 * Whenever we see an unprotected piece we must keep our eyes peeled because this is one of the most important ingredients of a combination. – Jacob Aagaard
 * You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one. Mikhail Tal

Unsourced

 * “I am convinced, the way one plays chess always reflects the player’s personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing.”
 * – Vladimir Kramnik

 * “The game of chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it… For Life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with.”
 * – Benjamin Franklin

 * “As proved by evidence, [chess is] more lasting in its being and presence than all books and achievements; the only game that belongs to all people and all ages; of which none knows the divinity that bestowed it on the world, to slay boredom, to sharpen the senses, to exhilarate the spirit.”
 * – Stefan Zweig

 * “Chess doesn’t drive people mad, it keeps mad people sane.”
 * – Bill Hartston

 * “In life, as in chess, one’s own pawns block one’s way. A man’s very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help him to win, more often checkmate him.”
 * – Charles Buxton

 * “Chess is life in miniature. Chess is struggle, chess is battles.”
 * – Garry Kasparov

 * “Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.”
 * – Siegbert Tarrasch

 * “For in the idea of chess and the development of the chess mind we have a picture of the intellectual struggle of mankind.”
 * – Richard Réti

 * “Nobody ever won a chess game by resigning.”
 * – Savielly Tartakower

 * “The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made.”
 * – Savielly Tartakower

 * “It’s always better to sacrifice your opponent’s men.”
 * – Savielly Tartakower

 * “One doesn’t have to play well, it’s enough to play better than your opponent.”
 * – Siegbert Tarrasch

 * “Up to this point White has been following well-known analysis. But now he makes a fatal error: he begins to use his own head.”
 * – Siegbert Tarrasch

 * “Of chess, it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess.”
 * – William Napier

 * “Chess is beautiful enough to waste your life for.”
 * – Hans Ree

 * “A chess game in progress is… a cosmos unto itself, fully insulated from an infant’s cry, an erotic invitation, or war.”
 * – David Shenk

 * “It will be cheering to know that many people are skilful chess players, though in many instances their brains, in a general way, compare unfavourably with the cognitive faculties of a rabbit.”
 * – James Mortimer

 * “The pin is mightier than the sword.”
 * – Fred Reinfeld

 * “The only thing chess players have in common is chess.”
 * – Lodewijk Prins

 * “Those who say they understand chess, understand nothing.”
 * – Robert Hübner

 * “One bad move nullifies forty good ones.”
 * – Bernhard Horwitz

 * “If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out why he thinks he’s worse off.”
 * – Nigel Short

Quote
Quotes should not be removed without explanation and without moving them to the talkpage as happened here

It seems there are different translations for this quote. I will move it to the disputed section.

title: Talk:Chess


text:
User talk:69.115.34.234

~ MosheZadka (Talk) 16:17, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:69.115.34.234


text:
User talk:205.254.147.8

~ MosheZadka (Talk) 16:19, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:205.254.147.8


text:
User:Slgrandson

Reginald Routhwick is the pen name of a Commonwealth of Dominica expatriate who contributes to Wikimedia as Slgrandson. Also known as Routhwick at Reddit, Miraheze, and /Hive.blog, and under his real-life initials across, FurAffinity, Inkbunny, , and elsewhere. Born in 1986, Routhwick is now based in (after previously residing in his home  of,  [until June 2005]; the Bronx of New York City [until August 2005]; and  [until January 2017]).

This contributor is no longer active on Wikiquote, but can be reached out to at the.

 * Official Miraheze wiki

title: User:Slgrandson