“In quarrelling the truth is always lost.” — Publilius Syrus
Quotations
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“People born to be hanged are safe in water.” — Mark Twain’s mother
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“My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water.” — Mark Twain
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“I know of no rule which holds so true as that we are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.” — Thoreau
Misc
- The telephone number 266-8687 spells both AMOUNTS and CONTOUR.
- 38856 = (38 – 85) × 6
- CARTHORSE is an anagram of ORCHESTRA.
- The French for paper clip is trombone.
- “The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them.” — Samuel Butler
Unquote
“We can scarcely hate any one that we know.” — William Hazlitt
Misc
- Tarzan’s yell is an aural palindrome.
- CONTAMINATED is an anagram of NO ADMITTANCE.
- The Swiss Family Robinson have no surname (“Robinson” refers to Robinson Crusoe).
- x2 – 2999x + 2248541 produces 80 primes from x = 1460 to 1539.
- “A great fortune is a great slavery.” — Seneca
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“It is a curious thing that people only ask if you are enjoying yourself when you aren’t.” — Edith Nesbit
Memorable Utterances
William Buckland awoke one night and told his wife, “My dear, I believe that Cheirotherium‘s footsteps are undoubtedly testudinal.” They induced a garden tortoise to walk through a paste of flour, and the impression it left matched the fossil footprint.
On summiting the Finsteraarhorn in 1845, M. Dollfus-Ausset cried, “The soul communes in the infinite with those icy peaks which seem to have their roots in the bowels of eternity!”
In 1919 Cecilia Payne bicycled to the Cambridge Solar Physics Observatory, found a man repairing the roof, and said, “I have come to ask why the Stark effect is not observed in stellar spectra.” He was E.A. Milne, and he didn’t know. “Later he became a good friend and a great inspiration to me.”
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“I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent than in the extent of my power and dominion.” — Alexander