这里搜集一些个人觉得好玩的言论. 不定期更新.

  1. Richard Hamming in Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers (1962) :

    The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.

  2. June Huh on teaching when interviewed by Quanta Magazine:

    When you teach, you do something useful. When you do research, most days you don’t.

  3. J. W. Gibbs’s letter of acceptance of the Rumford Medal (1881):

    One of the principal objects of theoretical research in any department of knowledge is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.

  4. Albert Einstein

    One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike – and yet it is the most precious thing we have.

  5. 汤川秀树 《创造力与直觉》

    从某个方面看, 人们在三四十年的时间里是不断干着相同的事情的, 这和我们每天早晨要起床和刷牙没多大不同. 在刷牙方面没什么进展, 在学术研究方面则应当有进展, 可实际上进展不是那么经常地发生. 我们很可能会虚度三十年时间却一无所获. 即使这样, 我还是要试一试的.

    我觉得, 如果一个人想得到创造力, 重要的一点就是要全力以赴埋头干一件事, 而不管那些乱七八糟的任务和那些日常生活要求我们注意的信息洪水. 换言之, 需要的就是那种不达目的绝不罢休的韧性.

  6. Bertrand Russell’s message to the future generation (1959):

    When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed, but look only, and solely, at what are the facts.

  7. Samuel Taylor Coleridge fascinated by chemistry after being stoked by Humphry Davy:

    I shall attack chemistry, like a shark.

  8. 金庸在被问到是否刻意安排悲剧时:

    问:《神雕侠侣》主人公的命运安排是否刻意追求的悲剧, 您怎样看小说的悲剧?

    答: 我写小说是在报上连载, 每天写一段一千字, 翌日发表, 甚至到外国旅行也要写好寄回来. 开始时只写大致几个人物, 然后慢慢发展, 根据人物个性自然发展, 有些是喜剧收场, 有些是悲剧收场, 其中还是大团圆结局较多. 悲剧并非故意安排, 而是个性发展的结果.

  9. Richard Feynman’s blackboard at the time of his death:

    What I cannot create, I do not understand.
    Know how to solve every problem that has been solved.

  10. Freeman Dyson on big questions guiding his career:

    I’m not a person for big questions. I look for puzzles. I look for interesting problems that I can solve. I don’t care whether they’re important or not, and so I’m definitely not obsessed with solving some big mystery. That’s not my style.

  11. Thomas Henry Huxley

    Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

  12. Paul Graham on Life is short:

    Relentlessly prune bullshit, don’t wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That’s what you do when life is short.

  13. Mark Twain on humor

    Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of Humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.

  14. Mel Brook on humor

    Humor is just another defense against the universe.

  15. Mark Twain on tidy soul in Following the Equator

    Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.

  16. Corina Tarnita on patterns

    Patterns, for us, are a little bit of a hopeful inroad into a complicated system.

  17. Why The Lucky Stiff

    When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow and exclude people. so create.

  18. Martin Luther King Jr. 1963

    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

  19. George Box on model:

    Since all models are wrong the scientist cannot obtain a “correct” one by excessive elaboration. On the contrary following William of Occam he should seek an economical description of natural phenomena. Just as the ability to devise simple but evocative models is the signature of the great scientist so overelaboration and overparameterization is often the mark of mediocrity.

  20. Stephen Hawking

    So remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder what make the Universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.

  21. 华罗庚

    什么叫做坚实的基础？会背会默，滚透烂熟，是否就算已获得坚实的基础了呢？我认为不算的，并且，我认为这不是建立坚实基础的一种最好的途径。因为真正懂得前人的成果或书本上的知识的人，不一定要会逐字逐句地背诵；甚至完全相反，会逐字逐句背诵的人不一定就是真懂的人。

    所谓“真懂”，其中当然包括搞懂书本上的逻辑推理，但更重要的还要包括以下一些内容：必须设身处地地想，在没有这定律(或定理)之前，如果我要发现这一条定律(或定理)是否可能。如果可能，那是经过怎样的实践和思维过程获得它的。不消说，在研究证明的时候，更重要的是了解其中的中心环节。因为对中心环节的了解，有时可以把这证明或这定理显示得又直觉又简单。同时真正了解一本书或一章书的中心环节，对了解全部内容也往往是带有决定性的作用的。不但如此，它还可以帮助记忆，因为由了解而被记忆的东西比逐字逐句的记忆更深刻，更不易忘掉；而逐字逐句的记忆法，如果忘掉一字一句就有极大的可能使全局皆非。

  22. A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831) by John Herschel

    A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific inquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations. … Accustomed to trace the operation of general causes, and the exemplification of general laws, in circumstances where the uninformed and unenquiring eye perceives neither novelty nor beauty, he walks in the midst of wonders.