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Arthur Eddington

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington OM FRS (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour.

Around 1920, he foreshadowed the discovery and mechanism of nuclear fusion processes in stars. At that time, the source of stellar energy was a complete mystery; Eddington was the first to correctly speculate that the source was fusion of hydrogen into helium. He also wrote a number of articles that announced and explained Einstein's theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world. World War I had severed many lines of scientific communication, and new developments in German science were not well known in England. He also conducted an expedition to observe the solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 that provided one of the earliest confirmations of general relativity, and he became known for his popular expositions and interpretations of the theory.

Quotes

 * Physics has in the main contented itself with studying the abridged edition of the book of nature.
 * "A Generalization of Weyl's Theory of the Electromagnetic and Gravitational Fields" in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A99 (1921), p. 108

 * The present revolution of scientific thought follows in natural sequence on the great revolutions at earlier epochs in the history of science. Einstein's special theory of relativity, which explains the indeterminateness of the frame of space and time, crowns the work of Copernicus who first led us to give up our insistence on a geocentric outlook on nature; Einstein's general theory of relativity, which reveals the curvature or non-Euclidean geometry of space and time, carries forward the rudimentary thought of those earlier astronomers who first contemplated the possibility that their existence lay on something which was not flat. These earlier revolutions are still a source of perplexity in childhood, which we soon outgrow; and a time will come when Einstein's amazing revelations have likewise sunk into the commonplaces of educated thought.
 * The Theory of Relativity and its Influence on Scientific Thought (24 May 1922), p. 31-32

It is not too much to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.
 * At terrestrial temperatures matter has complex properties which are likely to prove most difficult to unravel; but it is reasonable to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.
 * The Internal Constitution of Stars (1926) ISBN 0521337089
 * Paraphrased variants: It is sound judgment to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.

 * We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and find a hotter place.
 * The Internal Constitution of Stars (1926)

 * A star is drawing on some vast reservoir of energy by means unknown to us. This reservoir can scarcely be other than the sub-atomic energy which, it is known, exists abundantly in all matter; we sometimes dream that man will one day learn to release it and use it for his service. The store is well-nigh inexhaustible, if only it could be tapped.
 * The Internal Constitution of Stars (1926)

 * I think that science would never have achieved much progress if it had always imagined unknown obstacles hidden round every corner. At least we may peer gingerly round the corner, and perhaps we shall find there is nothing very formidable after all.
 * Stars and Atoms (1927), Lecture 1

 * To the pure geometer the radius of curvature is an incidental characteristic — like the grin of the Cheshire cat. To the physicist it is an indispensable characteristic. It would be going too far to say that to the physicist the cat is merely incidental to the grin. Physics is concerned with interrelatedness such as the interrelatedness of cats and grins. In this case the "cat without a grin" and the "grin without a cat" are equally set aside as purely mathematical phantasies.
 * The Expanding Universe (1933), Ch. IV The Universe and the Atom

Who always breathed down a bassoon, For he said, "It appears That in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune".
 * There once was a brainy baboon,
 * New Pathways in Science (1935) Ch. IV The End of the World, p. 62

 * It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.
 * New Pathways in Science (1935) Ch. V Indeterminacy and Quantum Theory, p. 105

 * Observation and theory get on best when they are mixed together, both helping one another in the pursuit of truth. It is a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in a theory until it has been confirmed by observation. I hope I shall not shock the experimental physicists too much if I add that it is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they have been confirmed by theory.
 * New Pathways in Science: Messenger Lectures 1934 (1947), p. 211.

 * We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about "and".
 * As quoted in A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991) by Alan L. Mackay, p. 79

Space, Time and Gravitation (1920)

 * Space, Time and Gravitation : An Outline of the General Relativity Theory

 * By his theory of relativity Albert Einstein has provoked a revolution of thought in physical science. ...Physical space and time are found to be closely bound... with... motion of the observer; and only an amorphous combination of the two is left... It is my aim to give an account of this work without introducing anything very technical in... mathematics, physics, or philosophy. ...[T]he task is one of interpreting a clear-cut theory... although perhaps not everyone would accept the author's views of its meaning.

But the mind is not content to leave scientific Truth in a dry husk of mathematical symbols, and demands that it shall be alloyed with familiar images.'''
 * A non-mathematical presentation has necessary limitations; and the reader who wishes to learn how certain exact results follow from Einstein's, or even Newton's, law of gravitation is bound to seek the reasons in a mathematical treatise. ...'''[T]he geometry of relativity in its perfect harmony expresses a truth... which my bowdlerised version misses.

 * The writings of Einstein, Minkowski, Hilbert, Lorentz, Weyl, Robb, and others, have provided the groundwork; in the give and take of debate with friends and correspondents, the extensive ramifications have gradually appeared.

[Pure Mathematician] Math. For my part, I am quite unable to say whether the proposition is true or not. I can deduce it by trustworthy reasoning from certain other propositions or axioms, which are supposed to be still more elementary. If these axioms are true, the proposition is true; if the axioms are not true, the proposition is not true universally. Whether the axioms are true or not I cannot say, and it is outside my province to consider.
 * [Relativist] Rel. There is a well-known proposition of Euclid which states that "Any two sides of a triangle are together greater than the third side." Can either of you tell me whether nowadays there is good reason to believe that this proposition is true?

Math. Look at the reflection of the room in a polished doorknob, and imagine yourself one of the actors in what you see going on there.
 * [Experimental Physicist] Phys. I cannot imagine myself perceiving non-Euclidean space!

Math. No. Geometry is nowadays largely analytical, so that in form as well as in effect, it deals with variables of an unknown nature. … It is literally true that I do not want to know the significance of the variables x, y, z, t that I am discussing. … Phys. Yours is a strange subject. You told us at the beginning that you are not concerned as to whether your propositions are true, and now you tell us you do not even care to know what you are talking about. Math. That is an excellent description of Pure Mathematics, which has already been given by an eminent mathematician [ Bertrand Russell ].
 * Phys. I know that it is often a help to represent pressure and volume as height and width on paper; and so geometry may have applications to the theory of gases. But is it not going rather far to say that geometry can deal directly with these things and is not necessarily concerned with lengths in space?

 * It is the reciprocity of these appearances — that each party should think the other has contracted — that is so difficult to realise. Here is a paradox beyond even the imagination of Dean Swift. Gulliver regarded the Lilliputians as a race of dwarfs; and the Lilliputians regarded Gulliver as a giant. That is natural. If the Lilliputians had appeared dwarfs to Gulliver, and Gulliver had appeared a dwarf to the Lilliputians — but no! that is too absurd for fiction, and is an idea only to be found in the sober pages of science. … It is not only in space but in time that these strange variations occur. If we observed the aviator carefully we should infer that he was unusually slow in his movements; and events in the conveyance moving with him would be similarly retarded — as though time had forgotten to go on. His cigar lasts twice as long as one of ours. … But here again reciprocity comes in, because in the aviator's opinion it is we who are travelling at 161,000 miles a second past him; and when he has made all allowances, he finds that it is we who are sluggish. Our cigar lasts twice as long as his.

 * It is of interest to inquire what happens when the aviator's speed … approximates to the velocity of light. Lengths in the direction of flight become smaller and smaller, until for the speed of light they shrink to zero. The aviator and the objects accompanying him shrink to two dimensions. We are saved the difficulty of imagining how the processes of life can go on in two dimensions, because nothing goes on. Time is arrested altogether. This is the description according to the terrestrial observer. The aviator himself detects nothing unusual; he does not perceive that he has stopped moving. He is merely waiting for the next instant to come before making the next movement; and the mere fact that time is arrested means that he does not perceive that the next instant is a long time coming.

 * Spherical space is not very easy to imagine. We have to think of the properties of the surface of a sphere — the two-dimensional case — and try to conceive something similar applied to three-dimensional space. Stationing ourselves at a point let us draw a series of spheres of successively greater radii. The surface of a sphere of radius r should be proportional to r2; but in spherical space the areas of the more distant spheres begin to fall below the proper proportion. There is not so much room out there as we expected to find. Ultimately we reach a sphere of biggest possible area, and beyond it the areas begin to decrease. The last sphere of all shrinks to a point — our antipodes. Is there nothing beyond this? Is there a kind of boundary there? There is nothing beyond and yet there is no boundary. On the earth's surface there is nothing beyond our own antipodes but there is no boundary there.

 * We can see that, the constant in the law of gravitation being fixed, there may be some upper limit to the amount of matter possible; as more and more matter is added in the distant parts, space curves round and ultimately closes; the process of adding more matter must stop, because there is no more space, and we can only return to the region already dealt with. But there seems nothing to prevent a defect of matter, leaving space unclosed. Some mechanism seems to be needed, whereby either gravitation creates matter, or all the matter in the universe conspires to define a law of gravitation.

 * We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origins. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the footprint. And lo! It is our own.

The Nature of the Physical World (1928)

 * Published versions of his Gifford Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh (January – March 1927)

From the beginning I have been doubtful whether it was desirable for a scientist to venture so far into extra-scientific territory. The primary justification for such an expedition is that it may afford a better view of his own scientific domain.
 * The idealistic tinge in my conception of the physical world arose out of mathematical researches on the relativity theory. In so far as I had any earlier philosophical views, they were of an entirely different complexion.
 * Preface

 * Science aims at constructing a world which shall be symbolic of the world of commonplace experience. It is not at all necessary that every individual symbol that is used should represent something in common experience or even something explicable in terms of common experience. The man in the street is always making this demand for concrete explanation of the things referred to in science; but of necessity he must be disappointed. It is like our experience in learning to read. That which is written in a book is symbolic of a story in real life. The whole intention of the book is that ultimately a reader will identify some symbol, say BREAD, with one of the conceptions of familiar life. But it is mischievous to attempt such identifications prematurely, before the letters are strung into words and the words into sentences. The symbol A is not the counterpart of anything in familiar life.
 * Introduction

'''The external world of physics has thus become a world of shadows. In removing our illusions we have removed the substance, for indeed we have seen that substance is one of the greatest of our illusions.''' Later perhaps we may inquire whether in our zeal to cut out all that is unreal we may not have used the knife too ruthlessly. Perhaps, indeed, reality is a child which cannot survive without its nurse illusion. But if so, that is of little concern to the scientist, who has good and sufficient reasons for pursuing his investigations in the world of shadows and is content to leave to the philosopher the determination of its exact status in regard to reality. In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. Then comes the alchemist Mind who transmutes the symbols. '''The sparsely spread nuclei of electric force become a tangible solid; their restless agitation becomes the warmth of summer; the octave of aethereal vibrations becomes a gorgeous rainbow. Nor does the alchemy stop here. In the transmuted world new significances arise which are scarcely to be traced in the world of symbols; so that it becomes a world of beauty and purpose — and, alas, suffering and evil. The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.'''
 * In physics we have outgrown archer and apple-pie definitions of the fundamental symbols. To a request to explain what an electron really is supposed to be we can only answer, "It is part of the A B C of physics".
 * Introduction

 * There was just one alternative, the earth’s true velocity through space might happen to have been nil.
 * Ch 1 : The Downfall of Classical Physics

 * The quest of the absolute leads into the four-dimensional world.
 * Ch. 2 : Relativity

 * Motion with respect to the universal ocean of aether eludes us. We say, "Let V be the velocity of a body through the aether", and form the various electromagnetic equations in which V is scattered liberally. Then we insert the observed values, and try to eliminate everything which is unknown except V. The solution goes on famously; but just as we have got rid of all the other unknowns, behold! V disappears as well, and we are left with the indisputable but irritating conclusion —
 * 0 = 0
 * This is a favourite device that mathematical equations resort to, when we propound stupid questions.
 * Ch. 2 : Relativity

 * Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.
 * Ch. 4 : The Running-Down of the Universe

 * The law that entropy always increases, holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations — then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation — well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.
 * Ch. 4 : The Running-Down of the Universe
 * If I let my fingers wander idly over the keys of a typewriter it might happen that my screed made an intelligible sentence. If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they might write all the books in the British Museum. The chance of their doing so is decidedly more favourable than the chance of the molecules returning to one half of the vessel.
 * Ch. 4, p. 72.

 * Schrödinger's wave-mechanics is not a physical theory, but a dodge — and a very good dodge too.
 * Ch. 10 : The New Quantum Theory

 * Never mind what two tons refers to. What is it? How has it entered in so definite a way into our exprerience? Two tons is the reading of the pointer when the elephant was placed on a weighing machine. Let us pass on. … And so we see that the poetry fades out of the problem, and by the time the serious application of exact science begins we are left only with pointer readings.
 * Ch. 12 : Pointer Readings

 * The whole subject-matter of exact science consists of pointer readings and similar indications.
 * Ch. 12 : Pointer Readings

 * The universe is of the nature of a thought or sensation in a universal Mind … To put the conclusion crudely — the stuff of the world is mind-stuff. As is often the way with crude statements, I shall have to explain that by "mind" I do not exactly mean mind and by "stuff" I do not at all mean stuff. Still that is about as near as we can get to the idea in a simple phrase. The mind-stuff of the world is something more general than our individual conscious minds; but we may think of its nature as not altogether foreign to feelings in our consciousness … Having granted this, the mental activity of the part of world constituting ourselves occasions no great surprise; it is known to us by direct self-knowledge, and we do not explain it away as something other than we know it to be — or rather, it knows itself to be.
 * Ch. 13 : Reality

 * The mind-stuff is not spread in space and time. But we must presume that in some other way or aspect it can be differentiated into parts. Only here and there does it arise to the level of consciousness, but from such islands proceeds all knowledge. The latter includes our knowledge of the physical world.
 * Ch. 13 : Reality

 * Consciousness is not sharply defined, but fades into sub-consciousness; and beyond that we must postulate something indefinite but yet continuous with our mental nature. This I take it be the world-stuff.

 * It is difficult for the matter-of-fact physicist to accept the view that the substratum of everything is of mental character. But no one can deny that mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience, and all else is remote inference — inference either intuitive or deliberate.
 * Ch. 13 : Reality

 * Proof is the idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.
 * Ch. 15 : Science and Mysticism

Science and the Unseen World (1929)

 * I think it is not irreligion but a tidiness of mind, which rebels against the idea of permeating scientific research with a religious implication.

 * There is another passage from the Old Testament that comes nearer to my own sympathies — "And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. … And behold there came a voice unto him, and said. What doest thou here, Elijah?"

 * Wind, earthquake, fire — meteorology, seismology, physics — pass in review, as we have been reviewing the natural forces of evolution; the Lord was not in them. Afterwards, a stirring, an awakening in the organ of the brain, a voice which asks "What doest thou here?"

 * If to-day you ask a physicist what he has finally made out the æther or the electron to be, the answer will not be a description in terms of billiard balls or fly-wheels or anything concrete; he will point instead to a number of symbols and a set of mathematical equations which they satisfy. What do the symbols stand for? The mysterious reply is given that physics is indifferent to that; it has no means of probing beneath the symbolism. To understand the phenomena of the physical world it is necessary to know the equations which the symbols obey but not the nature of that which is being symbolised. … this newer outlook has modified the challenge from the material to the spiritual world.

 * We are no longer tempted to condemn the spiritual aspects of our nature as illusory because of their lack of concreteness.

 * We have travelled far from the standpoint which identifies the real with the concrete. Even the older philosophy found it necessary to admit exceptions; for example, time must be admitted to be real, although no one could attribute to it a concrete nature.

 * Matter and all else that is in the physical world have been reduced to a shadowy symbolism.

 * It is an astonishing feat of deciphering that we should have been able to infer an orderly scheme of natural knowledge from such indirect communication.

 * The chairs and tables around us which broadcast to us incessantly those signals which affect our sight and touch cannot in their nature be like unto the signals or to the sensations which the signals awake at the end of their journey.

 * Physics most strongly insists that its methods do not penetrate behind the symbolism.

 * Mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience; all else is remote inference.

 * It remains a real world if there is a background to the symbols — an unknown quantity which the mathematical symbol x stands for. We think we are not wholly cut off from this background. It is to this background that our own personality and consciousness belong, and those spiritual aspects of our nature not to be described by any symbolism … to which mathematical physics has hitherto restricted itself.

 * Our story of evolution ended with a stirring in the brain-organ of the latest of Nature's experiments; but that stirring of consciousness transmutes the whole story and gives meaning to its symbolism. Symbolically it is the end, but looking behind the symbolism it is the beginning.

 * The problem of experiences is not limited to the interpretation of sense-impressions.

 * As truly as the mystic, the scientist is following a light; and it is not a false or an inferior light.

 * The desire for truth so prominent in the quest of science, a reaching out of the spirit from its isolation to something beyond, a response to beauty in nature and art, an Inner Light of conviction and guidance — are these as much a part of our being as our sensitivity to sense impressions?

 * Study of the scientific world cannot prescribe the orientation of something which is excluded from the scientific world.

 * The scientific answer is relevant so far as concerns the sense-impressions … For the rest the human spirit must turn to the unseen world to which it itself belongs.

 * Consciousness is not wholly, nor even primarily a device for receiving sense-impressions. … there is another outlook than the scientific one, because in practice a more transcendental outlook is almost universally admitted. … who does not prize these moments that reveal to us the poetry of existence?

 * Our system of philosophy is itself on trial; it must stand or fall according as it is broad enough to find room for this experience as an element of life.

 * Our environment may and should mean something towards us which is not to be measured with the tools of the physicist or described by the metrical symbols of the mathematician.

 * Objections to religious mysticism lose their force if they can equally be turned against natural mysticism.

 * We should not argue with the blind man who maintained that sight was an illusion to which some abnormal people were subject. Therefore in speaking of religious experience I do not attempt to prove the existence of religious experience …

 * What I may attempt is to dispel the feeling that in using the eye of the body or the eye of the soul, and incorporating what is thereby revealed in our conception of reality, we are doing something irrational and disobeying the leading of truth which as scientists we are pledged to serve.

 * Materialism in its literal sense is long since dead. … It is … belief in the universal dominance of scientific law which is nowadays generally meant by materialism.

 * Natural law is not applicable to the unseen world behind the symbols, because it is unadapted to anything except symbols, and its perfection is a perfection of symbolic linkage. You cannot apply such a scheme to the parts of our personality which are not measurable by symbols any more than you can extract the square root of a sonnet.

 * To those who have any intimate acquaintance with the laws of chemistry and physics the suggestion that the spiritual world could be ruled by laws of allied character is as preposterous as the suggestion that a nation could be ruled by laws like the laws of grammar.

 * The essential difference, which we meet in entering the realm of spirit and mind, seems to hang round the word "Ought."

 * Even if religion and morality are dismissed as illusion, the word "Ought" still has sway.

 * The laws of logic do not prescribe the way our minds think; they prescribe the way our minds ought to think.

 * The mind has an outlook which transcends the natural law by which it functions.

 * However closely we may associate thought with the physical machinery of the brain, the connection is dropped as irrelevant as soon as we consider the fundamental property of thought — that it may be correct or incorrect. … that involves recognising a domain of the other type of law — laws which ought to be kept, but may be broken.

 * If God is as real as the shadow of the Great War on Armistice Day, need we seek further reason for making a place for God in our thoughts and lives? We shall not be concerned if the scientific explorer reports that he is perfectly satisfied that he has got to the bottom of things without having come across either.

 * We do not want a religion that deceives us for our own good.

 * Ninety-nine people out of a hundred have not seriously considered what they mean by the term "exist" nor how a thing qualifies itself to be labelled real.

 * Theological or anti-theological argument to prove or disprove the existence of a deity seems to me to occupy itself largely with skating among the difficulties caused by our making a fetish of this word [existence].

 * The exploration of the external world by the methods of physical science leads not to a concrete reality but to a shadow world of symbols, beneath which those methods are unadapted for penetrating.

 * Physical science comes nearest to that complete system of exact knowledge which all sciences have before them as an ideal. Some fall far short of it. The physicist who inveighs against the lack of coherence and the indefiniteness of theological theories, will probably speak not much less harshly of the theories of biology and psychology. They also fail to come up to his standard of methodology. On the other side of him stands an even superior being — the pure mathematician — who has no high opinion of the methods of deduction used in physics, and does not hide his disapproval of the laxity of what is accepted as proof in physical science. And yet somehow knowledge grows in all these branches. Wherever a way opens we are impelled to seek by the only methods that can be devised for that particular opening, not over-rating the security of our finding, but conscious that in this activity of mind we are obeying the light that is in our nature.

 * If in a community of the blind one man suddenly received the gift of sight, he would have much to tell which would not be at all scientific.

 * We have to build the spiritual world out of symbols taken from our own personality, as we build the scientific world out of the symbols of the mathematician.

 * Science has an important part to play in our everyday existence, and there is far too much neglect of science; but its intention is to supplement not to supplant the familiar outlook.

 * If the kind of controversy which so often springs up between modernism and traditionalism in religion were applied to more commonplace affairs of life we might see some strange results. … It arises, let us say, from a passage in an obituary notice which mentions that the deceased had loved to watch the sunsets from his peaceful country home.. … it is forgotten that what the deceased man looked out for each evening was an experience and not a creed.

'''The finding of one generation will not serve for the next. It tarnishes rapidly except it be reserved with an ever-renewed spirit of seeking.'''
 * It is perhaps difficult sufficiently to emphasise Seeking without disparaging its correlative Finding. But I must risk this, for Finding has a clamorous voice that proclaims its own importance; it is definite and assured, something that we can take hold of — that is what we all want, or think we want. Yet how transitory it proves.

 * You will understand the true spirit neither of science nor of religion unless seeking is placed in the forefront.

 * If our so-called facts are changing shadows, they are shadows cast by the light of constant truth. So too in religion we are repelled by that confident theological doctrine … but we need not turn aside from the measure of light that comes into our experience showing us a Way through the unseen world.

The Expanding Universe (1933)

 * Accordingly the primordial state of things which I picture is an even distribution of protons and electrons, extremely diffuse and filling all (spherical) space, remaining nearly balanced for an exceedingly long time until its inherent instability prevails. We shall see later that the density of this distribution can be calculated; it was about one proton and electron per litre. There is no hurry for anything to begin to happen. But at last small irregular tendencies accumulate, and evolution gets under way. The first stage is the formation of condensations ultimately to become the galaxies; this, as we have seen, started off an expansion, which then automatically increased in speed until it is now manifested to us in the recession of the spiral nebulae.

 * As the matter drew closer together in the condensations, the various evolutionary processes followed — evolution of stars, evolution of the more complex elements, evolution of planets and life.
 * pp. 56–57

We walk the stage of life, performers of a drama for the benefit of the cosmic spectator. As the scenes proceed he notices that the actors are growing smaller and the action quicker. When the last act opens the curtain rises on midget actors rushing through their parts at frantic speed. '''Smaller and smaller. Faster and faster. One last microscopic blurr of intense agitation. And then nothing.'''
 * All change is relative. The universe is expanding relatively to our common material standards; our material standards are shrinking relatively to the size of the universe. The theory of the "expanding universe" might also be called the theory of the "shrinking atom". […] Let us then take the whole universe as our standard of constancy, and adopt the view of a cosmic being whose body is composed of intergalactic spaces and swells as they swell. Or rather we must now say it keeps the same size, for he will not admit that it is he who has changed. Watching us for a few thousand million years, he sees us shrinking; atoms, animals, planets, even the galaxies, all shrink alike; only the intergalactic spaces remain the same. The earth spirals round the sun in an ever‑decreasing orbit. It would be absurd to treat its changing revolution as a constant unit of time. The cosmic being will naturally relate his units of length and time so that the velocity of light remains constant. Our years will then decrease in geometrical progression in the cosmic scale of time. On that scale man's life is becoming briefer; his threescore years and ten are an ever‑decreasing allowance. Owing to the property of geometrical progressions an infinite number of our years will add up to a finite cosmic time; so that what we should call the end of eternity is an ordinary finite date in the cosmic calendar. But on that date the universe has expanded to infinity in our reckoning, and we have shrunk to nothing in the reckoning of the cosmic being.
 * pp. 90–92

The Philosophy of Physical Science (1938)

 * For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal. It does not follow that every item which we confidently accept as physical knowledge has actually been certified by the Court; our confidence is that it would be certified by the Court if it were submitted. But it does follow that every item of physical knowledge is of a form which might be submitted to the Court. It must be such that we can specify (although it may be impracticable to carry out) an observational procedure which would decide whether it is true or not. Clearly a statement cannot be tested by observation unless it is an assertion about the results of observation. Every item of physical knowledge must therefore be an assertion of what has been or would be the result of carrying out a specified observational procedure.

In applying this analogy, the catch stands for the body of knowledge which constitutes physical science, and the net for the sensory and intellectual equipment which we use in obtaining it.''' The casting of the net corresponds to observation; for knowledge which has not been or could not be obtained by observation is not admitted into physical science. An onlooker may object that the first generalisation is wrong. "There are plenty of sea-creatures under two inches long, only your net is not adapted to catch them." The icthyologist dismisses this objection contemptuously.' "Anything uncatchable by my net is ipso facto'' outside the scope of icthyological knowledge. In short, what my net can't catch isn't fish." Or — to translate the analogy — "If you are not simply guessing, you are claiming a knowledge of the physical universe discovered in some other way than by the methods of physical science, and admittedly unverifiable by such methods. You are a metaphysician. Bah!"
 * Let us suppose that an ichthyologist is exploring the life of the ocean. He casts a net into the water and brings up a fishy assortment. Surveying his catch, he proceeds in the usual manner of a scientist to systematise what it reveals. He arrives at two generalisations: No sea-creature is less than two inches long. (2) All sea-creatures have gills. These are both true of his catch, and he assumes tentatively that they will remain true however often he repeats it.

 * The mathematics is not there till we put it there.

Quotes about Eddington

 * Sorted alphabetically by author or source

 * One of the foremost scientists, not only of the 20th Century, but of the entire history of the human species. His achievements include, but are not limited to, the integration of modern astrophysics, major advances in the early history of relativistic cosmology, major additions to modern astronomical advancements, a superior exposition of the philosophy of physical science, and authorship of many books and articles making science more meaningful, not only to scientists, but to all rational and curious individuals. His achievements will radiate for the duration of the human species!
 * Inscription on plaque at his boyhood home, 42 Walliscote Road, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England.

Eddington's attitude is just the reverse. He prefers to assume that the equations of gravitation are not equations in the ordinary sense of something being equal to something else. In his opinion they are identities. They merely tell us how our senses will recognize the existence of certain curvatures of space-time by interpreting them as matter, motion, and so on. In other words, there is no matter; there is nothing but a variable curvature of space-time. Matter, momentum, vis viva, are the names we give to those curvatures on account of the varying ways they affect our senses.
 * The equations of gravitation … signify that whenever we recognise the existence of one of these physical magnitudes it is always accompanied by corresponding curvatures of space-time. It is usual to assume that the curvatures are produced by those concrete somethings which we call mass, momentum, energy, pressure. In this way, we must concede a duality to nature; there would exist both matter and space-time, or, better still, matter and the metrical field of space-time. Einstein … attempted to remove this duality by proving that it was possible to attribute the entire existence of the metrical field, hence of space-time, to the presence of matter. This attitude led to a matter-moulding conception of the universe … And … only when this attitude was adhered to could Mach's belief in the relativity of all motion be accepted.
 * A. D'Abro, The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein (1927) pp. 327-328

 * Our sense experience has to be supplemented by all kinds of images and formulas to tell us much about the outer world, just as we learn something about the nonphysical one from mythical images tested out in experience. Arthur Eddington has discussed at length the strange way that man receives his knowledge of the physical world in Science and the Unseen World. Mythological thinking is not as strange as some people think once they begin to see the total universe as it is.
 * Morton Kelsey, Myth, History & Faith: The Mysteries of Christian Myth & Imagination (1974)

 * The best presentation of the general theory [of relativity] is still Eddington's book of 1923, The Mathematical Theory of Relativity. … The mathematical foundation, the calculus of tensors, is given very completely in Eddington's book. For an exhaustive treatment see: Levi-Cevita, The Absolute Differential Calculus, translated by Dr. E. Perisco (1927).
 * Willem de Sitter, The Astronomical Aspect of the Theory of Relativity (1933)

 * The solution … was found only after the rise of nuclear physics, and, strange to relate, was not known to Eddington when he developed his celebrated theory of stellar structure between 1916 and 1924. Indeed, it is one of the most intriguing facts in the history of science that the two most influential theories concerning the stars — Newton's theory of gravitation and Eddington's theory of stellar construction — were each developed so successfully although Newton was ignorant of the origin of gravitation and Eddington of the origin of stellar energy.
 * Gerald James Whitrow, The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

 * With regard to the Newtonian concept of absolute rotation, Eddington admitted that Einstein's plenum does in fact provide a world-wide inertial frame, with respect to which it can be measured. Nevertheless, Eddington believed that Einstein attributed too important a role to matter, for in his universe it appears that not only the metrical properties, as in General Relativity, but the very existence of space depends on the existence of matter. Eddington preferred to regard matter as a manifestation of the "structure" of space-time.
 * Gerald James Whitrow, The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

Misattributed
The world is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
 * Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
 * Though sometimes attributed to Eddington without citation, this seems to be derived from a statement by J. B. S. Haldane, in Possible Worlds and Other Papers (1927), p. 286: The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
 * Variants: The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

title: Arthur Eddington


text:
User talk:Quadell

 * redirect w:en:User talk:Quadell

Welcome back and nice to meet you Quadell, perhaps you don't know me. I am a Wikiquoter and a sysop since this April. I am happy to see you again here, and expect to know your "crazy idea" ;) Sorry for disabling your redirect, but at the moment I think it would be a good way to attract your attention since you are now active on the project.

By the way, you are listed as "inactive sysop" on WQ:RFA and Administrators. I guess you would like to update those pages. Again, welcome back! --Aphaia 15:11, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Thanks! Yeah, you're right -- a redirect probably isn't a good idea after all. I'm only semi-active nowadays on Wikiquote. All the best, Quadell 20:28, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Welcome back and request for mail confirmation
Hi, Quadell, welcome back to English Wikiquote.

During your absence, Requests for adminship was updated and all active sysops are requested to provide an email address to the community either through wikimail or on their talk (as you may know, now we need to activate and confirm our address before using Wikimail function.

The new rule says: In principle, administrators should register a valid email address and allow other users to send them messages in preferences, or an email address indicated on their user page. For active sysops, as well sysop candidates, it is mandatory. Inactive sysops and guest sysops are recommended to put their wikimail addresson their talk pages. If they are back and become active again, they are expected to activate their mail preferences.

Since we have no way to mail you, I put this message on your talk. Would you please consider the requirement above, and give us an oppoturnity to mail you?

Thanks! --Aphaia 10:17, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

 * I did this. Sorry it took so long. Quadell 20:28, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
 * No prob, hopefully. I noticed you received mails from Wikipiedia. And oh, welcome back, Quadell! It's really nice to see you here again. --Aphaia 07:28, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

New Year's resolution
Happy New Year! One of my New Year's resolutions is to finish Bartlett's 1919 Index - but I can't do it alone. There are 234 red links for which articles need to be created, and 275 blue links for which articles need to be checked. Although I've been trying to get one done each day, lately I have not had time to do even that! Please consider making a commitment to help me keep my resolution by creating or checking one entry on this page per week. Help public domain quotes find their home in 2008! Cheers! BD2412 T 04:59, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Inactive?
Hi, I noticed you have not edited here in quite a long time, and are listed as an inactive administrator. Do you think there is any chance you will be back? Cheers! BD2412 T 04:19, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I have no plans to work on Wikiquote again, but if I do, it won't be in the capacity of an administrator. Thanks.Quadell (talk) 20:04, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
 * In that case, would it be alright if I ask on Meta for a Steward to remove your sysop rights here on Wikiquote? -- Cirt (talk) 20:26, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
 * That would be fine.Quadell (talk) 20:33, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Okay, thank you for your past admin service to our local Wikiquote community, -- Cirt (talk) 20:55, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:Quadell


text:
User:Al~enwikiquote

This account was created accidently by the user Albino Fox. If you would like to take it, you may log in with the password "al" and change the password yourself.

Alternatively, if there is a moderator who knows how to delete accounts, Albino Fox would like this deleted.

title: User:Al~enwikiquote


text:
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a 1999 adult animated musical comedy film American film based on the animated television series South Park.
 * Directed by Trey Parker. Written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Pam Brady.

Warning: This movie will warp your fragile little minds.taglines

Dialogue

 * Carol: Where do you think you're going?
 * Kenny: [muffled] I'm going to see the Terrance and Phillip movie.
 * Carol: You can't, you have to go to church.
 * Kenny: [muffled] But Mom, I really wanna see the movie!
 * Carol: Well, fine. You go ahead and miss church, and then when you die and go to Hell, you can answer to Satan!!!
 * Kenny: [muffled] Okay!

 * [at South Park Elementary, the class sings "Uncle Fucka". Then Mr. Garrison enters and the class stops singing.]
 * Mr. Garrison: [as Mr. Hat] Okay, children, let's take our seats. We have a lot to learn today. [normal voice] We sure do, Mr. Hat. Okay, children, let's start the day with a few new math problems. What is five times two? Come on children, don't be shy. Just give it your best shot. [Clyde raises his hand] Yes, Clyde?
 * Clyde: Twelve.
 * Mr. Garrison: Okay. Now let's try to get an answer from someone who's not a complete retard. Anyone? Come on, don't be shy.
 * Kyle: I think I know the answer, Mr. Garrison. [Cartman mocks Kyle in a high-pitched, gibberish voice] SHUT UP, FAT BOY!
 * Cartman: AY! DON'T CALL ME FAT, YA FUCKIN' JEW!
 * Mr. Garrison: Eric, did you just say the F-word?
 * Cartman: Jew?
 * Kyle: No, he's talking about "fuck". You can't say "fuck" in school, you fuckin’ fat ass!
 * Mr. Garrison: Kyle!
 * Cartman: Why the fuck not?
 * Mr. Garrison: Eric!
 * Stan: Dude, you just said "fuck" again!
 * Mr. Garrison: Stanley!
 * Kenny: [muffled] Fuck.
 * Mr. Garrison: Kenny!
 * Cartman: What's the big deal? It doesn't hurt anybody. Fuck, fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck.
 * Mr. Garrison: How would you like to go see the school counselor?
 * Cartman: How would you like to suck my balls?
 * [everyone gasps in shock]
 * Mr. Garrison: [outraged]  WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!
 * Cartman: Oh, I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Actually, what I said was: [picks up a megaphone and clears throat] "How would you like to suck my balls, Mr. Garrison?"
 * [Garrison stands rooted to the spot, furiously speechless]
 * Stan: Holy shit, dude.

 * Chef: Hello there, children!
 * Boys: Hey, Chef.
 * Chef: How's it going?
 * Boys: Bad.
 * Chef: Why bad?
 * Kyle: We got busted for swearing. Our moms said we can't ever see the Terrence and Phillip movie again as a reward.
 * Chef: Oh, that's too bad.
 * Cartman: You should have seen Kyle when his mom showed up; he was scared out of his mind. [laughs]
 * Kyle: Shut up, Cartman!
 * Cartman: No, dude. I'd be scared, too. Your mom's a fuckin' bitch.
 * Kyle: DON'T CALL MY MOM A BITCH, YOU FAT FUCK!
 * Cartman: DON'T CALL ME "FAT", YOU BUTT-FUCKIN' SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!!!!!!!!
 * Chef: Whoa, children! When did you learn to talk like that?
 * Cartman: [While he, Kyle and Kenny are leaving Stan with Chef] It's pretty fuckin' sweet, huh?

 * Canadian Ambassador: As the Canadian Ambassador, I hereby condemn the actions taken by America in apprehending Terrance and Phillip. As you can see from this graph, [shows a pie graph in which Terrance and Phillip have been allotted almost half] the entire economy of Canada relies on Terrance and Phillip. Without them, we are doomed to recession!
 * Head of the UN: What say you, Mr. American Ambassador?
 * American Ambassador: [he stands up and straightens his tie, and flips the Canadian ambassador off] Fuck Canada!
 * Canadian Ambassador: [responds with left fist in right elbow, and upraised right forearm] Hey, fuck you, buddy!
 * American Ambassador: Terrance and Phillip will not be released, they are going to be put on trial for corrupting America's youth. We don't know what all the fuss is about.
 * Canadian Ambassador: The fuss is aboot taking our citizens! It's aboot not censoring our art! It's aboot-- [the American delegation begins to crack up] It's aboot-- [he scans the room] What's so Goddamn funny?!
 * American Ambassador: [recovering] N-nothing, nothing. Uh, could you tell us again what your argument is all about?
 * Minster: This is not aboot diplomacy, this is aboot dignity. [the American delegates chuckle] This is aboot respect. This is about realizing that humor is-- [the American delegation cracks up again]
 * Canadian Ambassador: You guys are dicks! Release Terrance and Phillip, or we'll give you something to cry aboot! [the American delegates are laughing so hard they begin falling off their chairs]
 * American Delegate: Stop! Stop! [falls down]

 * [Cartman sees Kenny’s ghost and Liane comes into his room]
 * Liane: Eric, what is it?
 * Cartman: I saw him, I saw Kenny!
 * Liane: Oh, you poor dear. You've been through so much. [strokes Cartman]
 * Cartman: I bet him he couldn't light a fart on fire and now he's all pissed off! [gets shocked by the V-chip] Aaggh! Hey, I can't say "pissed off"? [gets shocked again] Aaggh!

 * Kyle: You're late, Cartman!
 * Cartman: [rubbing his rear] I had to ride my bike here. My behind is killing me.
 * Kyle: Your behind?
 * Cartman: I have to say "behind", 'cause I get shocked if I say "ass". [gets shocked by the V-chip] Ow!

 * Shelly: All right, you turds, listen up! Your moms are away at a meeting, so they put me in charge of you. But you're still grounded, so you're not allowed to have any fun. Any questions?
 * Stan: Shelly, where's the clitoris?
 * [Shelly picks up a chair and hits Stan over the head with it, outraged about what he just said]
 * Shelly: Now you all just sit there and keep your mouths shut while I go listen to my Britney Spears records. [opens & closes the door]

 * Stan: We're "La Resistance". We wanna save Terrance and Phillip and stop the war and stuff.
 * The Mole: I can't help you. I'm grounded to my room for the next three days.
 * Kyle: So are we. Our parents think we're home right now.
 * Stan: Why are you grounded?
 * The Mole: Why? Because God hates me. He has made my life miserable, so I call him a cocksucking asshole, then I get grounded.

 * Terrance: Want to see the northern lights?
 * [Lights his fart on fire and burns up]
 * Phillip: You burned yourself to death by lighting your fart.
 * Terrance: I sure did, Phillip.

 * [Phillip farts, sending Terrance flying through the air]
 * Terrance: Good one, Phillip!
 * Phillip: Cheers, fuck-face.
 * Conan O'Brien: Guys, you can't say that on TV.
 * Phillip: Now Terrance smells like my ass!
 * Brooke Shields: I farted once on the set of [The] Blue Lagoon!
 * [silence; Terrance slaps her]

 * [at a spelling bee]
 * Teacher: All right, this is for the silver medal. Spell "forensics".
 * Boy: Ah, fuck that! Why should I have to fucking spell "forensics"?
 * Kids: Yeah!
 * Boy: Here you go! [writes on the blackboard] S-U-C-K M-Y A-S-S. Forensics.

 * William "Billy" Baldwin: [answers the phone] Baldwin residence. No, this is Billy Baldwin! If you want Daniel Baldwin, call his extension, stupid! [hangs up phone] Hey, Alec, do you know what sucks about being a Baldwin?
 * Alec Baldwin: No. What?
 * William "Billy" Baldwin: Nothing! Yeah!
 * [Canadian jet fighters bomb the Baldwin residence, leaving only Billy alive]
 * William "Billy" Baldwin: Ha-ha! You missed me! [a single fighter returns and bombs him.]

 * Saddam Hussein: Oh, boy! I'm so excited! Just one more day until we take over the world! I don't know if I can sleep, if you know what I mean.
 * Satan: [reading "Saddam Hussein is From Mars, Satan is From Venus"] This book is really interesting. It explains how people communicate differently, like how I communicate by wanting you to ask me questions, and then you--
 * Saddam Hussein: Hey, that is interesting! Let's fuck!
 * Satan: [disgusted] Saddam! I'm trying to have a nice conversation with you!
 * Saddam Hussein: [pulls out a fake dildo from under the covers] Hey, Satan!
 * Satan: Oh! N-Now that is just not appropriate!
 * Saddam Hussein: Oh, come on, I'm just fucking with you, it's not real! [throws the fake dildo away]
 * Satan: Oh, well, that's still not appropriate.
 * Saddam Hussein: [pulls out another fake dildo] Hey, Satan--
 * Satan: Ah!
 * Saddam Hussein: Hey, [throws the other fake dildo away] it's not real either! Come on, guy!

 * General Plymkin: Battalion 5, raise your hands. [Battalion 5, made up entirely of African-Americans, including Chef, does so] You will be the all important first attack wave, which we will call "Operation: Human Shield".
 * Chef: [outraged] Hey, wait a minute!
 * General Plymkin: Now keep in mind Operation: Human Shield will suffer heavy losses. Battalion 14? [Battalion 14, comprised entirely of Caucasians, raises their hands] Right, you are "Operation: Get Behind the Darkies". You will follow Battalion 5 here, and try not to get killed for God's sake! Are there any questions, men? [Chef raises his hand] Yes, soldier?
 * Chef: Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?
 * General Plymkin: I don't listen to hip-hop. After that, we will march into the heart of Canada, and we will-- [map begins wigging out, Saddam's visage begins to take over the hologram]
 * Saddam Hussein: [tauntingly] Comin' to get ya. Comin' to get ya.
 * General Plymkin: What's wrong with this thing? [hologram shorts out] Fucking Windows 98! Get Bill Gates in here! [Gates enters via soldiers] You told us Windows '98 would be faster and more efficient, with better access to the Internet!
 * Bill Gates: It is faster, over five million-- [the General shoots Gates in the face]
 * General Plymkin: All right, men! Get lots of rest, and prepare to fight the Canadian scum! [soldiers cheer]

 * Cartman: [he, Kyle and Stan walk up to Kenny's corpse] I bet him he couldn't do it. I bet him $100.
 * Kyle: Come on, Cartman, it's not your fault.
 * Cartman: No, I know. I'm just fuckin’ stoked I don't have to pay him.
 * Kyle: [angrily and sarcastically] Oh, that's real nice! He was your friend, you fat fuck!
 * [the boys' mothers barge into the ER.]
 * Sheila: So, boys, you saw that movie again?
 * Boys: [miserably] Yes.
 * Sheila: Well, Kyle, I have had it! You are grounded for the next two weeks!
 * [the boys gasp in horror]
 * Kyle: [shocked] Grounded?
 * Sharon: And you, Stan, come on. [Stan exits, and the other two follow]
 * Liane: And you're grounded for three weeks, Eric.
 * Cartman: 'EY, WHY AM I GROUNDED MORE?! THAT'S FUCKING BULLSHIT!
 * Sheila: W-W-WHAT?! What was that word, young man?!

 * Dr. Vosknocker: The machinery of the V-Chip is very simple. It is placed under the child's skin where it emits a small shock of electricity whenever an obscenity is uttered.
 * Randy: Now, uh, wait a minute. This chip somehow knows if the child is swearing?
 * Dr. Vosknocker: It's just like a lie detector, you see? Certain things happen to you when you swear, just like when you lie. The chip picks up on this, and gives the subject a little prick. [to Cartman] Patient B-5, would you step out here, please? [Cartman comes out.] Patient B-5 here has been fitted with the new V-Chip.
 * Cartman: [rubs his head in pain] Oh, my head hurts.
 * Dr. Vosknocker: Don't worry about that. Now, I want you to say "doggy".
 * Cartman: [nonchalantly] Doggy.
 * Dr. Vosknocker: [to parents] Notice that nothing happens. [to Cartman] Now say "Montana".
 * Cartman: Montana.
 * Dr. Vosknocker: Good. Now "pillow".
 * Cartman: Pillow.
 * Dr. Vosknocker: All right, now I want you to say "horse fucker".
 * [Cartman hesitates]
 * Liane: Go ahead, Eric. It's all right.
 * Cartman: Horse fu-- [gets shocked] 'AAAH!!' Yiii!! [crowd gasps] That hurt, Godda-- [gets shocked] AIII! OW! Fuck! [gets shocked] Aghh!!
 * Dr. Vosknocker: Now I'd like you to say, "Big Floppy Donkey Dick".
 * Cartman: [angrily] NO!
 * Dr. Vosknocker: Success! The child doesn't want to swear!
 * Cartman: [angrily] This isn't fair, you sons of bitches! [gets shocked repeatedly, and screams in pain]
 * Sheila: We will start putting V-Chips in all our children next week!
 * [audience cheers]

 * Sharon: [worried] My God. This is terrible!
 * Sheila: [proudly] This is what we wanted! We wanted our children to be brought up in a smut-free environment!
 * Sharon: But we didn't want this!
 * [the moms walk out]
 * Sheila: Where are you going?
 * Sharon: [angrily] We're going to find our boys! For God's sake, Sheila, we're going to get them killed!

 * Kenny: [muffled] Satan, you've got to do something!
 * Satan: [sadly] I can't.
 * Saddam Hussein: Let's start by building a big statue of me, right over there where that fat kid is standing.
 * Cartman: [angrily] Hey! Don't call me fat, butt-fucker!
 * [He shoots pent-up electrical charges out of his fingers, which sends a demon flying into a rock. Cartman suddenly gets an idea and smiles]
 * Kyle: Yeah, Cartman. Do it!
 * Cartman: DAMN, SHIT! RESPECT MY FUCKING AUTHORITAH!
 * [Shoots electricity at Saddam Hussein, attacking him]
 * Saddam Hussein: [getting electrocuted] Aaggh!
 * Cartman: Yes!
 * Saddam Hussein: Hey, you need to watch your mouth, brat.
 * Cartman: DOG-SHIT TACO! [attacks Saddam Hussein more, much to everyone's surprise]
 * Saddam: [gets electrocuted] AAAHH! [falls back on the snow and bounces.] Quick, Satan, do something!
 * Cartman: Try this on for size. [inhales deeply] BLOOD-DRENCHED FROZEN TAMPON POPSICLE!
 * [Attacks Saddam Hussein more]
 * Saddam Hussein: Hey, buddy! I know I was mean before, but don't worry; I can change!
 * Satan: [in shock] Oh!
 * Cartman: Okay. [Saddam Hussein smiles evilly, people gasp in horror] Not! [takes a deep breath] FUCK, SHIT, COCK, ASS, TITTIES, BONER, BITCH, MUFF, PUSSY, CUNT, BUTTHOLE, BARBRA STREISAND!! [shoots electricity at Saddam Hussein, who is flown into a rock and severely electrocuted]
 * Saddam Hussein: [howls in pain, but amid the howls as Satan is horrified] Relax, guy! [To Satan] What are you waiting for, bitch? Destroy him! [Cartman gets scared] Come on, you weak, stupid cum-bucket! Save me!
 * Satan: [angrily] THAT'S IT! [Picks up Saddam Hussein] I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!
 * [He throws Saddam Hussein back into Hell]
 * Saddam Hussein: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! HEY, GUY! RELAAAAAAAAX!!!! [Saddam Hussein is impaled on a rock, and sighs in agony]

 * [last line; in the post-credits scene]
 * Ike: [sees the mouse in the attic] Guys out there is "hurted." [eats the mouse.]

Taglines

 * All Hell Breaks Loose
 * Uh oh.
 * It's not just another day in the park.
 * Uh-Oh, The Critics Love It!

Cast

 * Trey Parker – Eric Cartman/Stan Marsh/Mr. Garrison/Mr. Mackey/Randy Marsh/Ned Gerblanski/Army General/Bombadiers/Canadian Ambassador/Theatre Clerk/Phillip/Satan
 * Matt Stone – Kyle Broflovski/Kenny McCormick/Saddam Hussein/Gerald Broflovski/Bill Gates/Jimbo Kearn/Terrance
 * Mary Kay Bergman – Liane Cartman/Sheila Broflovski/Sharon Marsh/Wendy Testaburger/Clitoris
 * Isaac Hayes – Chef (voice)
 * Jesse Howell – Ike Broflovski (voice)
 * Anthony Cross-Thomas – Ike Broflovski (voice)
 * Franchesca Clifford – Ike Broflovski (voice)
 * Jennifer Howell – Bebe Stevens (voice)
 * George Clooney – Dr. Gouache/Dr. Doctor (voice)
 * Brent Spiner – Conan O'Brien (voice)
 * Minnie Driver – Brooke Shields (voice)
 * Dave Foley – The Baldwin Brothers (voice)
 * Eric Idle – Dr. Vosknocker (voice)

title: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut


text:
Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (27 November 1942 – 18 September 1970), born Johnny Allen Hendrix, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music; and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.

Quotes

 * Sorry for the tune up between time, but what the hell, cowboys are the only ones who stay in tune, anyway...
 * Performance at Woodstock

 * Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.
 * As quoted in Crosstown Traffic (1989) by Charles Shaar Murray

 * I’m sorry, am I mumbling? Tell me when I’m mumbling. Damn … I always mumble.
 * Rolling Stone Magazine interview, November 1970

 * I don’t want to be a clown anymore. I don’t want to be a ‘rock and roll star.'
 * Rolling Stone Magazine interview, November 1970

 * Start with a shovel, wind up with a spoon.
 * Rolling Stone Magazine interview, March 1970

Dick Cavett interview (1969)

 * Quotes from The Dick Cavett Show (9 September 1969)

 * I try to get up every day.
 * When asked if he considered himself "a disciplined guy — do you try to get up every day and work?" - YouTube clip

 * Definitely, and it's getting more spiritual. Pretty soon I believe people will have to rely on music to get some kind of peace of mind, or satisfaction, or direction, actually. More so than politics, the big ego scene. You know it's an art of words... Meaning nothing. Therefore you will have to get an earthier substance, like music or the arts.
 * When asked if music has a meaning

 * We want our sound to go into the soul of the audience, and see if it can awaken some little thing in their minds... 'Cause there are so many sleeping people.

 * I don't really live on compliments. As a matter of fact, they have a way of distracting me. I know a whole lot of musicians, artists out there who hears the compliments and thinks "wow, I must have been really great" and so they get fat and satisfied and they get lost and forget about their actual talent and start living in another world.

Are You Experienced? (1967)

 * I got a bad, bad feeling my baby don't live here no more... But that's alright i still got my guitar.
 * Red House

 * Waterfall, nothing can harm me at all My worries seem so very small With my waterfall.
 * May This Be Love

 * Listen here, baby And stop acting so crazy You say your mum ain't home, it ain't my concern, Just play with me and you won't get burned. I have only one itching desire: Let me stand next to your fire.
 * Fire

From the bottom of the sea '''But first, are you experienced? Uh-have you ever been experienced? Well, I have'''
 * We’ll hold hands and then we’ll watch the sunrise
 * Are You Experienced?

Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful.'''
 * '''Have you ever been experienced?
 * Are You Experienced?

 * Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand? Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand? Alright. I'm goin down to shoot my old lady, You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man. Yeah,! I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady, You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man. Huh! And that ain't too cool.
 * Hey Joe

Lately things just don't seem the same''', Acting funny, but I don't know why,  'Scuse me while I kiss the sky.
 * '''Purple haze, all in my brain
 * Purple Haze
 * kiss the sky is often misheard by listeners as kiss this guy (see wikipedia mondegreen). Aware of that, in concerts, Jimi sometimes sang "'Scuse me while I kiss THAT guy".

''' Is it tomorrow or just the end of time? '''
 * You got me blowin, blowin my mind,
 * Purple Haze

 * The traffic lights, they turn a blue tomorrow And shine their emptiness down on my bed The tiny island sags on downstream Cause the life it lived, is, is dead
 * The Wind Cries Mary

Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

 * Well she's walking through the clouds With a circus mind, that's running round. Butterflies and Zebras, and moonbeams, and fairytales- That's all she ever thinks about. Riding with the wind.
 * Little Wing

Pointing that plastic finger at me, Hoping soon my kind will drop and die, But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high.
 * White collar conservative flashin' down the street,
 * If 6 Was 9

 * I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.
 * If 6 Was 9

 * Castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually
 * Castles Made Of Sand

Queen jealousy envy waits behind him, Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground.
 * Anger he smiles towering in shiney metallic purple armour,
 * Bold as Love

Electric Ladyland (1968)

 * You're just like crosstown traffic So hard to get through to you. Crosstown traffic. I don't need to run over you. Crosstown traffic. All you do is slow me down. And I'm tryin' to get on the other side of town.
 * Crosstown Traffic

Lord knows I am a Voodoo Child
 * I'm a Voodoo Child, Voodoo Child,
 * Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Rainbow Bridge (1971)
All I could see was me.''' Then '''I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors, And now the whole world is here for me to see, Now I'm searching for my love to be.'''
 * '''I used to live in a room full of mirrors,
 * Room Full Of Mirrors

Disputed

 * When the power of love overcomes love of power the world will know peace.
 * This quote has been attributed to Hendrix on the internet, and is flatly denied to have ever been said by him, without presenting any evidence as to why, beyond such unsupported, derisive and denigrative statements such as the author rants about others making in "WHAT HENDRIX NEVER SAID : They Don't Want to Know What He Really Said and Demand a Slacker Fantasy Instead" (22 March 2010) by Michael Fairchild, at rockprophecy.com. Whether or not he ever spoke them, they are very similar to those reportedly of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, quoted in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (1997) edited by Edward C. Goodman and Ted Goodman, p. 639: "We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace." A similar quotation he provides of Sri Chinmoy predates any currently located source of either the Hendrix or Gladstone attributions, yet he accuses Chinmoy of simple plagiarism of Gladstone (or "Gladwell" at one point). From Chinmoy's book My Heart Shall Give A Oneness-Feast (1993) he quotes: "My books, they all have only one message: the heart's Power Of Love must replace the mind's Love Of Power. If I have the Power Of Love, then I shall claim the whole World as my own … World Peace can be achieved when the Power Of Love replaces the Love Of Power." An even earlier statement of Chinmoy is found in Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970): "When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God."

 * There's so many tight-lipped ideas and laws around, and people put themselves in uniforms so tightly, that it's almost impossible to break out of that. Subconsciously, what these people are doing, they're killin' off all these little flashes they have, cutting off the idea of wanting to understand. They forgot, didn't believe, or just snuffed the feelings or thoughts off to continue with their crazy soul. They don't have the patience to really check out what's happenin' through music, theater and science. It’s like a spaceship. If a spaceship came down and you know nothin’ about it, the first thing you’re going to think about is shooting it. In other words, you get negative in the first place, which is not really the natural way of thinking. It’s like shooting at a flying saucer as it tries to land without giving the occupants a chance to identify themselves.
 * As quoted in "WHAT HENDRIX NEVER SAID : They Don't Want to Know What He Really Said and Demand a Slacker Fantasy Instead" (22 March 2010) by Michael Fairchild, at rockprophecy.com; the author does not provide any sourcing for this statement, beyond his assertion that his authority and expertise should be trusted because: "I was assigned to compile all known quotes of Jimi Hendrix and edit this text into the "autobiography" of Jimi, in his own words. That book has been censored/suppressed by all world publishers for two decades now, but it's where I became familiar with Jimi's unique syntax, vernacular, and habits of thought."

Quotes about Hendrix

 * Individual is unable to conform to military rules and regulations. Misses bed check: sleeps while supposed to be working: unsatisfactory duty performance.
 * US Army report quoted in "Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" by Ed Vulliamy in The Guardian (8 August 2010)

 * You never told me he was that fucking good.
 * Eric Clapton, after first hearing Hendrix perform, as quoted in "Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" by Ed Vulliamy in The Guardian (8 August 2010)

 * I want him to be remembered for what he was – not this tragic figure he has been turned into by nit-pickers and people who used to stalk us and collect photographs and 'evidence' of what we were doing on a certain day. He could be grumpy, and he could be terrible in the studio, getting exactly what he wanted – but he was fun, he was charming. I want people to remember the man I knew.
 * Kathy Etchingham, as quoted in "Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" by Ed Vulliamy in The Guardian (8 August 2010)

 * I said, "You’re Jimi Hendrix, and anything you do is taken as gospel because of who you are. In the first show, you humped the guitar, you played it with your teeth, you stuck it behind your back. You just forgot to play.”
 * Bill Graham, recalling his evaluation—as requested by Hendrix on January 1, 1970, backstage, between sets at the —of that night's first set; as quoted in "Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsies at the Fillmore East: A Concert That Changed Rock" by David Fricke, Rolling Stone (4 June 1987)

 * We started from the premise that music was a mission, not a competition … That the basis was the blues, but that the framework of the blues was too tight. We'd talk first about what he wanted the emotion of the song to be. What's the vision? He would talk in colours and my job was to give him the electronic palette which would engineer those colours so he could paint the canvas.
 * Roger Mayer, as quoted in "Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" by Ed Vulliamy in The Guardian (8 August 2010)

 * When you listen to Hendrix, you are listening to music in its pure form … The electronics we used were 'feed forward', which means that the input from the player projects forward – the equivalent of electronic shadow dancing – so that what happens derives from the original sound and modifies what is being played. But nothing can be predictive – it is speed-forward analogue, a non-repetitive wave form, and that is the definition of pure music and therefore the diametric opposite of digital. Look, if you throw a pebble into a lake, you have no way of predicting the ripples – it depends on how you throw the stone, or the wind. Digital makes the false presumption that you can predict those ripples, but Jimi and I were always looking for the warning signs. The brain knows when it hears repetition that this is no longer music and what you hear when you listen to Hendrix is pure music. It took discussion and experiment, and some frustrations, but then that moment would come, we'd put the headphones down and say, "Got it. That's the one."
 * Roger Mayer, as quoted in "Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" by Ed Vulliamy in The Guardian (8 August 2010)

 * Jimi Hendrix is very important. He's my idol. He sort of epitomizes, from his presentation on stage, the whole works of a rock star. There's no way you can compare him. You either have the magic or you don't. There's no way you can work up to it. There's nobody who can take his place.
 * Freddie Mercury, as quoted in "Queen's Freddie Mercury Shopping For An Image In London" by Scott Cohen in Circus Magazine (April 1975)

 * I dreamed about Jimi Hendrix he came back for one day was born weepin' out of an egg the mid-wife said and straight away began to pray with lifted head
 * Mike Scott, in "The Return of Jimi Hendrix" on The Waterboys album Dream Harder (1993)

 * He was young and black and beautiful big eyed, perfect skin an' he played my guitar like a lightning storm like twirlin' feathers in the wind he could make it sound like the end of the world a fire, the flick of a knife he could squeeze it slow and masterful like the hand that brought the world to life
 * Mike Scott, in "The Return of Jimi Hendrix" on Dream Harder (1993)

 * He made all Manhattan shake and every street and sidewalk quake his stratocaster caused the mighty Empire State to vibrate
 * Mike Scott, in "The Return of Jimi Hendrix" on Dream Harder (1993)

 * He did a forty-two minute cosmic rise in future shocks Star Spangled Banner in the back of CBGB's He stopped every clock in New York state and every heart that heard him and time itself was beaten and confused and fell lamb-like under the spell of his fabulous flashing fingers He played an encore at the Bitter End a heartburst Little Wing even the waiters cried and then we fell outside and in the dusty dawn of Bleeker street a sweet rain fell and Jimi died.
 * Mike Scott, in "The Return of Jimi Hendrix" on Dream Harder (1993)

 * I recorded "…Moon" on my own with a drum machine, then brought musicians in as they were needed. It's about a person who has a spectacular, meteor-like rise, but burns out or dies young. Though the song ain't about him, the nearest equivalent would be Hendrix.
 * Mike Scott, on his hit song "The Whole of the Moon" (1985), as quoted in in Uncut (July 2008)

 * Hendrix had conjured – with his vision and sense of sound, his personality and genius – the most extraordinary guitar music ever played, the most remarkable sound-scape ever created; of that there is little argument. Opinion varies only over the effect his music has on people: elation, fear, sexual stimulation, sublimation, disgust – all or none of these – but always drop-jawed amazement.
 * Ed Vulliamy, in "Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" in The Guardian (8 August 2010)

 * I remember Cliff talking about how his roommate at Berkeley, a Jewish brother from the Bronx, had introduced him to a far-out guitar player named Jimi Hendrix. "He'll blow your mind, Corn" said Cliff. And he did.
 * Cornel West Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir (2009)

title: Jimi Hendrix


text:
Donald Norman

Donald Arthur Norman (born December 25, 1935) is a professor emeritus of cognitive science at University of California, San Diego and a Professor of Computer science at Northwestern University.

Quotes

 * People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms.
 * Things That Make Us Smart (1993), Epilogue.

 * Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right.
 * 27th annual conference of the Travel and Tourism Research Association, June 1996, Las Vegas, p. 143.

 * Although I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a stupid question, there can indeed be stupid answers. 42 is an example. Not only is this a poor ripoff of Doug Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide, but it isn't even a prime number. Everyone surely knows that numerical answers to profound questions are always prime. (The correct answer is 37.)
 * "The Don" Reveals All: Part 1

The Design of Everyday Things (1988, 2002)

 * Originally published as The Psychology of Everyday Things. Page numbers refer to the 2002 Basic Books edition, ISBN 0465067107.

 * Serious accidents are frequently blamed on "human error." Yet careful analysis of such situations shows that the design or installation of the equipment has contributed significantly to the problems. The design team or installers did not pay sufficient attention to the needs of those who would be using the equipment, so confusion or error was almost unavoidable.
 * Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. ix.

 * When you have trouble with things—whether it's figuring out whether to push or pull a door or the arbitrary vagaries of the modern computer and electronics industries—it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself: blame the designer.
 * Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. x.

 * Good design is also an act of communication between the designer and the user, except that all the communication has to come about by the appearance of the device itself. The device must explain itself.
 * Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. xi.

 * Technologists are not noted for learning from the errors of the past. They look forward, not behind, so they repeat the same problems over and over again. [...] As each new technology matures, customers are no longer happy with the flashy promises of the technology but instead demand understandable and workable designs. Slowly the manufacturers relearn the same basic principles and apply them to their products. The most egregious failures always come from the developers of the most recent technologies.
 * Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. xv.

 * If people keep buying poorly designed products, manufacturers and designers will think they are doing the right thing and continue as usual.
 * Ch. 1, p. 8.

 * Usability is not often thought of as a criterion during the purchasing process. Moreover, unless you actually test a number of units in a realistic environment doing typical tasks, you are not likely to notice the ease or difficulty of use. [...] Do it right there in the store. Do not be afraid to make mistakes or ask stupid questions. Remember, any problems you have are probably the design's fault, not yours.
 * Ch. 3, p. 78.

 * When a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual—even a one-word manual—then it is a failure, poorly designed.
 * Ch. 4, p. 87; regarding doors labeled "Push" and "Pull".

 * The principle of visibility is violated over and over again in everyday things. In numerous designs crucial parts are carefully hidden away. Handles on cabinets distract from some design aesthetics, and so they are deliberately made invisible or left out. The cracks that signify the existence of a door can also distract from the pure lines of the design, so these significant cues are also minimized or eliminated. The result can be a smooth expanse of gleaming material, with no sign of doors or drawers, let alone of how those doors and drawers might be operated.
 * Ch. 4, p. 100.

 * Even though principles of rationality seem as often violated as followed, we still cling to the notion that human thought should be rational, logical, and orderly. Much of law is based upon the concept of rational thought and behavior. Much of economic theory is based upon the model of the rational human who attempts to optimize personal benefit, utility, or comfort. Many scientists who study artificial intelligence use the mathematics of formal logic—the predicate calculus—as their major tool to simulate thought. [...] Human thought is not like logic; it is fundamentally different in kind and spirit. The difference is neither worse nor better. But it is the difference that leads to creative discovery and to great robustness of behavior.
 * Ch. 5, pp. 114–115.

 * Change the attitude toward errors. Think of an object's user as attempting to do a task, getting there by imperfect approximations. Don't think of the user as making errors; think of the actions as approximations of what is desired.
 * Ch. 5, p. 131.

 * "It probably won a prize" is a disparaging remark in this book. Why? Because prizes tend to be given for some aspects of design, to the neglect of all others—usually including usability.
 * Ch. 6, p. 152.

 * In their work, designers often become expert with the device they are designing. Users are often expert at the task they are trying to perform with the device. [...] Professional designers are usually aware of the pitfalls. But most design is not done by professional designers, it is done by engineers, programmers, and managers.
 * Ch. 6, p. 156.

 * Innocence lost is not easily regained. The designer simply cannot predict the problems people will have, the misinterpretations that will arise, and the errors that will get made.
 * Ch. 6, p. 157.

 * Creeping featurism is a disease, fatal if not treated promptly. There are some cures, but, as usual, the best approach is to practice preventative medicine.
 * Ch. 6, p. 173.

 * Computer scientists have so far worked on developing powerful programming languages that make it possible to solve the technical problems of computation. Little effort has gone toward devising the languages of interaction.
 * Ch. 6, p. 180.

 * When I use a direct manipulation system—whether for text editing, drawing pictures, or creating and playing games—I do think of myself not as using a computer but as doing the particular task. The computer is, in effect, invisible. The point cannot be overstressed: make the computer system invisible.
 * Ch. 6, p. 185.

 * Hypertext makes a virtue out of lack of organization, allowing ideas and thoughts to be juxtaposed at will. [...] The advent of hypertext is apt to make writing much more difficult, not easier. Good writing, that is.
 * Ch. 7, pp. 212—213.

 * In the consumer economy taste is not the criterion in the marketing of expensive soft drinks, usability is not the primary criterion in the marketing of home and office appliances. We are surrounded with objects of desire, not objects of use.
 * Ch. 7, p. 216.

The Invisible Computer (1998)

 * As the technology matures, it becomes less and less relevant. The technology is taken for granted. Now, new customers enter the marketplace, customers who are not captivated by technology, but who instead want reliability, convenience, no fuss or bother, and low cost.
 * Ch. 10
 * Go to the bookstore and look at how many bookshelves are filled with books trying to explain how to work the devices. We don't see shelves of books on how to use television sets, telephones, refrigerators or washing machines. Why should we for computer-based applications?
 * Ch. 10
 * We are victims of our own success. We have let technology lead the way, pushing ever faster to newer, faster, and more powerful systems, with nary a moment to rest, contemplate, and to reflect upon why, how, and for whom all this energy has been expended.
 * Ch. 10
 * The major problems facing the development of products that are safer, less prone to error, and easier to use and understand are not technological: they are social and organizational.
 * Ch. 10.

title: Donald Norman


text:
Kurt Tucholsky

Kurt Tucholsky (9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist and lyricist.

Quotes

 * Der Mensch gönnt seiner Gattung nichts, daher hat er die Gesetze erfunden. Er darf nicht, also sollen die andern auch nicht.
 * Translated: Mankind doesn't grant itself anything—that is why it has invented the law. It isn't allowed for him so it shouldn't be allowed for others.
 * From Der Mensch, published 1931.
 * Der Mensch hat neben dem Trieb der Fortpflanzung und dem, zu essen und zu trinken, zwei Leidenschaften: Krach zu machen und nicht zuzuhören.
 * Translated: Man has—next to the drives of reproduction and dining—two passions: making noise and not listening.
 * From Der Mensch, published 1931.
 * Da gab es vier Jahre lang ganze Quadratmeilen Landes, auf denen war der Mord obligatorisch, während er eine halbe Stunde davon entfernt ebenso streng verboten war. Sagte ich: Mord? Natürlich Mord. Soldaten sind Mörder.
 * Translated: For four years, there were whole square miles of land where murder was obligatory, while it was strictly forbidden half an hour away. Did I say: murder? Of course murder. Soldiers are murderers.
 * From Der bewachte Kriegsschauplatz, published 1931 under the pseudonym Ignaz Wrobel; compare.
 * Die menschliche Dummheit ist international.
 * Translated: Human stupidity is international.
 * "Hégésippe Simon" (1931); also in Schnipsel, published 1973, p. 102.
 * Darauf sagt ein Diplomat vom Quai d’Orsay: «Der Krieg? Ich kann das nicht so schrecklich finden! Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!»
 * At which a diplomat from France replies: «The war? I can't find it too terrible! The death of one man: that is a catastrophe. One hundred thousand deaths: that is a statistic!»
 * "Französischer Witz" (1932).
 * Im übrigen gilt ja hier derjenige, der auf den Schmutz hinweist, für viel gefährlicher als der, der den Schmutz macht.
 * Translated: Furthermore, here the one pointing out the filthiness is perceived as much more dangerous than the one producing the filth.
 * Letter to Herbert Ihering, August 10. 1922

Quotes about Kurt Tucholsky

 * It is not true, however, that the solutions proposed by the Zionists, of whatever shade, represented historical realism as against the inconsistent utopianism of the Bund. Certainly the prophets were not numerous, but they have to be given their due: Kurt Tucholsky, for example, who already in the mid-1920s sounded the alarm, in a Weimar Republic prey to the demons of order, nationalism, xenophobia and dreams of revanchism; Leon Trotsky, who in the late 1920s warned that the fate of Europe was being played out in Germany, and understood that the bankruptcy of German communism in the face of Hitler bore within it the inexorable unfurling of horror. At this time they were preaching in the desert, including the desert of Judaea. The rabbis who called for obedience to the temporal power in all circumstances, and the inspirers of Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon who at the time paraded in black shirts, are not best placed to cast the first stone at these Jewish visionaries and militants who were struggling at this time for a better world.
 * Alain Brossat and Sylvia Klingberg, Revolutionary Yiddishland: A History of Jewish Radicalism (2016)

title: Kurt Tucholsky


text:
Talk:Firearm

People need to quit adding quotes by people who lived before the invention of the gun. I'm pretty sure that Aristotle and the disciple Luke weren't talking about firearms. Quotes going either way politically are fine, but they have to be on topic.

-

I am personally am a full supporter of individual rights to bear arms, and against most proposals for gun control, but I am placing this quotation here, and am about to remove it from the article as it is very obviously bogus. Talk of prairie wagons by Washington was an obvious clincher, even though much of the other statement is definitely uncharacteristic and unlikely. Awareness of the prairies, let alone the prairie wagons was still a LONG way off in Washington's time.
 * Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon and citizen's firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 99/100 percent of them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference— they deserve a place of honor with all that's good. When firearms go, all goes— we need them every hour.
 * Purportedly made in Address to the Second Session of the First United States Congress, January 7, 1790, Boston Independant Chronicle, January 14, 1790, this quote is palpably bogus, as this essay at a pro-gun site makes plain. ~ Achilles 03:08, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Guns can save, guns can kill. It's a debate. JanSmall (anon).

We have the quote "Guns don't kill people, I do." as by Duke Nukem, who was created as a character in '91. But this quote was in the film UHF, which was made in '89. What do the people here think? ~ qqwref 04 June 2006

--

This article is not neutral at all! And i know it might seem strange that a collection of quotes can be siding whit one of the opinions, since there is no subject, but this one is. there is an overwhelming amount of pro-gun quotations, almost exclusively. The only one that really stands out is Gandhi's quotation, but apart from this, the entire collection feels "pro-gun," and by "pro-gun" I mean pro- the right of anybody to carry lethal weapons without license and in public. I am in no way trying to make anyone delete some quotations, but i really feel the need for some quotes that does not side with the pro-gunners. Someone please add some. Wezlan 15:48, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Well. yeah I guess it is. Maybe the problem is there are very few good anti-gun quotes. I certainly can't think of any at the moment that aren't already here...I will admit to some pro-gun bias, but most anti-gun quotes are either on the intellectual level of "OMG think of the children," or quotations of dry statistics (when they can actually find any that support them ;-D ) ...they just aren't very catchy or very clever, which is what you want on a quotations list. -JC

--

Are there any nonpolitical quotes about guns? 134.240.241.2 15:25, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

 * Not on this page, obviously. There is certainly a wealth of quotations in the literature on firearms of all kinds, none of it explicitly political in nature. Much has been written or spoken about these implements and their employment (safe and unsafe, effective and ineffective, properly and with gaudy ineptitude). Consider for example the writings of Jeff Cooper and S.L.A. Marshall.  That wealth of observations and recommendations deserves collection in Wikiquote on an entirely separate page - possibly labeled "Firearms" or "Firearms use."  For the sake of improving clarity and utility, I strongly suggest that this Wikiquote page be re-titled "Gun politics" and be linked to and from the Wikipedia page thereupon.
 * Or we work to balance the page. It has a thorough US bias, written as if the local debate in the USA about gun ownership were the most central issue in the whole world of quotations about guns. For instance, what about the giant guns in Jules Verne's Around the Moon and HG Wells' Things to Come? And all the citations to "unknown" need removing per current practice. Gordonofcartoon 08:03, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Limit of Quotes
Is having an article about guns okay? If so what is the quote limit for this article?(StarWarsFanBoy 04:02, 31 January 2010 (UTC))

Cleanup effort
I will probably tackle attempting to do some cleanup here within the next week or so, if no one else does so. I have a few other priorities today, including starting work on a page I mentioned I would try to do cleanup on today. ~ Kalki (talk · contributions) 22:14, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Deleted quotes
Most of those that I deleted are of such little notability that I'm not going to bother to list them here.

Here are a couple that could go into Misattributed:

 * Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State.
 * This doesn't seem to be an actual quotation. The source appears to be Critical Issues in Biomedical Science (2002), Leland L. Smith, pages 85-86, which precedes the quote with “paraphrasing Heinrich Himmler ca. 1933”.

 * Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.
 * This seems to be a recent joke (c. 1999), and the attribution to General Macarthur (c. 2003) is spurious.

—KHirsch 20:33, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

This Wikiquote section is biased
Ever time someone puts up a quote here about guns that is either  in favour of gun control or dealing with the gun issue from outside the  United States, it gets deleted. While I appreciate the need to keep quotes short, Wikiquote is supposed to be reasonably impartial. As it happens, most of this section now reads like a press release from the Gun Owners of America. 79.97.164.232 18:40, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

 * Are there any quotes in particular that you feel are quotable enough to deserve inclusion but which are currently not included? allixpeeke (talk) 22:59, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * Guns do not like jokes and do not forgive mistakes. (Russian: Оружие шуток не любит, ошибок не прощает.)
 * Slogan of Soviet Army

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
This famous and pithy adage is one that I believe merits being added to the list. Unfortunately, I do not know who stated it. Anybody have an idea? allixpeeke (talk) 23:03, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

 * (As a side-note, does anybody know any pithy anti-gun adages? I feel like we gun-rights advocates have a number of pithy phrases, but I can't think of any pithy phrases used by gun-rights opponents.  If you know of any, please suggest them.  allixpeeke (talk) 23:07, 3 February 2015 (UTC))

Broken Link

 * The top 5 countries for mass shootings per capita all have "restrictive" gun policies.
 * Kyle Becker, "If You Look at This Chart of Top 10 Nations in the World for Mass Shootings – One Thing Jumps Out" (2015), IJReview

Link to the above is busted. --Secruss (talk) 12:17, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Firearm